Culinary School – Week Nineteen – Advanced Pastries

I would just like to preface this posting by saying that chances are you will gain weight by just reading this post. I am fairly certain that I gained weight by just making these pastries… not to mention eating them. Pull out your elastic waist pants because this advanced pastry class is a bucket full of calories!

First off… check out the pasta that we cooked which was made last week. I made a wine, sage and cream sauce to compliment the fillings and topped it with some freshly grated Parmesan cheese.

Moving on to the pastries…. These Danishes were stuffed with dried fruits and cinnamon.

Quite possibly one of my favorite dishes of the evening was the Brioche. This was stuffed with Gruyere cheese and chunks of ham… so savory!

You can’t say no to that! The brioche is so light and fluffy…

Here are a few more danishes stuffed with nutella and topped with a little icing!

Chocolate Croissants… okay now these bring back serious memories of spending the summers in Europe, specifically France. I used to eat at least one of these for breakfast everyday and then eat another for a snack and then another for part of my dessert. I love chocolate stuffed croissants… they are by far my favorite pastry… and nothing is better than fresh pastry dough!

Bear Claws… that thing is HUGE!!

More Danish dough… made into a wreath.

Good old fashion plain Croissants!

These delicious lady fingers went perfectly layered with chocolate mousse and praline butter cream and topped with fresh fruit! Doesn’t that look exquisite?

This Marjolaine is filled with praline butter cream (seriously its a heart attach in a bowl), chocolate ganache, creme fraiche and its all layered between Meringue Layers!

Last but certainly not least we have a rich and decadent Chocoalte Harlequin Mousse Cake layered with chocolate mousse and praline buttercream.

And check out that chocolate transfer on the edge of the cake! Here’s a quick tip of baking cakes… instead of using a cake pan or something… use a ring ( 6-9 inches). It makes life a hundred billion times easier! And your cake is perfectly round and all the icing lines are clean!