Patisserie - Where have you been my whole life?

Ok, well, not exactly my whole life but for two whole weeks we had no pastry class and it was brutal.  There was no serene and peaceful start to each week.  There was no tasty pastry to bring home and enjoy all week.  Just as I thought life would never be the same, we had pastry again this past Monday and that adorable Chef Jamard made up for lost time by having us make three different delectable desserts.  Enjoy!

Creme Caramel

We started by learning the varying degrees of caramel.  Isn't that the coolest color wheel you have ever seen?  I think so.  And, yes, I know I may be crossing the line from "foodie" to plain old food dork, but I do it proudly.

Starting ingredients for the caramel.  Sugar and water.

Heat them together.

And they slowly become caramel.

See the color changing?

This is the pot for the Creme Caramel.  You only have to pour a few millimeters of caramel in the bottom.  Yes, I said it: millimeters.  I'm guilty of acting like I know the metric system here.

With the rest of the caramel, we made art.

I'm only smiling because my piece of caramel art came off of the silpat without breaking.  Woo hoo!

Fun, huh?  Try it at home to find your inner Picasso, but be careful.  Hot caramel hurts like nothing else!

Estee and her art.

Chef Jamard showing us how to make cotton candy.  He took a special whisk and put it in sugar and flung it around.  If you look closely, at the top of the picture, you will see something white flying in the air, that is the sugar becoming cotton candy.

Every six year old's dream.

Then he made a little basket with it.  Too cute.

Next, we made the filling for the creme caramel by cooking together the above ingredients.

Then we strained it right into the little pot.

Fill it up to the top.

Ready for the oven.

Ready to be flipped. Don't ask me how.  I still can't believe I flipped it without it breaking and falling shapelessly onto the plate.  The pastry gods were looking out for me and unfortunately forgot to look out for a few of my classmates that day.  I don't have a picture of it, but believe me it wasn't pretty. 

End product.  Delicious!

Ile Flottante (Floating Island)

Starting ingredients for the creme anglaise which is the "sea."

Cook over low heat.

Place the creme anglaise in a bowl.

And make the islands.

Egg whites and sugar in a bowl.

And good old manpower.

Will produce little meringue islands.

Sacre Bleu!  Ce n'est pas possible!  We cooked them in the microwave!

Ile Flottante with cocoa powder.

Ile Flottante with caramel art.

Mousse au Chocolat

Starting ingredients.

Melt butter and chocolate.

Until smooth and silky. Yum!

Add whipped egg whites.

And whipped cream.

Et voila!

Just when you thought it couldn't get any better, we bust out even more chocolate to decorate the Mousse au Chocolat.  Only in France, I tell you.

Chef tempers the chocolate on the table.

And makes "cigarettes."

With mind-blowing speed and perfection.

Now, who doesn't want a bite of that?