If Jenny Craig only Knew!

Monday was the start of our two day practical testing.  It was an all production day.  I was allowed to make as much as I could in the time allowed.  I had to present my Blueberry Muffins today.  Which I did and got high marks for.  That's the good news.

I also wanted to make my Pate au Choux, the Flaky Pie Crust and at least one or two of the fillings.  After the muffins were in the oven, I started on the pate au choux.  My mixture for some reason came out very runny and I had to start over from the beginning.  So I made it the second time and all was good. Baked and ready to be filled.  I made my pie dough, but you have to let it rest before you can form it into a pie shell.  I didn't have time and as I was down to 20 minutes and didn't get any of the fillings done.

So tomorrow, my three and one half hour schedule looks something like this.
Take and hopefully pass a written quiz. (30 minutes)
Make the pie shell, blind bake it. While that's baking, make the lemon curd, chill it. Remove the pie shell and allow that to cool.  I then have to scale, (mize en place in pastry is called scaling) the vanilla cream, make that and allow to chill.  Refresh the pate au choux in a hot oven, scale and make the chocolate glacage.  Allow the pate au choux to cool and then fill with the vanilla cream and dip in the chocolate glacage.  Put them in the walk-in to set.

After the pie shell is cooled, fill that with lemon curd and allow that to set.
Scale and make the Italian Meringue - place it on the Lemon Meringue pie.  Torch it for color and present it all to the Chef.  All the while, keeping my station clean, tools clean and bowls clean.  In two and one half hours!

Then clean up the mess 20 students make in one half hour.

No wonder I haven't been gaining weight in pastry class.