This morning the chef instructor demonstrated the making of the doughs for Croissants, Brioches, Puff Pastry and Savarin. Then, in the afternoon, we had to make the doughs for the croissant, brioche, and puff pastry in our practicals. Completely by hand and from scratch, using raw ingredients like butter, eggs and flour...
I can tell you right now, it was a real workout! We had to knead, pull, roll and work the doughs for quite a long time to get the right consistency. The chefs also went around checking that we had the correct technique(s) for preparing the doughs because it really makes a difference to the resulting product. At LCB Ottawa, they really emphasise the traditional techniques for making these doughs.
I reckon it took me at least 100 minutes to prepare all the doughs and to make two turns each in the croissant and puff pastry doughs. Even though the pastry practical kitchen is air-conditioned, I still worked up a sweat. My arms are a bit sore now, from all the "exercise". The chef joked that we don't need to go to the gym this week because we've done our gym session in the pastry kitchen. :-)
Tomorrow (Friday), we will make croissants, pain au chocolat and brioches out of the doughs (note: we needed to rest the doughs overnight before using them), and do two more turns in the puff pastry dough (and two more on Monday).
(Aside: the term "turns" basically refers to the technique we use to create the layering in puff pastry. We need to make at least six turns in the puff pastry by early next week.)
Hopefully, my croissants and brioches turn out well tomorrow. Fingers crossed.
