In the practicals yesterday afternoon, we took forever to present our creations. All of us ran out of time at the end, and it was the first practical that we could not really finish on time. There were just too many little things that had to be prepared (note: everything was done by hand), e.g.
choux paste (for piping into various shapes)
pastry cream (coffee and chocolate flavours)
chantilly cream (for the swans)
fondant (coffee and chocolate flavours)
Then we had to pipe the eclairs, swans (body and head) and nuns (body and head) onto baking trays. Bake them, let them cool down, pipe pastry cream into the choux pastry (except for the swans, which required chantilly cream), cover the top of the pastry with fondant, pipe the decorations on the nuns, pipe the chantilly cream onto the swans and assemble them.
Everything had to be stirred, mixed or whipped constantly. I was the human equivalent of a cake mixer for a couple of hours. My arms are sore as I type this post.
What you see below were what I could manage to finish and present to the chef. I think things could have been neater if I had more time. Chef T made me redo some of the piping because he wanted the choux pastry to be a particular size or shape (which was different from what we were shown in the demo) and I was not doing it "correctly". So, a lot of time was wasted on getting things to be a uniform size and shape. Not easy if you have never practise this before. (However, I didn't mind the least bit, because I felt I learned a great deal from Chef T. It was good to know another way of doing things.)
Chocolate and coffee eclairs. Chef T said I should have "cleaned up" the sides of the eclairs. I agree it could have been better presented (i.e. cleaner).
Swans. Yes, I know the swan necks could have been slimmer, but that's what we were taught, and that's what I managed to make.
Religieuses (Nuns). Do you think they look like nuns? I cannot for the life of me see nuns. Maybe it is just that my decorations are badly done. So, here's the chef's version:
So, do you think they look like nuns? Make up your own mind.
Anyway, I was not keen on eclairs or choux pastry in the past, but now that I have tasted some that are fresh from the oven (e.g. the ones made by the chef instructor), I have to say it is actually very nice (if you can get them fresh and if they are well-made).
