Puff Pastry Payoff

Practice makes perfect, and third time was indeed lucky: my puff pastry produced!



My gift to you just in time for Valentine’s Day: Practically Perfect Palmiers.

Second out of the oven came the plush puff-pastry Tart aux Fruits.


This parade of fresh fruit a top a Grand Marnier laced crème patissiere leaves you wanting nothing, well maybe more of the same.


On the eve of the SuperBowl, it was a night of sweet surrender and succulent success.




Darcy Jones

Sojourn with the Swans of Chantilly

It was an evening of eclairs that began with a creme chantilly cocktail, and ended with a flock of swans in my foyer.

I realize that I just painted a picture for you that sounds something like the movie The Hangover so let me start again.

Three words: Pate a Choux, or Choux-Pastry. The name derives from the pastry's baked appearance: when cooked the pastry surface resembles the head of a cabbage (or at least some ancient french chef believed so). Regardless, choux-pastry is one of the cornerstones of French Patisserie, and can weigh about a stone when filled with coffee Creme Patissiere and covered with chocolate fondant.



Choux Pastry is an incredibly satisfying thing to make if you are a baker, for it doubles in volume in a warm oven in under 30 minutes. Considering the near 48hrs it takes to make brioche, this is remarkably swift and satiating. Once cooked, Choux Pastry can also be successfully frozen and defrosted to then be filled and served. Hence the array of fresh eclairs, Paris brests, religieuses, and salambos found in any pastry shop each day.

It was quite seamless in the kitchen tonight. I wouldn't quite say 'ballerina stage' (the term used to describe the beauty of an organized and skilled chef who works about the kitchen as though his every move were part of a choreographed dance), but some of us have definitely found a rhythm.

I have made some personal progress in the patisserie. Today my eclairs (pictured above) won Best In Show, or in class at least, and my family of swans received a resounding honorable mention.


Family Cygnes

So sailing home at half past 10, glowing with the success of my good grade, and delighting in the prospect of a late dinner of prize-winning dessert, I missed the door step and proceeded to set my swans free to fly all the way across the front hall floor.

"Those babies can really move across the sky..."
Image not available.

As for them? At least you knew them at their best... As for me? Seems I need to work on my footwork in and out of the kitchen.



In Memoriam

Darcy Jones

Warming Trend

7 degrees and climbing today… and in the kitchen a cool inferno! C’est typique- the second the weather turns so do our ovens. By 9am we were cranking at 200 degrees Celcius ready for a morning of roasting whole chickens, an afternoon setting sweet and savory pastry, and an evening baking the infamous Quiche Lorraine.

I must admit that Henry IV understood the human condition more than most. By all accounts a medieval man of instinct, King Henry was clearly leading with his gut when he declared A Chicken in Every Pot the standard for all his subjects’ Sunday evening suppers.



As you can see, I too believe that there is no greater comfort than coming home to roost.

And believe it or not, I have discovered that there is something inherently feminine, something rather domestic, about trussing a chicken. The prepping, the primping, the presenting: the entire procedure is akin to a Victorian-esc corseting custom. Seriously! If you had the opportunity to hear the way our chefs speak about the value in “propping up the breast” you too would understand what I’m getting at. Trussing is all about preparing a bird to look and perform at it’s best, hence it was the women who came out on top in today’s practical. And the hen party only continued as we breached baking…

Hour 6, Sweet and Savory Pastry: somewhere, somehow, and by some miracle I seemed to hit my stride. Pate Sucree and Pate Brisee provide the foundation for any sweet and savory shells. You find the sweet shortbread pastry filled with Crème Patissiere and topped with apricot jam glazed fresh fruits in a typical tarte aux fruits. Where as the savory shortbread crust supports the widely known and loved Quiche Lorraine. Difference between the two? Merely a bent towards either sugar or salt, respectively.

And is the midst of this blistering blind bake-off 'The Golden Quiche' was born.



Honestly, it may be my greatest achievement to date. Here the browned buttery crust hugs what’s known as the Royal Mix (made essentially of double cream, egg yolk, and nutmeg) throughout which rest crisp pancetta lardons and pockets of melted Gruyere cheese. The top’s texture accentuates this savory sun-like appearance and the taste lives up to every bit of its name:


Liquid Gold.

I’m basking in it’s glow.



Darcy Jones