Freshly Baked Pastries - Le Cordon Bleu

This is one of the courses that I was told was essential, it includes croissants and brioche .... now we are talking!!! I have always wanted to know how to make these and I'm not sure why I never tackled a recipe, but having watched how it is actually done, I may have been wise to leave it until now.




I was late for this class, hitting snooze on my phone one time too many meant a mad dash on the Metro and me forgetting whether I switched from Line 4 to 6 or 12!!  What a wally.

Poor Laura (my lovely Californian friend) was worried that I wasn't coming to our last class together.  I rushed up the stairs with Vincent, the lovely guy who works on reception, and everyone was in their aprons ready to start.  

Thank God Leanne (fab Australian Translator) was there so it was easy to have the 'micky' taken out of me and to proceed.  Due to rushing and the fact that Leanne and I were having drinks after class, I wore a black jumper/poncho thing that is NOT what you wear when you are going to be working with flour all day.  The chef was quite delighted and tried to tuck it up over my shoulders at one stage .... I looked a bit like a black & white stingray!

Our Chef for the day was Daniel Walter, a retired pastry chef, who is held in very high esteem by Le Cordon Bleu.  He actually owned a patisserie not far from Peter's apartment ... shame it still isn't open.  He was kind enough to make a Kouign Amann, a cake made with puff pastry, except, you only do one turn with flour and the rest with sugar!!  It is a specialty of Brittany, his home town. It was seriously delicious and, as one chef said, one minute on the lips, a lifetime on the hips ... but who cares when you are over here eating something you've never seen or heard of before and it tastes like heaven. 


We made croissant dough from the point at which "turns" were required as dough for brioche and croissants, needs to be made 24 hours before cooking.  Chef demonstrated how to make both and machines can be used!!  Apparently making brioche dough by hand can drive you insane! "Turns" in puff pastry/croissant making is the point at which you incorporate butter into the dough.

My favourite is Pains Au Chocolat or chocolate croissant, it is really good as only dark chocolate wrapped in croissant dough can be.  My brother was very pleased because it is his favourite too and we always come home from class with plenty! The shaping of both types of croissants by me left a little to be desired, but I am confident with practice I will nail it ... at least they tasted good.

It was a fantastic class, everyone was relaxed and we had a great time making puff pastry dough, rolling out brioche and croissants in all sorts of shapes and sizes and watching to see how they all turned out.



Having recently watched "It's Complicated" with Meryl Streep and Alec Baldwin, I have ideas about opening a similar venture to the one Meryl's character owns.  She makes croissants and I thought ... if only ... and now I can!!


I still have some work to do with puff pastry, I seem to add too much flour in the "turning" process which is not what you are supposed to do ... they still turned out okay for a first time.

Rolling out the dough was a bit tricky too, you have to get it long enough and wide enough.  Of course, professionals have machines, which make the rolling out process much easier.  Something I would definitely look into if I wanted to make these regularly.


We all know the French like their butter, but you really get the gist of it when making puff pastry and Brioche ... there is a LOT of butter in there .... which would sometimes be better kept a secret if you want people to enjoy croissants and brioche, but I believe that BUTTER IS BETTER.  I haven't seen a lot of Brioche in Australia, but it really is delicious and makes an excellent French Toast! Something I plan to put on the menu of Hels-Kitchen!

We also made some apple turnovers, but I didn't get to taste them as big brother was needing them for morning tea.  He can have anything he wants for putting up with me for this long :)

I can't wait to try the making & baking process again, let's hope I don't forget anything crucial!!