What does impossible look like?

Apparently Chef never intended for us to finish his impossible challenge. But I did. Although I think at first glance at the to-do list, or even fifth glance, no one thought it was possible to finish in time.

So Wednesday morning we were presented with this challenge:

• 8 croissants (55g/pièce crue) 
• pain aux raisins (avec le reste de pâte)
• barre de céréales aux fruits (dimension 3cm x 3cm x 1 cm)
• 10 religieuse chocolat
• bonbon moulé chocolat noir avec une garniture ganach lactée caramel
• 1 tarte abricot-noisette sur pate brisée
• 4 tartelettes framboise à la mousseline pistache sur pate brisée sucrée
• 1 flan parisien 
• entremet "Le Lauraguet" finition glaçage caramel
• vacherin vanille / café
• réalisation d'un présentoir artistique en chocolat pour les bonbon et les barre de céréale
• dessert assiette - dresser trois assiettes avec un moelleux chocolat cœur coulant chaud accompagné d'une glace café et d'une sauce crème anglaise vanillé. 

Vous plaisantez?!  Are you joking?!
Non. He wasn't. The French don't joke. Or when they do, I don't ever get it or know when I'm supposed to laugh. So I just went to work.

Pain aux raisin left, croissants right.

In my rush I manhandled my croissant dough and crushed my layers. So again, I made something that looked more like brioche rather than a flaky butter layered croissant. However, the pain aux raisins were good, just not big enough.

Flan Parisien

This is a tarte filled with pastry cream then baked. Sometimes raisins are involved. But a Parisien flan is simple. However, color on top is preferable. I swear I baked this for what seemed like an eternity to me. But no color. I suppose an eternity isn't long enough.

4 Tartelettes Framboise

So these turned out pretty cute. And pretty good to eat, too. Little tartelettes filled with a pistachio mousseline. Can't really go wrong there.

Tarte Abricot-Noisette

Sometimes I don't understand the flavor combinations in France. I think the elements of this tarte would be okay if eaten individually. However all in one bite, not so much.

The base is a tarte baked with a hazelnut cream and apricots. Fine, that tastes alright. Maybe even good if accompanied by a scoop of ice cream. But that's not the end of it. See that tan colored disk on top? That's a gelatinous hazelnut cream insert. And those chocolate triangles around the top? Yep, dark chocolate! I was suspicious about this tarte the whole time I was making it, but just went along with the recipes trusting it would all make sense in the end. I got to the end and took a bite. My suspicions were confirmed. Yuck! I think that's actually what I said with my mouth full of mismatched food. The flavors and textures were all wrong.

So technically this tarte should have had a glossy nappage, or apricot jelly painted on top. I ran out of time. So I guess I didn't finish EVERYTHING. Sue me. But I don't think it would have made much difference. There's no glossing over this terrible recipe.

Dark chocolate octagon surrounded by cereal bars and dark chocolate bonbons filled with a milk chocolate caramel ganache.

Chef is crazy about these cereal bars. And normally, I am too. The marshmallow recipe we used for this one was different than we've made before, and it was impossibly sticky. I know marshmallow is sticky but this was insanely frustrating to handle. I think I'll stick to my other recipes.

The chocolate bonbons were good and I didn't have too much trouble. The backs, are not so smooth and shiny. But I just learned on Friday how to solve that problem, so all future bonbons will be shiny all over.

Vacherin

A vacherin is an ice cream cake with two layers of baked meringue.  This one is vanilla and coffee. The outside is covered with chantilly cream (which as it shows, was pipped on in about 20 seconds). And the cacao powder mess on the outside, well that was me trying to follow the valentine's day theme in my last 10 seconds. I had prepared a stencil and tried to make a row of three small hearts on top. But powder went everywhere so I threw out the stencil and well, this is what mild hysteria looks like. When the judges cut in, they had to cut through the plastic band as well. Oops. But that ice cream was GOOD! I know because I ate most of it after the judges left.

Le Lauraguet

Uggg. This dessert is a pain. Four different recipes. One for the apricot mango mousse. One for the violet flavored apricot insert. One for the dacquoise biscuit on the bottom. And one for the caramel glaçage for the outside. You basically have to make the inserts first so they can be placed inside when the mousse is sufficiently firm. Then fill in the rest. Chill the whole thing (or freeze it like me) and then pour the glaçage over top. However if you choose to freeze it, make sure you have ample time to thaw before serving. This is not a frozen dessert. Fine. Now I know.

10 Religieuse Chocolat

These came out better than my normal religieuse. They're filled with a chocolate pastry cream inside. And they have a chocolate fondant on the outside. However when making, I wasn't happy with the light color and I decided to add a bit of coffee syrup to darken up my fondant. So mine became chocolate coffee. Not a bad combination. But technically not what the customer ordered. AND I opted for chantilly cream instead of butter cream for the decoration. Even though this isn't exactly what Chef had in mind, I believe I only made improvements. 

So here it is. The impossible.....

The buffet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What you don't see here are the three plated desserts we had to present one hour before all this. On each plate there was a molten chocolate cake that oozed when you spooned into it. With a scoop of coffee ice cream on the side and decorated with a vanilla creme anglaise sauce on the plate.  How'd it turn out? Well, let's just say my cake certainly oozed. Maybe even before it should have. There's definitely an art to timing plated desserts. I'm SO glad I won't be working in a restaurant and have to deal with this kind of thing every day. Not my cup of tea. (I don't think I've ever written that expression. What does it even mean?)

Anyway, the day was mad. We were all running around, each frantic in our own way. Spilled sugar on the floor we learned, is as slippery as oil. Out of the corner of my eye I saw hands and a measuring container fly up and Flo was rendered horizontal. She was fine, but that had to hurt. And ten minutes before the end, while trying to finish her ice cream cake, Simona flipped it on the floor. "Hmmm. Present it with a taste at your own risk note," I suggested? We were all chaotic. But most of us finished. And I do think that this was some sort of not so funny French humor from Chef. Like he just wanted to see us scramble. And scramble we did.

So from all this, I've learned that on our final final exam this week, I know I'll get it done. Whatever it is. It may not be perfect, but nothing ever is. At least not so far. And that's just fine with me. I'll do my best. C'est la vie.

But OMG. I really hope this was a joke and our final won't be quite so ridiculous. We'll see.