Mousses and Soufflés were the name of the game today! All it really takes to make is egg whites, flour, butter, sugar, flavoring (cheese, chocolate, fruit, etc), a whisk and some ramekins (molding bowls). I have never beaten anything up more in my life than those egg whites. By the end of the day, I probably got an arm workout equivalent to that of a major league baseball players warm-up. My right arm is so sore, I think I may have even developed some carpal tunnel syndrome in my wrist/ foreman (yes, I switched my hands back and forth and didn’t just use my right). Thankfully I am taking a break tomorrow (Saturday) and will not be following my homeboy Michael Jackson’s advice “ just beat it… beat it…”- I definitely don’t want to be defeated hence the reason as to why I will NOT be whisking tomorrow because those eggs will not beat me.
We first made a chocolate mousse that was the perfect mixture of cream and chocolate. Chef had us use bittersweet chocolate and although I am a full on chocolate lover (white chocolate is not my favorite- reminds me of vanilla too much), I would have used my favorite Hershey’s milk chocolate to make it the perfect amount of yummy. Our mousse turned out perfect because of the way Tyler, my partner, and I folded the eggs into the cream (apparently). We let the mousse stay in the fridge till the end of the day. We also got to try our frozen raspberry soufflés that we made yesterday. Let me just say hallelujah praise the lord of sweet creations! It was off the chain good. A mouth watering creamy sensation where one bite just isn’t enough. Chef said he would never serve the soufflé for one person because it is too big. Chef what did I tell you about GO BIG OR GO HOME! We used to be called the French Culinary Institute, but no more. We are now the International Culinary Center- hence worldwide- hence the school went bigger, so should we. Nonsense that it’s too big- Rebecca and I will show you how fast it can disappear… and no don’t dare us to because I’m extremely full at the moment and busting over my pants because I’m filled with pastry cream. You don’t want to see the love handles.
After the mousse we made three different kinds of soufflés: cheese, chocolate, and fruit. Till this day one of my favorite desserts ever, besides for my dad’s homemade bananas foster- he won’t make it for just anyone though, so start getting on his good side- is Morton’s Chocolate soufflé. Most people go to Morton’s for their steak, but NOT MY FAMILY. We go there for their chocolate soufflé and obviously their round onion bread. Morton’s chocolate soufflé- there is just nothing like it with the cream on the sauce. I think I inherited my love for chocolate soufflés from my grandpa because they were his favorite. I wish grandpa could have tried MY VERY OWN chocolate soufflé because it was pretty darn fabulous. However, again we used bittersweet chocolate and I need my milk chocolate, but I’ll try to make that a different day. We also made cheese soufflés filled with cheese and cream and more cheese baked on top. Soufflés are extremely airy and the cheese flavor did not come out as strong as I would have liked it to, but then again the ingredients can’t be too heavy or else the soufflé won’t be able to rise. GRRRR. We then made fruit soufflés that were good, even though Chef Phillipe said it reminded him of the dentist (ummm… maybe he’s referring to the toothpaste flavor or fluoride flavor). I enjoyed the fruit soufflé frozen rather than baked, but that’s just my personal preference.
For Monday, after our second test, we are making pastry dough/tarts/other epic pastry items, so we had to prepare the dough batter to sit in the fridge over the weekend. I wonder whose finger is about to get chopped off from the blender blade because she’s too busy eating the sugary batter. I need to check myself into “raw dough-ics anonymous”. Officially turning into the Pillsbury Doughboy.
L.O.V.E.,
Wittels