This is definitely happening in this household!
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They’re ridiculously good.
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Snowball cookies with yogurt powder coating. I was going to do half blueberry powder and half yogurt, but the yogurt powder was so good and I wanted to use it up. These are SO good and so quick and easy! I will have to make more to try the blueberry ones.
Original recipe here:
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After searching high and low, I finally located that can of pineapple chunks I purchased a while ago. I knew it was somewhere in the kitchen and I found it hiding behind a jar of Ragu pasta sauce. Any who… I made a quick pineapple cobbler for dessert tonight. I saved the juice from the can and will add it to tonight’s dinner (Mango-Pineapple Beef).
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Just back from another class at the King Arthur Baking School. Topic was French Pastry. This one was so far out of my wheelhouse that every day was a challenge. I learned a lot, picked up new skills, and had fun. At the moment, I’m wiped out.
Here are photos of my projects in the order they were finished over the course of 3 days:
- Pate a choux and pastry cream. We made chocolate eclairs and cream puffs
- Brioche. We made a Nanterre, and then ham-cheese-and-onion tarts out of the same dough.
- Pate sucree for small tarts. We made salted-caramel and chocolate ganache.
- Kouign amann (kouignettes).
- Hazelnut macarons.
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WOW!! The Chocolate Eclairs look so YUMMY!!
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Thank you! I’m afraid the eclairs and cream puffs didn’t live to see the sunrise. 
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Wowza!
Do you think you will retain most of what you learned?
Sounds intense.
I’m mostly self taught from cookbooks; would have been so much better, easier learning how to bake from a talented relative or someone …
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Brava, MR! Congratulations, beautiful pastries/bread!
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Amazing @MunchkinRedux !!’
What makes them kouignettes?
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I want to take this class! Any details about it please?
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Absolutely gorgeous, professional-looking baked goods @MunchkinRedux!! Was it fun? Or too intense?
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LLM - Here’s the link I found
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Fantastic, thank you so much. A little something like this might be perfect to do once Lulu is off at college in the fall!
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I would assume the Size since “ette” is a diminutive.
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Thank you, @MidwesternerTT, for posting the link – yes, this is the class. @LulusMom1 – I think you would enjoy it thoroughly. I did. Challenging, but still fun (to answer @GretchenS).
You do lose some control when baking in a group. Not everyone works at the same speed or pipes out their dough to the same thickness, but proof times and bake times can’t be individualized. So sometimes you lose a little in quality, depending on where on the spectrum your work sits.
The instructors are knowledgeable and do a really good job of keeping things moving. The courses are well thought out, and there is very little down time (if any) on any given day as you move back and forth between projects. The individual projects each seem to call for a new and different skill set.
I find having access to instructors as you work invaluable. In my experience they’ve been quite open to having their brains picked and no question seemingly too small. To answer @aubergine – yes, I do tend to retain most of what I learn there, but 1) I try to stay focused and take good notes and 2) I tend to follow up at home with practicing the parts which I most want to master. I think you can take out of it as much (or as little) as you wish. Sometimes I’ll go with my sister to a day class just for kicks and to visit with her, without taking it as seriously as I do the multi-day courses.
I’m already looking forward to my next class, and have narrowed it down to two: laminated pastry, or a new course on pan breads which, if I understand correctly, focuses on some of the more complex shaping techniques for pan breads. Hopefully I’ll take them both over the next year or two.
My favorites from this class: the savory brioche tarts and the kouign amann – I’ll be making both again soon. I hope to get better results at home with the kouign amann. We baked these in English muffin rings, but I think a muffin tin or similar mold with higher sides would get better shaping results (this probably was not a practical option in a class setting). I also think these suffered a bit in texture (see issues of group baking mentioned above), which closer monitoring should resolve.
My least favorite: the 4" salted-caramel tarts – nothing wrong with them, just too much sugar in one dose for my taste (I thought the button-sized macarons were just perfect).
ETA: I have to add that after making the macarons, my esteem for those of you who pursue that art is even greater. So labor intensive! Kudos to you all who have mastered it.
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Beautiful, impressive, and, I’m sure, utterly delicious!
I have used the King Arthur brioche recipe to make the Spanish “french toast”, torrijas.
I used this complicated recipe and it was worth it.
I make it on Easter and Christmas mornings. We don’t make a big deal out of either holiday, but Easter is associated with our family’s adoption anniversary since our son’s adoption day happened to be on Good Friday.
When I went to the King Arthur website today, the adorable chocolate bunny cakelettes are at the top of the page. I may have to do some online shopping!
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Mini cheesecake prompted by a box of TJ’s Butter Almond cookies that were almost entirely broken. Just made two for dessert last night, these baked for about 15 minutes in a low oven.
Topped with some cherries in pastis.
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Baking class envy…
Boy, do those look good.
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Stunning! You should be proud.
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