S1E6 Showstopper: Tea Party

And here it is! Bake number 17, and the last bake of season one! I am so excited that I've made it this far. I have learned so much and my obsession has done nothing but grow! 

To celebrate my first big finale, I hosted a live-stream from my kitchen so that my friends and family could join me for my baking marathon. It definitely added a whole other layer of stress to the challenge, but in a good way. 

For this challenge, I had 5 hours to bake a 96-piece tea party: 24 finger sandwiches (requiring two loaves of bread, one white, one brown), 24 choux buns, 24 mini tarts, and 24 scones. I spent all of Saturday planning the recipes for this challenge and I was up until 1am writing out my plans. To ease my load a little, I chose to repeat my recipe for fruit tarts from last week because they were just that good. I also chose to repeat the recipe for white sandwich bread that I used during pudding week for my Apple Charlotte. All of my other recipes were brand new to me. Since this challenge is about baking specific quantities, I was relying on reviews and the authors' notes to guide me about the amounts that each recipe would yield. 

Here's the plan:

• 24 Finger sandwiches:
• 12 Cucumber and cream cheese on white bread
• 12 Cheese and pickle on brown bread
• 24 Profiteroles filled with coffee crème patissière and topped with dark chocolate ganache
• 24 Fruit tarts à la last week (tartes aux fraises, mais sans fraises)
• 24 Orange and cranberry scones with lemon curd

So, for the last time this season, let's start the timer!

Now, I started with my bread because it needs time to rise, bake, and cool before I can slice it and assemble my sandwiches. First up: white bread. This recipe uses milk, oil and sugar to make the crumb soft and uniform, perfect for sandwiches. 

When the dough became smooth, I set it in an oiled bowl and placed it in my proving drawer/oven. I then got started on my brown bread. 

To make my brown bread, I started by mixing oats, salt, shortening, and boiling water in a bowl. I set it aside to cool down.

I set my oatmeal aside and then combined my yeast with sugar and warm water in a separate bowl. In a third bowl, I measured out my flour, molasses, and brown sugar. 

The oatmeal was still too hot, so I decided to get started on my scones. I measured out my dry ingredients and rubbed in my butter. I had to double this recipe to get 24 rounds out of it, so I ended up using a whole kilogram of flour. My bowl was going to overflow if I kept adding to it, so I had to switch to something larger.

I left my scones at this stage and moved back to my bread so that it could start rising. I mixed all my elements together and worked them into a soft dough.

The dough then went into the proving drawer and I went back to my scones. I added my milk, orange zest and dried cranberries to the flour mixture and gently kneaded the dough until the cranberries were evenly distributed. I then rolled it out and used a glass to cut out 30 rounds (I made as many as I could get out of my first roll-out just in case I had any disasters). The scones got a nice egg wash and then went into the oven.

Time to move on to my tart pastry. As I did last week, I whipped my butter with almond flour, salt, and sugar and then added my egg and flour. I set the dough in the fridge to chill and harden.

Meanwhile, my scones were done and looking great!

And then it was time to line my tins and shape my loaves.

The loaves went back in the proving drawer for their second rise, and I got started on my choux pastry. I used a new recipe for my choux because I found that my dough didn't turn out exactly how I wanted during my petit fours challenge. This recipe employs a standing mixer to mix the eggs into the dough, which is great for me because it gives my arms a bit of a rest.

Once the dough was piped, I brushed on an egg wash and placed the trays into the oven.

Next, it was time to roll out my tart pastry. I cut out circles of dough and pressed them into my muffin tray. It was difficult to get the edges of the tart cases even in such a deep tin, but I did my best! I lined the pastry with parchment paper and baking beans and put the tray into the fridge to chill while the oven was occupied with my choux buns.

My choux buns came out of the oven, I flipped them and stabbed them quickly to allow steam to escape and then gave them another five minutes in the oven to dry out. 

At this point, my brown bread was starting to look on the verge of over-proved, so I rushed it into my smaller oven.

My white bread, on the other hand, was not rising the way I wanted it to. I had to be patient and let it rise on its own, so I set it aside for a little bit longer.

The choux buns came out, the tart cases went in! And while they were baking, it was time to get started on my crème légère for my tarts. I've made so much crème patissière in the past two months that it's almost second nature.

Once my custard went into the fridge to chill, my white bread was finally looking right! As soon as the tart cases came out, the bread went in.

And my brown bread came out! Unfortunately, the heat balance in the smaller oven was a bit top-heavy, so the top of my brown bread got burned. On the bright side, finger sandwiches are crustless!

And then, as I was taking the baking beans out of my tart cases, I split one of the cases in half. 

What is the DEAL?!

I put the surviving cases on a cooling rack and whipped my second batch of pastry into the oven.

Then I started my coffee crème patissière for my choux bun filling. I brewed a cup of espresso and then poured it into a pan over medium heat with milk, vanilla, sugar, and some instant coffee. Unfortunately, the sugar was not meant to be in there, it was supposed to be mixed separately with my egg yolks and flour. Not the end of the world, I added a little bit of the still-cool milk mixture to my yolks and flour to create a paste with the least lumps possible. I added half of the warm milk to my yolk mixture to temper my eggs, whisking constantly, and then poured it all back into the pan and whisked it until thick. Just to be safe, I sieved the custard to remove any remaining lumps before putting it in the fridge to chill.

At this point, I had about an hour and a half left and a million things still to do, so I went into hyperdrive. 

I got started on my lemon curd, which is meant to be made in a double-boiler, which I couldn't find, so I prepared my curd in a metal bowl over a pot of simmering water. 

Once it was thick, I whisked in the butter and set it in the fridge to chill.

I prepared my fruit glaze by heating some apricot jam with water and ran it through a sieve to make sure it was smooth. Then, it was time to slice my bread. 

My brown bread was difficult to slice as it was so airy and fluffy that the loaf jiggled with every sawing motion. But the crumb looked good, and it smelled great!

The white loaf was much easier to cut since it hadn't risen quite as much. The crumb was bouncy and close-textured but not dense, so I was happy.

With my bread all sliced, it was time to assemble everything. I whipped my cream, folded it into my crème légère and piped it into my tart cases.

I prepared my fruit and assembled my tarts, glazing the fruit carefully.

I took my coffee crème patissière out of the fridge, scooped it into a piping bag, and piped it into my choux buns. I ran out of cream after about 16 buns because my buns were so large, but this could have been prevented if I were able to practice! 

As I was filling my choux buns, I realized that I had forgotten to make my ganache, so I quickly heated up my oat milk and chopped up my chocolate. While the milk was heating, I assembled my cucumber sandwiches.

The ganache was thinner than I had hoped, but it was functional, so I dipped my choux buns in the chocolate.

All that was left to do was to assemble my cheese and pickle sandwiches, but my time ended as I finished transferring the choux buns to a plate. I didn't slow down. I prepared the last of my sandwiches, removed all of the crusts, and plated them.

And then, after 5 hours, 6 minutes, and 22 seconds, I was done!

Time: 5 hours, 6 minutes

Judgement time!

First up: Cheese and pickle sandwich on brown bread

The bread soft and bouncy and had a great flavour. I know that the dough was over-proved because it sunk in the middle while baking. I also had difficulty in slicing it, but I am excited to try this one again without a time restriction!

Next up: Cucumber sandwich on white bread

This bread was also light and soft, although I cut into it and made my sandwiches while it was still warm, so you can see that the bottom slice compressed and didn't bounce back. I have made this recipe several times successfully, it's a great standard sandwich bread!

Next up: Orange and cranberry scones with lemon curd

I really loved the lemon curd on this one! It was a beautiful balance of sweet and tangy. The scone was a little bit chewy because I overworked the dough before baking, but the cranberry and orange shone through and I thoroughly enjoyed this one. 

Next: Coffee profiteroles with dark chocolate ganache

These were far too large. Having never made profiteroles before, I underestimated their growing potential. The taste, however, was awesome! These reminded me of pastries that we ate in Rome and Lisbon, which made me so happy. The coffee cream tasted like a European coffee, strong and sweet, but not sugary. If these were half the size and had a thicker ganache, they would have been perfect.

Finally, the fruit tart

These were almost perfect, hindered only by their rough appearance. I much preferred this ratio of fruit to cream over last week's larger version, and I will be making these again.

Overall, I am exhausted, but I was so happy to be able to share these goodies with so many people. I am so proud of all the amazing new things I baked this season and I can't wait to move on to next season!

Recipes used:

White bread: https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/classic-sandwich-bread-recipe

Brown bread: https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/homemade-brown-bread/

Scones: https://www.nigella.com/recipes/lily-s-scones

Choux pastry: https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/choux-pastry/

Tarts: https://www.femmeactuelle.fr/cuisine/recettes-de-cuisine/les-meilleures-recettes-de-tarte-aux-fraises-pour-le-printemps-2094084

Coffee cream: https://www.patisseriemakesperfect.co.uk/mocha-eclairs/

Lemon curd: https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/how-to-make-lemon-curd/

Fruit glaze: https://preppykitchen.com/fruit-tart/