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Cream Puff Goes to School: Weeks 5 & 6
Date: Mar. 9th 2007
Category: Baking Class
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It’s time to summarize the last two weeks of my Art of Pies course at George Brown’s culinary school. The Week 5 menu featured Key Lime Pie and Sun Dried Tomato and Goat Cheese Quiche. Unfortunately, the Cream Puff was under the weather and had to miss that class.
So sad! But not to worry, we shall make quiche another day! In the meantime, Cream Puff recovered and made it to the sixth and final class.
On the menu for Week 6: Pecan Pie and Butter Tarts.
We began class by preparing the dough that we would use for both our pecan pie and butter tarts. Unlike the other doughs we made in this class that always used bread flour, this particular pie dough also used pastry flour. In addition to the bread and pastry flours, we added butter, cold water, egg and salt.
The addition of the pastry flour made this a slightly more delicate pie dough than the others. It was tender and flaky and had an amazing flavour. I think I liked the pie dough even more than the filling and I will most definitely be trying this dough at home.
The filling for our pecan pie and butter tart was the same. The idea was to create a filling that we could use for many different purposes and we certainly came up with a very versatile filling. It consisted of brown sugar, corn syrup, pure maple syrup, cornstarch, vanilla extract, salt, butter, eggs, pecans and raisins. We made the filling by combining all the ingredients in a mixer except for the eggs. We added the eggs at the end, on low speed, being careful not to over whip. You want a mixture that’s dense and not too fluffy. Beating too much air into the mixture won’t give your baked product the same dense consistency that you expect in a pecan pie or butter tarts.
We baked our pies in standard 9-inch pans but for the butter tarts, we used individual foil tartlet pans, which I loved. I’ve always made butter tarts in muffin tins, but I found that using the tartlet pans allowed me to make larger butter tarts and also to play with the crust decoration. That’s not easy to do when your tarts are in a muffin tin.
While I felt the instructor over baked our pecan pies slightly (unfortunately I don’t have a picture), the butter tarts were incredible. I especially enjoyed the flavour imparted by the pure maple syrup. I’ve never used maple syrup in my butter tart filling and I think I’m definitely going to give it a try at home. The flavourful crust was the perfect compliment to the sweet, gooey filling.
At six weeks, this was a relatively short course compared to some of the others that I’ve taken. While I wasn’t impressed with every pie we made, I did enjoy the time we spent focusing on making dough. I picked up some great variations for pie dough recipes and I’m looking forward to trying them at home. And once again the work in class showed that good pie dough does not have to be an elusive accomplishment. It’s very easy to make excellent pie dough at home with your own two hands!
The course also helped to encourage our creativity when it comes to pie fillings. Don’t get me wrong, I love me my fruit pies. But there are so many things you can do to fill a pie that I’m looking forward to experimenting a bit.
My personal favourite was the Boston Cream Pie (which I don’t even think is a pie at all). I’d have to say the Butter Tarts came in a close second. Our instructor was fantastic and overall, the class environment was a calm one where everyone worked well together. As I’ve mentioned in past posts on baking class, I’ve been in some courses where I felt I was competing in Gordon Ramsey’s kitchen! It was a pleasure to go to class and be able to focus on baking, rather than staking my claim to the flour bin.
I have a month off before I begin my next course, but stay tuned. Cream Puff’s school adventures will continue!
Ciao!
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03/9/07 at 11:36 pm
Butter, they finally let you use butter??!! Whawho!!
I think I should never bake a pecan pie, I’d eat it all and probably keep baking them. It’s my very favorite pie. Maybe I could have just one tart…
03/9/07 at 11:45 pm
yes, I could certainly make friends with these little guys-maybe I would add a big glob of whipped cream on them,too!
03/10/07 at 7:01 am
Beautiful little tarts!! And my Canadian husband would love any filling that contains maple syrup — too sweet for me, but he adores it. Thanks once again for sharing your class experience with us.
03/10/07 at 11:06 am
Maple syrup is key in everything!
One day I’m going to take one of those classes with you…
03/10/07 at 12:27 pm
yeah, butter! these tarts look wonderful. can’t wait until your next classes start.
03/10/07 at 7:45 pm
Back when you posted the butter tart recipe I made them and was amazed I had never heard of these wonderful little confection before. Now you say you have a better filling idea? Swoon!
03/10/07 at 11:08 pm
I didn’t realize that butter tarts were a Canadian delicacy until I moved to the US a couple years ago… Hubby and I make them to give to our American friends each Christmas, but mostly - they’re for us.
Beautiful!
03/10/07 at 11:50 pm
Mmmm these are my favourite Christmas tarts, nicer than fruit mince, although I can pack away a fair few of them too!
03/11/07 at 12:24 am
Those tarts look decadantly delicious! Oooo, look at those pecans! Nummo!
03/11/07 at 5:21 am
You know, they just don’t make good butter tarts here in the states.
03/11/07 at 9:13 am
I’m dyin to try a butter tart! They look so yummy - both these and the kind you made at Thanksgiving!
All in all, I got the impression that you enjoyed this particular class more than some others. (Not that they all haven’t been terrific in their own ways!) So I enjoyed these posts very much - I can’t wait for your next class.. but I’m also so glad you are getting a month off - I hope you get some time to relax a lil during your “vacation” hehe
Hugs
xoxo
03/11/07 at 10:01 am
hmmn …butter tart now how delicious is that! I can’t wait to hear more about your school adventures.
03/11/07 at 1:19 pm
Ivonne, great tip of using pastry flour! Ok I’m all tempted by your butter tart, surely will give it a try soon *hug*
03/11/07 at 7:02 pm
Ivonne, thank you for sharing your experience in such details. Sometimes I feel like doing a course - to learn new things, experiment. But I always get a bit worried about the instructor, I am no chef..Perhaps one day I will get round to doing a course.
03/11/07 at 10:10 pm
Dare I hope that these tarts are bite size? Not that I’ll get a taste anyways, but boy what a glorious mouthful those would be!
03/12/07 at 3:29 am
As soon as I saw those little tarts I averted my eyes. Even in that brief glance they looked so good, like tiny little pecan pies. I’m from the Deep South and we become unhinged when we see pecan pies, but can’t eat them. We run amuck in the streets and yell terrible things until someone feeds us a slice of pecan pie.
03/12/07 at 9:05 am
Those little tarts are adorable. Reading about your classes are so inspiring to me.
03/12/07 at 9:35 am
I love butter tarts and pecan pie. Looks delicious!! Mmmmm good.
03/12/07 at 11:29 am
how beautiful! i’ve been dreaming of pecans after having them in a brussel sprout dish over the weekend!
03/12/07 at 12:25 pm
All I can say is, “thank goodness you finally were allowed to use butter!”
03/12/07 at 2:57 pm
mmm…pie…yum! i always use maple syrup in my pecan pies too. in fact corn syrup has been banished from my pantry!
03/12/07 at 5:05 pm
I love your little pecan pies. My mom has been making these for years, so they bring back tasty memories! My husband loves them too because they remind him of the pecan pie his grandmother made with fresh pecans straight from her tree in texas.
03/12/07 at 9:48 pm
They look amazing, my dear…I know a number of people who would appreciate them…
j
03/13/07 at 11:20 am
Ivonne,
So impressed by your breezing through the pastry courses - you’ve made so many wonderful things and reminded me of my times in pastry school! I’ll expect to see a picture of you in a tall white hat soon!!:)
03/13/07 at 2:50 pm
Those tarts look amazing!! Love reading your blog - the photos always look so yummy.
03/17/07 at 11:37 pm
These butter tarts are to die for and something my grandmother and auntie use to make too. Thank you so much for stopping by and for your thoughtfulness, it made my day! My dear grandmother use to make homemade chocolate topped eclairs from scratch however I never did get the recipe. You wouldn’t happen to have a fabulous recipe would you? She always filled the inside with a lightly whipped white cream.
Thank you again.