This week we made cream puffs on Monday and rarebit sauce and omelets on Wednesday.

The cream puff lab was intense. Our lab is three hours and 15 minutes, which can be a lot of time or a little bit of time, depending on what you're making. No matter what you're making, it goes by super fast. It was a lot to make both pâte à choux and pastry cream done in three hours. Lab time includes set up, demos, and cleanup. Pâte à choux is fast and manageable. You melt butter and water, add flour, and stir vigorously. Once it's nice and thick, you beat it in an electric mix while slowly adding eggs. When you bake them, steam is created from the butter and eggs, causing them to puff up, making lovely little hollow pastries ready to be filled with a sweet or savory filling. The batch I made at home, was once again, undercooked. They collapsed after I took them out of the oven. However, in class, they turned out perfect.

For the pastry cream, you cook flour and cornstarch over heat until it's nice and thick, temper in eggs and then fold in whipped cream. It creates a smooth, silky pastry cream. My pastry cream turned out perfect at home and ok in class. I scorched a little bit of my milk, so my pastry cream wasn't as smooth as I would have liked.

On Wednesday, we made a rarebit sauce which was a simple cheese sauce with some kick. I didn't make the exact recipe at home since I'm pretty comfortable making a roux. Hello, mac and cheese. I did, however, make mac and cheese for dinner on Tuesday night to practice. It's straightforward, you cook flour and butter together, slowly add milk and then the cheese, and off the heat, fold in shredded cheese. One interesting thing we learned this week is that American cheese melts beautifully, while harder cheeses like mild cheddar, sharp cheddar, or parmesan, create a chunky, grainy sauce. However, those cheeses add great flavor. I like to use a blend of cheese. For macaroni and cheese, I use gruyere because it melts so beautifully and sharp cheddar because it creates great flavor.

Finally, we made omelets. My omelet turned out ok. Thankfully, we didn't have to flip them. I want to master that skill. I used too much oil and got a little break at my fold. I made a practice omelet at home; it turned out pretty brown because I used butter. I also had a pretty significant crack at my fold.

All in all, it was a good week. Next week we're making crème anglaise, yeast bread, and an angel food cake.