Classic Pastry Arts

Day one puts you in the kitchen making your first tart. In this unit, you’ll learn the three primary French tart doughs, along with a variety of sweet and savory fillings, which you’ll revisit later in the program as components in more complex desserts. You’ll begin to develop valuable knife skills as you cut fruit, vegetables, and herbs for an assortment of tarts. And, you’ll also bake each of the basic types of cookies (rolled, dropped, piped, etc.), learning the fundamentals for rolling out an even and round circle of dough and working with a piping bag. This is also your time to get comfortable with the professional kitchen and how it works.

Measuring and equipment: Precision and accuracy are two important components for the successful execution of any pastry recipe. During your first weeks in class, you’ll learn the difference between liquid and dry measures, how to properly use a scale, and how to handle the tools commonly used by pastry chefs. Learning these tool basics will help you develop speed and efficiency as you peel apples, cut cold butter into flour, and whisk cream.

French pastry doughs: You will learn how to make tender crusts for all types of tarts with three classic French pastry doughs: pâte brisée, pâte sucrée, and pâte sablée. Through daily practice and evaluating the characteristics unique to each dough, you‘ll observe how flour, fat, sugar, and liquid impact the quality of your final product.

Fillings: You’ll learn to make a variety of fillings—almond cream, pastry cream, ganache, meringue, fruit compotes—that are essential components in making not just tarts, but a full range of desserts, such as éclairs, Danishes, almond croissants, cakes, and various plated desserts. They’ll be useful to you again and again, throughout the program and beyond.

The items you’ll make include:

• tarte aux pommes
• caramel-nut tart
• tarte au ganache chocolat
• Viennese vanilla crescents
• gingersnaps
• bourbon-pecan cookies

Pâte à choux, or choux paste, is a unique dough used to make such pastries as éclairs, cream puffs, and gougères. Practicing the techniques of mixing, piping, and baking this dough will further sharpen your skills and give you yet another component for making more complex, show-stopping desserts: croquembouche, Gâteau Saint-Honoré, and Paris-Brest, to name a few.

Dough basics: You’ll learn about the chemistry behind the method for preparing this cooked dough, as well as the significance of correct timing and technique for producing exceptional pastry every time. At the end of the unit you‘ll make try your hand at making light-as-air popovers using a variation on traditional pâte à choux dough.

Crème pâstisserie: In this unit, you will learn additional variations of classic pastry cream. You will also learn how to flavor and combine your creams with other components, such as meringue and praline paste, that will allow you to create a myriad of fillings.

Piping: Creating consistent, even shapes with a piping bag is the offspring of practice, and you’ll get plenty in this unit as you pipe circles for Paris-Brest, swan’s necks and bodies for cygnes, rounds for profiteroles, as well as other pastries. Your newly fine-tuned form will have you ready for the more delicate and intricate piping necessary for creating the beautiful cakes and petits fours that come later in the program.

Glazes and sauces: You’ll make a wet caramel and learn how to use it as a base for sauces and glazes. You will also work with pàte à glacer, which is commonly used as a finishing for cakes, cookies, and pastries. You will make some basic sauces that can be used for plating your desserts.

The items you’ll make include:

• coffee, chocolate, and vanilla éclairs
• croquembouche
• gâteau Saint-Honoré
• gougères
• popovers

This flaky, multilayered pastry has been inspiring French bakers for centuries. Buttery, at once crunchy and tender, and light, it is difficult to resist. But there are tricks to getting your pastry to turn out that way. Here, you will gain the knowledge and skill to make turning out this tricky pastry dough a cinch.

Puff pastry: You will explore the three classic methods for making puff pastry—classic, inverse, and quick—and discuss which method is best for what application. The preparation method for rolling out and baking this dough will further expand your knowledge of working with the basic ingredients of any dough to achieve a specific final result. Twisting cheese straws into shape, rolling and cutting palmiers, glazing and decorating a napoleon with a two-toned marbleized glaze are just some examples of the techniques you’ll learn as you bake your way through the many types of confections that can be made from this delicious and versatile dough.

The items you’ll make include:

• palmiers
• cheese straws
• conversations
• tarte Tatin
• napoleons

Over two units, you’ll learn a wide variety of bread products that are relevant to the pastry kitchen, including quick breads, such as lemon poppy seed muffins and scones; Viennoiserie, such as laminated doughs for croissants and Danish; and pre-ferment doughs, such as baguettes and focaccia.

Leavening methods: You will further explore the three ways to leaven baked goods—organic, mechanical, and chemical—and gain a wider understanding of the production complexities that come with using each method.

Yeast and pre-ferment formulas: Whether using a straight-dough method or using one of the pre-ferment methods (sponge, polish, sourdough, or autolyse) you will exercise your hand at mixing, forming, and baking an assortment of rich and lean breads from food cultures around the globe.

Quick bread mixing methods: When mixing up a batch of moist banana crumb bread or cutting butter into flour to make Irish soda bread, you’ll need to know the three methods for incorporating fat into your quick batters and doughs (creamed butter, liquid fat, and cut-in butter) so you can produce a variety of textures and crumb.

The items you’ll make include:

• pecan sticky buns
• croissants
• brioche
• stollen
• pain de mie
• bagels

Buttery golden pound cake, moist three-layer lemon chiffon enveloped in buttercream, and crunchy, rich dacquoise au café are just some of the confections you will take on during your study of cake. You’ll learn the various methods for cake making and how to stack, fill, crumb coat, and finish a tiered cake, in addition to piping and decorating techniques.

Cake making methods: One of the first cakes you will learn is a basic génoise. This whole egg-foam cake, otherwise known as a sponge, is the basis for many classic dessert preparations and will be a key addition to your pastry repertoire. You will also make cakes using liquid fat and creamed butter methods, and batters lightened with meringue. Along with learning these techniques, you will gain an understanding of how each method generates unique qualities of density, crumb, moistness, and taste.

Egg whites: Beaten egg whites are arguably one of the most important ingredients you can learn to work with in order to create endless amounts of cakes, fillings, frostings, and desserts. Gain experience working with meringues in several applications and practice each of the three types, from a basic French meringue to Swiss and the more complicated Italian meringue.

Frostings and finishes: Learn how to produce several types of buttercream, ganaches, and even more variations on the fillings you have learned so far. You will work with marzipan and fondant—both as a finishing encasement for a layered cake and as a decorating tool.

Decorating techniques: Stenciling, piping, calligraphy, sugar paste flowers, chocolate curls, and marzipan fruits and flowers are just a few of the decorations you will learn to execute.

The items you’ll make include:

• carrot cake
• marjolaine
• fruit mousse miroir
• Charlotte royale
• dacquoise au café
• angel food cake

Mainly used to refer to the small bites served at cocktail parties, buffets, luncheons, teatime, and often as a finish to the dessert course at fine dining restaurants, petits fours are a must-know for any soon-to-be pastry chef or bakery owner. Almost anything can be made into a petit four, and learning how to make these small treats will fine-tune your skills by tasking you to adapt what you’ve learned to produce a variety of small cakes, tartlets, cookies, and meringues.

Types of petits fours: Sweet petits fours are typically divided into two categories: sec (dry) and frais (fresh). You will make a variety of each and how to determine the storage and use of each to suit the occasion.

Hand skills: Precision and uniformity of size, shape, and color are essential to creating beautiful miniature confections. Because petits fours are small in scale and often served in groups, consistent execution is even more exacting than when making individual desserts. Crafting diminutive versions of many of the pastries you already know (cakes, cookies, tartlets), will give the practice you need to further sharpen your hand skills and refine your ability to turn out identical-looking product in large quantities.

Visual skills: An essential part of a pastry chef’s talent lies in knowing how to plate a dessert in a visually appealing manner. This unit will be your first exposure to plating, with several opportunities to practice arranging an assortment of the petits fours you have made for service. You will gain an appreciation for how shape, size, and color come together to achieve a pleasing composition.

Taste: As you practice composing service platters for your petits fours, you will also be encouraged by your chef-instructors to think about flavor. You’ll evaluate how the flavors of your individual petits fours pair with one another, and build upon these findings when you create your own petits fours, according to your own visual and taste creativity.

The items you’ll make include:

• opera cakes
• macaroons
• financiers
• madeleines

Your study of chocolate will graduate in complexity and expose you to the challenges of working with chocolate and how to handle them like an ace. Chef-instructors will start you off with a general lesson on chocolate production and selection. You will move on to learning about the structure of chocolate and the tricky science of tempering melted chocolate for dipping candies and bonbons, as well as building your own creative chocolate sculptures. And finally, you will practice using chocolate to make cakes and plated desserts.

Sensory evaluation and critical thinking: You will be introduced by your chef-instructors to the process of assessing the flavor, texture, and mouthfeel of various chocolates and determining how to use a given chocolate and pair it with other ingredients. You’ll evaluate the varieties of chocolate used in the pastry kitchen and decide what chocolate profiles will help you achieve a desired effect.

Tempering: You will practice each of the five ways to temper chocolate, beginning with the traditional three methods of tabling, seeding, and ice bath and later learning the Mycryo® and partial-melting methods.

Decorations: You will learn to make templates used to cut shapes out of poured chocolate, as well as how to mold chocolate and apply a variety of patterns to the surface using transfer sheets, techniques (such as wood grain, piping, and marbling), and adding color with cocoa butter, air brush, and luster dust. You will also learn the skills to add texture to chocolate. You’ll bring these techniques together to design and craft a chocolate box, a candy dish, and make a themed display piece.

Dipping and piping: Ganache-filled bonbons, soft caramels, and cherry cordials are just some of the confections you will dip and decorate with chocolate. You will gain experience with evenly and thinly coating your candies and learning the tactics for creating smooth, unblemished surfaces and neatly piped lines.

The items you’ll make include:

• peanut butter nougat
• truffles
• bonbons
• chocolate-dipped butter caramels
• marquise au chocolat

Preparing plated desserts will give you a taste of what it’s like to work in a restaurant kitchen. Your creativity will shine as you invent your own sauces, ice creams, and garnishes to pair with the desserts you make. Your ability to work efficiently as a member of a team will be tested as you work with classmates to complete plates within time restrictions. A special menu project gives you a spin at planning and executing your own menu and dessert compositions.

Desserts à la minute: Many restaurant desserts are made to order. You will learn to think fast and work efficiently so you can turn out beautiful plates in a very short time. You will also learn the importance of constructing the elements on a plate so the item will appear at the table as perfect as when it left the kitchen.

Frozen desserts: You will make an assortment of frozen treats such as granitas, sorbets, sherbets, ice creams, parfaits, and semifreddos.

Conceptualization and creativity: In these lessons, you will have the opportunity to choose sauces, accompaniments, or garnishes to make for each plated dessert. This is where you can really let your creativity run free: flavor a caramel sauce with liquors, fruit purees, or mounted with butter or create a new ice cream flavor. Your chef-instructors will be there to help you determine the right method to flavor and execute what your imagination desires. You’ll learn to assess dessert menus and see how menu items and language are tailored to speak to a restaurant’s audience. Your ability to think about how a dessert’s various components look and taste together will be tested and tried, preparing you to create your own menu. You will also be required to sketch every dessert you plate. This exercise gives you the opportunity to study how each dessert is organized and to think about how to communicate your own plated visions to others for implementation (an important skill for anyone in charge of a kitchen).

Seasonality: Your chef-instructors will adapt given recipes to fit the flavors of the season, giving you the chance to see how a professional chef constructs a menu around the ingredients that are available, taking into consideration product cost and quality. You will begin to see how many of the ingredients of any given season naturally suit each other to create pleasing flavor profiles and gain a deeper understanding of how seasonality affects both a kitchen’s bottom line and its menu.

Working as a team: Because individual desserts are complex in scope, plated desserts are well-suited to fine-tuning your kitchen command and communication. Just as in a real-world pastry kitchen, timing is key. It’s vital that you follow instructions from your chef-instructors and coordinate with classmates to get each garnish and accompaniment ready for plating at the same time. Crucial to your success will be your ability to work quickly and to observe what’s going on around you. To work effectively as a member of a team, you’ll need to know when to ask for help and when to give it; how to make a plan and how to alter it as necessary, so the kitchen runs smoothly and comes together to achieve the common goal.

The items you’ll make include:

• chocolate fontaine with white chocolate chip ice cream
• apple strudel
• soufflés
• white chocolate citrus parfait
• fruit gratin with Champagne sabayon and white peach sorbet
• tropical fruit beignets with tamarind ice cream and coconut emulsion sauce

Working with sugar requires patience, a fastidious attention to details, and a flair for style and design. Sugar—in all its mediums—is perhaps the most essentially artistic skill you will learn in pastry school. Because of its hygroscopic (attracts water) nature, sugar can be temperamental and tricky to maintain, but this simple ingredient is used for making many of the embellishments and adornments crafted by pastry chefs. You will learn how to mold fruit and other shapes out of marzipan, make and work with pastillage and nougatine, form your own sugar paste flowers, and pour, pull, and blow hot sugar to make delicate decorations.

Color application: In each of the sugar sections, you will practice the various methods for applying color to product, using methods as simple as kneading color into sugar paste or pastillage to create base colors or as complicated as painting intricate patterns on flowers. You’ll be able to evaluate the different effects produced by these techniques and how you want to employ them in your own creations.

Hand-skills and artistry: Cutting, pouring, molding, and shaping are just some of the opportunities you will have to prove your hand skills and sharpen your eye for design. Projects, such as the 3-D Scene you will construct with your classmates entirely from sugar, or the cake stand and favor boxes you will cut out and shape from pastillage will give you the opportunity to hone in on your personal artistry and command of intricate and detailed presentations.

The items you’ll make include:

• sugar paste flowers
• marzipan fruit
• pastillage cake stand and favor boxes
• poured, pulled, and blown sugar

Wedding cake design: In your last unit before the final project and graduation, you’ll execute a wedding cake of your own design. Just as you would do for a client, you‘ll be required to submit a drawing for a cake following the theme and wedding details supplied to you. You will then be responsible for completing your design, from the baking of the cake to the finishing decorations.

The final unit of Classic Pastry Arts comprises both your written and practical final exam and is the culmination of everything you’ve learned in the program. All of your newly gained pastry skills will be utilized as you mix, bake, proof, and dip the items from four categories assigned to you for evaluation, plus design and execute the display stand you will make from sugar, chocolate, nougatine, and/or pastillage. As you work under pressure and time restrictions to turn out your best work, this will be your opportunity to show off what you know and how well you can excel in a fast-paced kitchen environment. Your chef-instructors will evaluate your cleanliness, organization, timing, technique and hand skills, as well as attitude, as you work on completing your tasks. Guest pastry chef professionals from the New York restaurant community will critique the quality of your final products based on taste, texture, and visual appeal and give you feedback that will serve you well in the real world beyond graduation.