Exit Practical

So, everybody in either the Associate program or the Bachelor's program has to take an Exit Practical. There is a practical for the savory kitchen and now they have one for Baking and Pastries. An exit practical is where you have a certain amount of time to accomplish a menu of sorts that you are given. Yesterday and today were the days of my Exit Practical. I am SO glad it is over.

Things went well, sort of. Tuesday didn't go great. I got to the practical and found out that the instructor didn't get my ingredients list, that I handed in 3 weeks ago in his in-box, until yesterday. Who's fault is that??? HIS!! He ended up getting all the stuff I needed anyway, but it threw me off and I had an off time. We had to make a torte, 9 truffles with 3 different finishes, a custard dessert and plate it twice, and 2 dozen rolls with 3 different flavors. I scorched my lemon curd for the torte the first time I made it so I wasted a half hour of time I could have used to do more stuff. Then, the top for my torte turned to rubber because I had never made it before and it wasn't setting so I kept putting gelatin in it. I had already put it on my torte when I realized it was rubber. However, when he tasted my torte today, he said the top or gelee was good. Go figure!! Anyway, today was MUCH better. I got everything done, I was very happy. I was actually jumping up and down in the halls laughing and screaming because I was so happy. Here are the pictures of my stuff that I thought up and prepared:

White Chocolate Lemon Almond Torte: Almond cake with lemon curd, white chocolate Bavarian cream, lemon gelee, and tempered white chocolate band with toasted sliced almonds around the bottom.

Open Faced Creme Brulee Sandwich with berry relish, chocolate sauce and raspberry sauce (we had to have 2 different sauces AND a fruit component. The sandwich part was an almond cake that I had used for my torte).

Chocolate Truffles with crushed toasted almonds, white chocolate drizzle, and cocoa powder.

Last, but not least, hard dinner rolls: Kalamta feta rolls, sundried tomato Parmesan rolls, and lemon artichoke basil rolls (they turned out REALLY yummy).

Well, that's it for that. I don't know how I did. I will find out on Friday so, until then!