The French Grade


Projects seem to take on a life of their own and engulf, ensnare and completely dominate entire days as well as all that fall in the path. So be warned when your wide eyed student approaches you and says “ I need a little help on a project” those words generally amount to more then just some casual coaching or light scanning of prose.

At Schoolhouse Farms the making of King’s cake became a little project that all but consumed the entire day. Firstly let me point out this occurred upon a snow day which normally would not have been such a big deal had we had any of the ingredients on hand for the recipe. With no part of the puzzle at our disposal the start was rocky at best. “What kind of assignment is this?” Just because “Cake Boss” has become a big hit doesn’t suggest for a minute that it is our passion or forte. It was time to Google the recipe and to create a shopping list. I mentioned it was a snow day right?

The ingredients were for the most part fairly basic so off the product procurement team went to gather up the necessary items. I should say off they went on a snow day that was actually snowing heavily. Not long after the phone rings and we are informed that the primary ingredient, puff pastry, is not in stock at the local facility, and that the roads are not in any condition to be continuing aimlessly searching. It was asked if we could look up a recipe for making ones own puff pastry. It seemed simply enough and the ingredients readily available so what the heck.

Team King’s Cake reassembled in the kitchen and began the fairly tedious process of creating puff pastry from scratch. As it turned out the supremely decadent final project was completed at or around 9PM when a gold crown was placed on the finished pastry. It was a crash course in the life of a pastry chef for our 9th grade French student C’est La vie! The cake was for the celebration of the three kings and by the delighted response of the faculty we believe a royal hit.

Now that we are reasonably comfortable in our collective knowledge of producing puff pastry we wonder how it will play in to future culinary endeavors.

Comments

Maureen said…
I'm very familiar with "King's Cake" with its deliciously creamy almond center. Did you happen to hide a medallion in the cake? When I first learned of this tradition in Paris, the little ceramic treasure was the point of the whole thing for little children. Whoever discovered the medallion in their slice was King! So happy to see this being made in the USA. I hope you will make this available alongside your other wonderful products at Schoolhouse Farms in 2011.
In the updated version we hid a magic bean for one lucky soul to find!

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