Weeks 9 and 10: Exams, Macarons and Chocolates

SORRY FOR THE LACK OF UPDATES AND RECIPES!!!

The past two weeks have been a little mad with exams and getting revision done, so I thought that I would just compile the two weeks updates into one. Cool? Cool.

So last week in our last practical before our exams started we made macarons. Not just one type of macaron either. We made both Italian macarons (the green ones) and Nancy macarons (the white ones with an almond on top). The Nancy macarons are the more traditional macaron, how they used to be made centuries ago, with no filling or colouring, just almond flavouring. Nowadays you wuoldn’t really recognise a Nancy macaron as a macaron, as we all think of the Italian two shell filled ones that come in all different colours and flavours (mine were filled with a chocolate ganache). I was pretty proud with how this practical went! The eagle eyed among you may have spotted a colourful florentine or two nestled in amongst my macarons, but they weren’t my finest work or the real focus of the class, so. Not very interesting really!

Then our exams began. We had our theory exam last Friday in which we had to answer a load of questions about everything we had learned in both our lectures and practicals throughout the term, including writing out the recipes, including ingredients and quantities, for a sweet shortcrust pastry and an almond cream. Fun. It wasn’t too bad really, so fingers crossed.

Then the practical exam came around on Thursday. Before the exam we had to learn three recipes off by heart to be able to reproduce just one of them on the day. We didn’t know which it would be until we entered the exam room. Thankfully, all of our hoping and praying had come true and our class had to make the lemon tart. Phew! No eclairs or charlottes in sight! I think it went ok, but I will find out my final mark this Monday, so we’ll see!

Then we had our final practical yesterday. A very chilled out and enjoyable introduction to chocolate. We made white, milk and dark truffles within teams of four and then shared the results out at the end. It was such a lovely note to end on, with all of us bantering within our teams and just enjoying being in the kitchen with no exam stress! And the chocolates weren’t half bad either…

So this final week all I have is my debrief, in which I find out exactly how I have done, and my certificate ceremony, which is exactly what it sounds like. I’ll let you know at the end of the week how that all went, which will likely be a much shorter post than the usual update, but I’m sure some of you would like to know how it all turned out? See you at the end of the week!