Quelle Bonne Weekend!

Last weekend we had the luxury of some time off - a 3 day weekend!  I knew exactly how I wanted to spend this time off -- I would head over the river and through the French woods for some much needed relaxation at my favorite French country retreat, La Jourdinarie, home of my dear friends Steph and Judi.  I had been planning this escape for several weeks - so, I didn't even think about changing my plans when I got up Thursday morning to heavy snows in Yssingeaux...and, I barely  I paused for a minute when, again on Friday there were heavy snows, with predictions for continued (heavy) snow throughout the weekend.

The view from the chateau on Friday morning....Yssingeaux covered in snow...

Me?...moi?...let a little snow keep me from seeing my friends and enjoying a weekend at one of my favorite French country homes...mais non!!!  So, in spite of the snow, I packed up my lovely little rental car and headed out in search of my friends! 

There really aren't that many cars for rent in Yssingeaux, and since there was a long weekend at school, many were booked.  Luckily, I got the next-to-last available car for rent at the Citroen...

...and, even better, it actually came equipped with snow tires!

It wasn't a short trip from my side of France to Steph and Judi's - they are near Albi/Toulouse (western France) while Yssingeaux is on the eastern side of the country - supposedly about a 4 1/2 hour drive.  The route didn't contain alot of autoroutes (major highways) - mostly medium-sized roads that, of course, traversed quite a few mountains.  Again, I decided not to let a little thing like driving snow and hilly, icy French roads keep me from having a good time with my friends, so I just put my little car in first gear and chugged along...

 

It was quite the drive - a few white-knuckle moments on some steep mountains when trucks and cars were getting stranded in the ice and snow...but, I just kept chugging along.  It ended up taking me closer to 5 1/2 hours...but after the first couple, the snow died down and driving was just fine.  Finally made it to La Jourdinarie, where I was greeted with big hugs, a warm fire, homemade pizza and great wine - definitely worth the journey!

 

This weekend respite was just what I needed...relaxing at La Jourdinarie, a renovated sheep barn nestled in the French countryside.  It's a lovely place - warm, inviting, rugged stone walls, high beamed ceilings, beautiful views - and, most importantly, it's the home of great friends who are great hosts!

 

La Jourdinarie

View from the kitchen/dining room

View from the North Terrace

Eric, Queen of the Manor (yes, I said "queen" - Eric is indeed a female cat) greeted me with her usual feline enthusiasm

 

On Saturday we headed into a nearby town, Castre, for the market.  I love going to the markets in France - no matter what the city, it's a great mix of local food and culture!

The Saturday market in Castre

This is how the locals "do" wine...they bring a bottle (any size or shape will do) and get their weekly refill of wine from the market...red or white, as you please!  And, it's pretty good wine!

 

As always, there were rows and rows of cheese - all shapes, sizes and types - cow, sheep, goat -- fresh and creamy, strong and stinky...you name it, they've got it at the market.  No matter how long I'm in France, I don't think I will be able to try all the cheeses I want to taste - although, I'm doing my best to hit them all!

The market is quite the place to seen and be seen..everybody who is anybody is out at the market on a Saturday morning!

 

Who knew?  Cakes pops have made it to France!

 

Saturday evening I was treated to an All-American feast, prepared by my two British hosts...ribs, corn on the cob, mac & cheese, and key lime pie - how amazing...it was definitely a "stretchy pants" kind of nite!

 Spent the rest of the evening enjoying the fire, watchin movies and trying to learn the finer points of rugby...not sure I have that game quite mastered yet!

Steph did a masterful job keeping the fire going while keeping up with the rugby matches

 

Some of my favorite moments of the weekend were the mornings, sitting at the dining room table, drinking coffee (from Steph's espresso maker) and watching the birds visit the feeders that hung from the trees just outside the windows...what a great way to start the day!

 

On Sunday we headed into nearby Albi for the Salon des Vins du Terroir - a showcase of local food and wine. We spent several hours strolling through the show, tasting wine, cheese, charcuterie and sweets, chatting with the purveyors and picking out a few favorites to take home with us.

 

 

Sadly, Monday rolled around and it was time to pack up the rental car and head east to Yssingeaux.  It had been a wonderful weekend respite at La Jourdinarie - just what I needed - rest, relaxation, great times with great friends...Quelle Bonne Weekend!

I'll have two scoops, please...

Cold, creamy, luscious - that's right, you got it - last week was ice cream!  We spent the week making bowls and bowls of ice cream and sorbets, then assembling them into layered and lovely ice cream desserts.  The first few days of the week we learned the basic recipes for ice creams (rich with eggs, milk, and flavorings like vanilla beans, chocolate or praline, a paste-like blend of almonds and hazelnuts) and sorbets (ripe with fruit purees of all sorts - strawberry, raspberry, blueberry, lime, passion fruit).  Additionally we made a few other frozen treats - a soft and creamy frozen mousse flavored with Grand Marnier as well as a nougat variety filled with all sorts of nuts and dried fruits. 

In general, making the ice creams and sorbets was relatively simple - some mixing and heating of ingredients before placing the  mix into the machine for churning.  The mousses were even simpler - these were simply mixed and placed into the freezer.  The real learning, then, for the week was twofold - first, the recipes and ratios for sorbets and ice cream, which are very precise and, of course, legislated in France; and second, the techniques and approaches for using ice cream to make beautiful, inviting and delicous frozen desserts.

We loved the ice cream machine - it was magic!  You simply poured a bowl of liquid in and, VOILA, after a few minutes of churning (accompanied by some strange and rhythmic gurgling noises), out came ribbons of smooth and creamy ice cream or sorbet!

This week was a favorite for everyone in class - no matter what the flavor, we all grabbed a taste (or two or three) when the ice cream came out of the machine.  For some of the flavors (like the rich, chocolate ice cream below) I'm surprised we had enough left after our tastings to finish the desserts!

One of my favorite flavors for the week was the lime-mint sorbet - fresh mint leaves steeped in a lime puree with some sugar - it was cool and refreshing - and quite beautiful when piped into these hollowed out limes for serving.

We spent the second half of the week leaning how to put together ice cream desserts using our frozen concoctions and a variety of other sweets - daquoise, meringue, macarons, chantilly cream, chocolate, nuts, fruits and sugars.  Below is our Vacherin vanille/fraise....

..a layer of baked meringue topped with a layer of strawberry sorbet topped with a layer of vanilla ice cream topped with a layer of chantilly cream - then surrounded with rods of sugared meringue for decoration.

 

One of the most challenging parts of making ice cream is that you have to work really quickly or everything melts - it can be quite a mess!  This means that you are constantly handling frozen bowls, trays, molds and piping bags - it's really cold - I'm not kidding, really cold!!  For our praline and chocolate Baked Alaska below, it was a race with the piping bag to get the meringue piped on the molded chocolate ice cream dome  before our dessert started to drip everywhere. 

 

To keep things at the proper (i.e., freezing) temperature, you would pop it in and out of the blast freezer while working on it.  It seems like no big deal - just reach in and out of the blast freezer and pull out metal molds and trays filled with ice cream - until you realize that the blast freezer is -34 degrees Celsius - THAT IS REALLY COLD!! 

I have to admit, reaching in and out of this thing was one of my least favorite parts of the week!

On the other hand, one of the things I enjoyed most about the week was the various techniques that Pierre showed us for making decorations and adornments for our layered ice cream desserts.  We piped macarons in two different sizes and colors...

 

...we dipped almonds in a hot sugary caramel and then hung them upside down to get this cool effect...

 



 

...and, of course, we made chocolate decorations in all sorts of forms - squares, ribbons, and petals.

Here's our plain praline/chocolate dome transformed into a lovely Baked Alaska...a financier sponge cake is the base for the chocolate and praline half-sphere, a chocolate meringue is piped all over the molded ice cream and then baked at high heat for just a few minutes to set and color the meringue, then it's all topped off with chocolate ribbons and sugared almonds.

And then, it was Friday - buffet day!  The trick to this buffet was that we had to move quickly - we had a very short window of time to create our chilled artistic display before it all started to melt!  In addition to the lime-mint sorbet, I really loved our Souffle Glace Vanille et Grand Marnier - frozen souffle of vanilla and Grand Marnier:  a layer of rich vanilla ice cream sits on top of a light almond sponge cake - and this is then topped with a layer of absolutely divine frozen mousse flavored with Grand Marnier -- all with a little chocolate and caramel for decoration.  

 

..another of my favorites - the Nougat Glace Moderne...a modern, and frozen,  twist on the classic Nougat dessert...layers of pistachio dacquoise, raspberry sorbet and a nougat frozen mousse (soft, whipped meringue filled with almonds, raisins, soaked cherries, candied orange and pistachios)...glazed on top and circled with strawberry macarons.
  

We managed to get it all displayed and even got a few pictures in before it all started to  melt!

 

 

Like I said, this week was a favorite for everyone - as you can see by the picture below -- some of our classmates stopped by to see our buffet and just happened to bring their spoons.  I think the only words to describe this are "ice cream carnage"...oh well, must mean it tasted good!

 



Dough girl

This week we rolled up our sleeves and rolled out bread...lots of bread and lots of viennoiserie (a term used to describe dough that has something extra added to it like butter, sugar, etc).  It was a very fun week - I really enjoyed making bread.  As usual, it was a jam-packed week - each day we would make at least 2 different types of bread and 1 viennoiserie - and sometimes more if time allowed.

For me, one of the things I like most about bread is seeing the transformation - watching it go from a big, shapeless mass to a fairly nondescript lump on the tray to something crispy, warm and beautiful when it comes out of the oven.  We made all sorts of bread this week - from your basic baguette, to a heartier pain compagne (country bread), to a white pain de mie we baked in a mold,  to a fougasse filled with olives and herbs, to a chewy, doughy bread filled with figs...

 

 

 

...and each time it was just magical to see it transformed in the oven.

 

Our chef instructor for the week, Damien, was quite the character - energetic, always cracking jokes - and quite the baker as well.  He was quite patient, teaching us all the basics and making sure we all felt comfortable with the process.  Here he is below, giving some of his more elaborate breads the final dusting of flour, for that "rustic appeal"...

Some of my favorite breads for the week were the brioche and tresse (or challah) - rich, eggy doughs that were shaped into molds, cut to make special shapes or braided.  All of these doughs get a rich egg-wash before heading into the oven, so they come out looking shiny and ready to be eaten!  We made a "big head" brioche (I'm sure there is some fancy French name for this, but that's what Damien called it!!)...

 ...as well as the braids and shapes that we are used to seeing. (BTW - don't look too closely at the braid in the back of the picture below - he's a little lumpy - it takes awhile to get the hang of these things, you know!!)  Interestingly, the French typically garnish these breads with large grains of coarse sugar and almonds - slightly different than what we do in the States.

 

 

In addition to simple molds and braiding, Damien showed us how to do some fancier work with this dough using scissors to cut it...it really looked amazing, especially when decorated with the large grains of sugar.  Suffice it to say, however, that this is definitely one of those techniques that looks easier than it really is...this is one of those times that you aren't going to see a picture of my creation (or should I say creature?)!!

 

And, what would a French bread class be without croissants - those lovely, flaky creations made with lots (and lots and lots) of butter between each layer!

If you are wondering how you get all those layers - its from folding the dough over a very large slab of butter - and then folding it over and over again on itself.  Lucky for us, this is one of those times where we got to use a piece of equipment to help - below is chef Damien demonstrating the sheeter for us.  Using this handy-dandy machine makes rolling the dough a breeze - I don't know that I will be making these in my kitchen at home without the benefit of this lovely piece of machinery!

Once we had mastered the basic technique of croissant dough, we made several different types - plain, with chocolate (pain au chocolate), filled with a pistachio paste...all of them flaky, golden and lovely!

And, suddenly, it was Friday and buffet time!  Once again, we had several racks filled with trays of all of the different breads and viennoiserie we had made throughout the week...it was an easy task to make a beautiful display using these beautiful rolls and loaves....

As you can see from the picture below, I was a happy girl!  I really loved the week I spent working with bread!