Thursday: eclairs - nuns - glands - Moka

Another long day so I am not going to write a huge amount. We finished our choux pastry that was cooked yesterday. The usual eclairs and religieuses with a new item: the unlikely named 'gland' which has the same shell as a salambo but is filled with kirsch flavoured crème pâtissière, iced in green and half-dipped immediately in chocolate grains. You'll know it when you see it...

I was very happy that my eclairs and religieuses were the best I've yet made... better regularity and neatness in size and decently iced. The icing, not dissimilarly to chocolate, needs to be at the right temperature if you want a shiny finish and I ended up with nice glossy cakes so I was very happy. The quality of camera gives them more of an eggshell finish.

We also made another Pithiviers for practice and some long fruit tarts... long and thin, the kind you cut across to give an individual rectangular portion the size of a mille feuille. Rather boring, actually.

And, finally, we made another entremet called a Moka which was just a rum soaked sponge cut into thirds and laced with coffee crème à beurre. Ugh. And I had to rush to get it finished so the décor is rather weak.