Day Thirty Two

A real fight broke out today. It was between two of my favorite characters, Little Accountant Man and Numero Uno Dummy ("The Dummy"). The Dummy has been nettling us all; in short, he is arrogant. Arrogance is a particularly frustrating flaw when the offender so obviously lacks intelligence. Harsh words, I know, but I've had it up to here with The Dummy.

The dispute began brewing immediately after The Dummy and Little Accountant Man were partnered up; a Raspberry Roulade started it all. I must admit, the daily desserts and pastries we produce are the source of anger for many of us. People complain that had we wanted to learn how to make cakes and cookies, we would have enrolled in the Pastry, not the Culinary program. I don't mind the desserts, and perhaps that is evidence of my past life as an engineer. Just FYI, they say a textbook Pastry Chef is precise, numerical and high strung while a Culinary Chef is artistic, erratic and more often than not, intoxicated.

The Dummy especially despises desserts. To avoid confrontation, many of his previous partners, including myself, happily accepted the dessert task of the day and let him hack up chicken or flambe fruit - far more appropriate activities for a male chauvinist. The Little Accountant Man, however, didn't feel like making the Raspberry Roulade, either. So back and forth, back and forth like preschoolers screaming, "That is my play-dough!" "I don't want to take a nap!" and "You clean up the legos!" two grown men bickered over who was going make what. The antics continued throughout our entire production and culminated during cleanup.

I was on mop duty (again!) and watched the bickering turn into anger.

"Okay buddy, if you have such a problem with the way I wipe down tables, why don't you come over here and say it to my face!"

"I'd be happy to my man, in fact, I'd be happy to come over and do more to your face than talk to it!"

As the two bolted toward each other, grabbing for each others neckerchiefs, I watched in horror thinking, 'Somebody take their knives away!'

Then, like a superhero, Mama swooped in. This woman is incredible. Her language barrier is utterly deceiving as she is one of the most perspicacious people I know. She had quietly been following the altercation all day and was waiting in the wings (the dish corridor) for this very moment.

With her arms outstretched between the two children, she hollered, "You haa to luh each othur!" LOVE, she preaches! She followed the warm statement with, "I take lot of point from your grayed today!" I guess tough love is a more accurate description of her mantra.

Roulade is a versatile cake that can be flavored, filled and formed in to many desserts. One of the most impressive is a Charlotte Royale, which is a dome shaped cake, filled with Bavarin cream. Let's take this puppy step by step, as we did in class. Try making the Roulade first, and we'll turn it into Charlotte Royale at a later date.

Raspberry Roulade

Ingredients
6 egg whites
6 egg yolks
6 oz. sugar
4 oz. cake flour
Pinch of salt
Pinch of baking powder
1 T. melted butter (Clarified works best)

Methods
-Separate the egg whites from the egg yolks
-In a mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, whisk together the egg yolks and 3 oz. of the sugar. Mix on high speed until "ribbon stage" or the mixture is pale yellow and has increased in volume. Set this mixture aside.
-In a mixer fitter with a whisk attachment, make a French meringue. To do this, begin with the egg whites only and mix on high speed until the volume starts to increase (no more than 1 minute). Switch the speed to LOW and begin adding the remaining 3 oz. of sugar. Add the 3 oz. of sugar to the egg whites in 8-10 small pours, waiting about 1 minute between each addition. After all of the sugar is incorporated, mix on low speed until stiff peaks form. Stiff peaks are when you pull the whisk out of the egg whites and a peak forms and remains.
-Sift together the flour, salt and baking powder - set aside.
-Now, you're going to combine the meringue with the yolk mixture. Before incorporating, give the yolk mixture a quick whisk to revive it as was probably resting for awhile while you made the meringue.
-With a silicone spatula, incorporate about 1 c. of the meringue into the yolk mixture.
-Fold the remaining meringue into the yolk mixture in three parts.
-Fold the sifted flour mixture into the egg mixture. Do not overwork.
-Pour the cooled, melter butter into the batter and incorporate.
-Dump the roulade mixture into a sheet pan (jelly roll pan) lined with parchment paper. It is best to put Crisco on the pan, under the parchment, to get the parchment to stay in place.
-Gently spread the batter all over the pan to make an even, smooth cake - do not overwork or you'll deflate the meringue.
-Stick your thumb into the corner of the pan, all the way down so it touches the bottom of the pan. Drag your thumb along the sides of the pan, touching the bottom, to clean the sides.
-Bake at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes or until light, light brown and the cake springs back when you touch it.
-Immediately upon removing from the oven, run a pairing knife along the sides of the pan to release the roulade. Sprinkle sugar all over the top of the roulade (this will prevent sticking when you turn the roulade out of the pan).
-Cover the sugar coated top with another sheet of parchment paper, and turn the pan over, flipping out the roulade. Peel away the parchment that was in the oven, and replace it with a new sheet of parchment.
-Long ways, roll the cake into a log, being careful to keep the parchment papers on the top and bottom sides of the cake. Let the warm roulade cool in this rolled position for 15-20 minutes.
-Unroll the roulade and discard the top piece of parchment. Brush the cake with simple syrup to add moisture to the cake. Spread a THIN layer of raspberry jam over the simple syrup.
-Roll the roulade back up as though it were a sushi roll, using the bottom piece of parchment like a sushi mat.
-Dust the cake with powered sugar or frost with whipped cream.