Baking School Diaries #7
Cruffins, danishes, and cross-lamination.
The Baking School Diaries is a series about my three months as a student in the Intensive Professional Program in Bread Baking & Viennoiseries at Ferrandi Paris. Bienvenue!
Yes, we baked many new kinds of bread this week, as we do every week. And yes, each loaf was unquestionably tasty.
But given the number of new frontiers we explored in the viennoiserie world—from playful lamination techniques to new fillings to novel shapes—it’s only natural that our pastry adventures made up the bulk of this week’s highlight reel.
Below, you’ll find:
🥐 Mouthwatering details about everything I baked this week,
🇫🇷 The highs, lows, and takeaways from this week’s classes, and
🎬 Daily video updates for the full play-by-play.
On Sunday, paid subscribers will get a bonus letter called Weekend in Paris Copenhagen about my off-duty time abroad. This week, that includes—you guessed it!—my dispatch from a whirlwind trip to Denmark:
🥐 A report on the city’s extremely sophisticated pastry scene,
🩰 My evening at the Copenhagen ballet, and
🍺 My first brush with homesickness, brought on by barbecue and craft beer.
On to today’s letter!
Baguettes gratinée. After mixing, shaping, and baking another round of baguettes, we sliced them open (and got evaluated on the results!) before turning them into fabulous toasted sandwiches.
We made an herby tomato sauce, a batch of béchamel, a pan of leeks sautéed with butter and cream, and a shallot-parsley butter, then layered each base with various prepared ingredients from artichoke hearts to lox to pesto.
Pain complet sur levain. From the looks of it, I thought our first whole-wheat loaf might be too dense for my liking…but then I couldn’t stop eating the results. I’m always happy to be proven wrong!
Pain à la bière. We mixed golden ale into this triangle-shaped sourdough bread, though it would’ve been even better with Guinness.
Fougasse. This rustic flatbread is shaped like a ladder with seven rungs. We had fun mixing our very first olive-oil bassinage into the dough along with olives, tomatoes, and fresh thyme.
Diplomate pudding. A delicious way to use extra viennoiserie, we baked this mixture of leftover croissants and custard in a rectangular mold, sliced off the crusts, then served it cold in squares.
Cross-laminated pain suisse with semolina pastry cream. Cross-lamination is a technique in which you create a book of laminated dough, slice half of it into strips, then lay the strips on their sides (thereby “exposing” the beautiful layers) before placing them on top of your remaining book of dough…and rolling the whole thing out.
The end result provides a gorgeous striped effect on top of your pastries, at least in theory: it’ll take a lot more practice before my own results are as lovely as they can be!
Other pastries (and fillings!) galore. We made three books of croissant dough, brownie batter, chocolate ganache, a honey-almond cream, strawberry jam, and coconut filling. Oh: and chocolate, vanilla, and pistachio pastry creams, too.
Along with some apricot halves, hazelnuts, pears, pineapple, and fresh berries, we turned all of this into four trays of cruffins, danishes, and “New York rolls”...all stuffed and topped with every delicious combination imaginable.
If this week’s bakes sound appealing, check out the videos below! They offer a look into each step of the process—including the finished product. Plus, they offer extra context, like how we structured our mixing, rolling, shaping, and baking schedules each day for maximum efficiency.
The great stuff
Internalizing one of week three’s major lessons. That is, the directive to “be less timid.” One afternoon, I found myself moving bread in and out of the deck ovens without trepidation, organizing my workflow efficiently without instruction, and anticipating others’ needs before they cropped up. I’m not this confident or capable every day, mind you, but it felt great to get my first taste of the feeling.
Our mid-term reviews. We had one-on-one meetings with our chef and the head of the international program to discuss our progress in the course, plus our internship plans once class wraps up. Knowing that we’ve passed the halfway point is bittersweet; on the other hand, the next steps are all pretty exciting.
The hard stuff
Navigating chaos. On the day we made fougasse, every tray went into the oven at the same time—so they all came out at the same time, too. Since each flatbread needed to be brushed with olive oil, that meant a million hot trays were flying around our cramped oven room, battling for limited counter space while we were all trying to avoid being hit by the long handle of the oven peel. The upside: nobody got burned or lost an eye! I’d call that a success.
Cross-lamination broke my brain. Spatial reasoning isn’t my strong suit, and that became apparent when we learned the complex technique I described above. I can’t wait to practice it again so I can start developing a bit of muscle memory.
Lessons learned
Some “failures” can be salvaged. On the day we made cruffins, our proofer was stuffed to the brim, and a few trays—mine included—looked to be smooshed beyond repair by the time they headed toward the oven. Once baked, however, dusting them with sugar hid most of their battle scars. Sometimes, it pays to reserve judgment and push through your (mistaken) belief that all is lost.
Every school day, I’ve been posting a video recap as a Note on the Substack app.
Here’s a roundup of this week’s baking school vlogs from Monday through Friday (or, more accurately, du lundi au vendredi!).
And with that, it’s on to le weekend!
Warmly,
Maddie
Breakfast Club is a newsletter about pastries with a side of personal growth, from an ex-financial planner turned baker. If you savored this edition, click the ❤️ (or share with a friend!) to help new readers discover it—and subscribe to get each letter fresh from the oven.
Honestly seeing all this when I wake up and not being anywhere near a boulangerie or patisserie is devastating 😂
Already at the halfway point?! That's wild. I can't wait to hear your thoughts on what might be next!