let's cook!

So, for Mother's Day one of my favourite gifts was a Passion for Pastry Cooking Class at The Essential Ingredient. As you might remember, a cooking class with a friend was one of my #52NewThings I wanted to do this year. So, luckily, my friend A also received the same gift {great minds whisper in their husband's ears alike}. We rocked up on a Sunday morning to this gleaming kitchen.

Fancy.

We made our way to our individual stations, all set up perfectly for us. {First important step of cooking: mise en place - making sure everything is ready and to-hand}. We would be making choux pastry for profiteroles and then a savoury pastry for a quiche.

Bring it on.

This is how chefs work. Everything prepared, measured and ready to go so you can just concentrate on cooking. Genius.

I've long been fascinated by the process of choux pastry, and watching a chef make it was rather fabulous. Check out that wrist action! Pastry's all about precision and patience. Precisely measuring your ingredients, and patiently waiting for the right moment to add your ingredients.

Here's the master chef at work. Note Jace's perfectly symmetrical and evenly-sized choux buns. Mine looked like little snowmen {because I made them too small first time around and had to add more}. There is a skill to wielding a piping bag. I've yet to master it, but I'm sure that practice will help me perfect.

And ta da! Filled with deliciously-vanillary creme anglaise and topped with a glossy chocolate ganache here are my profiteroles. Sure, they don't look *absolutely* perfect, but damn, they tasted like something straight out of a French patisserie. I am still chuffed to bits that I made something so deliciously fabulous.

I also made this little beauty - look at that thin, tasty crust! In this class I basically unlearned everything I'd learned about pastry in Home Economics at school and learned to make a pastry so light, so short, so damned delicious that every mouthful caused my tastebuds to sing and dance.

I loved the cooking class. It was a couple of hours of pure entertainment, I learned bucketloads AND I got to take home lunch and afternoon tea! So much win.

I'll be going again. Perhaps to the croquembouche class if I'm brave... Or I'll just choose something at random. The chance to learn from someone who's a master at cooking should never be sniffed at.

Find out more about cooking classes at The Essential Ingredient Newcastle here. Or do a google search to find one near you. Go on, you won't regret it.