Week 2...Pairings

Going into week two I felt calmer and a bit more confident since I now have worked in the kitchen, seen the process and was fairly successful on the first round.
Walking into the set we see Jesse, our very handsome host, standing by a table with burlap bags. Something is in those bags that we have to use somehow, I am sure! Listening as he goes on about holiday pairings and the importance of doing this right. He then explains that we will be working in teams and to find out who we are paired with we need to grab one of those bags. We all look around at each other smiling knowing that there won't be a bad pairing and we just need to find out who it will be! This time we casually stroll up to the table and pick a bag and walk back to the designated line. Jesse tells us to open it up and I have a maple leaf and am paired with Jenn! I am thinking this will be a great pairing since we have chatted about our styles and they seem very similar! I am stoked! Next, he explains we need to make 12 hand pies using this cutter and decorating them "out of this world holiday extravaganza"...or something like that :) in 90 very short minutes! Geeze!!
We go to our station the first thing we both think of is maple syrup and Jenn tells me she knows how to make Maple butter! I have only eaten it from a jar and am so thrilled she will make this for the glaze. I then suggest my maple bourbon pecan pie but am worried about it being too liquidy and running out, so I think of apples that have pectin and the apple pecan maple bourbon hand pies are born. We then start talking crust. She mentions she has a very good one made with cream cheese. Surprisingly, I tell her I have one too! We then realize we have the same family recipe! What???
High five and off we go to work. We split the work up she does the maple butter, I make the filling and we both make a large batch of dough. The dough needs to chill for a while, preferably an hour but that is not going to happen!! It's in the fridge and we head to our tasks. I make the filling and it is very liquidy even with the apples. I was hoping they would thicken in the oven. Butter is done and is creamy and I want to stick a spoon in it and suck on it but we had work to do! A lot of work. We need to roll and cut 24 leaves. Fill them, fork the edges. egg wash, sprinkle some sugar around the edges and bake them for at least 20, preferably 25 minutes. AND THEN, figure out how to decorate them in a spectacular fashion. I run to get a couple platters for them. All that are left, that are big enough, are large ovals. Jenn had mentioned a wreath of leaves. I loved this idea and encouraged her input. I told her I could make some multicolored leaves from fondant to fill in the wreath. The only maple leaf cutters that were smaller than our was very small but I didn't have time to go negotiate with the other contestants for the other cutters (and that wouldn't have been difficult since we all have so much mutual respect for one another) so I ran back and made small maple leaves using yellow. orange and green fondant. The colors swirled into each other and they were bright. Jenn melted chocolate and piped it in strings around and around the edge of the platters. Then she instructed me to pipe little wisps of green boughs coming off the strands she piped. I thought it was going to look great when we put the pies on... OMG three minutes... pull them out of the oven and glaze them and get them on the platter. Then throw the little fondant leaves on so they makes sense.... and time is up! Done. It's in the judges hands. We go first. The platter is presented and right away, without hesitation, Nancy says, "Well, it looks like a tornado!" OH NO...you are kidding me? I knew we didn't get fancy enough but really? A tornado? Well, our tornado just died out, I'll tell you! Wind out of the sails... Ok, now we are praying they taste amazing. Mixed reviews there too. Duff said not enough goo. Lorraine loved the crust and Nancy (I think) said not enough filling... they all were very impressed by the maple butter and the punch of flavor it gave. I walked back to the lineup with my tail between my legs.
How could we have done that better? This will haunt me forever now!!
I read Jenn's blog on this and she mentioned that we should have divided the work up more like the other teams did. I suppose she is right. That would have saved time and energy. I am a collaborator. I love to share ideas and grow off each other. I believe we did that. I had fun working with Jenn and learned how to make maple butter from her!! She is an amazing decorator and baker and I will always watch her work online and hopefully one day our paths will cross again!
Next challenge. No time for frivolities and emotions...HA!
I am feeling a bit silly now both from the excitement and the hours of work it takes to produce a show. OH YES, the timed challenges are TIMED and it is so hectic and then its over... for a bit, while they clean up our messes and they change the set and then makeup, bathroom break... you know, stuff. Your body feels like it just ran a marathon and rode the fastest roller coaster in the world simultaneously and then just suddenly stops. You know that in a little while you have to pick back up and do the next elimination challenge in which everything is on the line. Sigh. Don't get too comfortable, I tell myself. Lineup! It's time for the next one! We line up, do jazz hands...except for Ian...laugh the nerves off and the doors open... in we go.
This time Jess is standing in front of a door and there a christmas tree all decorated next to him. As he starts with the story to preface the challenge, something about christmas and putting the right things together... I notice mistletoe hanging in the doorway...hmmm...and sure enough he walks under the mistletoe pointing it out... a little birdy whispers in my ear...run, chef, run...so I did, I ran for the kiss. I got it just as though I caught a fish, I ran back to the line with my prize. All my friends/competitors were cracking up, wondering what in the world got into me? I wondered that myself!
Now we get down to business...Josh and Ian have won and their prize is, they get to pick their teams! Ian goes first picks me! I am thrilled because he is such an awesome guy and I love his work. He is a brilliant chef and an instructor like me! We will be a good team. The next thing we have to do is run back and grab a box with the flavor pairings we are to use. We get pecan and caramel. I am feeling really lucky now because each one of the flavors I've gotten hit with so far, are great! Well, except for the peanuts...
Since they wanted a pairing I suggest two desserts working well together with textures. I do crunchy and Ian will do creamy. We throw our ideas out to each other and it's go time! I run for the pecans and small pans to bake them. I don't want cupcakes but something that size. They have every pan and shape of pan you could ever imagine. I find a really cute square shaped cupcake pans and I grab it and run back to get started. As I am about to make my ice cream Jesse calls out, stopping the action to let us know our next twist is Egg Nog... First I am thinking about the peanuts and this will not go with my plan but suddenly I realize that egg nog and ice cream have the exact same ingredients! I pour in some caramel sauce to give it a complimentary flavor and pop it into the ice cream freezer. I need a garnish now and with caramel being one of the flavors I make caramel fences and spread the rest onto a silpat spread it paper thin and sprinkle on some crushed pecans. When it is cool I crush it up and sprinkle it in the finished ice cream. Now it has the perfect crunch added! And crunch is what I want!
I am very confident in my dessert and very excited to plate. Ian however, is a little nervous and I look over and he has made a perfect dacquoise! I taste his mousseline cream and it is dreamy. I see his beautiful brandy snap tuiles and that is his crunch! We've got this one, I am thinking! Just praying Josh doesn't do some show stopper wiping us off the map!
We are first up and the judges have not one bad thing to say about my dessert, except it could look more holiday, even though it does look fall and that is holiday? Ok I'll take it!
Ian's only mistake was calling his fallen eggnog mousse a mousse and not a sauce. I'm want to dance out of the set! That was a great review and Duff called my cake RAD!

During the final pick of the winner and the elimination, what really happened that you did not get to see on the show is, Ian and I were chosen the winners of the dessert pairings and then Jenn won the individual dessert. I am not sure why they cut that out other than they have tons of extra footage and something had to be cut. Perhaps they didn't want to distract from Jenn's win. We will never know but you now know a little secret, I put that win under my personal hat even it they didn't show it! HA!