The Budding Baker

2009-08-19T15:19:00.014-06:00

I totally have the habit of trying to comfort people with food. When people tell me about hard days they've had or strenuous situations at work, my first inclination is to fix them whatever food stuffs would make them happiest. I've done everything from toast to caramel rolls to homemade pasta. I go a little crazy.

So, when my sister came to me with anxiety about her upcoming birthday being the big 3-0, I promptly jumped into comfort mode. Originally I thought I would just make her a gigantic, fantastic cake. Honestly, I do that every year. Then, without very much thought behind it, I said "why don't I just make you 30 different kinds of chocolates?" As the words came out of my mouth I knew it was a crazy idea, but the series of "o's" that soon became my sisters face meant no turning back. I had made the statement aloud. I had to do it.

Every day off I had for 2 weeks prior to the birthday party, I spent making as many chocolate things as I could handle. Work let me borrow truffle molds for 10 different truffle flavors. There was chocolate babka, 2 kinds of brownies, fudge, cookies etc...I even made Mole and a fantastic chocolate bbq sauce to try and stretch peoples imagination a little.

And, of coarse, the birthday cake. (It did get a little melty in the hot/wet August air)

On the whole, I think it turned out pretty well. I think I made my sisters birthday a little more memorable and a little happier. So maybe when she thinks about turning 30, she'll just remember the miles of chocolate set out for her and think, "turning 3o is awesome!"

2009-01-29T13:27:00.007-06:00

I'm a reasonable person. I feel like I can deal with stress in a calm and rational fashion.

We recently had a new addition to the dessert menu at the restaurant. A souffle. I've never been a huge fan of souffles and after this past week, I seem to have reached my breaking point with them.

From the outside, when you look at a souffle recipe, it is fairly simple. As long as you can stir things together and make a meringue, your good. Turns out, the recipe can get a bit more finicky than that. The other day, I made this recipe 3 times. First it was too dense. Then it was undercooked. The third time...well okay that was my fault, I got side tracked and burned them. After that I just wanted to cry and my sous chef decided to give it a whirl and there you have the picture perfect fluffy goodness above.

Eventually I was able to get it together and figure out my problem, which was over cooking the base, and I got to feel like a useful human being again. There are always challenges like this in a restaurant that changes the menu seasonally. I had just never found myself with such an issue, but as my boss continually says to me when I mess things up, "I'm glade you messed that up, because now you know better!"

If you're brave enough....

Souffle

1/4 c. Butter

1/2 c. Sugar

3/4 c. Bread Flour

1 1/2 c. Milk

4 Yolks

6 Egg whites

2 T Corn Starch

1/4 c. Sugar

Prepare ramekins by brushing insides with melted butter and dusting with sugar.

Cream butter and sugar. Add bread flour and mix until resembles coarse corn meal. Heat milk on stove until just scolding and remove from heat. Pour in flour mixture and whisk until it becomes a loose paste. Stir in egg yolks. Set aside.

Whip egg whites to soft peak. Sift starch and second sugar and fold into egg whites.

Fold whites into paste mixture, 1/3 at a time. Don't over mix this!

Fill ramekins to the top and us a knife or an offset spatula to smooth tops (this will help it rise evenly).

Bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes, rotating half way through.

They should be a nice golden color, but still spongy to the touch.

Good Luck!

Bread for the Poor

2009-01-22T13:19:00.006-06:00

There are up sides and down sides to the slow season in the restaurant industry.

On the down side, there obviously are not a lot of hours, which stresses people who are already dealing with a depressed economy. You also get out of cynic, so when you come back to work it takes some time to catch the right flow. Also, you're at home more often, so you get to hear your landlord talking on his phone all day on the floor below you because he hasn't bothered to put insulation in even though you've told him you can hear every word he says and every TV show he watches for the past 3 months!!!!!!!!

*Eghmm*

On the plus side, you find yourself with big blocks of time to catch up on books you've been half way through for the past 4 months. Video games you paid a lot of money for that sat idle for weeks at a time. Or open one of the thousands of colorfully tabbed cook books with recipes that peaked your interest last July.

Recently I finally got around to making a bread recipe in my favorite bread book, Marys Bread Basket and Soup Kettle by Mary Gubser. I had been eyeing this thing for a long time. I was looking for healthier bread recipes and saw the word 'Granola.' Granola's healthy, right? While the bread turned out to be wonderfully delightful with just a touch of sweetness, I don't think I can realistically put this in the health bread category. This bread is awesome for morning toast and would make FANTASTIC french toast. I'm definitely making this recipe again soon. Maybe today....

Granola Bread

2 Pkgs Dry or compressed yeast

1/2 c. Warm water

2 c. Warm milk

1/4 c. Melted butter

1/2 c. Organic Honey (regular works fine)

1 t. Salt

1 Egg

1 c. Granola

3 T Wheat germ

Grated ring of 1 lemon

4 1/2 c. unbleached white flour

Sprinkle yeast over warm water, stir till dissolved. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, combine warm milk, butter, honey, salt, and egg. Blend well. Stir in 2 cups of flour and beat until smooth. Add enough of remaining flour to make a soft, workable dough. Turn out on a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes. (You can also use and electric mixer with a dough hook attachment for about 8 minutes.) Place in a warm, greased bowl , turning to coat, cover, and set aside to rise for 1 1/2 hours. Once doubled, knead lightly in bowl and let dough rest for 10 minutes. Divide dough into 2 portions, mold into loaves and place in well greased pans(8 1/2*4 1/2*2 1/2"). Cover and let rise to tops of pans, 30 minutes.

Bake in preheated 350 degree oven for 30-35 minutes.

The book says you can drizzle lemon confectioner's sugar over the bread before serving. I'm not looking for that kind of sweetness, but I bet it would be delicious!

An Epic Cookie

2009-01-21T16:24:00.008-06:00

This is it! I have found it. One of the greatest, moistest, crispiest, most delectable cookie to come from my kitchen! These things are incredible. I'm not even a big chocolate person, but this cookie will have to be an exception.

While trying to find a simple and elegant cookie to add to our petit fours at work, I came across this recipe on BakeorBreak.com. It turned out far more delicious than I anticipated. They are incredibly rich so I would caution to make slightly smaller cookies or prep yourself for a stomach ache. (I learned the hard way)

The only alteration I made to the recipe was adding about half the bittersweet chocolate called for and added about 1/8 cup cocoa powder instead. This was done only because I had half a bag of bitter sweet chocolate left. I'm certain they will be just as delicious with the full amount of bittersweet chocolate, but cocoa powder is an option if you find yourself caught.

This isn't a cake like cookie, the texture of the cookie has a melt in your mouth feel very similar to a meringue. It's almost like chocolate cotton candy, in cookie form! I'm going to stop talking now and let you try it out.

Ghirardelli's Ultimate Double Chocolate Cookies

11.5 ounces bittersweet chocolate chips

6 T unsalted butter

3 Large Eggs

1 cup Granulated Sugar

1/3 cup A.P. Flour

1/2 t Baking Powder

12 ounces Semisweet Chocolate

Melt Bittersweet chocolate and butter together over a double boiler or in the microwave. (Warning! If you're using the microwave, DO NOT heat for more than 20 seconds at a time or you'll destroy the chocolate)

Whip eggs and sugar together in a mixing bowl until thick and a little light. Slowly pour in chocolate mixture while whipping. Sift flour and baking powder together and fold into batter. Stir in Semi Sweet chocolate.

The batter is pretty loose for a cookie, so I recommend using spoons or a scoop to shape these guys.

Bake at 350 for about 10-15 minutes, turning half way through baking.

Minnesota

2009-01-15T11:19:00.007-06:00

On days like today, when the air temperature is -16 with a high of -3, I feel the need to defend this states better qualities. Here are a few facts about my great state to help justify why I live here despite having to give my life to fate every time I go outside 8 months out of the year.

Minnesota had one of the highest voter turn outs in the Nation for the 2008 election.
Minneapolis Sculpture Garden is the largest urban sculpture garden in the country.
Minnesota has 90,000 miles of shoreline, more that California, Florida, and Hawaii combined.
The first Automatic Pop-up toaster was marketed in 1926 by McGraw Electric Co. in Minneapolis under the name Toastmaster

You can find more facts about Minnesota greatness on the state website.

In honor of the cold winter months, I made a big batch of marshmallows for hot cocoa. I've always found that cocoa can be much improved by this fluffy, sweet confection. If you believe the same, this recipe is a good one to try out.

Marshmallows

25g Powdered Gelatin

180g water

300g sugar

240g Lt Corn Syrup

180 g water

flavoring

1 c. powdered sugar

1 c. corn starch

Mix powdered sugar & corn starch. Sift mixture over a 9*13 pan until bottom and sides are covered.

Mix the gelatin and first water in a mixing bowl and allow to bloom.

Meanwhile, heat sugar, corn syrup, and second water on the stove until it reaches 250 degrees.

With a whip attachment, whip gelatin on medium high for about a minute. Pour hot sugar mixture (while the whip is still going) in a slow, steady stream until it's all in.

Turn the mixer on high and let the sugar whip until the side of the bowl begins to cool.

This would be the point at which you add your flavoring. I like to use a vanilla bean.

(You could also add some cocoa powder, cinnamon, almond extract, etc.)

Pour mixture into prepared pan and sift an additional layer over the top of the marshmallows.

Set pan aside for at least 4 hours. Afterwards, cut using kitchen shears into desired sizes.

Bread Baking for the Non-Baker

2009-01-12T12:09:00.005-06:00

A majority of those who know me know that I can spend my entire day making bread without much thought. Bread Baking is my security blanket. The problem is it's not something I can run to the kitchen and do quick, before work. Your typical bread baking experience will last around 4 hours which is usually a bit more than people are willing to sacrifice. Luckily, for those who are intimidated by the kneading and the rising etc, a short cut has been developed.

No Knead Bread

I learned about this newfangled version of home made bread during a pastry seminar last winter. Had the person telling me about it not been a certified Pastry Chef, I would have called him crazy. Never the less, I tried it out and it was a huge success. It takes less physical labor than pretty much anything else I bake. The bread has an awesome flavor on it's own, but it's also a perfect base for spices, cheeses, or anything else you can think of. If you have the time to spare (you do), I suggest you give this recipe a shot.

Winter Squash Brulee

2009-01-11T10:01:00.008-06:00

alright. It's bordering on ridiculous, how long it's been since I posted something. Since I got my restaurant job and my sister has gotten a puppy, my life has become a little hectic. However! I am going to give it another go. :)

The restaurant has been taking up much of my time recently. Christmas and New Years are our busiest seasons. We changed the dessert menu right before the holidays were kicked off back in September, going from light fruits of the summer time, to denser vegetables and fruits that pair nicely with harsh, snowy winters.

One of my favorite dishes on the new menu is the Hubbard Squash Brulee. My knowledge of squash doesn't go much past the familiar butternut/acorn/pumpkin genre, but I can tell you Hubbard squash tastes like a cross between pumpkin and acorn. It has a rich flavor with a light finish. This dessert has been one of the most popular. It's paired with Yogurt Curry Sorbet and Pistachio shortbread. People are often taken aback by the curry yogurt idea, but if you've ever had curry, you know there is a sweetness to it. We bring out that sweetness and it is fantastic with the Squash flavor.

Hubbard Squash Creme Brulee

6 Yolks

1 Egg

1/2 c. Sugar

1 1/2 c. Cream

1 T Cinnamon

1/2 t Cloves

1 t Nutmeg

1/2 lb Hubbard Squash Puree

Whisk everything together, pour into molds, and bake in a water bath at 325 for about an hour. Hints for when it's done is when it still giggles in the middle and if you tip it to one side, the custard will pull to the side a little, but isn't so loose it comes pouring out of the ramekin.
For the brulee on top, just sprinkle sugar over the top of the baked and CHILLED custard and use a hand torch to brulee. If you don't have a torch, you should be able to use the broiler on your oven, but be sure to keep a close eye on it. You want the sugar a deep brown color, which turns into a black charred color really quickly.

2008-06-12T10:05:00.007-06:00

Yaaa. I've been getting yelled at a lot recently for not writing on my blog. So, let me tell you what's going on. I've finished all my classes and am now doing my internship at a swanky restaurant. :) My final class, that I did not blog about, was sugar and chocolate work. We did a range of sugar work including a sugar sculpture, a pastillage (Sugar paste) box, and a gingerbread house. This class was awesome because it allowed for whatever your creativity and ability could handle.
Here's what I came up with. :)This house is totally gingerbread, candy, and royal icing. It took a lot of hours. This is my favorite project ever. It was a real challenge and....it's awesome! I took the design from Tim Burton's, The Nightmare Before Christmas. I love it!
I used a picture of an African Drum to design this piece. It's just Pastillage painted with food coloring gels. the ropes on the outside are made of royal icing, piped. I had to defy gravity a little bit on this. Actually, I had to do that a little bit with all these pieces. :) I would like to point out the sugar sculpture originally had an orange bodied fish to match the fins (instead of a blue body) However, I was doing the finished touches on this sculpture when the lower body cracked and ended up crashing down before I had any time to react. This was our very last project and my reaction was just hysterical laughter, because... well what else is there to do.
I don't have pictures from the restaurant yet. I'll start working on that in a bit. I've only got 3 weeks left!
Thanks, everybody, for being patient and glancing at my blog even when I don't. Heh Heh.

2008-03-30T18:14:00.008-06:00

Weee! So. We are now officially done with the "Wedding Cake" class at school. I had a little bit of a soap opera, but in the end I think it turned out rather well.

A. Lets not be silly. I did not make a full out real wedding cake. This is a Styrofoam dummy, covered in fondant. The stripes were more of a pain in the ass then I thought they'd be. Of coarse, I've been staring at this thing from it's inception so I can see (quite clearly) every dent, every curve that should be straight, and every smudge. Errr. Make no mistake! I am excited about this cake. I think it turned out wonderfully, but I am my own worst critic.
The fabric-like stuff you see going down the side of the cake is fondant that's rolled out thin, covered with lace fabric, and spread with a thin layer of colored royal icing. Then you pull up the lace and it creates the pattern (just like a stencil).
So, ya. Pretty good for a first timer?
The last few days I've been volunteering at this seminar going on at my school. It's really fascinating and there are lots of awesome chefs doing workshops. I've only been there 2 days and I've learned loads of things and gotten tons of ideas for my next project (which will be sugar and chocolate work). The pictures are of a sculpture one of the chefs did this evening. It's awesome. She did it in about 3 hours. I've been very impressed with all the chefs I've worked with so far, and there are still 3 more days of the program! Eeee! (I'm a nerd)

Settlers of Catan

2008-03-14T13:35:00.006-06:00

Let me just say, I am always willing to make cakes for friends and family. I enjoying it immensely. The featured cake for this post is a birthday cake I made for my friend Matt. His favorite board game is Settlers of Catan. So, having absolutely no idea of the mechanics of the game, I decided to make a cake replica. Apparently, I was able to grasp the concept and feeling of the game because everyone was super amazed and impressed at the likeness. All I can say is Got save Wikipedia. If you look up Settlers of Catan on wikipedia, you will see the picture that I copied, start to finish, on this cake.
The cake itself is a chocolate cake with butter cream frosting and fondant. All the little pieces are fondant as well. I was actually disappointed with the taste of this cake because I was originally going to make a German Chocolate Cake, but I was running short of time, so I used the cake recipe for German cake, but not the filling. Turns out that makes a way less awesome cake. So that's too bad.

Woo! Fondant!

2008-03-05T20:26:00.008-06:00

It's really amazing what fondant can do to smooth out ruff edges of a cake. Everything looks so much cleaner and neater. Granted, it isn't always the best tasting, but if you're looking for perfection, this is you game. Actually, I realized this past week that it isn't that fondant is disgusting, it's that what I've tried of it is disgusting. I had only tried Neutral fondant, which does taste like butt, however the chocolate and white chocolate varieties we get in from school are actually fairly decent (also pretty freakish expensive).
I've been enjoying myself quite a bit the last week. We've learned how to fondant cakes and decorate them in various ways. We're spending the rest of this week working on making gum paste flowers, which should be interesting. Also, our portfolio's for our wedding cake final is due on Friday and I'm pretty excited about what is going on. I think it'll be awesome!!
Cake decorating has turned out to be not quite as annoying as I'd originally feared. I still think I'm more comfortable with platted desserts, where the important part is the flavor combination, versus cakes, where the most important part is to make the flowers look real. I am enjoying myself, though. I might even like to do wedding cakes for a side business. :)
Anyway! You probably want to look at some pictures, right?!
First up:
This is actually just a butter cream frosted cake with a pastiallge plaque (sugar plaque) with a cocoa painting. I stenciled the cartoon I found online. This thing is so cute! I tried to make a film wheel looking design with fondant around the side of the cake, but it didn't turn out so well...thus the pictures don't really show the sides.
I also did a painting from my favorite childhood book, The Sweet Touch, but I decided not to use that one.
Next we get into fondant cakes. This next one I did for a contest we had that day on who could come up with the best cake design for an 11 year old boy. Now. I will say I was surprised at myself for making this design. And while I don't actually condone this hobby for small children...I thought it was a cool cake!
Long story short, I did not win the competition. A cake in the shape of a Turkey Sandwich won the prize, which, you know...totally makes sense. Hhhem! And, if I might also say, it is probably a little silly or weird to take this cake to a classroom with 2 French chefs in it who immediately giggle at the cake and make "silly American" comments. My bad. :(
And lastly! We were taught how to make silly ridiculous bows that I may never use in the rest of my career, but hey, this cake is cute!

Only the French

2008-02-21T20:59:00.005-06:00

So...Second day of wedding cake class and, as were are getting a French style education, we had to learn how to make the traditional French wedding cake. A Croquembouche. This little beauty is comprised of a series of small Pate Choux puffs (the same dough for eclaires) filled with pastry cream and stacked together using caramelized sugar. The best way I can describe it to you is...if you just glanced at it, with no idea of what you were looking at, you'd think it was a big pile of rocks or acorns. This is not really an attractive dessert! In fact, the classmates I was working on this project with had no end of obscenities regarding the ugliness of the cake, the ever increasing leaning angle, and well just the French in general. I am rather hoping this is the only time I will encounter having to make a Croquembouche, but all I can do is hope.

We've also begun learning more decoration techniques. I've spent the last two days pipping rose after rose after rose. I do understand the need for repetition to achieve the necessary skill, but..oh my god, there are only so many times I can make those freaking things before I go cross eyed.
We're going to begin some chocolate molding tomorrow We're also doing some sugar paintings. I'm excited to learn all this stuff and I am having a wonderful time, but I still don't think the wedding cake business is the way for me.

2008-02-18T12:07:00.007-06:00

Banana Fritters w/ Burnt Honey Ice Cream and Chocolate Sauce

Okay. Yes. I'm sorry, I haven't written for a while. My last class went by like a shot. Between work, school, and lagging immune systems, it's been a busy month.
My last class topic was plated desserts. This is a big class for me because it's basically what I want to do when I get out into the working world. Our final project was to create and execute a menu of 10 desserts, 2 chocolate, 2 Traditional, 2 Seasonal, 2 Frozen, and 2 Hot. The project actually didn't go as well as I would have liked. My first day went well, but as time went on... I started getting frustrated. And my chef and I seem to differ a little on proper textures.
But! Here are some lovely pictures of a few of my final platings.

Clove Wine Sorbet w/ Candied Cherries

Honey Goat Cheesecake w/ Roasted Dates and a Lemon Raspberry Sauce
(although, this was suppose to have roasted FIGS, but none were available.)

Mexican Hot Chocolate w/ Churos
(The kick to this chocolate was not for a faint of heart)

Those are the one's that turned out the best. After that...I stopped taking pictures. Over all it was still good! I did enjoy the entire class and we were allowed to develop more creative desserts and such.
The class we have now is commonly referred to as the wedding cake class. The final being....yes, make a wedding cake. We get to choose if it will be a dummie cake (Styrofoam) or a real cake. Most people opt for the styrofoam because then it can be displayed for a while, possibly years, in the school. So that's exciting. I'm going to be using it as the practice round for Maria's wedding cake which a friend and I are going to be making in June. I'm very excited to design my sisters wedding cake! Ah! Fabulous!
Okay. Promise I will actually be a little more on the ball about blogging this time around. Sorry!

2008-01-13T19:31:00.000-06:00

Okay. Okay. No more excuses! I've been terrible about writing on my blog. Sad Sad.
I've been on vacation for two weeks and this past week was the start of a new class. We are now in the home stretch people! This is the first of 3 final classes and I'm done. Yay! I'm having an awesome time though. We are working on plating in this class, so this is where are the finite details come into play. We've spent all this week making sauces and cookies and such to go along with desserts that we then make as something of an after thought. It's been really good and it has allowed for maximum creativity, which is really nice. The pictures are just two platings of the same dessert. It's a Creme Caramel flavored with orange water (which is my new favorite thing) and a blackberry sauce with cardamom tuiles.
We'll have more platings tomorrow, but the finish products for this class are slow going. I probably won't have as many pictures as usual. Our final is to create a menu of 10 desserts, make them, and plate them over the coarse of one week. That'll be fun and hurty.

Seasons Greetings from Yoda!

2007-12-06T19:12:00.000-06:00

The holiday season is upon us and what better way to celebrate than making a birthday cake for an imaginary 13 year old boy who enjoys, among other things, STAR WARS! The assignment was pretty entertaining. We had to make a cake geared towards a 13 year old boy and had a bunch of other instructors come and vote. Perhaps I was a special child, but I remember loving the epic story of star wars at the tender age of 13, as did all my male and female friends as well as the few early teenage terrors I know now. It seemed perfect, but guess what! I took 3rd. 3rd! What is the world coming to.

As if this didn't off set my sense of reality enough, we recently made a Boston Cream pie which, it turns out, is not a pie. It is however, one of the most deliciously wonderful, artery clogging, melt in you mouth while distilling pounds of fat into your thighs cakesI've ever had!
I've said it before and I'll say it again. You have not lived until you've doused an entire cake with ganache. Directions: Sandwich 2 white cakes with rich pastry cream and bathe in ganache. Hahaha. AAAhhahahah!

And also, I may have found the secret to the most awesome chocolate cake ever. We recently made a tarragon chocolate cake, which may be the best chocolate cake I've ever had. It's a really subtle flavor that is just awesome. Even one of the most locked an bolted minds I know from my class enjoyed this. Time to get experimental! My plan of action is to now incorporate one of my most favorite spices into a chocolate cake. Curry! Woo! (I'm sure this is no surprise to those who know me.)

Cake Class

2007-11-28T12:10:00.001-06:00

Okay, I have to admit I haven't been pouring a ton of time into the blog recently. I do apologize about that, but in my defense we've done nothing but genois cake these first 2 weeks of class. Genois is a low-fat cake that takes 4 years of whipping egg yolks and sugar over a double boiler until really foamy and then folded with cake flour. That's it and that's all. There is nothing in this cake. Not surprising, it's a tad try and doesn't so much thrill the taste buds. It is, however good as a practice cake for frosting correctly. Some of you may not know that there is a right way and a wrong way to frost a cake. Example:
Right way

Wrong way
(actually I just made an error and added a half batch amount of butter to a full batch of butter cream oops, but it gets the point across.)

Edges like shoulders. Sides and top smooth as a baby's butt! This is what I've been doing for the past two weeks. I can show you different pictures, but you'll swear they're all the same cake, so I'm not going to. I have been improving on my smoothing skills. And, as my sister reminded me, this is where all those years of meticulously spreading of the cream cheese onto the bagel until it's perfectly even come in handy. THE CHEESE HAS TO BE EVEN! I WON'T EAT THE BAGEL UNTIL IT'S EVEN! (everybody has there weird food thing)
So, things aren't so exciting right now, but I'll try to keep an update. We may get a lesson on boarders tomorrow, perhaps I'll have more pidazzle then.

Another Ending

2007-11-10T17:55:00.000-06:00

We finished with our Custards class last Friday. I have to say, I'm pretty excited to be done with it. Some of you may remember my previous rant on hating eggs with a passion few people even know they have. Well, had I still felt that way when I entered this class....well, lets just say dimensions would have imploded. I can't even begin to explain the number of cases of eggs we went through over the past weeks. The amount of poultry in general this school goes through must keep at least five chicken farms in business. It boggles the mind.
So! We had our final practical on Friday and I'm happy to say, despite some annoying classmates, it turned out well! I did a parody of the famous Black and White New York Cookie. I don't know where this idea came from, but it's done well. It's a fairly simple Chocolate and Vanilla Bavarian Cream Charlotte. The sponge was adjusted to have more of a shortbread flavor, as the cookie does. I used brown sugar for part of the recipe and folded in 2 ounces of butter to give it an additional creaminess. It turned out really nicely. The presentation was fun as well. I just made a chocolate sauce for the bottom and spread the top with white and dark melted chocolate. I was very pleased with the end product. My instructor was as well, because I got 100%! Woo! A good ending to a slightly discomforting lesson involving being elbow deep in egg yolks every morning!

Strange Cake

2007-11-06T22:40:00.001-06:00

L'Exotique.This cake here. She may look impressive and she may act impressive, but her taste. Her taste is totally something I've never experienced before and not particularly in a good way. This is basically an example of Hawaiian frilly drink in cake form. The colorful outer layer is a sponge that has been dyed. Those crazy designs you see are my fingers meandering through the batter. It's filled with a mousse consisting of tropical flavors including passion fruit, mango, and coconut. While this may sound exciting and wonderful to some of you, I must confess that my taste buds fulling rejected this as something of a dessert with a personality crisis.
There are just too many flavors packed into this thing. Did I mention the top is smooth because it's been covered in passion fruit flavored ganache. Two great tastes that taste great together!? No. No no no no. No no. You don't understand how contrary the tartness of the fruit is with the creaminess of the chocolate. The moment this cake hit my tongue, my taste buds message to the brain was (and I quote) " Ummm. Well gosh. I, uhh. I, uhh.... You know what I quit. This just isn't working out for me." And off they went to find some Coffee and a sugar cookie.
This cake is, out of this world, strange.
That's all I have to say about that.

2007-10-15T11:36:00.001-06:00

A friend of mine called me yesterday. She was having a relatively strenuous evening and I felt pretty helpless to comfort her. I'm not sure how others deal with stress, but as a pastry chef, I feel sugar is a good start. While I was unable to run over and make my friend a batch of chocolate brownies, I was thinking of her this morning when we had to make a batch of Tuile's. These thin little cookies are usually used more as an accent to a dessert rather than a desert themselves, but they're still pretty tasty. It's also a simple recipe:
4oz butter
4oz powdered sugar
4oz eggs (+ a little vanilla)
4oz cake flour
And you just spread the batter paper thin in your mold and bake for 10 minutes!
These little guys are fun to make because you can make any shape you like. Class was fairly light hearted today. We spent a long time making molds for these cookies. Many Halloween and Christmas themes were brought in. I decided to make Teddy bear faces for my bummed out buddy in hopes that it would put a smile on her face. Well, I hope the picture will do it because I dropped the plate on my way out and smashed them across the hallway. Heh Heh. It's the thought that counts? I kept the molds, so I may try again! Ha!
Just for clarification, I did not make Teddy Bear faces all morning. We've been working with a lot of Bavarian Cream. Today we actually completed two types of Charlotte's. They're both really tasty, but I have to say that I'm not overly impressed with them. Sponge and cream, doesn't have all that much flavor. To each there own.

Lettering

2007-10-03T19:36:00.002-06:00

The last few weeks have been very insane, as everyone probably knows. It's been very exciting and exhausting at the same time. We've started a new class basically on custards. We've been doing bunches of Creme Caramels & Bread Pudding. My friends and neighbors seem to be the most ecstatic for this new chapter of Baking and Pastry. And, as I continue to state, these recipes are pretty simple. Many of them I have fond memories of making with my mom or grandma. What's fun is taking the basic recipe as given and adding to it. Making new flavors that scare most people! Everyone in my class is a little wary of me because I put weird flavors like ginger and curry into sweet creams. I think it's fabulous and I suggest everyone at least try it ONCE!
I'm sure once we get into more complicated custards I'll have more interesting things to say, but for now... you'll just have to deal with me rambling.

Butter Butter Butter Butter

2007-09-19T11:54:00.001-06:00

Yesh. This has been an awesome yet terrible week. As the wedding grows ever nearer (T-10 days), I've spent a large majority of my free time tying up loose ends, meeting with people, trying to keep things under control... All of that, coupled with school and work, has been a little stressful. Unfortunately, I've found that I have some what of a nervous eating habit. Habits like this just are not good, especially when you're wearing a rather tight fitting dress in a few days AND you're surrounded by butter stuffed pastries every day!!! AAAAHHHHH!!!!!! NO.NO.NO!
The batch of croissants you see above are made with one entire pound of butter. Not only that, but it is then filled with banana/chocolate, honey/banana, chocolate/peanut butter, cheese/basil. Arteries clogged yet? These things are so unbelievably tasty, but I need to not be surrounded by them for 3 weeks!!! Eesh. I'm getting lots of practice on them though!
Almost there. Almost there. Almost there.

Back in the Kitchen

2007-09-12T12:21:00.000-06:00

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYY!!!!!!!!!!
We are now back in the kitchen and I am so so so happy for that! The new class is Laminated Doughs, and we've started with Puff Pastry. This really is not my favorite thing in the world, but I don't care because I miss being in the kitchen so much! My new chef is much more of a challange than my previous instructor. She is meticulous and demanding and it's great. I actually feel challanged for the first time. She doesn't like to hold your hand through anything. Today she gave us a list of what we had to do, which was 5 different things, and gave demo on only 2 of them. It was actually great because it forced everyone to use there brains for once to figure out what to do. Everything turned out great. Today I completed four things:

a Pithiver a Fruit Bar a Tarte Tatin,and a Napoleon(which turned out a little poofier than it should have. heh heh). None of these things are particularly difficult if you have to patience to deal with Puff Pastry.

Final Projects/Burns

2007-08-22T22:11:00.000-06:00

I finished my class last friday. We had a big final presentation that we had to create. I know I mentioned it before. My theme was "Spices." I was actually quite pleased with how everything turned out and, aside from the 2nd degree burn from 300 degree sugar, the day of the project went on quite well. The Gateau Opera cake was a pain to lace with red chili pepper, but I was told that the few people who had a bit of it were able to taste the slight twinge in the back if your throat from the chocolate laced with pepper. My job is done. Ha ha!

I also made Cardamom cookies that were addictive, Curry Truffles, a spiced angel food cake (which everyone should have this recipe, it is surprisingly awesome), a 5 Chinese spice apple pie, Pear Ginger Tart, and Meringue shells filled with a fruit mixture of pineapple+cantaloupe+basil+mint+ Orange Liqueur. OH MAN! I'm so proud. I got a 97% for the whole thing.

Unfortunately, I was not exaggerating when I said I got a 2nd degree burn. Toward the end of my set up, while I was spinning sugar, I lost my grip on the whip it went flying into the pot of boiling sugar. Thankfully, all I got was an inch splash on my middle finger. It could have been much worse. So, I bit my lip until I got everything set up, shaking all the while. Once I was finished (as much as I could be anyway) I excused myself and went off to the urgent care clinic. I impressed the nurses. I seem to be good at that!
Enjoy the pictures! I gotta get some beauty sleep!

2007-08-12T08:25:00.000-06:00

Oh man. I'm so sorry people.
Between trying to stay on top of school, job, and wedding demands, I hardly have time to eat, let alone have a hobby!
The past two weeks have been nothing but petit fours. We're getting into more complicated cakes that are an all day process. That's actually okay with me, because then I get more time to make things look pretty. Some people in class have told me that I always do the prettiest decorations, which makes me go "teehee."
Some of the cakes we've made this week were:

Gateau Opera. This was my favorite of the week. Mostly due to the fact that the cake is covered in ganache at the end. I was talking with a friend of mine a while back and we decided pouring ganache over a cake is, quite possibly, one of the most satisfying feelings one can have in their existence. So, if you're looking for a good feeling. Bake a chocolate or strawberry, or whatever cake, and give it one or two baths in ganache. If that doesn't put a smile on your face, then ....God. I don't know what to say to you if that's the case.
I actually made this cake twice and sent the second one home to the family for birthday weekend. HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADA!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY MARIA!!

The other cake that was really of note this week was the Battenburg. Made in honor of Princess Victoria's wedding, this cake is a pain in the butt with not much pay off! I was not fond of the flavoring! It's just spongecake with marzipan. Unless you are a big fan of marzipan, this cake will not interest you. And it took FOREVER. Lots of measurements. It looks kinda cool....but I was not excited, by any means.
Unfortunately, I believe school is going to take a much more technical and way less fun turn next "quarter." We are going to be in a classroom doing nutrition and kitchen management and such. So no major baking for me for 3-6 weeks! Ppthhhhh. I may go crazy.

2007-08-01T16:51:00.000-06:00

Oh Man.
Macaroons. Macaroons. Macaroons. Guess what I've been doing!
There is a visiting Chef from French Canada in the school for a couple weeks and he was nice enough to do a demo for our class this morning. Aside from the near impossible, thick French accent the man speaks with, talking with him as been very informative. He demoed 3 different flavors of bite size macaroons today. His technique is totally different from our teacher, which is weird. For example, Macaroons have a body relatively reliant on fluffed egg whites, and chef stressed the need to keep as much body from the egg whites as possible. Not Monsieur Chef! He just beat that stuff together like nothing I've ever seen! It was pretty funny.
The other hilarity about Monsieur Chef is that he stresses, constantly, the the way to make the money. He doesn't some much talk about "This is how to make yourself a good pastry chef" he talks about "This is how to make the bucks." Which, isn't all bad. It's good to know what people are looking for, which (by the way) is experience across the world. You name a country, this guy has been to it. It's impressive.

Anyway! So, Macaroons. Very light and fluffy. Mostly egg white with sugar. Awesome, as most things are, when chocolate is involved. We have to make an almond macaroon for our final this Friday. I seem to suck at getting them to the correct size. I try so hard to make them circular, that I completely missed the whole, Petit Four size idea (2 bites). They are way to small. Sigh. Anyway. These things are cheap and easy, good thing to remember, cause people still charge a bundle for them!

2007-07-24T16:04:00.000-06:00

Hello!!!
Sorry again for the absence. There's a lot going on right now. Between school, Harry Potter, weddings, Harry Potter, work, Harry Potter, and so forth, I have been having a hard time keeping up. However! I have the afternoon off and have reserved the time to post a few things and maybe read some Harry Potter. Have I mentioned that book?

We've moved off a bit from pie's now. Today we did a Linzer Tort, which is such a tasty and easy dish I had to find a home for it right away so I didn't just sit down and eat it all. Linzer dough is only tricky if you have no way to get powdered Hazelnuts. It's one of those pain in the butt specialty items Cub probably won't carry. It's filled with Raspberry jam, whatever you're particular favorite raspberry jam or preserve will work, with a lattice top. It's simple and really, really pretty. I was quite pleased with this.

We also finished up a pan of Baklava that was started yesterday. People are really either heads or tails with this. It's either too sweet for you or it's what your life was missing. I'm rather fond of this desert, but only when I have a cup of coffee with me. I ate half of one of these things and thought my mouth was disintegrating from the sweetness. So! FYI coffee + baklava = Happy!
We also have been in the process of making petit four every chance we get. For those who don't know petit four is used to describe deserts that are no more than 2 bites sized. Our final project will actually be creating a desert platter of various petit four. The entire school is suppose to be invited to sample. The platter has to be designed off of some kind of theme. Some people did birthdays, date night, chocolate, tropical fruit, and so on. I've been kicking around ideas and I have to come up with a tentative theme by Friday. If anyone thinks they might have a good idea for a desert platter theme, please feel free to suggest it! I'm looking for something awesome and creative. No pressure!
Anyway, here's an example of some of the petit four that we've been working on. These are actually pecan diamonds. They are, if possible, even sweeter than pecan pie. I actually put chocolate on top to cut the sweetness.

2007-07-16T11:09:00.001-06:00

Hi!!
Sorry it's been such a while. I was on break for a week and then the camera was hi-jacked by someone for a work trip last week. I'm back in the rythum now! However, I am starting a new job today that has weird hours leading into 11 pm. I wonder how this will work out with getting up at 5:45 am every morning. I'll keep you posted!
Anyway, here are some of the treats we've been making in class from last week.
Enjoy!!

2007-06-29T18:39:00.000-06:00

We had our final for the the class. I've had a lot of fun making all the different kinds of bread, but (oh man) I can not TELL you how happy I am to be done with it. I think I'm going to es-plode if I have to knead one more dough lump this week. Which is good, because with finals out of the way, we get an entire week off! I haven't had a full week off in years! I don't know what I'll do with myself! If we face reality, I'll be cleaning the apartment from top to bottom, but lets just pretend I'm doing something exciting like budgie jumping.. I don't know.
Also, I seem to have made enough puff pastry to no longer find it a daunting task for the home baker. The dough is only: Flour, salt, water, & butter. (No yeast to throw curve at you!!!) Then you fold an appalling amount of butter into the chilled dough, but it makes such a pretty pastry!! I love it! I was actually thinking today that I would love to make this for the wedding, but I think I have more sanity than to try and make 300 o'rdourves the day before my wedding. If I had the resources, I'd totally do it. It's so much fun.
This pastry puff:
is a 2'' round base and a 1 1/2'' cutter crust. These babies are bite size and totally delectable. I made 6 for my final and consumed them as soon as the grade was given. The filling is feta with half and egg, 2 teaspoons of milk, dried basil, and ground pepper. OH MAN. You have no idea how awesome these things are. I may be bias since I incorporate feta cheese into at least one meal every day, but still...it's tasty.

The second puff pastry is filled with raspberry jam, topped with 1/2 of a fresh raspberry, and drizzled with milk chocolate. Also delectable, also consumed at record speed. I have to say I was very happy with todays final. I was deducted only 5 points because my pinwheels were slightly underdone. Stupid pinwheels.

Now I have a week off to analyize past baking experiences and ready for the next section which will be mostly pie's and some cakes. At least these are unlikely to fill up my freezer making me unable to pull out the ice tray with out an avalanche!

Book Cake-Cake Book

2007-06-25T19:53:00.000-06:00

So. Here is the latest birthday cake.

It was designed to be modeled after "To Kill a Mockingbird," but I'm afraid it really didn't turn out that way. It ended up looking more like something out of a story book. Sigh. The big thing is that the birthday girl loved it. Which is all that matters to me. I thought the lettering turned well. I just wish I could've given the cake more.....aspect of the book???? The title looks rather like a last minute side note of the left-top page. I was hoping to make it a more defining point, but it didn't turn out. Ah well. It looks pretty nice and as I get into classes that are actually cake decoration related (we have a whole quarter on the subject) I believe my talents will improve and I'll be able to give my friends ever more impressive birthday designs!
My classmates and I are considering forming a group for the iron chef-cake decoration competition they have at school twice a year. I am excited at the possibility, even if we don't win, it's still really good experience.

Pretzels!!

2007-06-23T09:43:00.000-06:00

My downfall in life seems to be bread, in particular, Sourdough Bread. As a child I was known to be able to consume at least half a loaf of sourdough bread from Panera in one sitting. It got a little out of control for a while. I’m better now. I’ve learned the ways of a nutritious diet that includes some form of greenery, maybe a little protein in there. I still get very excited about bread though.

This week we made pretzels and that’s just really close to heaven for me. They taste very similar to the ones I have to get under any circumstance when I go to a baseball game, only four THOUSAND times better. They are so fluffy and chewy, it’s ridiculously good. They also ruin me for the rest of my life because now the pretzels at the baseball game are going to make me sad by their lack of flavor. Boo. To make it even worse, we used a grape sour starter for the bread that took 6 weeks to develop. I may not be ambitious enough to undertake that in my own kitchen, but I do really love sourdough, so we’ll just see how we go. The dough is really simple, aside from the starter:

10 oz Water

¼ oz Yeast

9 oz Grape Starter

20 oz Bread Flour

1 Tbsp Malt or Honey

2 tsp Salt

You mix, let it rise, form into pretzels, rise again, and bake. To help pretzels get that chewy crust, you dip them lye or a mixture of 2oz baking soda and a pint of water right before you bake them, fairly simple. Maybe I will start my own sours at home. I probably won’t regret it.

I’m now off to make a birthday cake. If it turns out well, I’ll probably post it tomorrow. If it doesn’t turn out well, I’ll definitely post about it tomorrow.

Tradition

2007-06-18T12:31:00.000-06:00

Tradition

Who, day and night, must scramble for a living,
Feed a wife and children, say his daily prayers?
And who has the right, as master of the house,
To have the final word at home?

Tradition

Who must know the way to make a proper home,
A quiet home, a kosher home?
Who must raise the family and run the home,
So Papa's free to read the holy books?

-Fiddler on the Roof

Challah was one of the first breads I ever remember baking. For the first couple years I made it my mom kneaded the dough because I'd get tired and bored, but it was always fun braiding the doughs together, and my mother would invariably end up singing "Tradition" from Fiddler on the Roof at least half the time. That seems to have been passed on to me as we made two different Challah recipes in class today. I was singing "Tradition" in my head all day. It got a little old, but I was feeling very nostalgic about memories of family baking, so I kept a smile on my face the whole day.

Challah bread, as most people may know, is a Jewish bread eaten on Shabbat and Jewish holidays. It is a rich bread or an egg bread and it makes excellent French Toast. We did two different types of Challah, one was a simple egg dough, the other was slightly richer and contained saffron, one of the most expensive spices in culinary. Chef told us in his culinary career thus far, the most he's ever paid for Saffron is $180.00 for 1 ounce. That's about 3/4 of a cup. Why are they so expensive? Saffron comes from a crocus flower. They look like a very thick hair on the outside and must be hand picked to preserve them, making them highly labor intensive. It gives off a subtle flavor and an orange color.

Personally, I think the recipe I've been making since I was 10 years old is the greatest thing ever and doesn't compare to the recipes I did today. My recipe is a lot richer, or maybe I just think it is. So, here's a treat! I'm actually going to post a recipe! I know I don't do this often, but this is one of the greatest recipes of all time, so I want people to know it. Traditiiioonn!

Challah
2 Packages dry or compressed yeast
2 1/2 cups warm water
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons salt
1/3 cup light oil
4 eggs, lightly beaten
8-9 cups flour
1 egg mixed with 1 Tablespoon water and pinch of salt
Poppy seeds

Sprinkle yeast over water and mix with a fork until yeast is disolved. Blend in sugar, salt, oil, and eggs. Beat in 4 cups of flour until mixture is smooth. Mix in about 4 more cups to make a soft, workable dough. Knead for 10-12 minutes on floured board. Place in a warm, greased bowl. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and towel and set aside to triple in bulk-1 1/2 hours. Punch down and let it rest for 10 minutes.
You can form these guys anyway you want, in loaves or braids. I usually did an easy three braid, it doesn't hurt or frustrate. :)
Form, cover, and set aside to double-45 minutes.
Brush with egg wash and sprinkle with poppyseed.
Bake at 375 for 30 minutes or until golden brown.

Best in the City! Enjoy!

Plaque

2007-06-13T13:54:00.001-06:00

Sorry, again!

The haze of the afternoon sun has been leaving me in a somewhat exhausted daze and I have not wanted to turn on my laptop and add heat to my un-air conditioned apartment.

Speaking of stiflingly hot, we had to be removed from our classroom for the first two days of this week and were thrown back down the road to the basement of Brown College, which is where the program originated. Now, I've heard lots of horror stories of the beginning years; lack of classroom space, finding colleges to support it, Baking and Pastry classes that met from 10pm until 2am. Lots of interesting stories of how the program found it's feet in the early years.

Monday and Tuesday were two of the most uncomfortable days in my life thus far. The facilities at the schools new building FAR exceed those found at Brown. For one thing it was hot and sticky. Theoretically there was air conditioning, but it never really kicked in. Which wouldn't be so bad except for the four ovens in the corner. For another thing, there was a depleted number in just about everything. In our classroom, all tools and ingredients are at your fingertips. We were spoiled. We didn't want to share sheet pans, we didn't want to share oven space, or bowls, or counter space, or rooms. It was a good test of how we work together and (a side from one individual) we did perfectly fine. I was very impressed. I hated every minute of it, but impressed nonetheless.

What came out of those two days of heated discomfort and inconvenience was a bread plaque. It was a test of creativity and skill. It was a project of art and sculpture. It was playdoh. The base was made from weavers dough, a relatively simple (not at all delectable) bread that was solid ground for building our ideas. The actual forms that sat on the base were made from salt dough, exactly the same recipe for home made playdoh-flour, water, & salt. Technically food, but I wouldn't suggest it.

For anyone that has met me more than once, it will be no surprise that I picked a monkey for my design. (Actually, it was modeled after an orangutan-and ape-but I didn't add enough red to the dough, so it turned out looking like the generic plush monkey you find in stores.) All in all, I was pretty happy with the way it turned out. The trust over the top is the name of a center in Iowa that houses some of the most famous apes in Primatology. I haven't gotten a chance to actually visit it, but I hear fabulous things.
Anyway. The plaque it a dedication to the apes and my obsession with them that will never go way. (Even if I do become a world famous pastry chef)

The fruit of my back aches

2007-06-07T15:06:00.000-06:00

I know you all are aware of that wonderful thing called puff pastry. It comes in the form of danishes, croissants, bear claws, turn-overs, and a multitude of other guises. However, many of you may not know the work that is involved in making the puffy pretties.

It is a regular dough, similar to most others, with the very notable difference of being folded into layers with a slab of butter equal to one pound, four ounces. This is a terrifying sight, especially to the diet crowd. Unfortunately, it is the only system to give the pastry it's flaky, puffy greatness.

So this week(over the coarse of three painstaking days) I made the dough, folded the butter in, and chilled the concoction three times over. This may sound simple, but if you've ever worked with chilled butter in any fashion you know that to roll out a slab of chilled butter is about as easy as being given a large rock and told to make some sand. It's slow going and it's hard going. The palms of my hands were, quite literally, bruised when I rolled the dough out this morning. My back and forearms were sore and achy from the unusual exertion forced on them.

Today I saw the fruits of my back aches! Today we completed the puff pastry dough and made some pretties that I am very excited about. These things were well worth the effort. (Don't get any idea's though. I'm not about to go home and clear a shelf in my fridge for this terror.) The pastries turned out awesome. The Crosiants turned out so flaking and buttery, they seriously just about melted in my mouth. There's also some business involving chocolate that I just won't subject you to, but it was fabulous as well.

I don't recomend this as a ruetine sunday breakfast tradition, but if you're feeling adventurous or looking to tone some back and forearm muscles, this might be just what you're looking for. If you're sane, you'll probably leave this to the professional bakers and just lean back in wonder, eating your flaky goodness, ache-free, and just a buck or two poorer.

Points For Effort?

2007-06-04T12:54:00.000-06:00

I have been keenly aware of the advantages and disadvantages of being in a baking and pastry program.

Advantage: doing something I love.

Disadvantage: sometimes dealing with people who can't remember more than one sentence of instructions at a time.

Advantage: Learning new recipes and the skills & attributes that must go a long with them. (i.e. patience, listening, faith in your own intuition.)

Disadvantage: Eggs.

One aspect that has been an advantage AND a disadvantage is being able to taste all these awesome recipes. Some of these treats, I never even heard of. Some, I never once dreamed of trying to undertake. In either case, I have been surprised by my own abilities and delighted with end product. This, in turn, means...I have to try them! You can't NOT try something you've toiled over for 4 hours. You can just give your hard earned puffy deliciousness to a bunch of snotty culinary students, who think baking is a ladies sport. NO! You have to try the deliciousness! The only problem is to stop with the taste. My instructor gave some very good words of wisdom, admitting that he always tastes what he bakes, but doesn't make a whole meal out of it. Thus he's as skinny as a 20 year old, which just isn't fair!

With the above picture in mind, consider what happens everyday. Towards the end of class, when golden brown things are coming out of the oven and your sweet tooth starts to beckon, think of how hard it would be for you to not sit down and just have a taste.

P.S. Interesting fact about these puppies. They are more of a cake donut that a true donut and they're actually baked for cooking. Frying comes in for presentation, it's just to get a brown color. Vanity. Vanity.

Beautiful Cake

2007-06-02T12:01:00.000-06:00

It’s been hard to keep up on the blogging recently, sorry. Between work, school, and the slow development of a social life, it’s been rather busy.
I did want to touch on one thing that I made last quarter. We made a simple Devils Food Cake about a month ago that had a more than simple flavor. It was phenomenal. This cake was so rich, so chocolaty, so smooth that almost makes you melt. I had a great time decorating it as well (surprise, surprise). It was given a simple ganache bath (maybe 2 or 3 baths, hehe) and white chocolate decorations that I came up with myself.

Isn’t it beautiful! I was very excited for this cake. I planned on giving it to one of my friends for her upcoming birthday. I was so proud at the awesomeness of this cake, it was unreal. I even made two trips out to the car so I could carry it safely home. Only, with two mindless steps in the wrong direction, to have this happen:

I screamed. I cried. I threw such a tantrum my cats had to go hide under the couch until I was safely removed from the house. I had put the cake too perilously close to the edge of the counter and turned to close the back door, forgetting that my backpack was still on; I knocked the cake upside down onto the floor-still in its cake holder. There is nothing so frustrating as to spend hours working on perfecting something, just to have it smash to the ground. I find my tears are justified in this.
So, I wanted to read a poem I found online in honor of this, most admirable cake. Hemm..

The chocolaty pillow rests on my plate,
The sugary brown frosting,
I can’t wait, To dive into my plate.
I couldn’t eat another bite but,
It’s taunting me,
Staring with a sweet glare,
Just saying, “Eat me, eat me”.
Finally I decide,
To make a sacrifice,
To gain some weight,
And to eat the cake.

By Lucas Lee

Fair Well beautiful cake, we hardly knew you.

CIABATTA

2007-05-26T12:32:00.000-06:00

So, a lot of people asked me about this bread when I told them I was starting the artisan bread section of my schooling. It has recently come back into pop culture as classic sandwich bread. I would have to agree with this craze. Not only does this bread taste delicious for sandwiches and soup accessories, but it also is so simple to make its just ridiculous. Some classmates of mine actually got paranoid at how simple it was. It was too simple, they got scared, and I got scared.

“Really? This is all you have to do? You don’t have to knead it? Really?”

Ya, for all those people who wanted me to teach them how to make this bread, you don’t need me. If you can follow a recipe successfully, you can make this bread with out issue. Of course, for those of you who can follow a recipe and still end up with a block of cement in your oven, give me a call some time and I’ll help you out.

Ciabatta

Ingredients

Sponge
Water 1 lb, 1oz
Fresh Yeast** 1 oz
Bread Flour 1 lb
Virgin Olive Oil 3 oz

Dough
Salt 1 Tbsp
Bread Flour 8 oz

Sponge: Add yeast and water and stir with a whisk until yeast is dissolved. Stir in olive oil. Stir in bread flour and mix until the sponge is relatively smooth. Cover the bowl and let it sit for 45 min. to 1 hr or until the sponge begins to bubble.

Dough: Mix flour and salt together, and then add to the sponge. Mix just until combined and no dry ingredients remain. Scoop half the dough onto an un-greased sheet pan with parchment paper. Form into a loaf shape as best you can. (*Note, this dough is going to be super sticky) Do the same thing with the other half of the dough. These won’t rise much, so you can try to fit the two on one sheet pan. Dust the loaves with bread flour until covered. Set aside in a warm, dry area until the bread begins to rise. (You will see a bunch of little cracks in the flour when it’s ready.) Once the dough it ready, put in a 425 degree oven for about 30 minutes or until golden brown on top and bottom.

**If you don’t have fresh yeast, dry active yeast can be substituted. The conversion is just multiply by .5. In other words, if it calls for 1 oz of fresh yeast, you use .05 oz of dry active yeast.

Recipe from: Gisslen, Wayne, Professional Baking; Fourth Addition, John Wiley & Sons Inc, 2005, pg. 99

What Do Doctors Know?!

2007-05-23T10:54:00.000-06:00

A few months ago, a study came out that said that garlic actually isn’t good for your heart. Well, it isn’t BAD for you heart, but it doesn’t quite contain the magical saving quality your mother told you about. I have to say I was disappointed when I read about this because I love garlic almost to the point of obsession. We go through one head of garlic a week. Then it occurred to me; you know what, they are WRONG!! I find garlic is very good for my heart. I have fun smashing and cutting it up, which makes me smile, which is good for my heart. When I’m making something with a lot of garlic in it, I get excited and, yes, sometimes jump around. This is also good for my heart. Those silly medical studies think they know everything. Frankly, I think this particular study is rubbish. Garlic is good for you. Eat LOTS of it!

The reason for this rant is that I made a fabulous Herb Focaccia. It is a surprisingly simple recipe. You just have to want it bad enough to put in the effort of kneading and waiting and forming and waiting and baking and waiting. The Focaccia I made today is totally worth it, and not just because I’m being graded on it. Reason: Well, there are two, yes two, full heads of garlic roasted, smashed into paste, and spread over it. This is where it’s at. The bread is layered with olive oil, garlic paste, fresh rosemary, and tomato slices. It makes one of the best lunches I’ve had in years. The mix of tomatoes with the spices plus the soft, thick bread, makes you feel like you’re eating pizza, but oh! so much better. If any of you feel so inclined. I really recommend making this; it’s a great addition to an Italian dinner or as an appetizer.

This stuff is good for breakfast, lunch, and dinner!

Rage

2007-05-19T18:07:00.000-06:00

Okay. Okay. The Bake Sale was a bust. I have to say I didn’t really put much stock in it. I can’t even give the stuff away. *sigh* That’s okay. I know where some Americorps people hang out. If they won’t eat it then…well, then I’ve just failed as a baker.

Anyway! The exceedingly large amount of food will become less of an issue now. The corporate office for Le Cordon Bleu has decided that students are no longer allowed to take food home for fear of food poisoning. I know this is going to sound crazy, but I am greatly, GREATLY upset by this. Some student, some where took home some food and gave someone food poisoning. I don’t know the particulars of the situation, but corporate has freaked and froze all outgoing food. Excuse me but, isn’t that why our first order of business is a food safety course!?! One: We are students, and we are going to mess things up on occasion, but this is why we have an entire course dedicated to lessen that possibility! It seems like a matter of trust and faith in your students. If you don’t have faith in the competence of your students that YOU are teaching, then your school has a problem. Two: We PAID for this food. It is part of what are tuition pays for. It is our food. It is our product. It is our responsibility. If they would like us to sign a waiver that says if someone gets sick, they can’t be sued. FINE! I know we’d all be willing to do that. Three: Technically this new rule states that not only can we not take the food home. We cannot even take the food from the classroom. Our classes have a long standing tradition of sharing food fairly often, but now that’s supposed to be against policy. So you know where the 20-21 cakes, breads, and cookies are going to go now? TRASH! Whatever we don’t eat, will get throw away. How totally unacceptable that is? Do you know how many people in these cities alone that go hungry every night? It makes me sick to my stomach how much food is due to be wasted if this policy holds.

So! With that, the student council has begun work on a petition. I don’t know how much help it will be, but it’s important that corporate is aware of how IDIOTIC this policy is and that it should stop!! Thanks much for listening to me rant. I’ll keep you updated. In the mean time, here’s a practice round of my plate decorating lesson. It’s a Baba cake with raspberry & cream sauce. Enjoy!

Carb Addict

2007-05-15T13:22:00.000-06:00

There are few things in this world better than home made bread. For me, it ranks right up there with birthdays, vacations, and lottery tickets. There is nothing more awesome than the pillowy softness of a freshly baked loaf of bread. Plus there’s the bonus of a delicious smell that fills your house for hours making you feel as though you may, in fact, be the best baker on the continent. It’s amazing what bread can do!
Today we made Milk Bread that was surprisingly fantastic regardless of the fact that its name reminds me of bread that’s been soaked so long it makes you feel like you’re eating paper pulp. We made four different types of buns, depending on how creative you feel like being. While it is fun to make buns into double knots or (my favorite and most hilarious) “lips” shape, it’s just as simple and classy to shape a piece of dough into a smooth round and give it a cut right down the middle. I suppose it’s a matter of opinion, but I’ve never seen anything wrong with it.
This recipe produces a really light, soft, and golden brown crust. It was great to watch them poof up. The second best thing in the world is grabbing one while they're still hot. THIS is what beauty tastes like. **Drool** Just thinking about them causes... **Drool** The dough it a little sticky, but with a little patience, it should come through alright. And they would make fantastic additions to big family meals. They just ***Drool*** melt in your mouth, ***Drool***especially when they’re**Drool**right out **Drool** of the oven. **Drool*** Excuse me, I have to go.

Bake Sale

2007-05-11T15:21:00.000-06:00

Alright. I’ve had it. I really enjoy piping out cakes like a pastry bag, but oh man I’ve got to get these things out of my house! My fridge & freezer over flow'eth with the bounty! It’s insane! It’s so insane that I’m sure loved ones are beginning to avoid me for fear being stuffed with 5 different sugary forms before I let them leave. It isn’t just that I want to get rid of the things, but I am genuinely proud of what I’ve been learning and producing. However, for fear of becoming a social out cast with the dearest of my friends, I’m taking advice from some ingeniously resourceful people and initiating a bake sale.

Every week I’ve brought home some sort of delicious tasty that, through the grace of god, I’ve been able to keep my paws off of. And so various cakes are now sitting in my fridge or freezer, simply dying to find a tummy to call there home.

Below is a list of those things which you can by on the cheap for a pastry chef in training. Most of you should have my number, e-mail address, or a mutual friend by which we can do business. It possible that this will become a weekly posting of goodies stocked up in my kitchen ready to be bought, but we’ll see how this goes.

Ready. Set. GO!

1. French Gingerbread (Pain D'Epices)
Don't be fooled by the familiar 'gingerbread' sign. This is not your Grandma's Christmas specialty. The cake is very similar to American Gingerbread, but it is lighter and drier. Still really tasty, though. Two ready in waiting. $5

2. Old Fashion Gingerbread
THIS is the classic. It's heavier than the French version and has the old familiar molasses flavor. Two yummy loafs available. $5

3. Orange Nut Bread
This is a nice spice cake with a hint of orange flavor and small bits of walnuts. Two of these as well! $5

Carrot/Zucchini Quick Bread
This is a surprisingly good bread. I has a hint of spice and brown sugar. It's a good breakfast treat to get you started. I've got two of these as well. $5

Banana Bread with Chocolate Pieces
This is the old classic. It's a really simple and quick recipe. I always have some old bananas in my freezer for when I get a hankering for this. That's why I've only got one left to sell. Heh. $5
4. Sponge Roll with Ganache
Some people might remember this as a yule log, from christmas past. It's really nice and light. It's even better when it's frozen, it tastes a little like an ice cream sandwich. Only One! $7

5. Chocolate Sponge Roll with Creme Chantilly
This is the opposite of the one above. The filling is very creamy and tasty and I could eat it by the spoonful on it's own. Only One! $7

6. Brown Sugar Spice Cake
This is a good spice cake. It's nice to have on a lazy weekend morning. Very comforting. It has a light sprinkling of powdered sugar icing. Only One! $7

7. Orange Chiffon Cake with Ganache
All I can say is...Oh man. This cake is tasty tasty tasty. I could eat an entire cake on my own and that would be totally fine. YUMMY!! Only One!! 7$
So! There it is. I endorse all these products as totally fabulous and worth the sugar high. Also, most of these will be okay to freeze for a week or two if you have an occasion coming up, but I wouldn't wait too long. You can call or e-mail any time. Also, my sister is available to take orders if that's easier for you. Thanks so much for your support and reading my rants and raves. Live fast, eat sugar!

Cake Decorating

2007-05-08T19:32:00.000-06:00

I could do this all day. Cake decorating appeals to my meticulous nature. I remember more than one occasion where my sister would yell at me for spreading the cream cheese on my bagel so evenly. I could never eat it until the cheese was even and smooth across the entire bagel. She laughed at me. *Sigh*I still have to do this! It bugs me! Little did we know that this was something of a seed for the growth of obsessions to come. I must say, the trait has been handy today. We’re beginning practice on butter cream frosting, which takes a surprising amount of finesse. Mainly because a major ingredient of the frosting is a sugar/water syrup that you must pour into fluffed egg yolks while keeping them inflated and not splatter 240 degree boiling syrup everywhere. Finesse. The main problem for the entire class was splattering, either that or making a sugar nest across the whip.

As with everything, I’ll get better with practice. I can’t wait for practice. This part is better for me anyway. It’s harder for a sample from a cake to go unnoticed. No more of “I’ll just have one piece to make sure it’s tastes good.”

The Time of the Egg

2007-05-07T20:29:00.000-06:00

Oh Good LORD! I have never cracked so many eggs in one sitting in my life! Today was just eggs everywhere. We did a Chocolate Chiffon Cake, a Genoise Mousseline Cake, and a Lemon Sponge Roll. For example, let me point out that the Genoise Mousseline has in it 10 ounces of whole eggs and two egg yolks. That’s eight eggs right there. Just for that cake. Not to mention the fact that I inadvertently COMPLETELY FORGOT TO ADD THE SUGAR. Hem. Which means the freaking thing turned out hard as a rock, flat as a pancake, and lumpy-[disgusting analogy here]? It was no good. Luckily, I figured out that I’d forgotten this most major of all ingredients as soon as I put the abomination in the oven. So I quickly made another one, cracking eight more eggs to add to the empty shell pile.

The Sponge Roll was the only thing that was actually completed, thus it is the only visual you get for the day. :P It turned out well. Not difficult at all. It’s just… it’s lemon…Egh. I don’t mean to offend people of the tart-ed tongue persuasion, I'm just not fond of the flavor as the star actor. It’s always seemed like more of a really important supporting character that you don’t always notice, but the plot would fall right through the earth if they weren’t there. That’s what lemon is to me. I just made it look as pretty as I could.

I do enjoy the Sponge Roll, though. It's freak'n easy. Tomorrow we’re supposed to make it with a chocolate ganache filling. I’ll be more responsive then. :)

DINO!!!

2007-05-06T12:14:00.000-06:00

BeforeAfter

Okay. This was actually a personal endeavor, not a school project, but it's SO awesome that I have to show it. A lot of you saw this cake at the birthday party, but for those who didn't, this in a Dino the Dinosaur cake I made for my friend, Dustin's, 26th birthday party. It turned out awesome! I was given lots of compliments on it, which is great. I did develop that very annoying characteristic of not shutting up about it for most of the night though. I'm sure I started to piss people off when my first sentence was always, "Hi! Did you see the cake?" I tried to calm down about it...but LOOK AT IT! IT'S SO AWESOME!! If anyone else wants to have a themed party of any sort, I am totally up for making the cake. I should go to school for this or something!?
The cake had a butter cream frosting that I adjusted slightly. It turned out a little on the rich side, but still really tasty. The filling was a fudge icing, which did not help the richness factor, but I wanted to pack a little extra chocolate goodness in. The actual cake was also chocolate. I found the recipe online some place last year for my sister’s birthday cake. It's a fairly simple recipe and the cake was able to sustain quite a beating without turning completely to crumbs, which I was very happy about. And it was still light and moist! Yay! If you're ever brave enough or bored enough to undertake baking a cake from scratch, I endorse this recipe:

Chocolate Cake

¾ cup butter or margarine, softened

2 cups sifted cake flour

1 ¾ cups sugar

2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon baking powder

¾ teaspoon salt

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons buttermilk

3 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Cream butter until light and fluffy. Sift (Yes, SIFT) flour, sugar cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into butter. Add 1 cup buttermilk and mix until all flour is moist. **Beat 2 minutes at low speed of electric mixer.

Add remaining 2 tablespoons of buttermilk, eggs, and vanilla, and **beat an additional 3 minutes. Pour into 2 buttered and floured round layer cake pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 35 to 40 minutes.

** The recipe says to beat it 2 and 3 minutes, but I don’t really recommend this unless you want holes in your cake. Beating the batter to excess like that will cause ‘tunneling,’ which is long holes in the cake running from top to bottom. Just a warning.

Can you tell I’m excited about this cake? I think I may have found my calling. Surprisingly, the fiancée actually endorses the destruction of the kitchen for love of my hobby.

So! I suggest you all take advantage of my crazy and request a cake before I become the most celebrated cake maker/decorator in the history of Western culture! I like making cakes

It's a fight to the finish

2007-05-02T22:32:00.000-06:00

Can I just say it would make more sense for me to have a never ending bake sale to find some place for all these goodies to go to. And the money could go to my student loans. There you go! Make the education start working for me before I'm even finished. I'm seriously thinking about this because the amount of sweet and decadent bakery items in my kitchen at this very moment are beginning to be a problem. It has become a battle between the tasty, sugary treats and the wedding dress I should look totally stunning in. Who will win the match! Only TIME will tell.

The First Stand of Custard

2007-04-30T19:59:00.000-06:00

Huzzah for being back on track! Some what anyway. I'm back into the full swing of class and work after being sick to the point of almost no return. And I've finally gotten the freaking camera to talk to my computer so I can show you some of the fabulous treats I make every day. The picture to the right is Creme Carmel. It is a very sweet and tasty desert that I would never think of ordering at a restaurant for fear maxing out my credit card, but in culinary school you take home 5 of them! Haha! It's a very simple recipe of Eggs, Sugar, Salt, Vanilla Extract, and Milk. I know it seems like one of the most complicated things in the world, but it's really no problem, as long as you keep an eye on it in the oven. :) I actually enjoyed making this. It's entertaining to watch the eggs transform the whole thing. Which is funny, because I do recall an earlier rant about hating egg whites, but that's only in dealing with puffy macaroons, I think. Heh heh. The brown sauce you see is just caramelized sugar, which is TONS of fun to make. It's just melted sugar, but it smells so good. Although, the taste isn't as fabulous as you might think. It's intense, but it's a really awesome blend of flavor with the custard. I recommend you try it. Or make me make it for you some day. :)

Stubborn Sickly

2007-04-23T16:55:00.000-06:00

A very inconvenient truth in being a chef (or in training to be anyway), is that you can't work when you're sick. You just can't! I've spent a good number of days sitting miserably at my office desk, trying to look productive while in a sickly daze. Why do I do this, I couldn't really tell you. But, when working with food, trucking through a sickly spell, convincing yourself that you'll be fine if you just sit down for 5 minutes, doesn't work as well. So instead of getting up in the early morning hours to take my food safety quiz today, I spent the morning gazing at my bedroom ceiling, wondering if I could get an egg to cook on my forehead.

Some Advice

2007-04-20T13:06:00.000-06:00

I, like many of my peers, spent a lot of time insisting than I knew better than my parents. And in some ways, I still think I do, BUT in dealing with the little things for example, checking your pockets for pens before you throw a huge load of white uniforms into the wash, listening to your mothers may be advisable. I’ll give you 3 guesses of what I did last night.
Yup. Yup. Four, count’m, FOUR of my white uniform shirts are hanging in my bathroom, dotted with ugly black splotches all over the crisp, white linen. I cried. I cried hard. I’ve spent any and all free time today scrubbing these things with any recommendations I can get my hands on. I went to the hardware store, I called a couple of cleaners, I talked to students and staff at the school. I’ve got a list in my head of various products and home remedies to try tonight when I get home. I’m excited. Actually I’m as pissed off as I’ve been in a long, long while.
“Check your pockets!” My mother always yelled at me for leaving earrings, Kleenex, and coins in my jeans. Even at age 24 my mother-in-law now yells at me for it as well. And as I sit in my bathroom scrubbing a hole into my new uniforms yelling "Out, damn'd spot! out, I say!" all I can think is. I should’ve listened to my mother.

Concerning Eggs

2007-04-18T19:13:00.000-06:00

I’ve been trying to research the technical term for fear of eggs. I can’t find it. I assume there is one. There’s a technical term for pretty much anything. Whatever terms the Ph.D.’s coined for the fear of eggs, (egophobia? My computer says no) that’s what I’ve got. Not because I refuse to touch or consume the evil things, I just break out in a cold sweat at the idea of whisking them in any form as a key preparation for a recipe. I’m sorry, but I’ve had one too many disasters in my personal experience to meet this challenge without sweaty palms.

Today wasn’t as bad as past experiences, however. It wasn’t until the last hour of the class when my instructor demonstrated a pastry cream that we had to make that I began the feel the moisture on my neck and palms. The whole process balanced on the edge of knife, leave the mixture one minute longer on the fire than necessary and it’s just the end. Start over! Actually, I was able to keep control of the cream mixture fairly well. It wasn’t until I reached the end stage and looked at the final product that I realized. I had been so worried about studying the steps of the cooking process that I didn’t actually READ the ingredients! I added a whole egg, instead of two egg yolks. Ya. I’m smart like that some times. The cream, while the correct consistency had the color of something my cats might throw up. I’m still not quite over the disdain for myself at not following directions properly.

It has been a major challenge for me to calm down in culinary school. I get so excited and hell bent on proving myself that I loose sight of the actual task and much needed thought processes which just stresses me out more. I’m hoping to improve this as I get more comfortable. Besides, if you’ve ever read Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel, a bad mood can transfer to your cooking and then you’ve got an entire wedding party running for the bathrooms and then where would you be?!

An Introduction

2007-04-17T19:58:00.000-06:00

I started baking pretty much as soon as I could walk. I've always been a kitchen hog. I have this picture of myself at age two passed out on the kitchen floor in my footie pajamas with my pillow, because that's where I liked to sleep! It was warm and comforting. Who needs a blanket when you have a warm kitchen! That's my personal philosophy.
I've just finished the second day of my second week culinary school, specializing in baking and pastry. This was, by no means, a shocking life adjustment to my family and friends. I've always been the one to make dinner for 12 people, bake bread for anyone who runs out, or make cookies because...hey! there are always cookies to be made. Thus, I've found nothing but support as I brave the student loan applications once more in pursuit of a dream.
This blog has been set up to act as a sort of record of my trek through school. My goal is to write every week day on the trials and wonders of a pastry chef in training (I hope). If nothing else, I can add it in my portfolio, but I also hope some of you will get some entertainment and recipes out of it. :)