Baking and Pastry Journal 8

Monday Baking Class 2-24-2008

Today was the start of our two day Bread Practical. Today I was to make a Challah loaf at 1 lb with four strands made into a braid and either a recipe of muffins or scones. I started the day off making the half recipe of my challah loaf like in the past weeks. I used the straight dough method and mixed all my ingredients till it was time for the first proofing. While the challah was raising I started with my muffin recipe. I had never made muffins from scratch before and was a little nervous but excited at the same time, I like a challege just normally not on test day. I decided I would make blueberry muffins because those are my favorites. I mixed all my ingredients using the muffin method (go figure) and added the blueberries right before I was ready to put them in the muffin pan. I have my pan greased and floured so that it is ready to be filled. I used a 2 ounce ice cream scoop to portion out my batter, it filled the pan perfectly with 12 muffins. I placed them in the oven and went to check my challah. It had not risen enough and since it was a practical I couldn’t help anyone so I decided to make the scones also. I had never made a scone either but since I was tired of sweet foods I decided to make a savory scone. I mixed all my ingredients together, shredded some cheddar cheese and fried up some bacon. Once my batter was nice and sticky I added the crisp bacon and shredded cheese. I knew I wanted to go classical with the triangle shape but I was unsure how much they would rise so I enlisted the advice of Chef. We shaped the entire batter into a rectangle and then sliced it into two rows of triangles. I made them thick because they apparently don’t rise too much and the thicker the better.

I checked my challah dough again and it needed about 10 more minutes so I took the blueberry muffins out of the oven. I checked them the old fashioned way like all our grandmas taught us, with a toothpick. It came out clean and they were cooked perfectly so on the cooling rack they went. While the scones were still in the oven I pulled out the challah dough and punched it, scaled it into four pieces, and let it bench rest for the second proofing. While that was proofing I took the bacon cheddat scones out of the oven. A couple of them didn’t hold the triangle shape because when I folded the dough over it blew out on a couple but they were still perfectly flakey and delicious. Now the scones and blueberry muffins are both on the cooling rack and they challah was ready to be braided.  The four strands of dough was much more challenging to braid than three strands but I got it done and it is ready to for its final proofing. While that was in the proof box I made an egg wash and a royal icing for the top of my blueberry muffins. Finally I was able to bake my challah loaf so I egg washed it and put it in the oven till golden brown.

I was ready to be graded, I put my name on my sheet pans and put them on the grading rack for Chef to critique them. All in all I was pleased with the outcome but wish my challah loaf turned out a little better. The first challah I made was the best but this one was okay. For this half of the practical exam I did pretty well: the muffins came out perfect and tasted wonderfully, the scones were also wonderful aside from the few that blew out, and the challah tasted and smelled great. Next week I have to complete a baguette and soft rolls. I just hope I can do better than the rest of the class seemed to do, for some reason everyone was really off their game and is going to have a rough day on Monday redoing all their messed up bread plus the remaining recipes.

When I first started Ai I wanted to do the baking program and they convinced me that I needed the culinary degree with the baking certificate. I really didn’t want to do all of those extra classes but was willing to do what it takes to get a god paying job. Today when I was being graded I had a chance to chat with Chef and he told me the truth (not the money truth where the school just wants as much out of me as possible) but the truth about me being able to do the baking degree without troubles getting a job. I was thrilled, a little nervous having to take classes with Chef Winter and Corey, but still I moved on and finally got them to change my program to the baking and pastry. I now have Euro Cakes next quarter along with the Chocolate class. I am not quite sure what Euro cakes will entail but it sounds fun.

    

Tuesday Pastry Class 2-25-2008

Tuesday we saw another more successful demo on pulling sugar. Chef made a cage of sugar, a few spirals, and a ball of sugar with strings of thin sugar for a neat piece of art. I love the idea of pulling sugar and using it in ways to make my art work unique but I must admit it scares me to death. I have been burned in many different ways by different people and heat sources and the extreme heat of the sugar is frightening. The process of inverting the sugar takes a very long time but I enjoyed the demo and hopefully will be able to perfect pulling sugar in the years to come but I can promise it will take much longer than everything else I practice. Like last week’s demo Chef added sugar and a little water to a pan and then once the water cooked out added glucose to invert the sugar. The sugar gets to be a beautiful golden brown and if color is added the art that can be created with the sugar and colors is endless.

Once the demo was done I made a couple creme carmels and filled my new pvc molds with the white bavarian cream that was made. The creme carmels took quite a while to cook but once I cut into them they were great. There were a few bubbles on the outside but the inside was wonderfully smooth. Chef says that next time I can cover the pan after it comes out of the oven so that it will steam and those outer bubbles will smooth out. I will try that for sure next week. Today we were to plate one to two more desserts and I wanted to do something a little bit different than a pool of sauce on a plate so I played around a little bit.

These are the two plates for today with the two different mugs I made. I like the second plate better but for my 2nd and 3rd plated desserts ever I think they turned out pretty well.

Wednesday Pastry Class 2-27-2008

Today we were to practice out sugar skills we saw in the demo yesterday and to plate another dessert or two. I decided to make a true chocolate mouse. I have had mouse before and was not a big fan which is why I hesitated to try it yesterday but I decided today it would be a good challenge. The mouse was not hard at all but it was a little time consuming but it turned out wonderfully rich and creamy. I wouldn’t want more than a spoonful because it was so intense but it was fabulous. I made another chocolate mug and filled the mug with the dark chocolate mouse. I took out the bavarian cream from the freezer and pushed it out of the mold. I traced the parchment paper that surounded the bavarian and made another parchment piece the same size. I then piped chocolate onto the clean piece of parchment wrapped that around the bavarian and froze it again till it was set up. Once that was set up the parchment paper pulled off and made a really neat chocolate cage around the bavarian. I sort of like the bavarian with the unique wrap a little more than the tear drop but they provide a very different look.

My blueberry sauce was a bit thinner than the cream an glaise sauce which is why it sank a little in the above picture. There is a neat sugar spiral added which looks great in my opinion. I am not a big fan of the pears but I threw them on to be sure I had the fleshy part of the plated dessert layout. Next week I will add all the parts together in my three desserts for the plated dessert practical.

~ by Tasha on March 4, 2008.