For the first several minutes in the kitchen this Saturday, I thought a trick was being played on my group. There were four of us chefs-in-the-making last week and only two of us were present yesterday. And we were both newbies. After getting over some initial doubts, we decided to be confident, positive gals and do what we had to do to survive the heat in the kitchen. And survive we did. We successfully made the same amount of bread that every other group did AND received compliments from Chef B on how efficient we were and how well we worked together. Definitely a treat!
The majority of the day was spent working on our soft rolls. Everyone made their own full batch in the morning and we were taught various ways to roll, knot and braid the rolls so we could practice a bit before our first practical exam in the afternoon. We had to present Chef P with four rolls total, two rolls in two style varieties. Consistency within each set of rolls was important as well, and with only a half batch of rolls to work with (seven), there wasn't a lot of room for error. I ended up choosing the fairly simple cloverleaf roll and the more difficult double knot roll. We brushed our finished rolls with egg wash, threw them in the oven and let them cool before lining up Top Chef style to be judged. These aren't the exact rolls I used, but these are the two varieties I presented. I received a 92 for my efforts, and Greg, Lin and Mike received two huge bags of roll rejects for their enjoyment.
Week number two, check. You'll be happy to hear that no hands were injured in the world of bread making this week; however, my love of bread may be "losing some of its rise" per say. Seriously, you can only smell fresh yeast so many times before all you want is a sinfully sweet cookie that you don't have to use twelve steps to make. This week we were introduced to the world of Italian and French bread. My taste buds felt like they were still eating the soft rolls from last week, but I guess my buds need a little bread tasting refinement. Although with flour, yeast, water, salt and sugar in each bread, you can understand my dilemma...
Here is the first round of Italian bread. The dark background in this image is appropriate because the top back corner of the loaf was burnt. This was caused by a hot spot in the oven and is very disappointing to someone who doesn't enjoy burnt food - a.k.a. me. Luckily, we made 7x the original recipe so we were able to try out a few varieties including pizza, which we shared with another class and got to eat for lunch ourselves. I decided to make mine into a calzone since the rest of my group was making regular pizza. Here are the statuesque results.
Those of you who know my baking style are aware that my rule for sweet baked goods is the bigger the better. Apparently that ideology has carried over to bread as well. This calzone was bigger than the Italian loaf when it first came out of the oven. We are not talking Pizza Hut calzones here people.
These braided bread sticks were the final variety made from our Italian dough. Not only were they fun to make (who doesn't like braiding dough?), they were also the tastiest bread we made. Tasty tip for happiness: brushing melted butter over freshly baked bread is always a good idea. DO try this at home.
Last but not least, our bread from the land of the Eiffel Tower. What this French bread lacks in uniformity, it makes up for in taste. One of my favorite parts of bread making is scoring the bread before it goes into the oven. This is also the trickiest part because if one part of the bread is scored deeper than the others, your bread will have large dips in it and not be the same width throughout. Educational side note: scoring is putting shallow slices in the top of the bread so that gases can escape during baking. And in bread or in life, it's never good to let out too much gas at one time.
After a Saturday full of bread, I decided to indulge my sweet tooth (and more finely tuned baking skills) and whip up a batch of cookies today. These peanut blossom cookies were just what the baker ordered and made my apartment smell way better than yeasty bread. I guess sometimes you just need a cookie.
After surviving my first weekend of pastry school, I have two answers to the proposed title question. Under normal circumstances, the answer is obviously no. But alas, in my case the answer is yes. That's right. This weekend there was not only blood, but also sweat and tears in the kitchen...
Here is a quick summary of my class schedule this term. Friday night: sit in a classroom and discuss strategies for success in the hospitality industry. We will work on our goals, attitudes, habits, behaviors and journal about what's going on in our lives. Easy, right? Maybe even a little too easy. Yeah, I think that only long enough to complete a full eight hour day in the kitchen on Saturday and realize that this Friday night class may be essential to keeping me sane for the next ten weeks. Or two years.
My Saturday class is titled "Introduction to Baking, Dough Formulas and Specialty Bread Products." That's right - bread. My favorite part of any and every meal. Unfortunately, my love of bread was almost the death of me. Here's where the blood, sweat and tears come in. With weekend classes, one week's worth of material must be crammed into our heads in one day, so we unwrapped our brand new pastry kits and baked two breads this Saturday. One item in said pastry kit is a huge knife that should only be used once one is shown how to use a knife properly. Lesson #1: Rushing around a kitchen with a huge knife to hastily cut off a chunk of soft butter can lead to this image...
Since banana cream pie is my boyfriend's favorite dessert, his birthday celebration over the weekend was the perfect opportunity to test out my skills in the pie arena. I had to go out and buy a pie pan earlier in the week, if that says anything about my current pie making skill level. Nonetheless, the finished product was a bunch of bananas better than I initially expected.
Before turning the oven on Saturday afternoon, I was most worried about perfecting the meringue topping. Much to my surprise, I seem to have a magic touch for whipping up meringue, but my pie crust technique needs some work...
I used shortening to make my pie crust, as it makes for a nice flaky crust with good flavor (so I was told). The image above doesn't really convey the true size of the rolled out crust, however, I will be honest and tell you that it did not all fit in the pie pan without some extra guidance. I had to break off pieces of dough from one side and press them around to other sides where needed. Luckily, this was not evident in the finished product because of the beautifully browned meringue distraction.
After baking the pie crust and slicing the bananas, I was ready to make the vanilla cream filling. This process started with my first experience separating egg yolks from egg whites. Not as hard as I thought, although I did have to dig out a small piece of egg shell from the bowl of egg whites. (Note to self: meringue should not be crunchy.) The cream turned out nice and smooth and my only worry was keeping it warm while I attempted my first meringue.
Much to my delight, my wobbly Sunbeam mixer did a fine job of whipping up a tasty meringue topping. (Yes, a KitchenAid mixer is on my "wishlist of happiness," but for now, I am happy to make do with what I have in my cupboard.) I quickly poured the vanilla cream into the pie crust over the bananas and spooned the meringue on top. After carefully spreading the meringue to the edges of the pie crust, it was ready to bake.
I should take a second here to note that I have a bit of a bad habit of peeking into the oven to check on my goodies before they're done. This poses a problem only if you're one of the chefs who believe that you're letting heat escape and cold air in, therefore altering the quality of the finished product. I am not one of those chefs. Although this bad habit may be breakable if I had an oven with a light inside... Another addition to the wishlist I suppose.
Controversial oven habits aside, thirty minutes later my very first pie came out of the oven looking like this! While I'm not personally a huge fan of banana cream pie, I was pleased to receive a plethora of pie praise from not only the birthday boy, but also a few family members who were in town for the weekend. One piece even made a two and a half hour car ride north to Columbia City, where it was promptly devoured by my uncle.
All in all, it was a successful first taste of pie. Seeing the happiness on my boyfriend's face as he ate several pieces during the course of the weekend made it that much sweeter. Three days and counting until my adventures in pastry really begin. Get your tastebuds ready...
Welcome to a taste of happiness...
This blog is your backstage access pass to my personal journey through pastry school at The Chef's Academy. In exactly one week from today, I will be back in the classroom opening my mind to the wonderful world of baking. As someone who never wanted to go back to school after receiving a bachelor's degree, this fact is slightly terrifying, but it also brings a nervous excitement to my life. So why, you might ask, did I decide to turn my perfectly fine world upside down and sign away my life (and weekends) to school for the next two years? Well, because baking makes me happy. There's much more to it than that, of course, but for now you only get a taste.
a warning (or blogging disclaimer)...
This is my first attempt at blogging and to be honest I am a little "blog-shy" about the whole thing. I would ask that you please be patient with me as I learn not only the techniques of becoming an excellent pastry chef, but also the techniques of becoming an engaging blogger. Somehow I have a feeling the kitchen disasters and photos alone will be enough to keep you hooked. And the semi-hilarious baking puns that I will make sure are in every post. I'm not above it, people. There are a million ways to whisk excitement into this blog.
For a taste of my first attempt in the world of pies, you must check out my next post. Baker's note: this pie will be made pre-school, which is appropriate because it will most likely look like a preschooler made it. But it's the taste that counts, right?
