week 12 - puff pastry and cookies

Week 12 – Cookies and Swans…Oh My!



Today we learned the basics on classic cookies. There are 1000’s of good cookie recipes out there for everyone to enjoy. A general rule of thumb to remember is that 90% are started with the creaming method of a fat (butter) and sugar. Chef also demo’d - Pate a Choux: this is the stuff you make the beautiful swans and delicious chocolate éclairs out of (Eclair paste).

Formula -Pate a Choux
½ cup water
2 oz butter
2 oz Bread flour
3-4 eggs

Pipe out desired shapes and bake at 380 degrees until golden brown. Do not under bake or éclair mix will collapse. The following dessert pastries can be made with this formula:
Paris Brest, Eclairs, cream puffs, Swans, Croqueembouche, soup garnish, petit fours, appetizers, Garnish for desserts, potatoes, and croutons for salad.

Team France decided to bake the all American classic chocolate chip cookie and then the sinfully good sugar cookie. Again, looking at the formula I would have started the sugar cookies first then the chocolate chip cookies because you have to chill the sugar cookie dough for an hour, then cut cookies prior to baking. Time management and formula review first prior to working was our biggest challenge today.

After completing the two batches of cookies Team France whipped up, and waiting for our sugar cookies to chill. I worked on assembling my éclairs and swans. So I cut each baked Past a Choux in half then piped crème patisserie and dipped Ganache on top.

Pastry cream ( Creme Patisserie) formula:

1 pt. Milk
2 oz sugar stage 1 - dissolve almost to boil
2 eggs
1 ¼ oz corn starch
2 oz sugar stage 2 - whisk together until smooth paste then temper with some hot milk. Then bring the rest of the milk to boil, add the remaining egg mixture until mixture thickens, Remove from heat, add butter and vanilla:
1 oz butter
1 tsp. vanilla

Refrigerate until needed. This pastry cream can be used as is or changed by adding chocolate Ganache to desired flavor.

Ganache:
10 oz semi- sweet chocolate chips
2 oz unsalted butter
8 oz whipping cream

This was a very rewarding class from a skills level and production standpoint, both productive and fun. I love working with doughs and pastries a little more than cakes. However, I’m always open to them all. Pastries so far really seem to work for me.

Honorable mention to my good friends and colleagues Deede and Brian for their baked Esse Cookies that looked and tasted absolutely beautiful. Bravo guys and thanks for sharing. After the cookies cooled down, they put raspberry filling and stuck two cookies together. Excellent choice.


Formula:
¼ lb Powder sugar, ½ lb butter, ½ AP shortening, 2 egg whites 1 at a time, 1 ¼ lb flour
Pipe onto baking sheet

Next week on the menu: Review – Solo Mission for Team France.

week - 11 if your in a hurry it's time to stop and smell the roses

Today, I was up for the challenge of decorating the cake that I made last week. I believe the word challenge should be used loosely. All of this was new, extremely difficult and fun to learn.


Prior to this task, Chef demo'd the classic butter cream, cream cheese frosting and various piping techniques. We also covered frosting for a German chocolate cake from Texas and a Yule log for the holidays.

We had a lot of demos today which are wonderful and a good way to learn. I enjoy demos for baking and cooking especially from individuals who have more work experience than my own age. It allows me to grow and learn as a student of life and as a commercial baker.

The biggest disappointment/failure was in myself today. It was difficult for me to perform to the best of my abilities today due to the simple fact that everyone, except a few, wanted to rush and get out the door as quickly as possible. I allowed this to affect me. I love baking, food and talking about different techniques which is why I’m enrolled in this college to learn. So to turn a negative into a positive, I have enrolled in a Wilton cake decorating class at Michael’s to master “the rose”.

Next week on the menu:
Dessert Pastries/ Eclairs

week 10 - spring break in schedule/material

week nine - Let them eat cake

picture 1

picture 2

picture 3

Today we covered the tri-fecta of the cake world. The basic chocolate, basic white and add the two together and you will get marble cake. Let's not forget the beloved carrot cake but is often over looked for it pure elegance and taste. Chef demo'd the apple strudel and we worked with puff pastry. We covered a lot...


So let's beginning with the cakes:

Basic Chocolate Cake:
1 1/2 lb cake flour
5oz coco powder
2 1/2 oz baking powder
2 lbs 8oz sugar
2 lb 12 oz eggs
1 oz salt
1/2 oz baking soda

Using a whip - mix on high speed for 8 -10 minutes


1 pt. fluid flex
1 pt. buttermilk
1 tbsp vanilla

Mix on second speed until ribbon stage. Pour 1 qt per 10 inch cake pan greased and paper lined. Bake at 36o degrees until spring back occurs.

Note: red food color plus cinnamon makes a mean devil’s food cake.

Basic White Cake:
same as above except:
omit coco powder and baking soda


Carrot Cake Sponge - Mayonnaise Method Emulsification:
4 eggs
3/4 cup vegetable oil - slowly
14 oz sugar
whip
1/2 tsp salt
9 oz bread flour
1 tbsp cinnamon
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1 # fine grated carrots
2 1/2 oz chopped walnuts

We panned our cakes then baked them off in the oven at 360 degrees. Chef then demo’d a beautiful apple strudel. It was a very interesting technique he used to move the large piece of laminated dough. Take an apron and place it under the dough. This will allow you to move the dough without tearing or ripping it. I thought it was a very cool technique – thanks Chef Colley. We tend to react before we think of what we need to do. Upon ruining or destroying what we were working, we then think of all the great techniques chef has taught us.






Next we started working with puff pastry. Chef demo’d some puff dough (see picture 2 above). We cut them into squares. Then on the inside of the square we cut a letter L on either side, then folded them over – something like that, work with me. Then you baked them off with parchment paper on top. Then you can use this as a pastry with a cream filling and fruit or other main course dinners. Note puff pastry is laminated dough – multiple layers of fat leavened by steam.

We covered so much today I don’t remember all that much about the lecture on puff dough.

Next week on the menu:
Cake decorating

week 8 - half time/ mid term

Happy St Patrick’s Day! It's the luck of the Irish today and we get to test it today in the kitchen with our laminated doughs that we prepped last class. Then we challenge our knowledge base in the classs room as we write our mid term exam. YAHOO! can't wait.

Team France and our fellow classmates had a special visit down the street from Phoenix college kitchen to practice our baking skills at Metro Tech High School kitchen that Chef Colley teaches at during the day. Originally this was going to be the host location for our class but was changed to the college kitchen. It was nice for a change to work in a beautiful kitchen. However, give me any kitchen to work in and I will be happy.

Chef demo'd how to operate this large industrial size roller to roll our laminated dough to make croissants, danishes and turnovers. We then shaped/cut our croissants with a pizza cutter on an angle that made a 90 degree triangle. Then filled them with various filling.

Croissant Dough:
1 qt milk
1 1/2 oz dry yeast
3/4 oz salt
3 oz salt
5 oz butter
3 # 8 oz bread flour

straight dough method 10 -12 minutes with dough hook. Relax in fridge for 30 minutes or more.

Roll-in butter 1 # 8oz. roll



Once we mastered the croissiant dough rolling then we learned various danish styles like the snail, the ring and the fold. There are many styles of danishes to choose from so you can offer a great selection or variation to keep your customers coming back to your bake shop.

The biggest challenge I had with today's tasks was the execution of the cutting of the dough. I never had do it before so it's something that if you keep doing you will get better over time. Then with the danishes it was then we had so many options to choose from it was hard to pick so I think when you’re learning it’s better to just to be told what to make. Then have it evaluated so you can learn and improve on it. An excellent tip I picked up today was when we put icing on the Danishes. Place a food glove and use your five fingers to drizzle it onto the pastries. It’s very quick and efficient to cover a large amount of food.








After that we made our way into the classroom and I felt very good with my answers on the mid term exam. We picked what flavor of cake we wanted to bake for next week so on the menu for me next week is carrot cake.



















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week 7 - pi(e) = 3.1415....

Today, Team France covered pie dough and sweet doughs. Also know in the industry as rolled in-doughs or laminated doughs although these terms are confusing at times because there is no set rules on when and how to use them so I'm still learning this myself. Let's begin with a definition of laminated which means - alterning layers and roll-in doughs which is - "a dough in which a fat is incorporated in many layers by using a rolling and folding procedure; it is used for flaky baked goods such as croissants, puff pastry and danish".

We started our day with our pie dough that we blind baked. No seriously that's what it's called. It how you bake cream pies. You cannot place cream pies in the oven. This is the process to produce all the wonderful pastry cream pie that we all eat on Sunday dinner.


After you mix you pie dough:

1 lbs 4 oz cake flour
12 oz ap shortening
1/4 oz salt
1/2 pt ice water (egg shade)

Do not over mix - pebble size consistency. Cool in refrigerator before use.

Next, you place your pie crust into the pie pan, shape it by placing in the pan with it hanging over the edges. Then drop the pan on the counter top three times and it falls into place. Pinch of off the edges and reserve dough - do not scrunch it into a ball you will ruin the layers.

Now the pie crust is fitted perfectly into the pan. However, if you bake it in the pan alone the sides will slide down. So this is where the blind baking process comes into play. Since we don't put the pastry creme into the oven, you place baking stone or beans to fill the empty space and distributed the heat evenly until the crust is baked.

The beans are wrapped in commercial grade wrap that allow it to hold up against heat. Just ensure that is does not touch the sides of the baking pan. Also label the beans for baking only you can use them for one year. You don't want any one to use them after you have baked them.

Upon cooling down the pie shell it’s time for the pastry cream and whipped cream topping.

Pastry cream ( Creme Patisserie) formula:

1 pt. Milk
2 oz sugar stage 1 - dissolve almost to boil
2 eggs
1 ¼ oz corn starch
2 oz sugar stage 2 - whisk together until smooth paste then temper with some hot milk. Then bring the rest of the milk to boil, add the remaining egg mixture until mixture thickens remove from heat add butter and vanilla.
1 oz butter
1 tsp. vanilla

Refrigerate until needed. This pastry cream can be used as is or changed by adding chocolate Ganache to desired flavor.

Ganache:
10 oz semi sweet chocolate chips
2 oz unsalted butter
8 oz whipping cream
basis for all chocolate mousse

It's was a turning point for myself and my team today in the bake shop. Our skills are really starting to take form as professional bakers. Keep up the good work everyone. We have much more to learn from Chef Colley.

Next week on the menu: Croissants and Danishes - ummm good. Oh that reminds me in class we prepped our croissant dough. Then put it the freezer until next class.

Week six - Salt of the Earth

French country bread


Chocolate Bread



Today, Team France covered the beautiful world of artisan breads. We baked a Hungarian potato bread, a chocolate bread, a beautiful French country bread and Chef demo'd a ciabatta bread for the class.




Let's first focus on the ingredient salt in all the formulas covered today.




The foundation of civilization was salt's ability to preserve food. Salt eliminated man's dependence on having to eat seasonal and allowed food to travel over long distances. However, to0 much of this seasoning will cause you to say yuck, your mouth to pucker, and you will instantly remove the bread from your mouth. Quick tip: adding too much salt in a formula will kill yeast. We had a problem with salt in our formula for our Hungarian potato bread this week. After careful review I came up with the possible culprits to the salt problem we had.




Student error in scaling - I scaled the wrong amount of salt called for in this formula - 1 1/2 oz.





The formula called for potatoes that we mixed in this formula. However, we didn't taste them prior to putting them in the recipe. They could have been loaded with sodium and so we would have had to adjust the formula.



Chef has used these formulas before so they have been tested and are all kosher with the amounts called for in the formula.

Hungarian Potato Bread:

2 lbs bread flour
11 oz mashed potatoes
1 pt 2 oz water
1 1/2 oz yeast
1/2 oz paprika
1 1/2 oz salt

Next we covered the chocolate bread.

Chocolate Bread:

Pre- ferment

4 oz bread flour
1/2 oz yeast
13 oz water
1/2 oz salt
1# bread flour
4 oz cocoa powder
1/2 oz yeast
12 oz yeast
1/2 oz salt
5 oz chocolate chips
2 oz walnuts
1/2 oz vanilla

Straight mix method

Then we covered a country French bread called Pain de Champage:

Pre- ferment

bread flour 1 lb 4 oz
instant yeast 0.5 oz
water 13 oz
salt 0.5 oz

Dough:

preferment 2 lb 2 oz
bread flour 1 lb 2 oz
dark rye 2 oz
instant yeast 0.5 oz
water 13 oz
salt 0.5 oz
soaked flax seed 3 oz optional
walnuts 8 oz

Ciabatta

30% Pre-fermented flour

Pollish 0.025 oz compressed freash yeast

27 oz bread flour

27 oz water

Mix well and cover ferment at 70 degress for 12 - 16 hours.

Dough:

54.025 oz sponge

0.5 fresh yeast

4 lbs bread flour

2 oz salt

2 oz wheat grem optional

47 oz water

This was the best of the batch in my opinion. Artisan bread is a labor of love very individual to a particular region or baker. I enjoyed making artisan breads because it felt like a reflect of me. It's an art and a science...wow dude so deep.

As a part of my cooking skills development, I volunteer for various non-profits across the country to cook lunches or dinners for them. I can accommodate up to 15 - 20 people and use this as a learning tool to hone my skills as I grow as a cook. I featured the above breads that I baked in class and served it with a simple all vegetarian minestrone soup and fresh salad greens from the Phoenix Farmer's Market for the Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic ( RFB&D). It was a real pleasure to cook for these fine people that give countless hours back to the community.

Next week on the menu: pie dough and sweet dough.