Glutton free

So now that I'm home during the day, I watch Martha Stewart. She's kind of a bitch. But she has guests that make food I want to make. One day she had on Erin McKenna, the owner of Babycakes gluten free bakery, and they made these gluten free chocolate chip cookies.


The fat in the recipe is coconut oil, which to me makes this a healthy cookie. I justify anything to mean healthy, but this might actually be. Erin writes in the book that coconut gets stored in the body as energy, not fat. It just looks like shortening.


It also uses evaporated sugar cane instead of processed sugar. It gives a molasses flavor to the cookie, which is interesting.


Erin was insistent on the show that she only uses a spatula to mix the dough. But the coconut oil stayed in lumps, so I had to use a mixer to break those up.


It's really a good cookie. They're a little pricey, but I need to stop shopping at Kroger. I bought some of the ingredients like the gluten free flour at Kroger, and it was much more expensive than I found at Good Earth today. I'd rather shop at the local stores anyway. "It's part of my advocacy."

Best Week Ever with Mr. Hutchinson

Please don't blame me this time for making you hungry. This makes me hungry. The thought of these delicious pastries makes me want to punch the wall they are so good. I'm mad at myself for eating every single one, that I can't go into the kitchen an grab one. They were so huge, one literally crawled out of the sheet tray while baking.

Cinnamon Rolls!

Sticky Buns!

And an obligatory shot of the cinnamon rolls.

Sorbet

We had made bases for sorbets, one passion fruit syrup and one blackberry syrup. The next week we focused on garnishes while the sorbets churned. My team played with spun sugar. It's a really hot syrup that you throw to make threads of sugar. You can use a mold to make cages like this.


Or, dip almonds in the syrup and make little almond jousting sticks.


It's amazing to see the sorbet churning in the ice cream machine, going from a liquid to a creamy solid.



Chef suggested a black sesame seed brittle that would compliment the passion fruit sorbet. It can be shaped when warm and hardens. It looked like shingles.


We didn't have luck with the original spirals we created, so at the last minute I cut these triangles and put them in the sorbet. But then another group member made spirals and threw those on there, too.


And we had both the jousting almonds and the sugar cages, so my thought was "cage match!"


But Chef thought it was too much. It was a blow to my inner architect. I know it was too much, but in the minutes before presentation, there are 4 opinions being thrown out there. Plus, it's not important. It's ok that Chef doesn't like it. We're learning.

Intro to Baking Midterm Practical Exam

We had to make recipes from earlier in the quarter without asking questions.


Chocolate chip cookies, without the chips. Toffee chips make it just as good.


Lemon meringue pie, this time with an awesome crust made with vodka.


The oatmeal bars, also with toffee chips instead of chocolate chips.

Bavarian Cream

Bavarian cream is a pastry cream thickened with gelatin and then molded and chilled.
For our mold, we've cooked some apples and are placing them in the mold to laminate them in the bavarian cream.


For garnish, my team is making tuile cookies, which can be shaped and taste like a waffle cone.



The tuile was twisted into spirals, then we made a creamy caramel to pour on the plate under the bavarian cream.

I wish Pushing Daisies hadn't been canceled...

Because I love pie.


Apple pie, coconut cream pie, and lemon meringue.


And pecan pie.


The lemon didn't set up enough after baking the meringue, but it was delicious. The crust was a little salty, and really fatty.

Happy Bridal Shower, Little Sister

I threw a bridal shower for my sister, and I only took pictures of the food. One track mind.





I had grand plans for these cupcakes and little bug cakes. But my skills don't pay the bills yet. Which is why I told my sister I couldn't make her wedding cake. She didn't ask, her fiance did. But she's had birthday cakes made by these hands, and knew better.


This is what I wanted to do, an idea I got from http://ovenhaven.wordpress.com/ But my piping isn't that neat yet. It was good practice, though! The Williams Sonoma bugs cake pan showed the cutest decorations on the box, but I think my sister and I did a pretty good job

Racking my brain

I'm having a hard time remembering what happened this week. Here, I think we're making a custard called Creme Anglaise. All custards look the same at this stage.

This is creme brulee, a baked custard. The crust on top is sugar caramelized by FIRE!


And Oefs a la Neige. It's boiled meringue balls floating in the Creme Anglaise I made earlier.


Here's where my memory is really fuzzy. I know that the green stuff is apple... MOUSSE! I remember now. It's green apple mousse, which is really light and fluffy. I thought mousse was a pudding. Then I had to go back to my notes. The white creams are Diplomat and Chiboust, which are pastry creams with whipped cream or meringue folded in them. I thought that chiboust had a richer flavor and texture because it has meringue folded into the pastry cream.

Oatmeal bars, dinner rolls and lemon bars

These are the best cookie bars I've ever had. Ever.

I didn't get a picture of the dinner rolls before they baked, but they are yeast rolls and had to rise, then we shaped them and let them proof before baking.


By the end of class we were rushing to finish the lemon bars. We should have poured the lemon into the crust when it was in the oven. Instead, it spilled all over the place when we walked across the room to put it in the oven. Then, someone had turned our oven off. So we made the decision to put it in an oven that was hotter than necessary.... And the lemon boiled over and gave them a gross texture.


But the oatmeal bars were declared Best in the Class! High fives!


The rolls were good, too.


Putting powdered sugar on top of the lemon bars didn't help, though.

Apple Frangipane, Orange Curd and Pecan tarts

Ok, it's been awhile so I'm going to make these quick.

Here we are prepping for more tarts.

Pecan tarts before baking.

The apples arranged on frangipane, which is an almond filling.

Finished apple frangipane.

We also tried an orange curd tart, with caramelized oranges.

Laminated dough

In order to get those buttery flaky layers in croissants, you have to put them there. You roll butter in to the dough, then fold it and roll it, fold it and roll it again and again. Then you can make danishes or croissants. But you can't take them home.

Before baking.

After baking.

I don't have better pictures of our wonderful danishes with apple filling because I didn't get one. An assembly line was formed, for time's sake, and the entire class' pastries were glazed then put in a box. What I took home was 6 burnt berry filled danishes. I'm not bitter.