Little Lotto

It's So Fluffy I'm Gonna Die

2010-06-28T19:36:00.000-07:00

So, I "graduated" in June, but I decided to go to Taryn & Erik's wedding instead. (Congrats!)

It made me realize how long it's been since I updated.

My last post was just before Christmas, and I promised to show you the gingerbread version of the Pyramids. So here you go. MANY AI students and chefs worked on this giant gingerbread house, which turned out really nice.

For my wonderful Italian family's Christmas party I wanted to make cannoli. But, I forgot to bring the tubes to shape the shells. Instead, my beautiful sister helped me cut and fry hundreds of little circles.

And we made these adorable cannoli sandwiches.

OK, enough Christmas in July. Just before New Years I started working at a French cafe in Carmel. I make a wide variety of pastry and pies. You can see my eclairs, cookies, and cakes in this video.

One of my responsibilities is to make crepes. Lots of crepes. But my first week, my friend Michelle was visiting. She charmed me into teaching her how to make crepes. On my day off.

We had a good time.

By the time the Superbowl came around, I was itching to bake some cookies from my Christmas gift from Tari. These are the Chocolate Sandwiches from Martha Stewart's Cookies.

Thank you for the cookbook, Tari! They were delicious, of course.

Valentine's Day at the restaurant was full of truffles. Mocha, caramel, champagne, and raspberry truffles, which were bought by more staff than customers.

I also made cupcakes for my friend Jennifer's baby shower. These are chocolate cherry cake with fondant decorations and lemon chiffon cake with buttercream icing. And now her baby is four months old! (Hi Opal!)

My biggest accomplishment is my first wedding cake! I was nervous, but I think it turned out great.

Congratulations to Shea and Katelyn!

So that's what I've been up to for the last 6 months. There were so many shout-outs that I should have called this post "Rollin' with the Homies" or something. But the Despicable Me previews have taken over my life. The movie doesn't come out until next week, and my co-workers and I can't stop quoting Agnes. "It's so yummy I'm gonna die!"

I'd also like to congratulate Neal & Amanda on their wedding; Terry & Melinda, and My Dad & Roberta on their upcoming weddings. And welcome my newest cousins Jackson Haro and Makenzie Shaw!

Holla

2009-12-13T19:14:00.000-08:00

I hope one of you is ready to hire a personal pastry chef (PPC). Cuz in one week, I graduate. Then it's hardcore Christmas Cookie Time. Then... I got nothin.'

But I know how to make awesome pizza dough!

And I can cover it in your favorite toppings...

And as your PPC, I won't even let Linda touch it. (She didn't touch my pizza, either. Her hand got slapped!)

Now here are some breads you won't be eating if I worked for you:

Pear Buckwheat bread

Roasted Potato Bread

Roasted Tomato Bread

Harvest Squash Bread

Let's just say that they weren't my slice of bread. I think of the person who wrote the recipe, and then I think about how I would feel if I wrote a recipe that people said was awful, and I can't say anything bad (on the internet).

There were plenty of breads that were great. If you hire a PPC, you'll eat them on a regular basis.

You can't go wrong with Cook's Illustrated, and their Olive Rosemary bread is tender and has a good olive flavor (you're out of luck if you don't like olives).

Fougasse is a traditional bread that is related to focaccia. We shaped and cut it to look like a leaf.

And the Challah was so good it was gone in one night. How many people say out loud "Holla!" when they hear someone else say "Challah"? I say it in my head, so I know half the population says it out loud. Anyway, it's good.

Next week I want to show you the gingerbread version of the Art Institute that I helped with. If you had a PPC, you could have a gingerbread replica of your house. Just saying.

And it's finals week. I doubt lightning will strike twice and the grease trap will need to be replaced, canceling finals. But one can hope.

Tradition

2009-11-23T19:31:00.000-08:00

Don't laugh. I'm never arranging cannoli this way on a plate ever again.

Ok, now that you finished laughing, I'll explain. This is an actual recipe from the Professional Pastry Chef by Bo Friberg. There are three cannoli filled with rice pudding, ricotta cream, and chocolate chip ricotta cream. Chef Friberg cut rectangles for the shells, and I used a circle cookie cutter, my mistake. Oh, and the pool of blood is a cranberry coulis. They actually sold this in the student restaurant.

My second dessert for the restaurant, a key lime tartlet, turned out better. Traditional key lime pies are not cooked; the acid thickens the eggs in the custard. It's totally unhealthy if you have a compromised immune system, so use pasteurized eggs.

I've also made pita pockets.

And bagels.

Bagels are boiled before they are baked. It makes them chewy.

We lost our holes, and allowed the yeast to create too much gas. They weren't bagels by the time we were done with them. But cinnamon and sugar fixes everything.

If you've been to New York, you might have tried bialys. They're similar to bagels with sauteed onion. I didn't like them.

And we made PRETZELS! So soft and chewy and salty... if only it was covered in cinnamon sugar.

In the same night, we made naan (Indian flatbread, not Indiana flatbread as my Hoosier fingers automatically type).

That weekend, I made my "first" specialty cake. The bottom layer is white cake with caramel filling, and the top layer is chocolate truffle. It was for an adorable 5 year old's birthday, and she picked out a My Little Pony for a topper.

The next day, I made my second cake for a family baby shower. Congratulations Kate and Shea!

Can't Hardly Wait

2009-10-25T14:47:00.000-07:00

The Fashion department at the Art Institute held their first annual fashion show, and I helped make the desserts for the event. I baked the spice cake on Wednesday, then Thursday morning started pumpkin praline tarts. After baking all day, we also served the desserts that night.

Then it was bread time. Most of the recipes we use are from Nancy Silverton's Breads from the La Brea Bakery andThe Bread Baker's Apprentice. The recipes are delicious, with detailed instructions and pictures. But there's a lot of down time, waiting for the bread to ferment, then proof after shaping.

We make focaccia with olives, peppers, cheese and herbs for the student run restaurant.

We also learned the traditional baguette made with a sourdough starter. The starter adds flavor and the developed yeast makes the dough rise.

The baguettes were very dark on the bottom and stuck because we didn't put enough cornmeal on the pan. But I've been assured that bread in France can be burnt without a raised eyebrow.

I tried a tiny piece of this jalapeno cheddar bread, because it had a crazy amount of peppers in it.

This looks like a loaf of white bread. Surprise!

It's marbled rye! Layers of a light and dark rye doughs are rolled together to make the swirl pattern, or a bulls eye.

This is a miche after it has been shaped and allowed to rise for the second time. "Miche" refers to the shape of the loaf, which may or may not mean "butt cheek" in French slang.

The loaf is topped with cheese and roasted onions, then baked.

The miche, baked and sliced.

This potato, cheddar and chive bread should have been shaped like a torpedo, with pointed ends. Instead, it looks like a salamander.

Until you cut it open and the cheesy goodness bleeds out. This bread is best when it's warm.

Then we have the life of the party, black pepper cheddar bread.

It's a tender bread with a kick of black pepper.

I also decorated my first fake cake all by myself. I covered styrofoam in colored fondant.

I would have liked to cover the cake in my little gumpaste flowers, but ran out of time. It also needs a topper, like some white doves.

Last Quarter

2009-10-11T18:27:00.000-07:00

I haven't updated in a while, I know. I'm officially one week into my final quarter at the Art Institute. So here's the best of last quarter, and the beginning of this one.

Opera Torte, a traditional French torte with almond cake and coffee buttercream.

Cherry hard candy, which looks simple. You boil sugar to 310 degrees, pull it with your hands until it aerates and gets shimmery, then tell me it's simple.

Honey drops. Same story.

But you can make pretty flowers with boiling sugar. I recommend wearing gloves.

We made a pastillage replica of our building, with air-brushed windows and a royal icing logo. We made a stencil for each color of the logo and spread the icing on.

This is my favorite new candy, the Hot Chocolate. The top layer is a cinnamon marshmallow, then chocolate ganache. Then the marshmallows are dipped and decorated with white chocolate.

We played with isomalt for the last few days of class. It's a sugar alcohol that makes a more durable sculpture than table sugar. And you boil it. Luckily we played with molds to make shapes.

This is a hot-air baloon. Don't laugh.

This quarter is turning out to be much prettier. My final classes are Advanced Patisserie, Artisan Breads, and an Externship. These are gumpaste flowers that will go on a wedding cake.

Rye bread, and lavash crackers. Lavash is served as an appetizer at my family's favorite pizza place in Hammond, Aurelio's. It's just one more delicious recipe I have to make for Christmas dinner.

At home I've been making Cowboy cookies regularly. Weekly. Bakerella posted this oatmeal and M&M cookie recipe this summer, and everytime I make them they dissapear fast. I also made my first ice cream. Thanks Inger and Teresa for the ice cream maker!

Time Flies

2009-08-18T13:08:00.000-07:00

Life has gotten in the way of the blog. Well, life and Bejeweled Blitz. Prepare to be bombarded with 5 weeks of cakes and candy!

First, we finish up the Sacher Torte.

Glazing the cake with apricot simple syrup, and then a layer of ganache.

Creating embellishments with tempered chocolate.

Caraibe Torte, another chocolate sponge cake.

Dobos Torte, a sponge cake with chocolate and caramel.

And now for truffles, bon bons and toffee.

Truffles and bon bons start with flavored ganache, then molded to the shape you want. Ganache can "break" easily, especially milk and white chocolate ganache. I had a lot of broken ganache in two weeks.

A true truffle starts as a blob, then is rolled into a ball and dipped in chocolate.

My first truffles! Lemon ganache.

Ganache may also be piped into little logs, and then dipped.

Blood orange logs.

Poodle curls sprinkled on black currant truffles.

It's a bit easier to make molded chocolate. The ganache is still temperamental, though.

Some chocolate molds have false bottoms to allow the use of trasfer sheets.

The leaves on the far right are lemon-mint bon bons.

Cinnamon bon bons, my favorite.

Passion fruit vanilla bon bons with airbrushed color.

Chocolate peanut butter bon bons.

And now toffee, dipped in chocolate.

Then cashew brittle.

I was feeling discouraged during the chocolate candies weeks. I messed up tempering chocolate and several ganaches, and made a mess of a birthday cake. I had to prove that dropping one career and going back to school for another was worth it. Raspberries and cream cookies did the trick.

Who doesn't like chocolate?

2009-07-18T20:00:00.000-07:00

Summer quarter started this week, and so far so good. In European Cakes and Tortes, we started a Sacher Torte. It's a dense chocolate sponge cake with apricot filling. Here we are folding a meringue into the chocolate.

We froze the cakes and will finish up next week with filling and ganache glaze.

After a guilt-inducing Nutrition class, I went to Centerpieces, Confections and Chocolate where we will make truffles, marshmallows, jellies and decorative sugar. Very nutritious indeed.

Here we have two different kinds of dark chocolate. The top is 100%, which has only cocoa solids and no cocoa butter. The lower tin has 65% cocoa solids and 35% cocoa butter. What I used to know as unsweetened, bittersweet and semi-sweet is now just numbers. And what misnomers. They should be called un-fattened, semi-fat, and a lot of fat.

To use chocolate as a decoration and maintain its texture and physical properties, you have to properly pre-crystalize it. We used the seeding method, where the majority of the chocolate is melted to 47-50℃, then more chocolate is added until the temperature drops to 30℃. This melts the fat crystrals and then introduces seed crystals to teach the melted ones how to form. Very scientific indeed.

We made plaquettes, small square decorative pieces for plated desserts.

We also poured the chocolate onto transfer sheets to get pre-printed designs. The transfer is dyed cocoa butter, so it's edible.

Now for the Gianduja. If you like nutella, you'll like Gianduja. It's layers of hazelnut and dark, milk and white chocolate.

We molded the layers, then poured dark chocolate on both top and bottom, then added texture to the top.

Sliced and diced.

The other groups tried pistachio paste instead of hazelnut, which was also very good.

And even the spoils taste like heaven.

Just one word. Are you listening? Cannoli.

2009-07-05T09:12:00.000-07:00

My uncle wanted me to try making cannoli. (That is the plural. If it's just one, you've got a cannolo.) I'd never eaten them before, but how could I say no?

I bought the Soprano's Family Cookbook, some cannoli tubes and got started. The shell is a little bit of cocoa and cinnamon and flour mixed with white wine. After rolling out with a pasta machine, you shape it with the cannoli tube.

And deep fry it. Yum.

The white wine helps create the bubbly texture of the shell.

The filling is a sweet ricotta cheese cream with chocolate shavings. The shells got soggy after a few hours, but there weren't that many left by then!

I'm glad I tried these sweet little guys. They may have replaced cream puffs as my favorite dessert. Nah, I have room in my heart for both!

Dessert for Grown-ups

2009-06-24T09:17:00.000-07:00

A chocolate cake with a bit of red wine sounds great, doesn't it?

What if it was then soaked in sweetened red wine?

And then glazed with red currant jelly?

And topped with whipped cream and kumquats?

I don't know how to put into words how delicious it turns out.

And the rest of the class is jealous.

To make sure the next dessert is just as awe-inspiring, start with lemon confit.

Pile on doughnuts filled with mascarpone and kumquat filling and coated with citrus sugar. Serve with a cup of coffee rimmed with citrus sugar.

Once again, you have earned the envy of others.

Dank cakes

2009-06-24T08:36:00.000-07:00

Here we have carrot cake with cream cheese icing, which I'll be making again for Iris's first birthday. Minus the nuts. The recipe also calls for pineapple to make a really moist cake. I have to check that she's had pineapple before. I don't want to send this kid into anaphylaxis on her first birthday.

We made chocolate angel food cake. After baking, you have to cool angel food cake upside down to keep it from falling. I hope no one is disgusted by the state of our table. I am, a little.

This is the best angel food cake I've ever had. Usually they're really dry, but this was so soft and moist. I know people hate the word moist, but it's the only adjective that works when describing baked goods. I'm not going to say "That cake was really damp."

We also tried this pumpkin roll with cream cheese icing. I say tried because Chef said that it didn't rise correctly. We actually had to try twice, but neither one worked out. But it was edible. I ate it. Dusty doesn't like cream cheese icing.

Chocolate Orange Cake

2009-06-15T09:34:00.000-07:00

I grew up on Betty Crocker Super Moist cake mix. Making a cake from scratch, it's difficult to achieve the American Dream of soft, melt in your mouth cake. The closest I've tasted was the Surprise cake recipe that uses mayonnaise.

Chiffon cake is definitely not super moist, so you have to brush sugar water on it. Even then, it's still a dry cake. I'll try to keep my disappointment at a minimum.

The law of synergy didn't work for me here. We had delicious orange diplomat cream for filling, and a rich swiss buttercream frosting.

To ice a cake, pipe a bunch of frosting onto the sides and top. Spread out the icing on the top, and then the sides. The top will need to be touched up after you finish the sides.

For garnishment, we cut orange peel into flowers, then candied them.

Then Theresa piped the edge with the "reverse shell" border.

We also spent a little time this week with bubble sugar. Mix a little colored isomalt with plain isomalt, and bake it between two silpats. The air trapped inside the silpats creates hole in the sugar, and a marble effect with the color.

So cute I'm gonna puke

2009-06-15T09:22:00.000-07:00

We made more tarts, and my group decided to lay the fruit out in these lovely flowers. We made a second fruit tart that had a brontosaurus on it, but I didn't take a picture.

We also made an amazing Linzer tart. It's spicy dough filled with raspberry jam. Very good for a cold winter morning. I ate it every breakfast this week... in the dead of summer...

And another frangipane, this time covered with pears instead of apples. The pears were canned, and the juice soaked into the almond filling making it soggy. It didn't matter. Frangipane is not my favorite tart.

Pate a Choux is a cafe downtown

2009-06-11T19:05:00.000-07:00

Eclairs and cream puffs aren't doughnuts! Who knew? They're pate a choux, a pastry dough that is piped out and baked until dry and hollow.

This cream puff (profiterole) is filled with cinnamon pastry cream and drizzled with a flat icing. Which is better? Cinnamon cream puff or cinnamon bun? I can't decide. I know that they are both amazing.

The eclair is filled with vanilla pastry cream and glazed with chocolate.

And this is a paris brest, a pate a choux ring cut in half and filled with almond cream. It should have been baked with sliced almonds on top, but we didn't know.....

The next day we made more of the same, plus swans with chocolate pastry cream and whipped cream.

People who live in biscotti houses shouldn't throw coffee

2009-06-11T18:35:00.000-07:00

I hate biscotti. It's hard and goes with coffee, and I don't drink coffee. But we made it anyway.

Since biscotti are pretty much little bricks, we decided to present them as a log cabin. Chef wasn't amussed.

We also made palmiers, a cookie made by buttering puff pastry, pouring sugar on it, folding and repeating.

When baked, the puff pastry puffs and they look like palm leafs.

And this is a breakfast cake called . . . uhhh . . . potica. Had to go all the way out to the car to "remember" that one!

Potica is a dough rolled with walnut filling, then shoved in a bundt pan. You should probably avoid the bulging growth that this one has, though.

But look at that inner beauty!

Custard Overlap

2009-06-11T18:13:00.000-07:00

There has been some overlap between my Intro to Baking and Intro to Pastry classes lately. It seems like one is the opposite of the other. We made custards at the beginning of Intro to Pastry, but here we are making them at the end of Intro to Baking. I actually thought I had learnt what the difference between baking and pastry was, but no. We are making pastry in my baking class. And you'll see in a future post that we are baking cakes in my pastry class.

Whatever. It all tastes good.

Creme brulee without the brulee.

We also made an awesome banana bread pudding with rum sauce.

And a cheese cake.

Glutton free

2009-05-17T21:50:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-17T20:49:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-17T16:20:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-17T16:13:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-17T15:58:00.000-07:00

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...

2009-05-17T15:49:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-17T15:09:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-17T14:38:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-17T14:17:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-17T14:01:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-17T13:46:00.000-07:00

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.

Tarts Today, Tarts Tomorrow

2009-04-15T18:55:00.000-07:00

Tarts are out of this world.

The first tart is a chocolate caramel barquette (which is French for small ship) with blackberries.

Then we have a lemon curd and cream cheese tartlet with dark chocolate drizzle and mint leaf.

And finally a cheesecake tartlet with blueberries.

Mmmm.... Lifeboat.

Won't Want for Cookies

2009-04-15T18:06:00.000-07:00

I'll spare you the poetry that I could write about the dozens of cookies we made on Monday. Seriously, I can't stop listening to Hzards of Love by the Decemberists. I listen to it on my ipod. I listen to it in my car. And I'm listening to it in my head right now with no auditory device.

So I have dozens and dozens of cookies and brownies. Here we have blondies, which are brownies with no chocolate, sugar cookies, butter cookies, brownies, and the ever popular chocolate chip cookies. There were gingersnaps, but they had a molasses incident.

The blondies have toffee in them, and I think they are my favorite.

The sugar cookies are really hard. And they need icing.

The butter cookies melted a little because the oven was too low (how does that happen?) But they are delicious, with some almonds, a pistachio and a dried cherry.

The brownie is also good, but has nuts. Yuck.

The chocolate chip cookie also has nuts, but they're small enough that I don't mind. And the recipe called for shortening instead of butter. When I asked why, it's because you don't want the butter flavor to overpower what you're making. Plus, shortening is cheaper.
So there you go, the cookie round up. There were 4 dozen chocolate chips, 2 dozen brownies, 2 dozen blondies, 2 dozen sugar, and a dozen butter. 11 dozen cookies divided by 4 members of my group. Ok, thats just over 30 cookies for me. It looks like a lot more than that. But come to our house if you're hungry.

Sourdough 911

2009-04-15T17:36:00.000-07:00

I bought a sourdough starter from King Arthur Flour in December. It came in a little jar that you have to transfer to a big container and feed every week. Which I did, for two weeks then promptly forgot. The instructions have a section called "Resuscitating a neglected starter."
It says a neglected starter will have a liquid on top and smell. Yup, that's my starter.

In order to save it, you drain the liquid, throw everything but a cup of starter away. Then try feeding it again with flour and water. If it's still alive, it will start to bubble after a few hours. I started this around noon.

So I wait. 5 pm, nothing.

11 pm, nothing.

8 am, nothing.

5 pm, It's alive!

So, either I'm a brilliant sourdough paramedic, or I'm growing a totally different yeast now.

Speculaas and Flan

2009-04-11T21:15:00.000-07:00

Speculaas are spicy "biscuits" that you, the layperson, might call Windmill cookies. My group made these in an hour and a half, even though they are supposed to be refrigerated overnight. We ended up with cookies on the soft side, probably because the dough was overworked and gluten formed, or we didn't cook them long enough. I prefer soft cookies, but I know I have to learn the traditional methods before I start experimenting.

On Thursday we made flahn, which is a pastry crust filled with custard. We made one with traditional fruit topping, and another with tropical fruit.

These were taken after my half hour car ride home, but a close up shows how delicious they taste, I mean how beautiful they were. The custard was SO good. I thought I almost curdled it during cooking, but I got it off the stove and into an ice bath just in time. AND the crust turned out perfect. No extra gluten day two.

From now on I'm taking my camera to class with me. I wish I could show you more than just a quarter of the flan. But, there were other students taking pictures, so I won't feel like an idiot when I pull the camera out in the middle of class.

Listen to the teacher

2009-04-06T20:22:00.000-07:00

Tonight was my first Intro to Baking Class. DO NOT measure dry stuff with a wet mixing cup, especially when the professor explains this in the beginning of class. The measure is slightly off, making the batter runnier. Embarrassing. Here's what I brought home:

So class runs kind of like Top Chef, without the old heave-ho the end. We had 5 quick bread recipes to bake between a group of 4, so we split them up. We moved as fast as possible, running for ingredients and pans because there wasn't enough room to keep it all at our table. Then we plated the food, and it was critiqued by the Chef. So cool! And yes, I did measure the flour wrong on one of the muffins, and the needed to be cooked longer. So here's how it all looked!

Lemon poppy seed muffins, blueberry muffins with strudel topping, pumpkin cream cheese bread, cheesy biscuits, and sour cream coffee cake. The critique went well. The lemon muffins were mixed a little too much and air tunneled from the bottom to the top. Also, I found out why some cakes have a meringue mixed in the batter (like the cupcakes we made a couple of weeks ago). It's a technique that allows the batter to rise without using chemical leavening like baking powder and soda. The air whipped into the eggs expands when it gets hot, causing the cake to rise. I'm tired and my body hurts. Good night!

Healthy Treats

2009-04-04T20:38:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite recipes came from one of Dusty's Grandma's friends in a chain mail recipe exchange.

Apple Dumplings

Sauce
2 c sugar
2 c water
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 c butter
1,4 tsp. nutmeg

Pastry
2 c flour
1 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
3/4 c shortening
1/2 c milk

6 apples, peeled and sliced

Combine ingredients for sauce and cook 5 minuts.
Sift flour, salt, & baking powder. Cut in shortening. Add milk all at once and stir until flour is moistened. Divide dough in half. Roll out to cover bottom of 9 x 13 pan. Add apples and sauce. Roll out remaining dough and cover apples.
Bake for 35 minutes at 375.

So you might notice that the recipe called for 6 apples, and I have at least 12. I'm not usually a "go big or go home" kind of person, but I had twice the required apples for several reasons.

1. Some of the apples were small.
2. I had to use them up before they went bad.
3. Dusty likes to steal them before they make it into the pan. I even tried to take a picture of him when he took a pre-baked bite, but he wouldn't let me.

I am glad I had his help to peel and chop the apples while I made the sauce and the pastry.

But from my last post, you all know that I don't keep shortening in the house. My Cook it Right substitutions book says you can substitute butter 1 for 1, so that's what I do. It's really tasty crust. The first few times I made this, I followed the recipe exactly. But the last two, I tried not to put the crust on the bottom. What's the point? It gets soggy. BUT both times the sauce ends up too watery. I think you need the bottom crust. Or less apples. They might be the water culprit. Let me know if you try it.

See all the water at the bottom of the pan? Shouldn't be there. BUT it wasn't nearly the disaster that my Surprise Cake was.

I tried the silicone pans, put them on a baking sheet. Stupid baking sheet warped when it got hot, and made the cakes lopsided. I heard the stupid thing "pop," why didn't I think of it? Then I was too impatient to let the cake cool, so it was a mess after I iced it. I did the same thing for my sister's FunFetti birthday cake a few years ago. I wish I had a picture of that beautiful thing. Thank god class starts Monday!

And now for the healthy "Surprise" ingredient!

I like my cake batter like I like my whisky: Stiff but not dry

2009-03-22T07:23:00.000-07:00

Andrea, Jennifer and Iris came over to have our first cake decorating "class." I want to show you how cute the cupcakes turned out before I tell the tale of the 4 hour cupcake-a-thon.

I bought the Wilton Cake Decorating books, which I'm sure are a great tool if you follow the directions. But the book's recipe for buttercream had no butter in it. Shortening. What kitchen has shortening these days? Or lard? SO we decided to go with the recipe in the Joy of Cooking. And, after much discussion, we decided to make the 4 egg Yellow Cake (because 8 eggs needed for the 8 Yolk Gold Cake was just too much).

I may not have shortening, but I do have cake flour on hand at all times. Weird.
Iris likes Swans Down cake flour over Softasilk. You know, because of the box.

So the recipe instructs you to mix a meringue into the batter. Luckily Andrea knew what a "soft peak" looks like. Beautiful.

Then we used my nifty pancake batter dispenser and filled the cups. I love gadgets.

While the cupcakes were baking, we started on the Better Butter Buttercream. Seriously, why didn't we follow the directions? I'm talking about three women with 6 college degrees between them! We should know better.

The Joy of Cooking Buttercream requires you to make a meringue and a syrup and mix them with 3 sticks of butter. We doubled the recipe, so we used 6 sticks, added to the syrup and meringue 1 tbsp at a time! 48 tbsp of butter...

It had already taken 3 hours to get here. But 70 some cupcakes later, we were ready to roll!

But the icing was melty. It didn't keep the shape of the decorating tip. It was too clumpy to make it out of the leaf decorating tip in one piece. All it was really good for was dots and stars.

Jennifer made some wonderful stars.

And Andrea got good control over the leaf tip, and even got the hang of the shell technique.

I tried the ribbon.

Our first attempt at cake decorating was fun, and luckily I have creative friends that can make anything look cute.

And Iris thought that the cupcakes were delicious, even if the cake was a little dry and the buttercream stuck in the back of her throat.

We're going to try again soon, this time following the rules. I want to have some techniques down before I actually take a class and get graded on this!

99% Organic CCCs

2009-03-03T18:06:00.001-08:00

After years of trying to be a domestic goddess, I've given up. I'm focusing all my effort on baking. (And sewing, but that doesn't contribute to the household.) So I'm taking classes at the Art Institute in baking, candy making, and cake decorating.

This week I decided to try my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe with all organic ingredients. The vanilla isn't organic, but it's made with 100% windpower, so it counts, right?

And they taste better than ever, of course! The recipe is from the cookbook that came with my kitchenaid mixer. And I always use butter instead of margarine. I think it helps keep them soft. Plus a piece of bread in the tupperware.
Not kidding.