Good Evening!
Last night I came ten minutes late to class. As a result, I had no partner, and instead of grouping me with another pair, Chef had me work alone for the first part of class. While I really do like my classmates and enjoy working with them, this was a rare treat. I should come late every night! What freedom! Unshackled by my anxiety of being bossy and controlling, unfettered by fears of screwing up not only my own product but a partner’s, I began baking. [ Note: doing things by yourself is more time consuming and often more confusing than it is when doing it with a partner.]
I made my own soft bun dough and my own Biga starter (this pre-ferment was a lot thicker and drier than either the sour dough or polish, but it should make for some good Ciabatta next week). Because I was working alone and Chef didn’t want to over load me, I didn’t make hot cross buns. I had never seen, let alone eaten a hot cross bun, but I did offer to play it for Chef on my recorder. I wish I was making that last bit up, but I did tell her that. When she stared at me blankly, instead of letting it go, I continued to explain how we learned to play the recorder in the fourth (?) grade. Then, to my horror, I started singing it…except the only words I know to the song are “hot cross buns” and I was forced to just hum the rest. Thankfully a classmate backed me with her own elementary school story and I was spared further embarrassment.
What hot cross buns actually are, are small sweet buns with a thin dough/paste piped on top in an X (or cross depending on how you hold them). Once they come out of the oven, the whole thing is basted in a light syrup. They looked delicious. I believe they originated in England, which makes them even more endearing.
Because I didn’t make the Hot Cross Buns, Chef gave me the great honor of feeding her sour-dough starter (yes, I’m STILL talking about that sour dough starter/pre-ferment. The hurricane threw everything off, and now we aren’t baking our sourdough until Tuesday). When I feed my own starter, I don’t measure anything. Apparently, we are supposed to use only a pound of starter and add eight ounces high gluten flour and nine ounces water. I only know this because I looked it up in a panic after contemplating messing up Chef’s pre-ferment, and after feeding hers I went right back to my hap-hazard ways with my own pre-ferment. Old habits die hard.
Soft bun dough is different than the other dough we had been making in that it has fat in it- Eggs and oil. For someone such as myself who has only ever made bread with an egg dough, this wasn’t so strange, but classmates were exclaiming over how smooth and springy the dough was. Chef demonstrated how to shape the dough- either into braided loaves (read: Challah) or small rolls that were shaped like garlic knots (read: challah rolls). The dough itself wasn’t quite the same as challah dough (which is more similar to brioche dough) but it was close enough for me to segue into my own experience and rhapsodize about it to both Chef and classmates. Now, I have attempted to make challah many times to various degrees of failure, but this time was different. Normally they come out misshapen and doughy. While I cannot vouch for the taste of my loaves from last night’s class, they looked great- large and round and nicely brown, shiny from the egg wash. A classmate took them home to her mother.
-Sarah, the Recorder Prodigy
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Dead Roses
Good Morning!
We returned to school last night, sour dough starter in hand, ready to make some baguettes (not with the sour dough starter, but with the Poolish pre-ferment from last week- don’t you remember?). Baguette dough is very sticky (there is more liquid in it than in regular old white bread) and this helps makes the inside airy and light with a nice crisp crust. After the dough went into the proof box, we had a salt tasting. Chef laid out four different types of salts (table salt, kosher salt, Flur de Sel and another one that I can’t remember) and the proceeded to claim that she could taste the difference between all of them. The only difference that I could discern was texture- ranging from fine to chunky to flakey. They all tasted salty. Pastry chefs rarely use Kosher salt in baking because of its coarse texture; it doesn’t melt or incorporate as easily as a finer salt, so there is a risk of biting into salty parts of a cake or over kneading/mixing to help incorporate it. Chef then casually mentioned the following anecdote. After seeing Alton Brown (of Food Network fame) use kosher salt while baking, she was intrigued. Did Alton Brown, foodie/Chef extraordinaire know something that she didn’t? She quickly called Alton’s food scientist (who is featured on his show regularly) to ask about this phenomenon. Do you know what Alton Brown’s food scientist said? That Alton doesn’t know any better and doesn’t really care about baking. Absurd! I’m going to need to rethink my Chef heroes (Don’t worry Ina, you’re safe).
Back to class. Once the baguette dough had its first tuck and fold, we began mixing dead dough.
In stark contrast to our precious sour dough starter which we struggle to keep alive and well, feeding it so that it thrives and grows, dead dough is…dead. It has no yeast, or leavener of any sort for that matter. The point of dead dough isn’t to be eaten, it is to be decorative. It resembles (in consistency and taste) play dough. We made two colors- “red” and “yellow”. The red is more of a reddish-purpley-brown, and the yellow is more of a vomit green (beet powder and turmeric were our dyes). Fancy pastry chefs make elaborate bread show pieces with bread, akin to the chocolate and sugar showpieces many of you know from watching Food network challenge. There is also an international bread competition called the The Coupe du Monde de la Boulangerie (the French usually win) where amazing bread sculptures are made. We attempted to make roses.
Chef demonstrated how it was done, then after our first stretch and fold of our baguettes, we started making our own. This is a lot of fun to do. The whole class sits around a table, rolling and pinching dough, chatting and comparing our products. Midway through our roses, we are called by Chef to form our dough into baguettes. As you know by now, bread rises and poufs up when it bakes. There is a risk of the loaf shape changing even after it has been shaped, (especially during oven spring) and so the dough must be slashed. To retain the baguette’s thin, long shape, a series of straight lines must be slashed in at an angle. Using a very sharp razor, you move down the log slashing very quickly (so as to not tear the dough). I slashed my thumb on the last loaf. Thankfully, I spared the bread and quickly ran over to the sink before I could get my blood anywhere. As I was losing copious amount of blood, I was thinking that if could only add it to the dead dough, perhaps we could actually achieve a true red color. Ill attribute this thought to light-headedness induces by blood loss.
A classmate helped bandage me up, and I though I resisted slashing any more bread, I did help load them into the oven, and of course I resumed rose making. One thumb down, making the roses was a bit harder, but I rose to the challenge. Pun not intended.
-Nine Fingered Sarah
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Our Science Project
HI!
Last night was lesson two of ten completely devoted to bread. We made sourdough starter (I will explain soon), poolish starter (ditto) and either walnut, pecan, raisin or olive bread. I was in the Walnut group. Everyone was given the same basic dough and told to add in their ingredient, dispersing it evenly throughout the dough. For any of you who have worked with elastic bread dough before, you know how difficult it is to knead in nuts. It’s like trying to add three pounds of chopped nuts to ten pounds of stiffly chewed gum. They simply won’t incorporate. The more you try, the springier the dough gets, forcing you to double your efforts and put in A LOT of energy into kneading this unwieldy lump of dough. Between the hand beating/whipping from last module and the kneading of large batches of bread from this one, my upper body strength is going to have to triple.
After ten minutes of this, most of the nuts were in the dough and we let it proof before doing the first “tuck and fold”, also known as “punching”- a gentle knead. As the dough rested (and the gluten thankfully relaxed) we went over baker’s percents- I won’t go into detail about this, as it is silly math that I don’t find interesting and don’t see how it will actually be useful in the kitchen. After the first (of three) tuck and folds, we began both of the starters, also known as Pre-ferments.
Sounds gross.
And it is exactly what it sounds like. To add to the flavor and texture of the bread, you make some of the dough days before. For the poolish, you just mix bread flour, water and yeast and let it sit refrigerated at least over night. On Sunday we will mix in the rest of the ingredients and make it into baguettes. For sour dough starter, it’s a bit more complicated. It starts with a mixture of rye flour, water, honey and either grapes or chopped onion. We let it sit out uncovered for an hour to attract the wild yeast spores in the air. Doesn't this sound like science class? Every day, you measure out a pound of the starter (throughout the rest) and feed that pound with more bread flour and water- and don’t refrigerate it (remember, we want it to ferment). The longer you do this, the better tasting the end product. There are bakers who keep portions of the pre-ferment going endlessly. Ours will be baked on Tuesday, giving it a week to mature. We all took home our starters and flour to feed it over the weekend. It felt like we were taking home the class pet for a week.
After the pre-ferments, we did another tuck and fold on our walnut/pecan/raisin/olive bread. Chef showed us how to shape each of the loaves- most of them were standard except for the olive bread. This was made into “Fougasse” or ladder bread. It only rises about an inch and has slits in it reminiscent of ladders. After a final proof, all loaves were loaded into the oven to bake (all but the Fougasse got the steam treatment, naturally).
My job this week was cleaning out the ovens. In module one the job didn’t really exist- things in pans don’t make messes. However, when we bake bread the loaves don’t go into pans (at least not free form ones) and are instead thrown into the oven via pizza peels covered in corn meal. Burnt cornmeal smells bad and makes a mess in the oven (so do raisins and nuts that fall off during baking) and so the ovens need to be swept. The brush used to sweep ovens is very long. The broad head has soft bristles that are never to touch the flour and the handle extends six feet. And because your back is towards your classmates as you sweep the hot ovens (due to time constraints, this happens soon after the bread is taken out and the oven are still about 400 degrees) it is hazardous. I accidentally poked a classmate or two. It is going to be a popular job, second only to dishes.
-Sarah, the oven sweep
Last night was lesson two of ten completely devoted to bread. We made sourdough starter (I will explain soon), poolish starter (ditto) and either walnut, pecan, raisin or olive bread. I was in the Walnut group. Everyone was given the same basic dough and told to add in their ingredient, dispersing it evenly throughout the dough. For any of you who have worked with elastic bread dough before, you know how difficult it is to knead in nuts. It’s like trying to add three pounds of chopped nuts to ten pounds of stiffly chewed gum. They simply won’t incorporate. The more you try, the springier the dough gets, forcing you to double your efforts and put in A LOT of energy into kneading this unwieldy lump of dough. Between the hand beating/whipping from last module and the kneading of large batches of bread from this one, my upper body strength is going to have to triple.
After ten minutes of this, most of the nuts were in the dough and we let it proof before doing the first “tuck and fold”, also known as “punching”- a gentle knead. As the dough rested (and the gluten thankfully relaxed) we went over baker’s percents- I won’t go into detail about this, as it is silly math that I don’t find interesting and don’t see how it will actually be useful in the kitchen. After the first (of three) tuck and folds, we began both of the starters, also known as Pre-ferments.
Sounds gross.
And it is exactly what it sounds like. To add to the flavor and texture of the bread, you make some of the dough days before. For the poolish, you just mix bread flour, water and yeast and let it sit refrigerated at least over night. On Sunday we will mix in the rest of the ingredients and make it into baguettes. For sour dough starter, it’s a bit more complicated. It starts with a mixture of rye flour, water, honey and either grapes or chopped onion. We let it sit out uncovered for an hour to attract the wild yeast spores in the air. Doesn't this sound like science class? Every day, you measure out a pound of the starter (throughout the rest) and feed that pound with more bread flour and water- and don’t refrigerate it (remember, we want it to ferment). The longer you do this, the better tasting the end product. There are bakers who keep portions of the pre-ferment going endlessly. Ours will be baked on Tuesday, giving it a week to mature. We all took home our starters and flour to feed it over the weekend. It felt like we were taking home the class pet for a week.
After the pre-ferments, we did another tuck and fold on our walnut/pecan/raisin/olive bread. Chef showed us how to shape each of the loaves- most of them were standard except for the olive bread. This was made into “Fougasse” or ladder bread. It only rises about an inch and has slits in it reminiscent of ladders. After a final proof, all loaves were loaded into the oven to bake (all but the Fougasse got the steam treatment, naturally).
My job this week was cleaning out the ovens. In module one the job didn’t really exist- things in pans don’t make messes. However, when we bake bread the loaves don’t go into pans (at least not free form ones) and are instead thrown into the oven via pizza peels covered in corn meal. Burnt cornmeal smells bad and makes a mess in the oven (so do raisins and nuts that fall off during baking) and so the ovens need to be swept. The brush used to sweep ovens is very long. The broad head has soft bristles that are never to touch the flour and the handle extends six feet. And because your back is towards your classmates as you sweep the hot ovens (due to time constraints, this happens soon after the bread is taken out and the oven are still about 400 degrees) it is hazardous. I accidentally poked a classmate or two. It is going to be a popular job, second only to dishes.
-Sarah, the oven sweep
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Is that clear to you?
Good Morning!
Last night was the first day of Module 2, and we jumped right in. I walked into the room to find others busy measuring and sifting—fifteen minutes before class started. Not to be left out, New Chef (I’ll start calling her plain old Chef from here on in) asked me to find the bread proofer from another classroom. I had no idea what a bread proofer was and failed at my mission, but at this point (seven minutes before our first class) Chef didn’t know my name, so I didn’t mind.
Chef introduced herself briefly (read: she told us her name) and began making bread. Because bread making is a long process, we needed to begin right away, otherwise we wouldn’t have time for the bread to bake and risked going home empty handed! Once she demo-ed a large batch of country white bread (to be made into 30 or so loaves), and we began our small batch (to be made into 15 or so rolls) and everything went into the proofer, she began to talk. Chef explains things clearly and has no discernible accent. She must be American (though she never told us anything about her background. There is a chance she is Canadian.) Every other sentence she would slip in “Is that clear to you?” or “Do you get that?” but I think that was first day nerves and will become a less frequent phrase.
Chef is more into homework than Old Chef, and has given us work for tonight’s class- one of the things she did tell us about herself is that she is on the homework committee at school (I don’t think it’s actually called the ‘homework committee” but that’s the gist). Five points to the person to read up on and explain baker’s percentages and the maillard reaction to me.
Learning how to bake bread is entirely different than other types of baked goods. With bread making, everything you do is towards the bettering of the gluten. Gluten is king in bread, whereas with most other baked goods you try to avoid gluten at all cost. Gluten is responsible for the chewiness and texture of bread, but wouldn’t it be awful to have a chewy cake? Chewy pie crust?
In bread making, your schedule is determined by the bread. If the bread needs more proof time, give it to the bread. If it is ready to be kneaded, drop everything and do it. If it needs steam, you had better go take care of it or else a disaster of monstrous proportions will occur- namely, weird bread. A word about steam. It is very important to keep your bread dough hydrated throughout this process- dry dough will yield dried out bread. This is true even when the dough goes into the oven. The first stage of the baking of the dough is Oven Spring, where the yeast in the dough is still alive and is still making the dough rise. It is important not to let the crust form at this point, because otherwise there is no room for the bread to expand and weird tumor-like things will grow out of the bread. How can you prevent the outer layer from baking in a 475 degree oven? Steam! Professional deck ovens have steamers that do this, but at home you can put a cup or two of water into the oven along with the bread to keep things moist. About halfway through the baking, once the yeast has died (140 degrees internally) you want to start crust formation and so you stop adding steam. Crust forms, the inside cooks (to around 180 degrees) and the dough has turned into a beautiful, golden brown loaf of bread.
There will be a lot more production in module two then there was in mod one- we made thirty loaves of bread and 75 rolls last night. The first ten lessons are devoted to bread, which is nice, but I get impatient. Breads are slow, and the more time you give them the better. Chef kept contrasting bread dough to pie dough- which is faster. By the end of class it was clear to her that I have a thing for pie, and she directed all pie questions to me. “Bread dough needs to be kept warm. What about pie dough? Why keep it cold?” What do you do to pie dough if it is browning too quickly- add steam?” and so on. I know my pie. Bread? Not so much, but I guess that’s what the next ten lessons are for.
- “I’m in it for the Pie” Baer
Last night was the first day of Module 2, and we jumped right in. I walked into the room to find others busy measuring and sifting—fifteen minutes before class started. Not to be left out, New Chef (I’ll start calling her plain old Chef from here on in) asked me to find the bread proofer from another classroom. I had no idea what a bread proofer was and failed at my mission, but at this point (seven minutes before our first class) Chef didn’t know my name, so I didn’t mind.
Chef introduced herself briefly (read: she told us her name) and began making bread. Because bread making is a long process, we needed to begin right away, otherwise we wouldn’t have time for the bread to bake and risked going home empty handed! Once she demo-ed a large batch of country white bread (to be made into 30 or so loaves), and we began our small batch (to be made into 15 or so rolls) and everything went into the proofer, she began to talk. Chef explains things clearly and has no discernible accent. She must be American (though she never told us anything about her background. There is a chance she is Canadian.) Every other sentence she would slip in “Is that clear to you?” or “Do you get that?” but I think that was first day nerves and will become a less frequent phrase.
Chef is more into homework than Old Chef, and has given us work for tonight’s class- one of the things she did tell us about herself is that she is on the homework committee at school (I don’t think it’s actually called the ‘homework committee” but that’s the gist). Five points to the person to read up on and explain baker’s percentages and the maillard reaction to me.
Learning how to bake bread is entirely different than other types of baked goods. With bread making, everything you do is towards the bettering of the gluten. Gluten is king in bread, whereas with most other baked goods you try to avoid gluten at all cost. Gluten is responsible for the chewiness and texture of bread, but wouldn’t it be awful to have a chewy cake? Chewy pie crust?
In bread making, your schedule is determined by the bread. If the bread needs more proof time, give it to the bread. If it is ready to be kneaded, drop everything and do it. If it needs steam, you had better go take care of it or else a disaster of monstrous proportions will occur- namely, weird bread. A word about steam. It is very important to keep your bread dough hydrated throughout this process- dry dough will yield dried out bread. This is true even when the dough goes into the oven. The first stage of the baking of the dough is Oven Spring, where the yeast in the dough is still alive and is still making the dough rise. It is important not to let the crust form at this point, because otherwise there is no room for the bread to expand and weird tumor-like things will grow out of the bread. How can you prevent the outer layer from baking in a 475 degree oven? Steam! Professional deck ovens have steamers that do this, but at home you can put a cup or two of water into the oven along with the bread to keep things moist. About halfway through the baking, once the yeast has died (140 degrees internally) you want to start crust formation and so you stop adding steam. Crust forms, the inside cooks (to around 180 degrees) and the dough has turned into a beautiful, golden brown loaf of bread.
- “I’m in it for the Pie” Baer
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Mission: Precision
Hi!
Exams are over (for now) and I am a quarter done with my course! Last night went as follows: When we walked in, Chef gave us our schedule. No one wants anyone opening their oven while their soufflé is baking, so we were each given a window of time to use an oven. My soufflé had to be in Chef’s hand at exactly 8:07. The last person to go had to have hers in Chef’s hand at 9:45. I’ll describe this in more detail in a moment.
The first forty minutes of class were devoted to our written exam. It wasn’t too difficult, only one or two tricky questions. After the first ten minutes, though, my hand started to cramp (I was over enthusiastic and wrote very quickly) which worried me, as my hands were going to be invaluable to the practical portion of our exam. Don’t Panic! Perhaps a lesser being would allow this to get to her and ruin the rest of her life, but not me. Like a pro, I shook it off and continued, catastrophe avoided. I finished the exam a little bit early and began to prep for my crème anglaise.
There are not enough induction burners for all sixteen of us (remember, we usually work in groups of two), so we were grouped into Group A and B (Group A people presented their products to Chef first). As the Group A person (me) was prepping for her crème anglaise, the group B person would use the burner to melt the chocolate for her soufflé. Once A finished her crème anglaise (which can sit out for a bit and needs to chill anyway), she would melt her chocolate and prep for her soufflé. Once her B partner was done with her crème anglaise and chocolate melting for soufflé, the A would swap out the burner for a stand mixer and continue on with making her soufflé. All the while, Chef was circling and taking notes on technique and cleanliness. It sounds complicated and seemed like it would never work, but class actually flowed like clockwork. We were courteous to our partners and there was no complaining about anyone hogging burners or outlets. There were seven minutes allotted between every person’s soufflés, and so every seven minutes from 8 until 9:45 Chef was sampling another chocolate soufflé. I was impressed with his eating abilities.
Back to my own harrowing experience. Like I said, my soufflé had to be in front of chef at 8:07. Every part of the process had to be timed precisely, and I made myself a schedule. It had to be pulled out of the oven at 8:06 to be transferred to a plate a dusted with powdered sugar. It had to go into the oven at 7:53, so I had to start beating the egg whites at 7:37…I am not a precise person. I don’t like having to time things to a T. If, for some reason, the egg whites take longer to beat than the five minutes I have allotted, then I am going to beat them until they are just right (ironically, I under-beat them. Nerves.) Anyway, I manage to get my Soufflé and Crème Anglaise to Chef sometime between 8:07 and 8:08. We each made three soufflés and chose the best one to give to Chef (just like they do in cook offs). Chef critiques your product right then and there. My crème anglaise was very nice and smooth (“just like your Chef”) but my soufflé could have benefited from a grain or two more salt. The flavors weren’t “punchy” enough. All in all, not terrible. I also got a point or two deducted from my presentation due to the sides of the ramekin having some shmutz on it (I used dirty tongs when transferring the piping hot ramekin to the plate. Oh well). Once Chef pointed this out, everyone in the class who went after me (nearly everyone) made sure to use clean tongs. You're Welcome Class!
By 8:11 I was done. In the end, the exam was actually a lot of fun. Inst culinary school great? Even the tests are a treat. Module two begins on Monday.
-Sarah Baer, for all your Creme Anglaise needs
Exams are over (for now) and I am a quarter done with my course! Last night went as follows: When we walked in, Chef gave us our schedule. No one wants anyone opening their oven while their soufflé is baking, so we were each given a window of time to use an oven. My soufflé had to be in Chef’s hand at exactly 8:07. The last person to go had to have hers in Chef’s hand at 9:45. I’ll describe this in more detail in a moment.
The first forty minutes of class were devoted to our written exam. It wasn’t too difficult, only one or two tricky questions. After the first ten minutes, though, my hand started to cramp (I was over enthusiastic and wrote very quickly) which worried me, as my hands were going to be invaluable to the practical portion of our exam. Don’t Panic! Perhaps a lesser being would allow this to get to her and ruin the rest of her life, but not me. Like a pro, I shook it off and continued, catastrophe avoided. I finished the exam a little bit early and began to prep for my crème anglaise.
There are not enough induction burners for all sixteen of us (remember, we usually work in groups of two), so we were grouped into Group A and B (Group A people presented their products to Chef first). As the Group A person (me) was prepping for her crème anglaise, the group B person would use the burner to melt the chocolate for her soufflé. Once A finished her crème anglaise (which can sit out for a bit and needs to chill anyway), she would melt her chocolate and prep for her soufflé. Once her B partner was done with her crème anglaise and chocolate melting for soufflé, the A would swap out the burner for a stand mixer and continue on with making her soufflé. All the while, Chef was circling and taking notes on technique and cleanliness. It sounds complicated and seemed like it would never work, but class actually flowed like clockwork. We were courteous to our partners and there was no complaining about anyone hogging burners or outlets. There were seven minutes allotted between every person’s soufflés, and so every seven minutes from 8 until 9:45 Chef was sampling another chocolate soufflé. I was impressed with his eating abilities.
Back to my own harrowing experience. Like I said, my soufflé had to be in front of chef at 8:07. Every part of the process had to be timed precisely, and I made myself a schedule. It had to be pulled out of the oven at 8:06 to be transferred to a plate a dusted with powdered sugar. It had to go into the oven at 7:53, so I had to start beating the egg whites at 7:37…I am not a precise person. I don’t like having to time things to a T. If, for some reason, the egg whites take longer to beat than the five minutes I have allotted, then I am going to beat them until they are just right (ironically, I under-beat them. Nerves.) Anyway, I manage to get my Soufflé and Crème Anglaise to Chef sometime between 8:07 and 8:08. We each made three soufflés and chose the best one to give to Chef (just like they do in cook offs). Chef critiques your product right then and there. My crème anglaise was very nice and smooth (“just like your Chef”) but my soufflé could have benefited from a grain or two more salt. The flavors weren’t “punchy” enough. All in all, not terrible. I also got a point or two deducted from my presentation due to the sides of the ramekin having some shmutz on it (I used dirty tongs when transferring the piping hot ramekin to the plate. Oh well). Once Chef pointed this out, everyone in the class who went after me (nearly everyone) made sure to use clean tongs. You're Welcome Class!
By 8:11 I was done. In the end, the exam was actually a lot of fun. Inst culinary school great? Even the tests are a treat. Module two begins on Monday.
-Sarah Baer, for all your Creme Anglaise needs
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Whining (not Dining)
Hello!
Our Externship Workshop session was last night. An enjoyable four hours spent listening to externship coordinators and experts in the field stress us all out about Trailing, Volunteering, Experience, Resumes, Cover Letters and Pitching. The first two hours were about Trailing.
Trailing is the equivalent of a job interview in the culinary world, only the two experiences are so different that the comparison is laughable. A trail begins as an ordinary interview would, in business clothing and resume in hand. Also on your person should be your uniform, a lock, knives and tools. Arrive fifteen minutes early for what will be a 7 to 12 hour interview process, in which you will be another kitchen hand, doing whatever task the chef asks of you, as well as the standard interview questions. You must spend an entire shift there, straight through until clean up. You must trail at least three different restaurants. You must devote your life to landing this externship.
Who has three entire days to spend in kitchens? Answer: People who have Saturdays or People who don’t have full time jobs. If you recall, I don’t have Sundays off entirely, as I have class on Sunday night (shifts routinely end at midnight). I need to begin my externship within fourteen days of ending class or I get kicked out of the program. This is problem #1.
Problem #2: My totally lack of experience. Most people in the class have no experience, only most are also in the position to get it. To gain experience, you need to volunteer at charity events, or “stage” (pronounced Stodge) which is basically an unpaid internship you don’t get credit for that lasts at least 6 weeks. I could make it to some volunteer events (some means maybe one or two), so maybe it’s not hopeless!
Problem #3: Even if I had all of the time in the world to volunteer, stodge, trail, network and wash my uniform, I don’t have any place where I really want to work. I mean, how many upscale kosher bakeries do you know of in the area? How many four start kosher restaurants are there? Even the “fancy” restaurants aren’t known for their desserts. For one thing, they usually have to be parve, which limits things A LOT. If anyone has any ideas, any desserts you were impressed or excited by in any restaurant or bakery, let me know!
As you could imagine, we left this session stressed out. As of yet, my classmates and I don’t have the skill set to make it in any restaurant or bakery kitchen, and the thought of doing this in just two short months is daunting. No time to dwell on it though, as our exams are tonight. Sorry for the short-ish post, but I have studying to do in my remaining lunch break time!
-Sarah Baer, Extern Extraordinaire
Our Externship Workshop session was last night. An enjoyable four hours spent listening to externship coordinators and experts in the field stress us all out about Trailing, Volunteering, Experience, Resumes, Cover Letters and Pitching. The first two hours were about Trailing.
Trailing is the equivalent of a job interview in the culinary world, only the two experiences are so different that the comparison is laughable. A trail begins as an ordinary interview would, in business clothing and resume in hand. Also on your person should be your uniform, a lock, knives and tools. Arrive fifteen minutes early for what will be a 7 to 12 hour interview process, in which you will be another kitchen hand, doing whatever task the chef asks of you, as well as the standard interview questions. You must spend an entire shift there, straight through until clean up. You must trail at least three different restaurants. You must devote your life to landing this externship.
Who has three entire days to spend in kitchens? Answer: People who have Saturdays or People who don’t have full time jobs. If you recall, I don’t have Sundays off entirely, as I have class on Sunday night (shifts routinely end at midnight). I need to begin my externship within fourteen days of ending class or I get kicked out of the program. This is problem #1.
Problem #2: My totally lack of experience. Most people in the class have no experience, only most are also in the position to get it. To gain experience, you need to volunteer at charity events, or “stage” (pronounced Stodge) which is basically an unpaid internship you don’t get credit for that lasts at least 6 weeks. I could make it to some volunteer events (some means maybe one or two), so maybe it’s not hopeless!
Problem #3: Even if I had all of the time in the world to volunteer, stodge, trail, network and wash my uniform, I don’t have any place where I really want to work. I mean, how many upscale kosher bakeries do you know of in the area? How many four start kosher restaurants are there? Even the “fancy” restaurants aren’t known for their desserts. For one thing, they usually have to be parve, which limits things A LOT. If anyone has any ideas, any desserts you were impressed or excited by in any restaurant or bakery, let me know!
As you could imagine, we left this session stressed out. As of yet, my classmates and I don’t have the skill set to make it in any restaurant or bakery kitchen, and the thought of doing this in just two short months is daunting. No time to dwell on it though, as our exams are tonight. Sorry for the short-ish post, but I have studying to do in my remaining lunch break time!
-Sarah Baer, Extern Extraordinaire
Monday, August 15, 2011
Resume Dismay
G’Morning!
Last night’s class focuses, once again, on Pate Choux. I’m not complaining- cream puffs, éclairs and profiteroles are fun to pipe fill and eat. I’m just a tad disappointed, you see, because I thought we were all going to make a croquembouche. Croquembouche is a tower of small pastry cream filled pate choux stuck together with caramel. A cone of caramel colored wonder. But with all of the other things we had to do in class, we ran out of time. Instead Chef demo-ed making a small version of one, just to let us see how it’s done. Chef, I watch a lot of food TV. I’ve already seen a trained professional make one- I wanted to do it! Granted, now that I know how to make all of the elements and have seen it done from a foot away, it will be easier for me, but the disappointment lingers. And I don’t even like croquembouche (I find that the individual pastries get soggy and break when you try to remove them from the “tree”).
I think Chef believes that I have an unhealthy obsession with croquembouches. I was the only one who watched the entire demo (after all, it is pretty repetitive. You glue one cream puff with sugar to another. Repeat endlessly. It is mesmerizing). I also chatted with him throughout our four hours together about how best to serve it, how to prevent sogginess, possibilities of gluing them with chocolate and not caramel. Chef might right about the obsession.
Now that I have told you what we didn’t make last night, I will take you through what we did bake. Little cream puff shells, profiteroles (larger shells, filled with ice cream and covered in a chocolate sauce- the rich man’s ice cream sandwich), cream puffs (filled with whipped cream/Chantilly cream), more éclairs that we topped with fondant. Fondant is boiled sugar and water, folded onto itself as it cools over and over again, making it white and shiny and hardened. It is just plain sweet, though you can add colors and flavors to it. It is often rolled out and used to decorate cakes due to its pliable and transformable nature. We heated it a bit and thinned it out with simple syrup so that dipping would be easier.
Chef got all of us nervous for our practical by going through the procedure on Tuesday. I’m not sure why, but he can make even the simplest things seem so complicated. He truly has a knack for it. I had obviously gotten some information mixed up- this isn’t entirely my fault. I was fasting when it was announced and so clearly NOT paying attention (though this doesn’t explain why I regularly get details mixed up). Moving on, the day practical and written exam are to be on the same day. Exam fest is on Tuesday and tonight is internship awareness night. We need to bring a culinary resume and a list of well researched possible internship sites. As of 1 pm. I have neither (and my lunch break is quickly slipping away). If I could only do one, should it be a list of sites or a resume?
You should note that while I have a regular resume at hand, I have NO culinary experience to put on a new one …unless I could count soufflé night.
-Sarah Baer, Power Puff Girl (remember them?)
Last night’s class focuses, once again, on Pate Choux. I’m not complaining- cream puffs, éclairs and profiteroles are fun to pipe fill and eat. I’m just a tad disappointed, you see, because I thought we were all going to make a croquembouche. Croquembouche is a tower of small pastry cream filled pate choux stuck together with caramel. A cone of caramel colored wonder. But with all of the other things we had to do in class, we ran out of time. Instead Chef demo-ed making a small version of one, just to let us see how it’s done. Chef, I watch a lot of food TV. I’ve already seen a trained professional make one- I wanted to do it! Granted, now that I know how to make all of the elements and have seen it done from a foot away, it will be easier for me, but the disappointment lingers. And I don’t even like croquembouche (I find that the individual pastries get soggy and break when you try to remove them from the “tree”).
I think Chef believes that I have an unhealthy obsession with croquembouches. I was the only one who watched the entire demo (after all, it is pretty repetitive. You glue one cream puff with sugar to another. Repeat endlessly. It is mesmerizing). I also chatted with him throughout our four hours together about how best to serve it, how to prevent sogginess, possibilities of gluing them with chocolate and not caramel. Chef might right about the obsession.
Now that I have told you what we didn’t make last night, I will take you through what we did bake. Little cream puff shells, profiteroles (larger shells, filled with ice cream and covered in a chocolate sauce- the rich man’s ice cream sandwich), cream puffs (filled with whipped cream/Chantilly cream), more éclairs that we topped with fondant. Fondant is boiled sugar and water, folded onto itself as it cools over and over again, making it white and shiny and hardened. It is just plain sweet, though you can add colors and flavors to it. It is often rolled out and used to decorate cakes due to its pliable and transformable nature. We heated it a bit and thinned it out with simple syrup so that dipping would be easier.
Chef got all of us nervous for our practical by going through the procedure on Tuesday. I’m not sure why, but he can make even the simplest things seem so complicated. He truly has a knack for it. I had obviously gotten some information mixed up- this isn’t entirely my fault. I was fasting when it was announced and so clearly NOT paying attention (though this doesn’t explain why I regularly get details mixed up). Moving on, the day practical and written exam are to be on the same day. Exam fest is on Tuesday and tonight is internship awareness night. We need to bring a culinary resume and a list of well researched possible internship sites. As of 1 pm. I have neither (and my lunch break is quickly slipping away). If I could only do one, should it be a list of sites or a resume?
You should note that while I have a regular resume at hand, I have NO culinary experience to put on a new one …unless I could count soufflé night.
-Sarah Baer, Power Puff Girl (remember them?)
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Flare for the Eclaire
Morning Everyone!
As promised, last night we made Pate Choux. And with the Pate Choux we made pastry cream. And with that Pate Choux and pastry cream we made éclairs and Paris Brests. I will describe these in a bit, first I will describe the process.
If any of you have ever eaten an éclair (and I sincerely hope you all have), then you know that the pastry shell which holds the dough isn’t terribly sweet or flavorful. Pate Choux recipes don’t always call for sugar, and if they do it isn’t much. Admission: I do not like Pate Choux, and I never have. If you cover it up with enough cream its fine, but on its own I find it hard and plain and waxy. It is a very rich dough, made with a lot of eggs and butter and when baked it is sturdy enough to withhold cream (the more the better in my opinion, as the cream is the redeeming part of the éclair/cream puff.
The recipe in our book was off. Each team was instructed to make a large batch of pate choux, which called for 20 eggs (not a typo). First you boil water and butter in a sauce pan. Then add flour and cook it off until you are left with a paste (a panade if you want to get technical). Then, you add eggs one at a time until you come to the correct consistency. The thing is, some groups dough was ready after 16 eggs, others after 18. Word has it that one group used 21!
I was SO good when we were preparing the dough. I let my partner do most of the work, and said nothing when I thought she should be doing things differently (read “correctly”). I think the fasting had a lot to do with my weakened will to boss and take the lead (though this laziness also meant that she still had to do the bulk of the prep work).
The dough is soft and loose. It is place into piping bags and piped out, the éclairs into uniform strips and the Brests into fat circles. One must take care to leave room in between the dough, because as the high heat of the oven (400+) degrees) cooks the dough, the water in the dough steams and they puff into chubby logs and rings. Paris Brests are named after the famed bicycle race from Paris to Brest, Brittany. They are shaped like bicycle wheels (which is to say that are circular) and slit in half, filled with cream, like éclairs.
The pastry cream is a starch bound custard (though some call it stirred) and is very thick when cooled. After making the cream, we chilled it quickly in the blast freezer. Unfortunately, this worked a bit too well and when we tried to use it to fill out pastries it was too thick. To make it more manageable, my teammate and I added Grand Marnier (I might have added a wee bit too much) and then we piped this into the éclairs. The cream we added to the Paris Brests was butter cream mixed with praline- this looked delicious. To decorate the tops, we dipped the éclairs daintily into a chocolate sauce and powdered sugar-ed the tops of the Brests. I don’t know what goes into the chocolate sauce, as it was then that I ran out of class to stuff my face and break my fast. I also missed the different ways one can fill éclairs. 
Chef didn’t notice my absence, but upon my return I asked what I thought was a good question but had previously been answered during my gullet-stuffing seven minute dinner. Don’t worry, I managed to parlay the bad question into something less embarrassing (I hope. It’s best not to dwell on these things).
-"there is no such thing as a bad question unless its already been asked" Baer
As promised, last night we made Pate Choux. And with the Pate Choux we made pastry cream. And with that Pate Choux and pastry cream we made éclairs and Paris Brests. I will describe these in a bit, first I will describe the process.
If any of you have ever eaten an éclair (and I sincerely hope you all have), then you know that the pastry shell which holds the dough isn’t terribly sweet or flavorful. Pate Choux recipes don’t always call for sugar, and if they do it isn’t much. Admission: I do not like Pate Choux, and I never have. If you cover it up with enough cream its fine, but on its own I find it hard and plain and waxy. It is a very rich dough, made with a lot of eggs and butter and when baked it is sturdy enough to withhold cream (the more the better in my opinion, as the cream is the redeeming part of the éclair/cream puff.
The recipe in our book was off. Each team was instructed to make a large batch of pate choux, which called for 20 eggs (not a typo). First you boil water and butter in a sauce pan. Then add flour and cook it off until you are left with a paste (a panade if you want to get technical). Then, you add eggs one at a time until you come to the correct consistency. The thing is, some groups dough was ready after 16 eggs, others after 18. Word has it that one group used 21!
I was SO good when we were preparing the dough. I let my partner do most of the work, and said nothing when I thought she should be doing things differently (read “correctly”). I think the fasting had a lot to do with my weakened will to boss and take the lead (though this laziness also meant that she still had to do the bulk of the prep work).
The dough is soft and loose. It is place into piping bags and piped out, the éclairs into uniform strips and the Brests into fat circles. One must take care to leave room in between the dough, because as the high heat of the oven (400+) degrees) cooks the dough, the water in the dough steams and they puff into chubby logs and rings. Paris Brests are named after the famed bicycle race from Paris to Brest, Brittany. They are shaped like bicycle wheels (which is to say that are circular) and slit in half, filled with cream, like éclairs.
Chef didn’t notice my absence, but upon my return I asked what I thought was a good question but had previously been answered during my gullet-stuffing seven minute dinner. Don’t worry, I managed to parlay the bad question into something less embarrassing (I hope. It’s best not to dwell on these things).
-"there is no such thing as a bad question unless its already been asked" Baer
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
da-Bombe
Good Afternoon All!
Monday night's class began with a review for next week's written exam. What, you didn't know that we were having a written exam in addition to our practical? Me neither, shame on us all. After our review, chef gave us our schedule for next week. Exam on Sunday, Practical exam on Monday and internship meetings with advisers on Tuesday. This schedule is subject to change once I talk to my classmates and find that I have gotten them mixed up. Next week will mark the end of Module One, and I will be a quarter done with the course! On a sadder note, we will be getting a new chef instructor (you wont notice, I'll be calling him/her Chef as well). This last piece of news wont be greeted with such regret by some of my classmates. Chef's instructions have become more and more confusing over the last few classes, and last night's was no exception.
We were making Pate a Bombe, a French mousse-like concoction that is later frozen into a mold. The end result is like an ice cream, but not as hard or cold. It is part of a genre called "Static Frozen Desserts", static because as it is frozen it is not churned, like ice cream. It does not freeze into a solid ice block, however, because of the high sugar content and because of all the air that was beaten into it (remember, mousse is beaten egg whites combined with a base flavoring and beaten whipped cream. That's a lot of air). You line molds first with one flavor, then with another. Un-mold, cut it open and surprise! Two flavors! My partner and I made raspberry liqueur with raspberry mousse flavored bombs. Then, decorate with melted chocolate. Beautiful. Since we had time after un-molding, Chef followed this with a demo of what we would be doing in tonight's class. Pate Choux.
Pate Choux is the base for cream puffs, éclairs and croquembouche. It is a dough that puffs when baked, resulting in an outer crispy shell with an air pocket in the center...perfect for filling with ice cream, pastry cream, caramel... I have made pate choux and pastry cream before, but learned a lot during the demo, none the less. I LOVE making cream puffs, and I will do my best to allow my partner to help me out in tonight's class. This is something that I've noticed; Unless I actively try to control myself, I often take over whatever my partner and I are doing. I wind up doing the majority of the active work and allow my partner to do most of the annoying prep work- this does NOT make for a good partner. Some of you may have baked with me in the past and have noticed this yourselves- I am bossy in the kitchen and distrusting of helping hands. I tend to take over. I need to learn self control, and to this end I will attempt to be very sensitive to allowing for 'teamwork' tonight. I will let you know how it goes tomorrow.
Sorry for the late and short post, but I'm getting hungry and tired (and if we weren't making pate choux tonight I might have just skipped class altogether).
-Bossy Pants Baer
Monday night's class began with a review for next week's written exam. What, you didn't know that we were having a written exam in addition to our practical? Me neither, shame on us all. After our review, chef gave us our schedule for next week. Exam on Sunday, Practical exam on Monday and internship meetings with advisers on Tuesday. This schedule is subject to change once I talk to my classmates and find that I have gotten them mixed up. Next week will mark the end of Module One, and I will be a quarter done with the course! On a sadder note, we will be getting a new chef instructor (you wont notice, I'll be calling him/her Chef as well). This last piece of news wont be greeted with such regret by some of my classmates. Chef's instructions have become more and more confusing over the last few classes, and last night's was no exception.
We were making Pate a Bombe, a French mousse-like concoction that is later frozen into a mold. The end result is like an ice cream, but not as hard or cold. It is part of a genre called "Static Frozen Desserts", static because as it is frozen it is not churned, like ice cream. It does not freeze into a solid ice block, however, because of the high sugar content and because of all the air that was beaten into it (remember, mousse is beaten egg whites combined with a base flavoring and beaten whipped cream. That's a lot of air). You line molds first with one flavor, then with another. Un-mold, cut it open and surprise! Two flavors! My partner and I made raspberry liqueur with raspberry mousse flavored bombs. Then, decorate with melted chocolate. Beautiful. Since we had time after un-molding, Chef followed this with a demo of what we would be doing in tonight's class. Pate Choux.
Pate Choux is the base for cream puffs, éclairs and croquembouche. It is a dough that puffs when baked, resulting in an outer crispy shell with an air pocket in the center...perfect for filling with ice cream, pastry cream, caramel... I have made pate choux and pastry cream before, but learned a lot during the demo, none the less. I LOVE making cream puffs, and I will do my best to allow my partner to help me out in tonight's class. This is something that I've noticed; Unless I actively try to control myself, I often take over whatever my partner and I are doing. I wind up doing the majority of the active work and allow my partner to do most of the annoying prep work- this does NOT make for a good partner. Some of you may have baked with me in the past and have noticed this yourselves- I am bossy in the kitchen and distrusting of helping hands. I tend to take over. I need to learn self control, and to this end I will attempt to be very sensitive to allowing for 'teamwork' tonight. I will let you know how it goes tomorrow.
Sorry for the late and short post, but I'm getting hungry and tired (and if we weren't making pate choux tonight I might have just skipped class altogether).
-Bossy Pants Baer
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Having Souffle and Eating it too!
Before I begin describing last night's class, I must tell you all about Soufflé night at my cousin Wendy's. Since I need to practice for my practical final exam and since soufflés are fun and fancy, I decided (at Wendy's urging) to make flour based chocolate soufflés at her apartment. I had the help and critical taste buds of six others to find out how I was progressing in my culinary skills-particularly in the art of the soufflé, and found last night’s activity very useful-and delicious! My soufflés were not quite A material, but weren’t bad, and now I know what I have to tweak (custard base) and what I am comfortable with (French meringue). Thank you friends! Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.
Continuing in the frozen desserts theme, last night we made sorbet and granita, with tulips to go along with them, acting as cones and sorbet receptacles. We made the granita in groups of four. Granita is kind of like flavored crushed ice. You add water, flavoring and some sugar to a large shallow pan and freeze. After a half hour, you crunch up whatever has frozen into a slush. Re-freeze. Re-crush. You do this four or five times until the whole thing is frozen and crunched up into small icy bits. My team made coffee flavored Granita, which of course was the worst tasting flavor, but it froze better than the pomegranate, chocolate and margarita flavors, so there! We began with the granitas, but as it is a long (albeit simple) process we sampled it last, after it had three hours of freezing and slushing. On to Sorbet.
Though my teammate and I were assigned banana flavored sorbet, we disobeyed. We couldn’t go three days straight making the worst flavors in the class- it’s bad for the moral when no one wants to eat your products. We decided to make grapefruit instead! I worked up the courage and boldly told chef what we decided to do…and he didn’t care. Sure, whatever you like, he said. Triumph! We made our grapefruit sorbet base by mixing grapefruit juice (fresh) with simple syrup for sorbet- water, sugar and sorbet stabilizer or gelatin. Obviously I chose to use sorbet stabilizer, which is basically pectin- you remember Pectin, right? See the Pat De Fruit post if not!
For the citrus flavored sorbet, we also had to add some Swiss meringue (Swiss meringue, not French because it is more stable than French. Not Italian because that takes too long and we were in a rush). This helped add some body to the very watery sorbet base and turned ours from translucent to a pretty pale pink. You churn sorbet the same way you do ice cream- by putting it in that really cool machine!
As some groups base was being churned into sorbet, we made Tulips, which are very thin cookies that are malleable when taken out of the oven and can be used as cones or decoration for plating. Nothing terribly exciting to report about that- I am no better at plating sorbet than I am at ice cream. This sad discovery was made worse by the fact that as we were plating, Chef was coming around with a clipboard grading us-though I’m not sure for what (hopefully for getting along well with others).
And now I will tell you about the best part of class.
Scene: Chef was about half way through churning the class’s Sorbet flavors. He had just finished Orange, so I jumped in there to offer up Grapefruit as the next flavor to be churned. Also around this time, the tulip batters were complete and people were milling about with nothing to do, so Chef decided to give a demo about making the batter into beautiful thin cookies, using stencils and piping bags. Chef had the rapt attention of the class, with the exception of myself. Our sorbet was in the machine with no one to watch it! What to do? Chef said that if it churns too long, it will become rock hard, impossible to extract! So I step up and man the machine myself, testing for doneness and extracting it at precisely the right time. Or, more exactly, a minute or two early due to over eagerness and nerves. Boy, was it fun. As Chef was still busy at the front of the class once our sorbet was done, and the Lemon team wanted to make their base into sorbet, I took the reins again, but even more expertly this time. By the time I had almost completed extracting all of the lemon sorbet, Chef came back and shooed me away. My five (to ten) minutes of fame and glory over, I returned to my mediocre sorbet plating with the knowledge that I need an industrial ice cream maker. Need.
-Sarah, the (self appointed and self imagined) Sorbet Queen
Shout out to Wendy, Naomi, Arielle, Sara, Vive, and Rivky, my Souse Chefs and Soufflé tasters! Also a special thank you to Wendy, who bought the perfect sized ramekins!
Continuing in the frozen desserts theme, last night we made sorbet and granita, with tulips to go along with them, acting as cones and sorbet receptacles. We made the granita in groups of four. Granita is kind of like flavored crushed ice. You add water, flavoring and some sugar to a large shallow pan and freeze. After a half hour, you crunch up whatever has frozen into a slush. Re-freeze. Re-crush. You do this four or five times until the whole thing is frozen and crunched up into small icy bits. My team made coffee flavored Granita, which of course was the worst tasting flavor, but it froze better than the pomegranate, chocolate and margarita flavors, so there! We began with the granitas, but as it is a long (albeit simple) process we sampled it last, after it had three hours of freezing and slushing. On to Sorbet.
Though my teammate and I were assigned banana flavored sorbet, we disobeyed. We couldn’t go three days straight making the worst flavors in the class- it’s bad for the moral when no one wants to eat your products. We decided to make grapefruit instead! I worked up the courage and boldly told chef what we decided to do…and he didn’t care. Sure, whatever you like, he said. Triumph! We made our grapefruit sorbet base by mixing grapefruit juice (fresh) with simple syrup for sorbet- water, sugar and sorbet stabilizer or gelatin. Obviously I chose to use sorbet stabilizer, which is basically pectin- you remember Pectin, right? See the Pat De Fruit post if not!
For the citrus flavored sorbet, we also had to add some Swiss meringue (Swiss meringue, not French because it is more stable than French. Not Italian because that takes too long and we were in a rush). This helped add some body to the very watery sorbet base and turned ours from translucent to a pretty pale pink. You churn sorbet the same way you do ice cream- by putting it in that really cool machine!
As some groups base was being churned into sorbet, we made Tulips, which are very thin cookies that are malleable when taken out of the oven and can be used as cones or decoration for plating. Nothing terribly exciting to report about that- I am no better at plating sorbet than I am at ice cream. This sad discovery was made worse by the fact that as we were plating, Chef was coming around with a clipboard grading us-though I’m not sure for what (hopefully for getting along well with others).
And now I will tell you about the best part of class.
Scene: Chef was about half way through churning the class’s Sorbet flavors. He had just finished Orange, so I jumped in there to offer up Grapefruit as the next flavor to be churned. Also around this time, the tulip batters were complete and people were milling about with nothing to do, so Chef decided to give a demo about making the batter into beautiful thin cookies, using stencils and piping bags. Chef had the rapt attention of the class, with the exception of myself. Our sorbet was in the machine with no one to watch it! What to do? Chef said that if it churns too long, it will become rock hard, impossible to extract! So I step up and man the machine myself, testing for doneness and extracting it at precisely the right time. Or, more exactly, a minute or two early due to over eagerness and nerves. Boy, was it fun. As Chef was still busy at the front of the class once our sorbet was done, and the Lemon team wanted to make their base into sorbet, I took the reins again, but even more expertly this time. By the time I had almost completed extracting all of the lemon sorbet, Chef came back and shooed me away. My five (to ten) minutes of fame and glory over, I returned to my mediocre sorbet plating with the knowledge that I need an industrial ice cream maker. Need.
-Sarah, the (self appointed and self imagined) Sorbet Queen
Shout out to Wendy, Naomi, Arielle, Sara, Vive, and Rivky, my Souse Chefs and Soufflé tasters! Also a special thank you to Wendy, who bought the perfect sized ramekins!
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Ice Cream Mondays
Last night was more relaxed than Sunday night, and the kitchen was cooler. The air wasn’t fixed, but the ovens were off and we were making Ice Cream, so everything was vastly more enjoyable- if your kitchen turned into an ice cream shop you would be feeling pretty good too. We began by making sauces for our ice cream. Each group made a different sauce, which were later circulated so that everyone could use every sauce…but I’m getting ahead of myself. My partner and I made a port wine reduction sauce. I’m not sure how we managed to get the worst flavors two days in a row- Ginger ice cream and Port Wine Sauce? What about caramel, chocolate fudge, strawberry? At least I didn’t have to eat any of it. Next we made Pizzelles (pih-zels). These are basically fancy ice cream cones. Imagine making thin (in this case) hazelnut flavored waffles with pretty floral designs. You have just imagined Pizzelles- congrats!
As we used the special iron press to make the pizzells, chef took each team aside to turn their Crème Anglaise into Ice Cream. He showed us how to use the machine, how to tell when the ice cream was ready, how to taste every batch as it came out…The machine is amazingly fast, it makes the custard into soft serve like ice cream in under ten minutes. They’re just like the machines used on Iron Chef! The weird thing was, Chef didn’t clean the machine between most batches. He went in flavor and color order so that vanilla was first, Ginger was second, cinnamon third, and so on, ending with chocolate and praline flavors. The chocolate team complained about the coffee flavor from the espresso ice cream, but the only one Chef cleaned up after was pistachio. Wise move. Side note- only two people in class liked our Ginger ice cream- and Chef wasn’t one of them. (Not to worry, it was put to good use- more on that later.)
The Pizzelles were a bit unwieldy, hardening before we could mold them into any cool shape. Unless you count flat circles as cool shapes (after four failed attempts, you would). They smelled darn good though, buttery-nutty-sugary waffles, soon to be topped with ice cream and hot fudge sauce. And port wine sauce.
Once all of the ice cream was made, we put them into the blast chiller for about a half hour to harden as Chef gave us a demo on how to plate ice cream if you want to be fancy about it. He swirled and dotted and painted on the plates with all of the different sauces (except the port wine sauce) and made really beautiful designs. He needed some ice cream to use for his demo, and I hastily offered up Ginger- no use in wasting some else’s delicious chocolate ice cream. Then it was our turn.
While Chef made it look easy, plating ice cream is difficult. His Pizzelles were delicate bowls, mine circles. I ended up smashing two scoops of ice cream between two of my flat Pizzelles, and voila! Gourmet Ice cream Sandwich! I drizzled chocolate fudge sauce on top (poor man’s decoration) and sprinkled some chopped nuts. I may be surprisingly bad at plating ice cream, but I’m resourceful in my un-talent. The biggest problem I had with plating was that the ice cream kept melting, ruining any nice design I had on my plate. Ice cream belongs in cones or cups, or maybe in a sandwich. I don’t think it’s meant to be pretentiously plated- leave that for the petit fours.
Once the ice cream was cleaned up, we unmolded our cheesecakes! Chef did the first one-poorly. He ruined a classmate’s cake because he didn’t run his knife along the outer edges of the pan. Rookie mistake Chef! After that we all managed to turn our cakes out beautifully, and I gave my cheesecake to the poor soul whose cake was ruined, so all was well. I simply decorated my mascarpone cheesecake with strawberries. It didn’t melt.
-Sandwiching Sarah
As we used the special iron press to make the pizzells, chef took each team aside to turn their Crème Anglaise into Ice Cream. He showed us how to use the machine, how to tell when the ice cream was ready, how to taste every batch as it came out…The machine is amazingly fast, it makes the custard into soft serve like ice cream in under ten minutes. They’re just like the machines used on Iron Chef! The weird thing was, Chef didn’t clean the machine between most batches. He went in flavor and color order so that vanilla was first, Ginger was second, cinnamon third, and so on, ending with chocolate and praline flavors. The chocolate team complained about the coffee flavor from the espresso ice cream, but the only one Chef cleaned up after was pistachio. Wise move. Side note- only two people in class liked our Ginger ice cream- and Chef wasn’t one of them. (Not to worry, it was put to good use- more on that later.)
The Pizzelles were a bit unwieldy, hardening before we could mold them into any cool shape. Unless you count flat circles as cool shapes (after four failed attempts, you would). They smelled darn good though, buttery-nutty-sugary waffles, soon to be topped with ice cream and hot fudge sauce. And port wine sauce.
Once all of the ice cream was made, we put them into the blast chiller for about a half hour to harden as Chef gave us a demo on how to plate ice cream if you want to be fancy about it. He swirled and dotted and painted on the plates with all of the different sauces (except the port wine sauce) and made really beautiful designs. He needed some ice cream to use for his demo, and I hastily offered up Ginger- no use in wasting some else’s delicious chocolate ice cream. Then it was our turn.
While Chef made it look easy, plating ice cream is difficult. His Pizzelles were delicate bowls, mine circles. I ended up smashing two scoops of ice cream between two of my flat Pizzelles, and voila! Gourmet Ice cream Sandwich! I drizzled chocolate fudge sauce on top (poor man’s decoration) and sprinkled some chopped nuts. I may be surprisingly bad at plating ice cream, but I’m resourceful in my un-talent. The biggest problem I had with plating was that the ice cream kept melting, ruining any nice design I had on my plate. Ice cream belongs in cones or cups, or maybe in a sandwich. I don’t think it’s meant to be pretentiously plated- leave that for the petit fours.
Once the ice cream was cleaned up, we unmolded our cheesecakes! Chef did the first one-poorly. He ruined a classmate’s cake because he didn’t run his knife along the outer edges of the pan. Rookie mistake Chef! After that we all managed to turn our cakes out beautifully, and I gave my cheesecake to the poor soul whose cake was ruined, so all was well. I simply decorated my mascarpone cheesecake with strawberries. It didn’t melt.
-Sandwiching Sarah
Monday, August 1, 2011
The Curdle Hurdle
Last night was exhausting. And draining. And hot. Exhausting because we cooked/baked a lot. Draining because it was somewhat confusing and Chef seemingly spoke in circles when giving us instruction. There was a lot of head scrathcing. Hot BECAUSE THE AIR CONDITIONING BROKE AND WE WERE USING INDUSTRIAL OVENS. At least i wasn’t assigned dish duty. Now that the complaints are aired, I can continue.
We began by making cheesecake. I have made cheesecakes before, but last night I made a mascarpone based cheesecake. Mascarpone is kind of like Italian cream cheese. It has a bit less tang- more of a mild flavor, and is used in such pastries as canolies and tiramisu.
When making cheesecake, it is important to have all of your ingredients at room temperature. This ensures easy incorporation of all ingredients, resulting in a smoother cheesecake. To this end, we prepped our Mise En Place (MEP), meaning we got all of our ingredient out and measures and preprared before beginning to bake. This MEP thing is new to me. I usually grab things as I need them, only to find out half way through a recipe that I’m missing a key ingredient, like butter or eggs, and now need to scramble around to either substitute or procure these ingredients. Setting your MEP beforehand makes baking so much easier and more enjoyable.
Once the MEP was set, we moved on to making our crust, made from Sablee dough. Sablee means sandy in French, and this dough has a sandy and crumbly texture prior to being rolled out and pressed into the cake pans. The dough is made primarily from powdered sugar (“10X” in the biz) and egg yolks.
Once the dough was in the ovens, Chef said that our ingredients still hadn’t come to room temperature, and we should begin our Crème Anglaise. Or Ice cream base. They are the same thing. There are two separate recipes with different measurements, but the same ingredients. This is where chef began making less sense and the room reached eighty degrees. Things were getting hazy. My partner and I were assigned caramel ice cream, but by the time we got our milk and cream infused with vanilla bean, another team had started on their caramel. I guess we weren’t assigned caramel, though I could have sworn.... Anyway, we went with the flow and decided to change things up and make lemon ginger ice cream base instead. Unbeknownst to us, adding lemon to half and half (half whole milk, half cream)would separate the milk- the lemon should be added to just the cream because cream has a higher fat content and is therefore more stable. Our base curdled.
By now, so many people were having problems with their Crème Angalise, that chef told us to ignore it and continue on. I think most of the confusion came because Chef and our recipes often contradict one another. Adding to this, Chef himself will do one thing in the demo, then tell us to do another (probably because what he did takes more skill which we are yet to develop). Let me stop here to say that Crème Angalise is simple. Any pastry Chef knows how to make it. It’s part of the ABCs of pastry. I will have to execute it perfectly for out final exam. I have made it before. But for some reason I couldn’t do it last night. When do you strain the custard? Do you add the hot cream to the yolks or the other way around? Do you wait for it to cool before doing anything? Why is Chef saying NOT to let it cool- didn’t he say we need to have an ice bath at hand? (Around this point we decided to get back to our cheesecake-partially to regain some confidence and partially because our cream cheese was slowly melting. Our cheesecakes were finished, placed into a hot water bath, and baked until just barely set. They have been chilling in the fridge over night, and tonight they will be sliced and devoured). We rallied and finished our Creme Anglaise/Ice cream base, making something that looked respectable by the end, but tonight (or is it tomorrow? Chef wasn’t clear) will be the true test, when it is churned into ice cream and sampled by all. Mostly All.
-Fazed by Creme Anglaise
We began by making cheesecake. I have made cheesecakes before, but last night I made a mascarpone based cheesecake. Mascarpone is kind of like Italian cream cheese. It has a bit less tang- more of a mild flavor, and is used in such pastries as canolies and tiramisu.
When making cheesecake, it is important to have all of your ingredients at room temperature. This ensures easy incorporation of all ingredients, resulting in a smoother cheesecake. To this end, we prepped our Mise En Place (MEP), meaning we got all of our ingredient out and measures and preprared before beginning to bake. This MEP thing is new to me. I usually grab things as I need them, only to find out half way through a recipe that I’m missing a key ingredient, like butter or eggs, and now need to scramble around to either substitute or procure these ingredients. Setting your MEP beforehand makes baking so much easier and more enjoyable.
Once the MEP was set, we moved on to making our crust, made from Sablee dough. Sablee means sandy in French, and this dough has a sandy and crumbly texture prior to being rolled out and pressed into the cake pans. The dough is made primarily from powdered sugar (“10X” in the biz) and egg yolks.
Once the dough was in the ovens, Chef said that our ingredients still hadn’t come to room temperature, and we should begin our Crème Anglaise. Or Ice cream base. They are the same thing. There are two separate recipes with different measurements, but the same ingredients. This is where chef began making less sense and the room reached eighty degrees. Things were getting hazy. My partner and I were assigned caramel ice cream, but by the time we got our milk and cream infused with vanilla bean, another team had started on their caramel. I guess we weren’t assigned caramel, though I could have sworn.... Anyway, we went with the flow and decided to change things up and make lemon ginger ice cream base instead. Unbeknownst to us, adding lemon to half and half (half whole milk, half cream)would separate the milk- the lemon should be added to just the cream because cream has a higher fat content and is therefore more stable. Our base curdled.
By now, so many people were having problems with their Crème Angalise, that chef told us to ignore it and continue on. I think most of the confusion came because Chef and our recipes often contradict one another. Adding to this, Chef himself will do one thing in the demo, then tell us to do another (probably because what he did takes more skill which we are yet to develop). Let me stop here to say that Crème Angalise is simple. Any pastry Chef knows how to make it. It’s part of the ABCs of pastry. I will have to execute it perfectly for out final exam. I have made it before. But for some reason I couldn’t do it last night. When do you strain the custard? Do you add the hot cream to the yolks or the other way around? Do you wait for it to cool before doing anything? Why is Chef saying NOT to let it cool- didn’t he say we need to have an ice bath at hand? (Around this point we decided to get back to our cheesecake-partially to regain some confidence and partially because our cream cheese was slowly melting. Our cheesecakes were finished, placed into a hot water bath, and baked until just barely set. They have been chilling in the fridge over night, and tonight they will be sliced and devoured). We rallied and finished our Creme Anglaise/Ice cream base, making something that looked respectable by the end, but tonight (or is it tomorrow? Chef wasn’t clear) will be the true test, when it is churned into ice cream and sampled by all. Mostly All.
-Fazed by Creme Anglaise
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)