A couple weeks ago I was in the cookie station, and I would have to say that it’s probably my favourite station. I’ve always really enjoyed baking cookies and baked goods similar to cookies. When I was in this station I didn’t get the chance to actually make cookies because we had enough made already, but I got to make nanaimo bars which is one of my favourites. I also got the chance to make granola bars. I’ve never made either one before so it was a new experience for me. I didn’t think that granola bars would be that simple to make, but with the recipe that I had all you had to do was gather your ingredients and just throw everything in a bowl together and mix. With the nanaimo bars is wasn’t quite that simple because they have three parts to them. So first you have to make the bottom or crust, and then you have to make the filling, then you have to make the chocolate to spread over top of them. Then you can put it together. The steps themselves though like making the bottom, the filling and the chocolate topping I found wasn’t really that hard. It’s just a longer process I guess because there are three steps to these bars. - Jessica

Apple Almond Tarts

  

Tart station

So this week I got to have the pleasure of making tarts. Probably my favorite station so far , my favorite part is when I get to decorate the tarts, there are tons of idea of how you what to garnish you’re dessert. I have made a chocolate tart, almond tart, plum tart, and my favorite , the  coconut tart. That week flew by so fast, that before I knew it I was on my next station, the muffin station. The muffin station isn’t too bad, except if you make 10X the recipe, and mess up all the ingredients. That was a bit of a disaster, I would say. My week task for the following week was cakes, which is amazing I am still a beginner but I think I am doing pretty well. I had the pleasure of making a three layered cream cheese carrot cake. I cut the three cakes in half, with a very sharp knife, and of course had to cut my finger. I guess it runs in my family. Speaking of family, my mom’s birthday is coming up and I was thinking of baking something for her. I want to bake a fresh fruit tart with vanilla pudding and I hope everything turns out just right.  

Tart Station

                                               

                                                            Tart Station

This is my fourth station so far and my favorite as well! Last week I have been the kitchen manager oin the bakeshop and I enjoyed it! My duties included of course washing dishes, doin laundry and checking if ingredients are running low! This week I have the oppurtunity to show off my creativity by decorating the tarts! This week i got to make a coconut almond tart which turned out amazing and a way to show what I ment with the decoration part! The filling is made out of shreeded coconut,coconut milk,corn syrup and sugar. This awesome tart is topped with dark and white chocolate which are feathered into each other to create this fancy design ( as shown on picture). This station is great to show off and use creativity and imagnation. Making a tart lookk appetizing and make customers want to buy it right away. Because the look always counts first!! Great week so far lets see what it still will bring!!

Last year I was in NPC’s culinary class, which I really enjoyed. The reason I chose to take that class is because I like cooking. Then this year they offered a baking coarse and I’ve always liked baking more than cooking so I thought why not take it. The baking consists of two levels and since this is the first year the baking has been offered we are all in level one. In this course there are six different stations which are tarts and pastries, cookies, yeast raised products, quick breads and muffins, pies and custards, and also kitchen manager. Every week we take turns rotating through the different station, so we all get a chance to experience what each station is like. Last week was the first week of class and my job was the kitchen manager. So I was in charge of doing the laundry throughout the day and also making sure the dishes are done when they need to be, also just making sure all the cleaning that we needed to do in the afternoon got done. This week I am on tarts and pastries. So far throughout the week I have made pizza pops, a lemon tart, a chocolate coconut tart, a chocolate tart, and tart dough. -by Jessica

So this week I’m in the yeast breads station and yesterday I got to make cinnamon buns. I have to say making cinnamon buns is more challenging than I thought. There is a lot of work that goes into making them. First you have to make the dough, and then you have to let it proof for a little while. Then while that is proofing if you don’t already have the filling made you have to make it and you might also need to make some pan smear as well. When the dough is done proofing you have to bring it back to your station and roll it out quite thin so it will end up covering the majority of your table. During this time you want to have some pans close by. So then your next step after your done rolling out the dough would be to take the filling you made earlier and spread a thin layer all over. Once you are done that then you have to now roll up the dough which is the tricky part because you want the roll to be nice and tight, so when you cut it later it won’t fall apart on you. When the dough is all rolled up nice and tight you have to cut it into equal sized portions and then when that’s done it’s just baking them. - by Jessica

Cookies

Hi my name is Vera Schulz I attend school at Northlands Parkway Collegiate. This year I chose to take the Baking and Pastry class which is really fun so far. The bake shop has two levels I am doing the first level . The first week of baking I was in the cookie section with another student. We made chocolate chip cookies together which turned out really well. The next day I started making brownies which turned out good but I messed up the icing the first time so I had to redo it. In that week I also made Gluten free P.B cookies. When I started making them I didn’t know what Gluten free was. When I was done measuring I put them in a baking sheet that had buns on them before and buns have flour in them. Then I got tolled that Gluten free means no flour or wheat in the baking. To me making mistakes is part of learning because you learn from them. I am very excited to do more baking and to share my experience with you. Thank you for reading and I hope you learned something because I sure did.

Yeast station

The yeast station is the busiest station that I have been in. Making the dough, proofing it and then baking it is a long process which takes up a lot of time. In this station I used the straight dough method a lot. Straight dough method is when yeast gets mixed with warm water or warm milk and then everything else just gets mixed in. I learnt not to give the yeast direct contact to the salt and that some yeast recipe's have very few ingredients. My favorite part of this station was frying the doughnuts, glazing them with chocolate glaze and adding smarties or sprinkles to the final touch. This week I'm going to learn how to make cookies.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Anna Kran September 15, 2013

Hey people, as some of you might know I been working in the baking pastry class. My first day in class I’ve got to say, was exhausting. Standing five hours straight, always helping someone who needs help, and just never stop working. I’ve never had a real job, but this one sure felt like one. As Tuesday came along things actually started falling into place, baking became less stressful, and I was enjoying coming into class. The first dessert I got to bake was chocolate chip cookies and double chocolate chip cookies with smarties , which were a big hit , because those always had to get restock. On Monday we got this huge textbook with a lot of recipe in the back, and so I decided to take it home for the weekend and try a recipe out. I choose chocolate chip cookies with almonds, quit simple right? Well I wanted to start with something small and cookies sounded like a good idea. After the cookies had baked I let them cool for a few minutes and by the time I got back my family had eaten almost the entire bash. But happily I still got a picture for you all to see.