Chocolate Mini Tarts

So the week before I made some delicious small choco. tarts and I'm quite proud of how they turned out to be. ^__^

The End of Yeast

Focaccia Bread (foe-kah-shee-ah)

 

I thought I might end the yeast section with a bang. 

Plain Old Pizza



Home

Finally I get to be in the NPC Kitchen. The first day of school felt like coming home. Sure, it was disorienting to get into the rhythm of the bakeshop with new equipment, new people and a new schedule. Still, baking all day and learning… USEFUL …math is my personal heaven.            

 Especially the equipment is difficult to get used to. My thermomixer at home operates totally different, but not in all cases better. The bigger range and better quality of ingredients is also an adjustment. I used Glycerin and Gelatin powder within the first ½ week. The first time, ever, I did too.

The text book… oh the text book. When I think about giving it up at the end of the semester I almost want to cry. All that beautiful, delicious knowledge laying within. Ah!!

 

It’s only been 1 ½ weeks and I’ve learned so much. I have made

White Velvet Cake

Chocolate Cake

Carrot Cake (First time)

Scones (Also a first)

Cookies

Muffins

                                And even Fondant(Definitely a

first)!

Just today I made MACARONSJJJ…    they did not really turn out, at allL!

However, I learned quite a bit, a crazy lot actually. So tomorrow I get to try again. Tonight I’ll pray for the best and then apply my newly acquired knowledge.

Yeast, Yeast, Yeast...

Week 1 (possibly longer) of baking is complete! Our kitchen is categorized into 8 sections; 3 of them being “Yeast Breads.” We all rotate to the next section after 3 days. I began in the first Yeast Breads section so today I am on my fourth out of nine days working with different yeast breads. In other words, I’m ready to make something other than bread. J

Everything here is so much different than at home! We must stay very clean whenever we’re in the kitchen, begin with copying the recipe we’re making into our notebooks, scaling out all of our ingredients, and being VERY aware of things that could go wrong. Such as going into the fridge too often, and sneakily licking the beaters.

(So far I’ve been able to keep this a secret from my mom so don’t tell her what I’m about to say!)

Mrs. Nikkel taught me a simple way to roll buns (dinner rolls) in about 5 minutes, whereas my mom has been struggling to teach me every time she’s whipped up a batch in the past year or so.

You see, it’s a breezy 3 step process:

1.       Start by really squishing the ball of dough you’re working with while rolling it in circles.

2.       Ease up a bit but still press on the dough; keep rolling

3.       By now, your hand should be a cage over the formed ball and just finishing your last round or two. (the seams should be in a neat swirl at the bottom)

This is the most significant technique I’ve learned so far.

            Bye for now,

            ~Monica

"Bob" the Minion Cake - a Baking Level 2 item, but Level 1's can certainly give fondant cakes a shot

Baking and Pecan Pie

Hello,

Baking is so much fun! I love making new things that I’ve never made before. So far I have made chocolate chip cookies, pie shells, tart shells, pecan pie, chocolate pudding, chocolate cake, cake pop mix and cinnamon bun pan glaze. I look forward to baking every morning. I also love to taste test the food! So far I have been in the pies and tarts section, cakes and custards section and now I’m the manager. Being the manager isn’t that bad. The sections go like so: Manager, Muffins, Cookies, Cookies, Yeast, Yeast, Yeast, Pies and Tarts and Cakes and Custard. We rotate sections every three days. I have been through two sections and right now I’m just starting one.

The best thing that ive made is the pecan pie. After I made it I cut it into eight slices and put them on plates. Then I made whipped cream and put some on the slices using a piping bag. Then I put some leaves of mint on the whipped cream. Lastly I put a pecan on each whip cream dollop. After I wrapped it up and put it in the cafeteria. The pie looked so good.

-Shailyn

Cookies

My first week in baking and pastry arts was spent in the cookies station. I really enjoyed this station because I got to make a bunch of different kinds of brownies and cookies. I was quite worried about my desserts not turning out since it was my first week in the bakery but I think most of my desserts turned out pretty good. I think my having taken the culinary class last year really helped me feel a lot more comfortable in the bakeshop because we had to do quite a bit of baking in culinary to, and we learned some of the mixing methods. I think my favourite thing I made at the cookies station were the peanut butter brownies, which were made up of a brownie layer at the bottom then an icing and also chocolate drizzle and peanuts on top. It was a really sweet dessert but it looked and tasted really good. I also made double chocolate cookies and just normal brownies. This first week in class we also spent quite a bit of time of cleaning and sanitation and just learning the basic formulas we'll be using. So far I'm only able to finish one recipe per day but I can see that with some time the process will speed up and I'll get more done in one day.


Peanut Butter Brownies

First Week

The first week in baking was quite interesting because I got used to wearing a bakeshop uniform and working neatly in a certain space as well as using various sorts of methods and tools. I also learned how to work with a scale and a mixer. Through the first two weeks I made chocolate chip cookies, cinnamon bun pan glaze + filling, pie dough, and pizza dough; currently I'm making chocolate tart with chocolate pate sable which I'm hoping turns out well. I like baking class so far because it's a relaxed and fun class. :) Hopefully I'll be more professional at baking at the end of this semester.

~Good luck to everyone

    

first full week done!!!

The first full week of baking has been fun and a bit difficult. I started at cakes and custards, I baked a white velvet cake with a simple butter cream frosting. then I made two different cheese cake one a simple no bake with chocolate chips and it was the best cheese cake I have ever had. the second cheese cake was a bit more difficult, it was a coconut fudge, I had a bit of trouble with the smell of the coconut milk used in the cake but I think it turned out great. from there I moved to manger position and made some mousseline buttercream and Carmel sauce and chocolate frosting. so the first week was confusing trying to find the ingredients and utensils and all the other good stuff!! but going onto week 2 everything is getting easier and more fun everyday we get to learn new techniques and recipes!!!