Final Exam

          The final exam finally came. I was worried about it for weeks and scared that I wasn’t going to finish my products. We started the day with heading straight into the bake shop. There was no written part so that made it a lot less stressful. We had to make four products for our exam. I made challah notes for my yeast product and I brushed them with egg wash and sprinkled them with seeds for decorations. The next product I made was eclairs. I filled them with Chantilly, and glazed them with a chocolate donut glaze and a mist of icing sugar to finish it off. Another product I made was a small round tart shell and I filled it with an almond tart filling, served with Chantilly on the side. The last product I made were cookies. I made lemon swirls and added lemon zest for the topping. After we finished everything our teacher Mrs.Nikkle made spots for us to present our desserts. It all had to be plated and presented by 2:30pm. There were judges that came in and tried our food and rated it. A few mistakes I had on my products were baking the cookie a little too long and having a bit too much lemon zest on them. The tart filling slightly went over the side so that was a bit of a mistake as well. Other than that they turned out pretty good and I finished on time. It was a great semester and it was hard to say goodbye to the new friends I made and the bakeshop. It didn’t really feel like school in a way. I will miss baking every day. Now it’s back to sitting in a class room all day.

            



                        

                                             Final exam          

Today I am going to talk about the final exam that I took on Friday, the 27 of January, in 2017.   

           On the final exam day I felt a little nervous but not that nervous as I was during the week when we practiced for the exam. Once Ms. Nikkel said that Jane, Mikayla, and I   could start our exam. I just couldn’t start, it was like I had a stage fright moment. I waited until everyone was in the bakeshop and then I set myself in gear, I kept on telling myself I could do this and I did it. First I made my breaded loaf that is called challah, once it was fermenting I rolled out my tart dough that I made the previous day. The days before the exam I rolled out tart dough so many times and they all didn’t work out so I was really thinking that it wouldn’t work out again.so I was really thinking that it wouldn’t work out again but I did my best, so I was really hoping and praying that it would work out. Once my tart was chilling and my challah was fermenting, then I worked on my pate choux. When I had my pate choux in the mixer I kept a close I eye on it. When that was done mixing I looked for a piping bag and they were all greasy and gross so I first washed it, before I used it. Always if my bus tub was full then I had to do my dishes and I kept on checking on my bread that was still and my tart that was in the oven. I piped my pate choux on a baking sheet and put those in the oven. After that I did some more dishes and after that I made sugar cookies. Half way through my mixing process I realized that I hadn’t changed my recipe this morning and in that moment I was really mad at myself and I also didn’t know what I was supposed to do. I asked Jane what I was supposed to do with the big amount of the cookie dough that I had made. She told me that I wasn’t supposed to tell Ms. Nikkel about it, but I was going to tell Ms. Nikkel on Monday because if I didn’t do it I would feel a little guilt that I didn’t tell her. Do you know what I did? First I chilled the dough and then I cut it in half, one half I used and the other half I left in the cooler. Before I took out my cookie dough I took my challah out of the proofer.  I formed the braided loaf and then I put it in the proofer again to let it proof. Know it was time to make all of my sauces for all my items. First I made Chantilly for my profiteroles then I put my cookies in the oven. Then I made ganache for my tart and to dip my profiteroles in. when I was done with making my items and sauces I put them in the cooler. Wow that was some stressful day that I had but I made it through. After it was all over I was exhausted and sweaty then I really needed a shower. That was some day but God helped me through it. For that I got a really good mark I just couldn’t believe it. Here I thought I was going to fail but instead I did great! 

                     

                                        A week before the final exam                             

The last time I talked about the ventilation that was not working. Now I will tell you how it went.

             The next day guess what happened? I got dressed like I always do and I went into the kitchen to help Mr. O in the morning, when I don’t have any class I always go in the kitchen and help out. Guess what I discovered? I discovered that the ventilation was back and running again. At that moment my hopes and wishes vanished I was so disappointed about that. Later on we came into the bakeshop, and the ovens were back and running just like always. When everybody came into the bakeshop they were all surprised and confused all at the same time, I guess they were also hoping just like I was that we would not have the exam but then Ms. Nikkel told us that the exam was still happening. So the past week we have practiced are four items a lot of times trying to get it right. We have all practiced the items hoping they will all torn out the way that they are supposed to so far they have except for my tart shells I’m really worried about that. I guess I’m going to have to keep practicing, I’m really hoping I will know how to do it soon because we only have a couple days left

         

                                           Last couple of days               

The last couple of days have been slow and long!

         In the cafeteria the ventilation is not working so there has been some long days in the bakeshop. In the kitchen and in the bakeshop we can’t use the ovens because of the ventilation isn’t working so that means if we use the ovens all the smoke and fumes come in to the building and we don’t want that to happen. The last couple of days I have just been working on sauces and helping other people with their work as well. It hasn’t been too busy but that’s okay. What I’m worried about is the final exam in the bakeshop those are always stressful, almost all exams are stressful that’s the reason why I do not like them. If the ventilation does not go on until final exams then we will not have to do the final exam.  I really wish that would happen then we would not be able to do the exam, that would be great! Ms. Nikkel said that the part would come tomorrow so I really hope it takes longer, because I’m really not looking forward to the exam. I wish Ms. Nikkel would cancel the exam then I wouldn’t have to worry about that exam that is coming up.

                     

                     

                                     The nature’s farm trip

Today, I’m going to tell you about our nature’s farm trip that we took a while back.

Well actually it was like 2 months ago in 2016 that we took this trip. We went on that trip with the culinary students and with our baking class as well. We went all the way to Steinbach on a noisy bus. It was not fun listening to Brittany and Susie arguing and teasing each other, on the bus it was terrible. Once we finally got there, I had pictured it differently than it really was, I didn’t think it would be a store. I thought it would a factory with a barn attached. There little store was pretty cool it was really tiny but it was cool. There was this guy I guess he was the owner of the place or something, he talked in this little warm room for about an hour and half it was boring just listening to that guy talk. After his long talk he showed us his factory where his employees ran all the machines where they make, and package there noodles it was pretty cool to see how it all worked. One thing that was very disappointing was that we couldn’t see the chickens because they had this disease from the geese that always fly across the world for winter. I was really disappointed that we couldn’t see the chickens, I was really looking forward to seeing the chickens, which was the whole point on going on the trip.

That was a very boring and disappointing day for me. The only thing that was good from that trip was the pizza and the outing.

EXAMSJ

On Friday we had our baking exam, it was so awesome and so easy, I got asked if I’m nervous and I said nope, not at all. I had prayed the days before the exam and then on the exam day everything was fine, I was so happy on that day. I baked 6 challah nots, almonds with white chocolate chips tart, 6 eclairs, and 6 cookies, my challah nots they turned out so bad I would say, when I shaped them everything was fine but then I put them in the proofer and they wouldn’t rise, I waited, and waited and nothing happened, in my opinion anyways. And then when I baked them it was such a shock instead of being shaped how I wanted them they just came together you could barely see the knotsL. After the exam I came home and then I got a text message well how much did you get and I didn’t even look yet, but then I looked and I was so surprised how much I got, I was so happy even with my forever buns I got a really good mark. When I told that my parents they were so happy what I got and then my dad said maybe you’ll open a bakeshop once. Well I’ll see about that. J

a couple days before the exam I also made these chocolate mousse desserts, they were very delicious.

suzy's oatmeal cookies

suzy's elairs