My parents had been ranting and raving about the white chocolate raspberry cheesecake I had made last Christmas so they wanted me to make it again this year. Its really simple just cream cheese, cream, mascarpone and white chocolate its fairly healthy since there is no sugar just in the mascarpone and white chocolate. First you make a cookie crumb crust using digestive cookies and butter then you let that sit in the fridge to cool, then you beat the cream cheese and cream and mascarpone together. Meanwhile melting the white chocolate using a Bain Marie and then folding it into the cream cheese mixture. After you layer the crust with a handful of raspberries then pour a third of the mixture onto to the raspberry and crust and repeat twice. After you let sit in the fridge/freezer to cool. Its one of my families favourite cheesecake and its very simple to make!

Smore's Cake

The week I was in the tournant station I was able to make a peanut butter smores cake, which I have never made before. It took me three or four days to make this cake because there were so many components to it. Most of the ingredients that the recipe called for I had to also make as well. For example the recipe called for simple vanilla syrup. It also called for a chocolate and peanut butter gianduja, a graham cracker crust, a flourless sponge, a milk chocolate bavarian cream, a milk chocolate mirror glaze, and chocolate cigars. So since we didn’t already have those things made I had to go and make all those things first. Then after that was all done and I had all those things made I then could go and follow the instructions on how to put the cake together. I’ve never made a cake before that had taken that long to make and had so many components. But in the end it was worth it because it tasted really good.  JR

We had our exam last week and MAN was that stressful!!! I'm apparently not bad working under pressure but i was having panic attacks the whole day. I made mixed berry muffins,loaf,rolls and banana chocolate chip loaf. They turned out all pretty great and I got a pretty good mark. I'm looking forward to our pie exam this coming week! I'm alot better at pies then yeast products. I'm so glad its over!

Pies in the morning

So I decided this morning that I was in the mood to bake a pie. So I texted my grandma for her best peach pie. I got my mom to go to the store and get me some peaches. I decided since I'm in the baking program that I was going to try a "Lattice" crrust instead of just a plain one. So I turned up my metal music of course ;P and started by first making the pie crust. I used an old family recipe. Then I put layers of peaches,tapioca and sugar topped it with a lattice crust that my dad helped me with and away it went into the oven. I think it turned out beautiful and I'm pretty proud of it. I made it for my family and my boyfriend. i hope they like it :)

Tart Station

This week I have been in the Tart station. I got to make a banana cream tart and help Jenn wit the cinnamon rolls and pizza buns. It was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed it. Our project as a group is to create/make a gingerbread house that will be displayed for a draw. But then no one felt like creating a design, so I made a cardboard gingerbread house model, so we can make one and give the money to charity. We also had to sanitize everything pretty well, because Pink eye is goin around in school and we dont want to spread the bacteria. Overall this week was enthusiastic and fun, with the sub and the class mates.







http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=banana%20cream%20%20tart%20on%20sheet%20pan&qs=n&form=QBIR&pq=banana%20cream%20tart%20on%20sheet%

exam week

Time is flying by so fast, that next week, is the mid-term exam. This week my job was to help out in the yeast station, plating desserts, but also practicing for the practical exam. For the practical exam I am making a baguette, six soup buns, one bread loaf, and my favorite, chocolate Oreo cream cheese muffin. For the exam I have been studying a lot about the yeast unit, which was our biggest unit. Exam day is today and I am feeling very nervous about it. So many things were going throw my mind like, I wasn’t sure if I would finish all my products on time , and if I did finished how would I garnish them  to make it look nice. Well I got into the classroom and made my four yeast products. First two hours were fine, but when I got to my last products which were cream cheese muffins by the way, time crunching was on. I had my muffins already traded to go into the oven, they had to bake twenty minutes and that left like forever every minute closer to the deadline time. I am overly excited to say, I finish all my four final yeast products on time. By the end of the day it felt so good to have accomplished I would love to do it again.  

Herbed Butter Rosettes

 

 

Production line....

 

 

Blueberry muffin - yum!

 

Tournant

About 2 weeks ago I was tournant in the bake shop which means helping the other students in the bake shop that need help and doing some other things that you get assigned to do. On my first day I helped a girl that was making a peanut butter s’mores cake which looked really pretty. I also helped form loafs that turned out really nice. On Tuesday I made chocolate frosting and scaled out fondant for a cake. I also made bagel dough and formed them; I made 2 different kinds of flavors, cheese and chocolate chips. The next day I made white velvet cake which is a two stage method. When I mixed it together the milk was to cold so the soft butter got cold and really clumpy (which is not how it’s supposed to be).  Once I but the cake in the oven the butter melted and the cake was all normal again. The next week I was the kitchen manager. Being the kitchen manager is one of the hardest stations for me because you are responsible for checking the quotas and making sure stuff gets brought out throughout the day. The next week I was in tarts where I made a chocolate banana tart  and a walnut tart and both of them turned out really pretty.

yeast station

A few weeks ago I was in the yeast raised station which for me has been the hardest so far, but I still enjoyed it. On my first day I made soft roll dough for the first time it was really fun! I formed the dough into soup buns.  During that week I also made cinnamon buns that week, the dough was really hard to roll out, but I had someone to help me so I didn’t have to do it on my own.  On Wednesday I had to make hamburger buns for Thursday which is hamburger day. Making hamburger buns took me a while because I had to make a bunch. I also made loaves which I haven’t ever done before so that was new to me but I had a lot of fun and they turned out really nice…  The next week which was week seven I was in the cookie station. There I made checkerboard cookies. The cookies tasted really good but they didn’t look like a checkerboard. I made a mistake by rolling out the dough to thin. That week I also had to cut up date squares nicely for an event. We also went to the Canadian Grains commission in Winnipeg where I learned a lot of new things and had a lot of fun!  

pies

In my fourth week I was missing for three days so I didn’t do very much. But some things I did do was make blueberry muffin batter and but muffin batter in a muffin tray and bake them. Even though I didn’t do much that week I still enjoyed what I did. In my fifth week I was in the pies and custards section where I learned how to make pies. On my first day I decorated a pecan pie that someone else made which turned out really nice. Then on the second I made a lemon sour cream pie which tasted really great! I also made a pecan pie that week which turned out ok but was different from the ones we usually make because I took the recipe from the text book. I also finished up a chocolate cheese cake that someone else had started and I had to bake it in a conventional oven, which I haven’t ever used before so I learned something new that day. Next week I’m going to be in the yeast raised station which I think is the hardest of all but I’m still looking forward to it.

 

 

tarts

 

HI everybody. I want to share with you a little bit of my third week in baking class since in the second week I was kitchen manager which isn’t fun to be and not fun to talk/write about. So in my third week I was in the tart section which was surprisingly very fun and easy. Some things I learned there are: how to roll out a tart shell, how to make tart dough and how to make a filling for the tart. I made a lemon tart which turned out really well and I made a Linzer tart which has raspberry jam in it and that turned out really well as well. Another thing that I did was garnish the tarts which I really enjoy doing because you get to make them all fancy and cover up the part of the tart that fell apart. I am really excited for the next week when I’m going to be in the quick breads and pastries section, which should be fun. I’m looking forward to writing about my fourth week in the bakeshop.

So I'm in the Baking and Pastry this year last year I was in culinary and was waiting for this program. I enjoy baking a lot more than cooking. I enjoy working with my classmates there a blast and always make my day better. I knew I wanted to do baking as a career and to do it for the rest of my life because whenever I'm having a bad day or my mood isn't the greatest all I have to do is bake something and my mood instantly changes and it makes me really happy. I really enjoy making Cupcakes, loaves, muffins and pies. Being in the baking course it tests my skills and my knowledge and teaches me more about what I love to do :)

Yeast station

Yup, hardest station so far, for sure. In this station I have learned how to bake donuts, cinnamon buns, bagels, hamburger buns, soup buns and croissants. Yeast station takes a lot of time and patience, which I am not that great at, something I can definitely improve in. My favorite part is when you take the cinnamon buns out of the oven and there is a stem of a wonderful smell of fresh baked cinnamon buns. I also learned that croissants are layers of butter and dough, that’s probably why they’re so delicious, the more calories the better the taste. When working with croissants and Danish dough we use this step called Folding, which is a method where you are deflating the dough to get all the air out of the dough, but also folding the dough multiple layers. The yeast station turned out to be really short, because Tuesday we had a field trip to Winnipeg to learn about grains/wheat and Friday was no school. Luck was on my side that week. Even though the week was short, I still learned to bake a lot of different varieties of yeast products.

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.  

The Tournant in the yeast Station!

 

 

The time in the yeast station was great! I enjoyed workingin there especially  with Jenn. I was glad to be in there again to get some more confidence and knowledge of yeast products!  We always have been busy with keeping up the work, but the products still turned out very good. If you are together with a friend times flies by and ist more fun and enjoyable ;). The following week I am the kitchen Manager which will be even more exciting! It is very important to know how to do laundry and dishes, because cleaning is a big  part of baking. Clean as you go so there is no big mess and you dont have to rush when ist time to go into the classroom and learn a lesson!

 

 

 

 



Linzer torte

Peanut butter cheesecake

                                                   
                                            A week in the Cookie Station

My week in the cookie station was quite relaxing and fun. When I try making cookies at home they turn out too crunchy/hard or too soft so they fall apart. In the bakeshop it is a  totally different story.
The recipes are great and easy to make, the products mostly turns out how it supposed to. I also got to do some snicker bars, which didn't turn out that great because the cookie crumb bottom part wasn't divided equally in half so one bar was great and the other way too flat. But you know you learn from experience and from mistakes, and this is what makes it fun and enjoyable. Your friends are there to help you and also our great teacher which is always there for us. The thing I like is that I get to be in a different station every week and get to have a "hands on" practice. The station that I love to be in so far is the yeast station, because I have brought some experience into this station  which makes it easier for me to create those yeast products. I m very excited what I am fount to learn in the coming weeks and in the station I haven't been yet. It will for sure be great and I m looking forward to it!

 

A little known fact that many of my friends and family are aware of is the fact that I love to bake (obviously, otherwise I wouldn't have willingly enrolled myself in a baking program), but I must admit, I'm not the most creative when it comes to icing stuff and garnishing desserts. I love making brownies and cookies and banana bread because there isn't as much pressure to make them look all fancy and pretty afterwards, but when it comes to cupcakes and cakes of sorts, you may have to pull my leg a bit before I agree to making any. Nevertheless, today I decided I needed some practice with my icing skills and made a batch of lemon cupcakes for my family. Once the cupcakes were out of the oven and had cooled I whipped up some homemade lemon-flavoured butter cream icing and began piling some into my piping bag. After looking on Google for some inspiration, I started my journey, and I must admit I'm actually kind of pleased with how some of them turned out. Of course I need quite a bit more practice, but that's why this baking program is so wonderful. I'm getting hands-on experience every day in a bakeshop with a wonderful teacher. I can't wait till level two when we get more into cakes and stuff like that.

 Bagels baking......

 

 Broiche

 

 Brandy Snap Cigars with Chantilly

 

Rolling pie shells...

Pizza pops

 

 

 Cinnamon Buns

 

 

 

Fruit Tart

Yeast products- cinnamon buns

                                                       First week experience in the bakeshop!

The first week in the bakeshop went by fast, with lots of fun and new  things to take on the road.
Most of the time I was doing soup buns/ hamburger buns and also cinnamon buns. It was great to have the opportunity learning about different yeast products and the way that they are made. I had lots to laugh about while doing the cinnamon buns and that is why I wrote a little poem  about it! :

                                                        
                                                                 Cinnamon bun:

                                                Cinnamon bun so yummy and so fun!
                             Once you got the hang of it , you ll get them done very quick!
           Grab some friends and have some fun rolling the dough and laughing in the sun!
                                                   Thats the way you make the bun!
                                             So keep on working and have some fun!

Special Tarts and Pastries

On my first week of attending the baking and pastry arts program I worked in the Special Tarts and Pastries station. I learnt how to make tart dough and fillings using different methods like the creaming method, which gets used a lot. Decorating the desserts was my favorite part. Using the piping bag to make rosettes and adding fruits and mint leaves were my highlights in this station. There is a lot of time and effort put into desserts especially cakes because there are three main different steps. These steps include making the dough, then making the filling and lastly cutting it into slices and decorating. This week I’m in the Quick breads and Cakes station and I’m really excited to bring some of my own recipes into my station.

Bee-Sting Cake

Donauwelle

Bakeshop Catering

Please give at least 48 hours notice for orders.  Keep in mind that some orders are not possible due to size, class schedules, number of students available, etc.

Cookies - $12/dozen

• Chocolate Chip
• Oatmeal Raisin
• Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip
• Double Chocolate Smartie
• Granola Bars

Muffins or Breakfast Slices - $18/dozen

• Zucchini Pecan
• Carrot Raisin
• Chocolate Chip

Brownies - $12/dozen
Nanaimo bar - $12/dozen
Date square - $12/dozen
Cinnamon buns - $15/dozen
White, Whole Wheat or Flax Bread - $2 / loaf

Email your order requests to shelley.nikkel@gvsd.ca

NPC Bakeshop is open...

Students roll out whole wheat dough for cinnamon buns.  What a great group of students we have this semester.  They did a wonderful job their first week in the bakeshop!

Just a few photos of our first semester baking...

 

 

 

Raspberry & Lemon French Macarons

 

Eclairs and Profiteroles

 

Chocolate & Espresso Glazed Sprinkle Donuts

 

Raspberry Canoli with Chocolate Sauce

(Heather Penner)

Coconut Cheesecake with Caramelized Pineapple and Caramel Sauce

 

Pepperoni Pizza