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.