All Over The Place

In the third month of this semester, time is going by quicker than I expected. I love being here-not necessarily this school- but the class itself. Its funny how I've done things I didn't expect to do and be so comfortable in doing so. I've made so much that its almost crazy. Of course things like cookies and muffins have already been done before but things like bagels, bread, tarts, cakes, and things with French names, those have not been done before. I've become comfortable in the kitchen and comfortable enough to know how to make things that I don't ask for as much help as I did when I first came to join this class. The things that may have annoyed me the most of all were the laminated doughs-Danish, croissant, puff pastry- kneading and kneading until you're numb and your arms are ready to fall off. The outcome is great but the process of it is really tiring. The first time I made bagels they turned out great and beautiful, the second time I made bagels they were wrinkly and we had to use them for bread crisps, and the third time I made bagels they turned out beautiful all over again. I have fun in this class. You always hear the culinary class yelling and banging around, it just seems so stressful and scary. I'm thankful I took bakeshop inside of Culinary. I am to be Dessert Chef for Chef's table next week and haven't figured out what I'm going to make. I'm thinking about it though. As I read this over I realize this post may have been all over this place but nothing around here is always perfectly in order, we always find ways to figure out things anyway. Until next time!

For my first Chefs Table I made Puff Pastry Apple Roses, I was pushing my limits with this because I have never made anything like this before. It was difficult and I didn't do it on my own. Vanessa and Lena helped me, I would not have had enough time if they didn't help. To make the roses I cut the puff pastry into even rectangles, about 2'' by 10''. Then I spread whipped cream cheese with added sugar on the rectangle sprinkled with cinnamon, I put 4-5 apple (that were thinly sliced and microwaved in a bowl with water and lemon) on the puff pastry, folded the pastry in half and rolled them to look like a rose. The first few looked bad but with some practice we got the hang of it. When I baked them I wrapped tin foil on top of the pan so the apples wouldn't burn but with the one pan the tin foil fell off so those were nice and crunchy. I preferred the overbakes ones because the others were too soft, but everyone loved them. I was afraid I wasn't going to have enough, I think I made 32 or 34, there were 4 leftover, and I took them home. I enjoyed making them despite the time crunch, the roses were stressful, I was very proud to be the first Chef to make something like this.

I have enjoyed some of the things I have been able to make since we first started with The Baking & Pastry Arts course. One of which was the Watermelon Macarons. I made these Macarons using a different technique to smoothen them before I let them rest which I thought was a very good new way of getting them smooth. While making them, I coloured them all a light pink and sprinkled them with black sesame seeds to look like watermelon, and coloured the filling green, and added a watermelon flavouring. I had a lot  fun making these because I have never made any macarons not only taste like fruit, but also like it.

Another thing that I really enjoyed making was a Peanut Butter Cheesecake. I really like the way it turned out once it was portioned and decorated. I choose to drizzle it with chocolate glaze because I feel like peanut butter and chocolate fit really well together. I actually enjoyed making this cheesecake so much I decided to make another one at home, and also decided to play around with the flavour and made a second one at home but used Nutella instead of the Peanut Butter, and it was excellent. I put the Cheesecake into the freezer before we ate it so to let it chill a little bit more, and forgot about it. Once I took it out it was almost fully frozen and looked kind of like ice cream and my whole family loved it because it was cheesecake that had the texture of ice cream, but the flavour of Nutella. I really enjoyed making all these cheesecakes and would like to make it again soon.

I have been baking in the Bakeshop for around 2 months now, it has been very great! I have made several things, like pies, baguettes, and lots and lots of yeast products! One of my favourite thing is probably making baguettes and cinnamon buns, because I love working with yeast products, and shaping bread and decorating. You learn lots of things in baking class! Before baking class I always needed help with some of the yeast products, but then after I knew that you need warm milk and warm water to help it form together, I also know how to bake yeast products by myself! but when I started baking in the bakeshop I learned many new things, and after that I wanted to bake at home every day and try out different things, but it doesn't work every day because its so busy and usually when we get out of the bakeshop we are all tired and ready to go home. I also made laminated dough, which is dough for croissants, Danish and puff pastry. I already made those doughs, my croissants didn't turn out as well as my Danish, my croissants were kind of dark and they were kind of elastic, but my Danish had a nice filling inside and a really soft feeling and taste from the outside brushed with a hot apricot glaze on it.

Cinnamon Buns

Cinnamon buns 

I made cinnamon buns with cream pan sauce. It was my first time. I used whole wheat and that made my cinnamon buns dense (heavy). I had to roll out the dough into rectangle.It was a little bit hard to roll out. It was thick on one side and I had to make it thinner. My classmate Jada helped me roll up the dough. It is hard to start. I baked it with the cream sauce on the bottom. Mrs. Nikkel helped flip the pan after they cooled. Now all the sticky sauce was on top. I shared with the class. They were delicious.  

Cookies and Brownies

So far I am enjoying bakeshop. I have made cookies and brownies. The cookies and brownies turned
out well.
I am looking forward to trying the different stations and learning to bake many different things,
I like that we can sample the foods we make. The chocolate pudding tasted amazing,
We watched as Mrs. Nikkel showed us how to brown the top of crème brulee. I liked the browned sugar but not the custard.

I am enjoying the Baking class, because you experience different things and get to bake. I baked a raisin pie on Monday and made soup buns on Wednesday and started making Bagels, it is fun, but I always have to make sure the dough is not clumpy, because I need a smooth dough. When I made the raisin pie, the dough was really fine and crack able, so I had to be careful that the pie shell doesn't brake, but the pie turned out good. Once I tries out a Lemon Meringue Pie at home, but the filling was really flowy, but then I found out what my mistake was. I enjoy baking at home and trying out more complicated things, because the more things you try out the better you get. Once we baked cookies at home and then it smelled like something was burnt, and I was right, the bottom of the cake was black, and the inside raw. That was so weird, then we made cookies and they also were in the same situation, so then we didn't bake for a while, but we found out that our oven was broken a bit, but thankfully Sawatzky's Appliances fixed our oven😄. I always work in the kitchen at home and help my mom making cakes. If I am bored and don't know what to do then I go and start baking. My mom is also a great Baker, if she makes something, it goes away very fast, because it tastes good. Usually when I bake something it turns out good, but it doesn't go away that fast(probably because I made it). I am hoping to get better in the future and know more baking methods.