Bakeshop

I have been very busy in the bakeshop lately. I am currently in the yeast station which is my favourite station. I love bread and making bread is so much fun. I love seeing how big the dough gets after we proof or ferment it. I am going to make challah today. I have already made the dough. I just need to roll it out and braid it. Yesterday we made hamburger buns. Boy, are those a lot of work. It went by quite quickly and our dough wasn’t as sticky as the other time we made them. It is a lot of fun pressing done the buns after they have been proofed. They also made a funny sound as the air comes out of them. We still need to cut them and send them off to the cafeteria for burger day. A few days ago I made macarons. I was so excited. I really wanted to make them and I realized that they aren’t that hard to make. I thought that it was going to be this long complicated process with a lot of steps. They turned out ok. I did leave them out over night so they crusted over too much.    

Macarons!!!

Cinnamon buns

Suzie's Angeldfood

Suzie's Angelfood Cake with Chantilly

Annie's Challah

Annie's Challah

First Couple of Days

                           First couple of days in the bakeshop    

                   The first couple of days has been very new and exciting!

 when we first came in to the bakeshop we had to try to get used to the surroundings. in the first couple of days I was in the yeast station and still am. I have been baking all sorts of good stuff like soup buns, bagels, cinnamon buns and also pretzels.  this is going to be an interesting and fun learning experience. the teacher and the students are great. I'm hoping to learn lots of cool and exciting things this semester.

sour cream lemon pie

Today I finished making sour cream lemon pie and it turned out great. I added sour cream to the filling. i whipped the whipping cream firm and added icing

First Week

          In the classroom we have been covering some basics in food safety and have begun our firsts blogs. In the bake shop I have made three items thus far. Apple Crisp was the first; I mixed the doughy batter for too long, though it seemed to only affect the texture and not the overall flavor. Chocolate Sauce was the second; no major mistakes were made, though I was quite surprised with how much the whipping cream expanded when it was simmered. I really liked how well it turned out, the steps were few, and there were only three ingredients. Cake Pops was the third, I did not make the cake pops just melted the white chocolate and added the sprinkles. The way I was told to melt the chocolate though was quite interesting, I had to place the chocolate in a metal bowl and place it over a pot of hot water. I have melted chocolate by pouring or adding a hot substance with the chocolate, or just putting the chocolate in the microwave, so it was interesting to learn yet another way.

          Getting use to a new kitchen always takes me a while, the bake shop is no different. Though it is very organized and while I like to think I know where most of everything is I still have to be told or reminded.

          The people in this class are all very kind and helpful and complementary as well as our teacher/chef. I do hope I can mirror their kindness.

          The bake shop is a nice place to work in. Everything is neat and tidy, the windows let in a great deal of natural light which I glad for.

          While I tend to be tired from the work we do in the mornings I am sure I will get used to it soon enough. This semester is looking to be a good one.

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. 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 writing into our notebooks, and scaling out all of our ingredients. The good thing in baking & pastry  is that you have to clean up after yourselves, that I actually had to get used to. First week is over and I have already learned so much I already made soup buns, breakfast buns, Bagels, Soft roll dough (mini loafs), Amish style Pretzel, pizza dough, and helped making cinnamon buns. It is so fun baking if you understand what you have to bake and if it turns out well. Something that I learned already is how to roll the dough so if you put it in the proofer that they rise all in the same time. At home we never rolled the dough like I do now, its way easier and faster too. When I took this baking course my mom was so worried that I would get fat, and it’s not true at all since we don’t eat everything we bake we freeze it or it comes to the cafeteria right a way. This baking course is a million times better than sitting in a classroom and learn about the 19^th centuries, or learning English. If you don’t like those courses you have you must take baking & Pastry its easy, awesome and fun. At first I was so nervous taking this course because this school was brand new for me, and I didn’t have any friends, but you make friends very quickly.