Post?

Almost... I posted something in my other baking blog.

I've got to settle on which one I want to use and stick with it. I barely post as it is, do I really need two?

More is better... greed is good.

Mmmmm... Cobbler!

So last week, I was making marshmallows for Easter, and I used these crappy eggs that would not whip. I kept trying with new eggs (after thoroughly cleaning and drying both the bowl and whisk) to no avail. Finally, I grabbed some old eggs and they whipped up fine. But, by that point, the marshmallow had set to the point I couldn't fold in the whipped egg whites.

I threw out the lot and pouted.

I didn't feel like starting over... more aptly, going to the store, buying more freakin' eggs, coming home and starting over. So, I looked around and saw some blueberries that I'd bought.

Faster than you can say "anti-oxidants" I'd baked my first blueberry cobbler. I'd made a lot of interesting stuff in culinary school, but no cobblers.

Behold, my cobbler! Feel free to drool (it was delicious!)

"Take a bite out of this, bitch!"

Tonight, I will finish up my externship! Yep, at 4:00am I will cross over the magic 240 hour mark. Let the churchbells ring and the cupcakes roar!

Martha Kostyra

September 16th, 1914 - November 16th, 2007

Martha Stewart’s mom passed away on Friday. Lord knows, I love me some Martha—her mom was a real kick. At 93, she was still driving and still vibrant. How wonderful is that? That’s the way I want to go: a long, happy, healthy life and then—way past my 80’s—slip off into the night.

God Speed, Big Martha!

Holidays on Ice!

Okay, so it’s been a while since I’ve updated… try over a year. Well, it was an eventful year. But I’m back, with a whole new groove.

So, this is what I’m thinking: I really can’t write about work, because I know I’ll say something I shouldn’t, get in trouble, and get fired. I’m working at a bakery for my externship and I need the gig to get my degree. So, dishing on the industry is out.

However, since the holidays are approaching and I intend to bake for gifts and certain occasions, I’ll discuss my results, ideas, etc. as I go. We’re very fluid here at Baking as Fast as I Can…

I got my first orders for Mimis* for Christmas. I’ve worked out a production schedule for Christmas, so we’ll see if I can keep up. I really, really want to get a guitar lever slicer—but they go for about $2K. Maybe if I make enough this Christmas I can use my profits for that? HA! Like I’d make half that…

I’m also going to make mustard this year. It’s a hot & sour recipe that’s really freakin’ good. It’s a great gift idea. It takes a little work, but it’s SO freakin’ worth it.

I have a good bit of Limoncello made and I know some people that want to purchase that, so I’m probably not going to give that away to anyone this year. No one ever says “Hey, I tried your Limoncello—it was delicious!” I think it’s sitting forgotten in their freezers.

However, I’m really excited about a new “product,” which I have not named yet. I take my homemade (hard) pretzel rods, dip them in caramel, roll them in nuts, and dip that in chocolate. No wholly original, but I make everything from scratch, which should be a nice touch. Any ideas on a name? If I love it, I’ll give you naming credit—and an order of the pretzel-caramel-nutty-chocolaty-thingies.**

I’ve got some other ideas bouncing around, I’ll let you know about that as things get more solid.

With Thanksgiving coming up, I am in charge of the dessert at my family’s Thanksgiving celebration. I’m going traditional with the pumpkin pie, probably a pecan as well. Definitely mimis and the PCNC-thingies as a test run. I made a really nice Pumpkin Spice Cheesecake last year (with a bourbon whipped topping)—f’ing fantastic. I’ll find the recipe and post it. I think it was on Food Network… no, it was on America’s Test Kitchen. If you can find it, use it—it’s worth it.




*pronounced mee-meez—my homemade marshmallows. Delicious.

**don’t even think of using that name, it sucks.

Busy Week

I have a HUGE final coming up this week (small batch of croissant dough and I need to get 12 croissants with NO leftover dough), a Basque Cake and braided white bread--along with baking recipes for class each night--I am creating timelines for each night so I know what I need to be doing at any given moment in class.

Not that I have posted much in the last few weeks, but there probably won't be any posts this week. In the meantime... here are a few pictures from our school tour of Copia this weekend:


The Goddess Copia:

One of the hundreds of sunflowers in the garden:

Julia Child's Pots and Pans (and wall rack built by her husband Paul):

Tomatoes from Copia's Garden:

Wine Tasting (the Merlot won):

Morning Treats

I realized that I did not post my pictures of my croissants and danishes (Bear Claws, Pastry Stars and Butterhorns), so here they are! (They tasted delicious).

Mmmmm... croissants!

Don't say nuthin' bad 'bout my Danishes

I made focaccia bread today for the very first time... I nearly burned down the kitchen. Oh, Martha Stewart, why do you vex me so? (There's a ton of olive oil in the recipe and it 'boiled over' in the pan and onto the coils.) I was so tired that I started to cut it up before I even thought to take a picture. It turned out pretty well--I took most of it to my mom (she LOVES focaccia)--and the rest was lunch and dinner (very filling).

Hello, Again

Okay, it’s been way too long for me to not write something—and much has happened.

First, Baking 101 is over! There have been an additional 17 sessions since my last entry.

Here’s what we’ve made in Baking 101:

Pastry Cream (a basic in any bakery—and mine is pretty awesome, if I do say so myself)
pâte à choux (éclairs, baby, é-fucking-clairs!)
Pane Francese (crunchy bread…. Mmmmmm…)
Vanilla Buttercream (using the Swiss Method)
Almond Sponge Cake
Caramelized Sugar (for decorations) A really fun class where we just played with the sugar
Bavarois (aka Bavarian Cream)
Raspberry Sauce I like-a the sauce…
Vanilla Pound Cake Sugar, butter and eggs… what could be better?
Hazelnut Short Dough
Fruit Tartlets Not a big fan of these, but mine looked pretty cool.

We had a written and “practical” final for Baking 101. I got a 100% on the written (no one was more surprised than I and a 94% on the practical.

The practical was to bake an Almond Sponge Cake with Vanilla Buttercream Frosting, cutting the cake into three layers, topping each layer with pastry cream. Doesn’t sound that hard, but cutting a layer of cake evenly is an art—an ability I do not possess. I lost six points on my layers being uneven. However, Chef Steph thought my decorating skills were good (for a beginner).

Baking 101 was designed to get us in the kitchen, understanding how to properly use the equipment, as well as learning basic techniques and ingredients. Apparently, we got it down because we all passed. I also got my results from my Serve-Safe final and I got a 94% on that (seems to be a pattern—if I could always get a 94%, I don’t know if I would be that upset).

Students
I did not note my fellow student’s names past posts, but I have decided to drop that. I’ll use first names and since I like everyone, I do not forsee a problem. [NOTE: if you’re one of my classmates and you want your name removed, let me know and I will make horrible, horrible comments about you—using an alias for you, of course].

Let’s meet the “kids”, shall we?

Debi: Got pregnant and dropped out. Very quiet, but very sweet. I hope she decides to pick up next year—she was very good.
Rabia “Super Sous”: She was the second sous for chef and Nick dubbed her “Super Sous”. Part of Nick’s Click… Very funny (in a sarcastic and fun way)
Canela “Spicy Sous”: Tiny little thing—Again, lots of fun. Good sense of humor.
Gwyne: Hasn’t been a sous, yet, so no name. A school teacher – this last week it finally hit her that bakers do not make much money. I understand her frustration, but I’m not letting it get me down. Also has a great sense of humor—and, yes, a member of Nick’s Click.
Nick “Just Sous”: Our first sous, so no catchy title. He’s 22 and will tell you a thousand times a day, whether you ask him or not. A nice guy, but he’s 22 and acts it. I never thought 22 was that young. He and his Click have command of the back row of chairs during lecture. They do a lot of chatting back there, so I sit in the front.
Steve: I think he’s the oldest of us all. He’s been in the Navy (flew planes, so he’s got the cool factor going for him) and now he’s an engineer at Lockheed—so he’s smart, too. He’s also a great baker—seriously good.
Rodney “Hot Rod Sous”: Rodney and I worked together quite a bit the first week and we laughed a lot. He’s got a great attitude. He designs websites for a living—I’ve seen some of the sites and they are really great. He also sings—on his website, he has posted some of his studio sessions—they are really great. The guy has been holding out on us.
Samya “Crazy Sous”: (She hates that name…) Brazilian and a hoot. She gets so excited when Chef creates something, she practically jumps up and down. She’s brought in pictures of the cakes she’s made—pretty spectacular stuff. Very talented decorator. She also has the metric measurements down pat.
Jenny “Yaba-daba-Sous” (She really hates that name). She’s taken classes with Chef before at Cabrillo—so she’s got this ‘inside track’ on everything. She is a quick study so she knows everything before class. I know that bugs some people, but she has been incredibly helpful to me in offering suggestions and advice. She does it in such a great way, “I know you already know this but…” and then tells me something I hadn’t thought of or missed during lecture.
Hong: (no sous as of yet) She was in class last year, but dropped because of a car accident, so she came into the class about a month late—it’s hard to walk into a group that has already gelled. She’s also pretty quiet and there is a little language problem, so I she hasn’t warmed to us yet. She’s a good baker and she has made friends with Samya, so I think it’s just going to take some time.
Skye: (again, not sous, yet) She is officially the youngest person in our class at 18. However, she’s more mature than Nick… Very much the 18 year-old, she’s got funky dyed hair and sometimes a bit of an attitude, but I worked with her last week and she was a lot of fun to bake with.
Me: In case you were wondering, my name is “Amazing Sous”…


Baking 102: Breads and Pastry Doughs

So far, we have baked:
Buttermilk-Cream Biscuits Can’t go wrong with biscuits…
Scones Not a big fan of Scones… but they were pretty good
Chocolate-Honey Muffins Horrific recipe
Apple-Pecan Muffins Ditto
Banana Bread Never a big fan, but this turned out great—I made muffins out of the batter…
Tiger Cake Turned out really nice
Soft Gingerbread Cake Interesting…
Chocolate Gugelhuph Disgusting. Third worse recipe. Ever. (see Chocolate-Honey Muffins and Apple-Pecan Muffins
Basque Cake Really rather nice
Meyer Lemon Semolina Cake Lemony-sugary-cake… rocked.
Croissants Turned out pretty awesome if I do say so myself…
Danishes, Bear Claws, Butterhorns Talk about winners! Just amazing stuff—butter and flour, layered a thousand times—classic goodness.

The big problem with the two muffins above was that each of them had a TON of ingredients—no restaurant, bakery, home would ever make such items. And what week did I get to mise en place for Chef? Damn muffins… On Monday, mise en place took 15 minutes. On Tuesday, with those damn muffins, it took almost an hour to get all the ingredients together!

When we finally baked them, they were just “okay”. However, in all fairness, if I were to think of them as truly great, they would have had to have come with cash prizes…

Two weeks ago, they had a film crew in to interview Chef Stef for the new ads and website. Well, they decided to interview students. Since I’m not “camera friendly” I didn’t think they were going to talk to me, so during breaks when they were interviewing other students, I kept offering advice to the students“don’t forget to mention yada, yada, yada.” I thought I was quiet, but the guy said he wanted to interview me.

Egad.

So, as I rolled out my puff pastry dough, he asked me questions about how school was going and what my plans were—what can I say? The school is great, the people are wonderful, I love my fellow students, the kitchens are top notch—I sold like I had an interest in the place. I’m not sure if they will use me, but it was fun.

All in all, it’s been a blast these last few weeks. It’s been exhausting, but I look forward to going to class every day.

Bon apetit

pâte à choux (before chocolate and pastry cream)

éclairs

Tarts

My first final