second semester, first week

well I made it through the first week of my second semester, but let me tell you...it wasn't easy.  I'm really glad I only decided to take three classes this semester, because I am exhausted...and I still have hours of homework ahead of me.

My first class was Pastry Techniques on Wednesday.  2 pm to 8 pm.  And we made EIGHT recipes.  I was exhausted.  But I better get used to it, because that's how it is going to be every week.  I really like the teacher though, and I already feel like I am going to learn so much.  Although if this week is any indication, it will be learning through mistakes...  Out of the eight recipes, two of ours failed.  Completely.  One cake that was supposed to bake in 40 minutes was still liquid 2 hours later.   No clue what went wrong there, except that it must have been some kind of mis-measurement.  We are thinking either too much oil or not enough flour.  The other one, we accidentally substituted baking soda for baking powder.  That might sound like a little technicality, but if you've ever done it, you know it isn't.  SO that meant two cakes in the trash, which was a problem, because the point of class this week was to make a bunch of stuff to use later, pie crusts, tart doughs, cakes to practice icing, etc.  So not having cakes completed wasn't really an option.  So we remade them the next day in between my other two classes.  And they turned out great.  But then I was trying to hurry and get to my next class, and tried to wrap one of them before it was cool enough.  And broke it in half.  And had to throw it away (after I ate a little).  I felt like crying.  But luckily Chef said I don't have to do it again, one was enough to save.  I know I know, school is about learning and if I knew it all I wouldn't be there.  But I can't help but get frustrated when I can't even get a simple cake right.  And nervous for the rest of the semester!

Sad, sorry, golden cake that wouldn't bake...if you look closely it is still liquid in the middle :(

My first class on Thursday was Cookies, Tarts, and Petit Fours, which went a lot better.  Same Chef as Pastry Tech, so I was excited about that.  And my group members were two people I already knew from last semester.  Oh yeah did I mention that we don't get to pick our groups this semester?  They rotate every week.  Probably a better learning experience but man am I gonna miss my awesome group from Breads class!  So anyways, each group did one recipe (this week was focused on Drop Cookies) and then we all tasted each others so that we can write flavor profiles.  My group made the Potato Chip Cookies.  They were great, a little salty and crunchy but otherwise you wouldn't even know there were chips in there.  My favorites were the Almond Crisps, I love anything with an almond flavor. 

And then my last class of the week was Basic and Classical Cakes.  I was really nervous about this one because everyone says that Chef is super scary, but I thought she was alright.  Strict but reasonable.  We didn't bake this week though, just took notes. 

Well I am a little intimidated to go back to Pastry Techniques, but I'm still excited for this semester.  Still haven't been doing a whole lot of baking at home, but the other night we ran out of ice cream (first world problem, I know, but we eat ice cream every night and my sweeth tooth won't go to bed hungry) so I made these awesome no-bake pretzel-peanut butter-chocolate truffles I had seen on Pinterest earlier that day and just happened to have all the ingredients for.  Super easy! They reminded me a lot of the Buckeye cookies my Mom makes, but with a little extra salty crunch I loved.  They did not last long.

And one of Trev's employees has been asking him for about six months now to get me to make some banana nut bread.  I've been procrastinating because it is one of my least favorite baked goods and I just wasn't feel inspired by it.  But she asked again the other day and I don't get a whole lot of requests these days, so I finally made some banana nut muffins.  Again, not my favorite flavor combo, but they were pretty good considering. 

ok I'm gonna keep blogging I promise!

WOW I did not even realize how long it had been since I had posted but it has been a crazy month and a half or so.  Finals went really well, I got all A's for the semester and even made the President's List!  But between the break from school and moving, I haven't been doing that much baking lately.  That's right, I said moving!!!  For those of you that know about our disastrous house search, you know that this is a freakin miracle!  We have been house hunting for about six months now because the house that we fell in love with on the first day of searching was a short sale.  We made an offer and the sellers accepted it but then it had to go to their bank...and we never heard anything back, for months and months.  Oh except for once when their system had an error and rejected every offer for every short sale on record.  So we kept looking..and looking..and couldn't find anything that compared...and couldn't stop thinking about that house.  Between premature packing, people giving us furniture when they moved away, and wedding gifts, our apartment was getting smaller by the day.  And then four and a half months after our offer, we finally heard back that it was accepted!!  It was another battle getting to closing, but that is another story for another day...it would take me hours to write it all and I would get really really angry all over again, so we'll skip to the happy part!  We closed on December 16 and we are finally all moved in and settled.  Well pretty much.  Here's a picture:

Ok, but enough about that... this is a baking blog after all!  As I said, hasn't been much baking going on around here lately, especially for the holiday season.  But my parents and Grandma came down from SC before Christmas to help us move, and I did make a couple of the recipes from Breads class for them to try.  I did my best to duplicate the six-strand Challah - not as pretty as the one from class but not bad for doing it by myself, I think.  I also made the focaccia recipe in a loaf-ish form so we could use it for sandwiches, and worked some pesto into the dough.  Yum!

And while they were here, we made homemade pizza for Grandma's birthday using the dough recipe from Breads class (forgot to take a picture but it was delicious!) and I surprised her with a pecan praline mini-cheesecake. 

My family had to leave before Christmas and we were crazy busy unpacking, etc so I didn't do much in the way of Christmas cookies this year.  Which is way out of the norm for me, I grew up in a house with 20 varieties of Christmas cookies every year.  I did attempt my favorite of my Mom's cookies on Christmas day, Spritz cookies.  They turned out okay except that I didn't realize until the batter was made that my cookie press was in pieces from last year's deep cleaning and I had no idea how to put it back together, and Trevor was at work.  Helpless I know but what can I say?  So I made freeform Spritz blobs...needless to say, no pictures of those beauties.  But they were still tasty!

I know I said no more house talk but one more thing...since it was a short sale, they took the majority of the appliances and we had to buy a new oven, fridge, washer and dryer.  The most exciting of which is obviously the oven!  We got really good deals so that we could splurge on this fine piece of machinery I had been eyeballing for months:

A couple of companies make a double oven in a standard oven size now, but I picked this LG one because it has an extra infrared feature I haven't really figured out how to work yet.  Oh, and because it had touch-screen buttons for the stove instead of knobs.  Is it just me or are those things impossible to get clean??  Seems like a tiny thing I know but it has been a pet peeve for years.  I'm really excited about the oven even though I haven't done much baking.  But the two ovens have already come in handy for cooking supper - garlic bread up top while the meatballs are below, for example.  Can't wait to break it in some more!

Well this was a crazy long post for me so thank you for reading if you have made it this far!! I promise I will post more often now that school is starting back up next week.  I am really excited, and have been out shopping this week for all the new tools we are required to have this semester.  I'm still a little nervous because both of the teachers I have this semester are supposed to be really tough, but I can't wait anyways. 

Hope you all had a wonderful holiday season!  Happy 2012!

what could be better than chocolate?

Well it's getting kind of sad that the semester is almost over, but our Ingredients book definitely saved the best chapter for last.....CHOCOLATE!  Next week is finals review and then we are done, so this week we didn't have to do any experiments.  We made all the recipes exactly how they were intended, so for once everything was edible and delicious.  Each group made a different recipe, so we were all definitely on chocolate overload by the time we were done tasting, but it was completely worth it.  My group made flourless chocolate cake, which I had never tried before.  I am the opposite of gluten-free, so I never had much interest - but that has changed now.  It was like a fudgier, denser, brownie.  And once I scooped some of the other group's chocolate mousse on it and snuck a couple raspberries from the other kitchen, it was the best lunch I've had all semester.  If you are gluten-free, this is a great alternative and very easy to make.  And even if you aren't, it was very tasty!

So now I can't wait until summer semester when I will have a class all about chocolate. 

In breads class, we did some interesting breads from around the world that I had never tried (or even heard of a few of them).  Our group made panettone and Georgian Khachapuri, which was the big hit of the day.  It was a really tasty dough, shaped almost like a popover, with a filling of cheddar cheese with salt and plenty of black pepper.  Anything with cheese is a big hit in our class - second only to chocolate!  And the switch to savory was much needed after all the sugar earlier in the day.

Georgian Khachapuri

So I'm a little nervous about finals, we haven't really had any tests in the baking classes, just quizzes so far.  It's hard to know what to study for a written test when everything you do in class is hands on.  But either way, I am really excited for next semester and to move on to my next classes!

happy thanksgiving!

I want to start this post by saying how thankful I am for all of the amazing things in my life this year.  This has been a huge year for Trevor and I - got engaged, got married, changed a career, and hopefully we will close on our first house in about two weeks.  I am so thankful for my wonderful husband and the best month and a half of marriage yet.  I am thankful for all of the family members I have been lucky to have my whole life, and for all of the family members I was lucky enough to gain this year.  And I am thankful to have a chance to follow a dream and to have the support of all these people, especially Trev, along the way.  To anyone who reads this blog, you have no idea how grateful I am for all of your support and encouragement.  And I can't forget Cane - the best kitty in the world and some really wonderful company on days when I get a little lonely so far from home.  

Part of our decision to stay here in Florida for Trevor's job meant we were pretty much giving up holidays with our families.  This was probably the hardest part for me, and I was really worried that I would have a really hard time sitting at home on Thanksgiving and Christmas while Trevor was at work and my family was 500 miles away celebrating.  We have committed to creating our own traditions, but I still knew it would be really hard, especially this first year.  So I was really excited to get an invitation to our friends' house in Tampa, a much shorter drive and one we can actually make once Trevor gets off work.  It also meant I could bake - since I can't really justify three pies for just the two of us. 

So enough of the sappy stuff, here's the fun stuff!  Wait, one more thing I am grateful for - recipes passed down from my Mom and Grandma.

Mini apple pies - this is Grandma's recipe, only smaller.  (I only have two pie pans, so I decided to take a little bit of a risk - only lost two trying to get them out of the muffin pan!) 

Pecan pie - this one is Mom's recipe, and my personal Thanksgiving favorite:

And finally, buttermilk pie.  This is something we never ate at my house, and that I actually tried for the first time with Trevor's family.  I loved it, so I searched for a recipe and finally settled on this one:

Alright, gotta get back in the kitchen and make the most important part of Thanksgiving - the homemade whipped cream!  My first and favorite job in my Mom's kitchen - and I can't stress how much better it is than the store-bought.  If you have never made homemade whipped cream, PLEASE try it - it is so easy and sooo worth it!  Have a wonderful holiday!

croissants - the first AND last time

Well I haven't posted in a couple weeks because we have been working on a recipe at school that took two weeks.  That's right, two six-hour classes, a week apart, to complete.  As delicious as croissants are, they take a LOT of time and steps to make.  I don't know if it was worth it, but I will say a croissant fresh out of the oven is WAY better than from the store.  So maybe, just maybe, one day I will decide to make these again for a special occasion. 

It's actually a really interesting process, and until we did it, I had no idea how croissants (and puff pastry and danishes) were made.  Because they are laminated doughs, the dough is actually separate from the fat and then the fat (butter) is enclosed ("locked-in") to the dough through a series of folding and rolling.  That's what creates those oh-so-yummy layers.  It starts out as one layer of dough and one of butter, but as you continue folding it and rolling it out, becomes many many more. 

The slow part is that in between each fold, it has to chill for about 30 minutes.  And then it has to chill at least overnight before baking (this is really why it took us two classes).  But at the end, we had amazing croissants (and chocolate croissants!) to show for all of our work and waiting.

Just look at those layers!!

Here are a few other things we have been doing in class since my last post:

And a few things I have done at home:

fun homework is the best kind!

Not much to write about today, but I spent most of the day working on my project (remember, where I get to plan my dream bakery??), and I got really wrapped up in the fun parts.  We had a few boring weeks of costing and pricing recipes, workflow design, etc... but now I am starting on the fun part!  Front of house design... and since this isn't for real, I can pick whatever I want!  So here is the "mood board" I created for my furniture, serveware, etc.  Also, the FOH layout that is not quite as exciting to look at due to my limitations in Excel, but gives a better idea of where everything goes (kinda have to follow my color coding and use your imagination!).  Enjoy!

drumrollll...pizza day!!

Ok so maybe we didn't get to toss the pizza dough up in the air or anything (I may or may not have tried at one point and gotten a very stern look from Chef Tony...), but it was still pretty exciting when we found out it was finally pizza day in breads class!  Making the dough from scratch was already exciting enough, but it is super fun to pick any toppings you want from a well-stocked kitchen.  Especially when you just made ricotta cheese in Ingredients class and then your group gets picked to make the pizza sauce from scratch!  (Ok, anybody who knows me knows I hate ricotta cheese, but it was still fun to learn how to make it - even if it took our group a few tries!)

Here are a few pictures of the process - I didn't get any while we were cooking it, but here it is straining, then mixed with sugar and orange water for a filling for pastries.  The point of making the cheese was learning about milk and milk products (lesson of the week), but I guess we had to bake something, so we turned them into these cute little pastries.  This was the first time I had used phyllo dough and I really had fun folding them up - so much fun I went home and tried it with taco meat for filling instead (see below for pictures).  It wasn't as fun after about 12 (for anybody that has never used it, it is very very delicate, tears easily, and can't be left out at all or it will dry up - so you start with one sheet, cover the rest, brush with butter, lay another sheet on top, cover the rest, brush with butter...so on and so on, and that only gets you enough to cut up 3 of the size I made at home!)

(We ended up using mozzarella on our pizza, but a couple other groups used our ricotta on theirs.)

So to sum it up, we made ricotta cheese in the morning, then in the afternoon we made the pizza dough and pizza sauce.  And then of course we added toppings, baked it, and ate it!  Yum!  I almost didn't have room for our standard Monday night Chipotle.  And then after all the pizza making and eating, we also made Challah bread - but we ran out of time, so we didn't get to taste it.  No worries, we are going to turn it into french toast next week!  Chef Tony told the class that if we could figure out a six-strand braid, we would get ten points extra credit.  I got really frustrated after two tries and gave up, but luckily my group stuck it out and made this beautiful braid!  A few other groups got it too, but ours was the prettiest (if I do say so myself).

All of the groups' challah...ours is bottom left.

Oh yeah, and here are a few other things I have been trying out at home in my free time: