week 5

I was really excited to find out what we were making this week in my classes because I knew we had another experiment in Ingredients, and we were finished with quickbreads in Breads and moving on to yeast breads! 

In Ingredients class, we made Butter Cake (after tasting it, I would name it Almond Cake - it has a lot of almond flavoring, which I love!  I'm going to try it in cupcake form with some lemon buttercream icing, yummm)  The experiment part was that every group used a different kind of flour, so each cake had a different amount of protein/gluten.  My group had bread flour, which actually didn't turn out bad.  It was a lot more dense than a regular cake texture, but it was still pretty tasty (the whole wheat group didn't get so lucky).  There were a lot of variations, including cake flour, pastry flour, semolina, and a few others - I was only able to get pictures of a few. 

I thought I was going to be able to resist eating all the goodies we are making, but I am having trouble for a few reasons -
          1. We can't take anything home or give it away, so except for a few items they save for the school bake sale, it all goes in the trash.  And I really hate wasting food, so I find myself eating as much as I can just to save it from the garbage. 
          2.  We usually take stuff out of the oven right around 11 am, which is EXACTLY when my 6 am bagel starts to wear off.  It's really hard to get excited about my sandwich and apple when there is a whole cake sitting in front of me.  Definitely going to have to work on that, or I am going to get really huge, really fast.

Then in Breads class, we started on yeast breads.  I was really excited for this because I think it is really impressive to make fresh bread by hand, plus I just plain love bread.  We made soft yeast rolls and French/Italian bread in baguettes.  Although it was easier than I thought (my wrists didn't agree the next day, students aren't allowed to use mixers to knead dough), turns out I do not love the smell of a yeast dough.  Again, something I'm going to have to work on, because the finished product is definitely worth it. 

On a side note, I got a 96 on my first test in Food & Bev Management class - really glad about that, I was kinda nervous.  The material isn't hard, but it has been a long time since I had taken a test!

Oh yeah, and I probably won't be blogging for a couple weeks, seeing as how the wedding is in 10 DAYS!!  Between all the prep and then the honeymoon, I'm thinking the blog is going to get forgotten for a little while.  But I'll be back!

now we're cookin'

I'm so glad we are finally baking, and not just because I was tired of taking notes.  We did our first "experiment" in Ingredients class this week, which I was really looking forward to.  One of the main themes of that class is to learn the "what" and "how" of baking, but also the "why."  This means we get to do some pretty interesting tests of baking theories and practices over the semester so that we can really understand why we are using a certain ingredient, formula, method, etc. 

We are still in the mixing methods section, so this week we experimented with changing up the mixing method of a recipe.  Since it's a shorter class, each group only had one recipe, but there were a few different ones throughout the class.  My group had brownies! (ok, we might have special-requested that one)  The recipe was written using the creaming method (defined by creaming (duh) the butter and sugar together to add air).  Then we had an alternate recipe that was exactly the same, except we had to melt the butter before adding it - no creaming, obviously. 

Here are a couple pictures of our final products.  The main difference between the two brownies was the texture.  The brownies using melted butter cooked up really fast around the edges, but never finished cooking in the middle (we had to take them out because class was ending).  Although I have to say, I am tempted to make them that way once in a while and then scoop out the middle and put it on some vanilla ice cream.  It definitely wasn't your standard brownie, but it was still pretty yummy - and extra gooey and dense.  We probably won't be so lucky when we get to the experiments that involve adding too much baking soda, etc.

Anyways, I'm really excited for all of the experiments - a great way to learn, but not nearly as frustrating as making these mistakes at home.  And it never hurts to have a plate of brownies warm out of the oven right when it's time for your lunch break...

And in Specialty Breads, we moved on to the Muffin Method of mixing.  We made Zucchini Bread, Chocolate Chocolate Chip Muffins, and Morning Glory Muffins (a yummy mix of apple, carrot, pineapple, coconut, walnuts, and oats).  Another group made Olive Oil Muffins, which had both olive oil and balsamic vinegar in the recipe.  I expected them to be a little bit weird, but they were actually pretty delicious!  I'm going to have to try that recipe at home...

finally baking!

We finally got to bake in Specialty Breads class this Monday, and I was really excited.  The first day, we didn't bake in either of my hands-on classes, and then the second week of class was Labor Day, so it felt like forever when we finally got in the kitchen on Monday. We had to break out into teams of 3, and my team was great, we worked really well together.  Hi Lauren and Beth if you're reading this!

This week we were studying the biscuit method of mixing, so we made Cheddar and Herb Biscuits (with herbs picked fresh from the herb garden outside of the building), Chocolate Scones, and Irish Soda Bread. 

The biscuits were awesome, even if I ate one a little too soon (turns out we're supposed to wait till the end of the class, whoops!).  In fact, at the end of the class, Chef Tony even said our team's biscuits came out the best!  Pretty exciting for our first day.  And anything with chocolate has to be good, right?  So I ate two of the scones (I have a feeling there won't be much supper getting eaten on Monday nights from now on).

I didn't get to taste the Irish Soda Bread, but I didn't really want to...it had both raisins and caraway seeds, and I'm not really a fan of either.  It looked good though!

We didn't have time to the taste the bread because it didn't come out of the oven until about ten minutes after class was over.  Apparently everybody else made all three recipes at once, we did them one at a time.  Maybe we were the last ones to finish, but I didn't mind because that way we all got to work on each recipe. 

Next week is the muffin method, plus we should get to bake in my Ingredients class too.  Can't wait to see what we make!

sweet alyssum cake & bake shop

One of the reasons I was excited to choose the Valencia program instead of a strictly culinary school was classes like the one I am taking on Wednesdays, Food and Beverage Management.  While the textbook and the subject matter so far are a little dry (and mostly stuff I already know from working in food service for years...), the really exciting part about this class is the project.

The project takes you through all 16 weeks, and you basically dream up your ideal restaurant concept, and then come up with a business plan.  There are going to be some more difficult steps during the rest of the semester (calculating food cost and then pricing menu items, coming up with front of the house and back of the house layouts, etc), right now is the really fun part - coming up with a concept, logo, and menu.

Today in class we had to present our basic concept - and there were more than a handful of bake shops (that's ok, I can handle a little competition!), but there was also tropical Caribbean restaurants, gastro-pubs, a pizzeria styled after a Brazilian steakhouse, and a lot of other really interesting ideas.  I think at least 98% of the world is nervous to stand up and speak in front of a bunch of strangers, so of course I was a little scared for that part, but I had so much fun designing my logos - yes, that's plural.  I had trouble deciding between two different names and logos, so I posted them to Facebook to ask for a little feedback from my super-supportive friends and family (thank you guys! you have no idea how awesome you have all been!), and then I took them both to class to take a vote there too.  Turns out, one of them won by a landslide in both votes!  So, drumrolllll....

Sweet Alyssum is the winner!  If you aren't familiar, Sweet Alyssum is a flower (hence the logo...duh) that my name is derived from.  I did end up changing the color from purple because I didn't want it to be too overly feminine.  Thanks again to everybody who helped me decide.

So after we presented our concepts today, our next assignment is to come up with our menu.  No prices yet, but we have to choose ten items (that's what the asterisks are for) to carry through the project that we will write recipes, calculate cost, price, etc.  Well I'm a nerd and lately I have WAY too much time on my hands, so I started as soon as I got home from school.  I can't even explain how different it is to be so excited about schoolwork - I don't think I even realized that was possible the first time around.  So here's what I've got so far - but it is set up in brochure format, so you have to use your imagination and pretend that it is printed 2-sided and then folded in thirds.  As usual, feedback is mucho appreciated! 

one of my MANY inspirations

This post is kind of random, but we broke down and got a new computer this week (another story for another day...) and that meant I had to transfer all of my pictures over.  During that process, I found some great pictures I took of my Grandma baking last year (Thanksgiving, I think).  I am super lucky to have had both a Mom and Grandma who were constantly in the kitchen and always let us kids help out if we wanted. 

I'm saving  a post on Mom until Christmas cookie time, but I couldn't resist sharing a few of these pictures of Grandma in the kitchen with a couple of her signature recipes - apple pie and of course, the sweet rolls she makes by hand for every holiday.  Oh, and the picture above is her making celery and gorgonzola dip, another holiday favorite - I know that's not a baked good, but I just loved that picture.

Grandma's obvious specialty is homemade pasta (specifically tortellinis), but my favorite thing to make with her are the sweet rolls that we have for Thanksgiving (perfect for leftover turkey sandwiches) and Christmas every year.  The recipe has a lot of steps, including letting the dough rise, which means lots of time to sit around and talk in between.  It's also fun to come up with all the different shapes, braids, twists, spirals - every year, it feels like a new recipe even though she has made it for decades (one time she showed me the recipe card that she still uses every time she makes them - I think the date on it was in the 1950s). 

Grandma is one of those people that likes to show her love through food - and every time she cooks for us, it definitely shows.  She used to always have homemade cookies in the house for Grandpa, and every time I came home from college, she sent me back with a care package of cookies, chicken broth, parmesan cheese and small shell pasta (the last three are probably my favorite meal ever!) 

She's also a little bit old-fashioned - she likes to do things the way she knows how, even if it takes longer.  It took us months to get her to use her Kitchen-Aid stand mixer.  But I won't argue with her - she's one of the best bakers I know.  And she makes the best apple pie I have ever had!


Grandma teaching me the steps to the perfect apple pie



The finished product... yum!

 And a few more pictures of my grandparents just because....