Puff Pastry and Sourdough

Alrighty! 

So last week in class we made Challah bread. I really wanted to transform all my bread from last week into something. I didn't get too far because some of my products didn't come out as planned. However, I was able to turn my Challah bread into a yummy French Toast Souffle. I usually make this for the breakfast pot lucks we would have at work. It was my "go-to" dish. It came out very well with the Challah bread. I added some whipped topping and a few strawberries. 

French Toast Souffle with Challah Bread

Time for the weekly school update!

This week was very laid back.

Monday 4.25.11

Boy today I wasn't feeling very well.  We didn't do much in class. We had a substitute again. We watched presentations for the group projects.

Tuesday 4.26.11

Today we made our puff pastry dough. We didn't do the makeup of it this day- we let it chill in the cooler over night so it would be easier to work with. We also made frangipane that we would use to fill some of our puff pastry products with. In the midst of all of that, we also took a test. I don't feel that I did very well on it but I did the best I could. 

Wednesday 4.27.11

Fun day!

We did our Puff Pastry Makeup! Lots of different ways to form Puff Pastry. I thought it was a lot of fun! 

This is a Pithivier. The puff pastry is filled with Frangipane which is almond paste mixed with sugar and eggs (for the most part). 

Pithivier

Isn't it so cute? It reminds me of Mrs. Potts hat (from "Beauty and the Beast")

See:

Mrs. Potts and Chip from "Beauty and the Beast"

Am I right? So cute! 

These are Palmiers. You roll the dough in sugar to form these cute pastries- I added cinnamon. They are very tasty with a cup of coffee in the morning. 

Palmiers

These are some simple Pinwheels with Frangipane center. So yummy, so flaky, so good!

Pinwheels 

Lastly, vol-au-vents.  These were my favorite to make. They look difficult to make but are actually very simple. 

Vol-au-vent

I believe that these could be very versatile in a kitchen. Therefore, I filled one with vanilla ice-cream and drizzled caramel sauce all over to show it's versatility. 

Vol-au vent with Vanilla Ice-cream and Caramel Sauce

Needless to say, Jeff and I devoured it!

Puff pastry supposedly consists of 1,000 layers of dough with layers of butter in between. I find that AMAZING! I keep trying to do the math in my mind but it just gives me a headache so I gave up! Don't get me wrong, Chef gave up too!

Thursday 4.28.11

Today we attended a lecture by a Master Chef. His presentation was very informative and inspiring. He is an amazing food artist. He specializes in transforming traditional meals or desserts into different presentations. The pictures he shared we awesome. 

At the end of the lecture and demo we made our sourdough breads that we would make up the next day.  

Friday 4.29.11

Today was very relaxed, bread-making day. We made up our sourdough breads. The Rustic Sourdough bread we made turned out very hard! They didn't rise very much. Chef said that the flour didn't get hydrated enough so we had to make a new one which we "spiked" with some active yeast. 

Here are the sourdough loafs I made. 

Rustic Sourdough

Rustic Sourdough

Rustic Sourdough

This dough was very chewy. I made a sandwich with it but the sandwich won, it was just way too chewy. I need to check with Chef to see what may have gone wrong. 

Ham Sandwich with Sourdough Bread with Spinach Salad

We also made another sourdough out of an Apple Sour starter (tasted nothing like apple). It has a wonderful taste and I added currants to my dough. I have never tried currants before. I had no idea they tasted like raisins. I really like them. 

Apple Sourdough with Currants

Apple Sourdough with Currants

We had extra time to make other doughs so I made some baguette dough and made a baguette, an epi and a boule with the SF Giants logo on it. It was a little more legible until I squished it with my baguette! Haha! 

And that's all folks. Have a great weekend!

With love, 

Adriana 

White Box!!!

So, I've been stressing out about taking nice photos of my products. Last week, I literally saved my products all week so that Jeff could use his nice camera to take photos. We were having issues with lighting and the back drop so the photos really didn't turn out as I wanted them to. I was considering purchasing a nice "point and shoot" so I wouldn't have to wait for him all week but then I was thinking about a white box that my little brother told me about a while ago. My friend, Lea, also mentioned a white box when I asked her for a recommendation on a nice affordable camera. She provided me a very helpful link on how to make an affordable white box. Jeff and I constructed it last night and I absolutely love it. I don't need to invest in a new camera anymore, although that would probably make my photos look even more amazing. But, for now, this will be just fine!

Here is the link to the instruction on making a white box:

http://www.studiolighting.net/homemade-light-box-for-product-photography/

The instructions are very helpful. We didn't do the cut-outs for the lamps and ours works just fine.

Here is a photo of one of my puff pastry products getting ready for its "photo shoot" in my new white box :) 

White Box

Here is my first test shot with the white box:

Chocolate Chip Cookies

I feel that this white box will allow so much versatility in my photos and my $40 or so has been well invested (it sure beats purchasing a new camera). 

With Love,

Adriana 

Fruit Tart

This is just a super quick post for my Fruit Tart I made this weekend for Easter. I was pretty happy with the way it turned out. I made my classmate, Evangeline, very happy when I told her I referred to her blog because I was too lazy to look for my recipe for the Apricot Glaze that is glossed over the top of the Fruit Tart. So here is a shout out to Mrs. Evangeline.

 Check out her blog:  www.flourbloom.com

I love her blog. It's so organized, clean and focused. Great job! I love reading it. 

Here is my Fruit Tart!

Fruit Tart (close up) 

Fruit Tart

Hope everyone enjoyed their Easter!

With Love,

Adriana

p.s. I missed you on Easter my family! 

(originally posted 4.26.11)

Lean to Rich

I wish the that the title of this blog related to me personally. Get it.. I wish I were lean and rich! Bad joke, bad joke, sorry.

Anyways, we have now moved from lean doughs into rich doughs in class. 

I am really upset with how the photos for this week have turned out. I am trying to make all my photos look the same- with the white background. Jeff and I are going to try to make a white box this week so that my photos will be more consistent. This is very essential to me so I can build my portfolio. 

So here are the products for the week.

Monday 4.18.11

Today, we had a substitute since Chef Jen was out ill. He was very informative but I didn't get his name! Very thick accent. We made Ciabatta bread, Brioche Dough and Challah dough.

Ciabatta

Went over to Jeff's after school and we made sandwiches with the Ciabatta bread. We had really simple fixings but the bread was delicious. I loved how chewy and flavorful the bread was. It was very interesting how this bread is made and how gooey it was. The dough requires minimal handling since it's so liquid-y. Which was a very different experience. 

Sandwich made with Ciabatta Bread

Tuesday 4. 19.11

Today we made up our Challah Bread and Brioche Bread. 

Wasn't too thrilled with the ways these turned out. I felt like I did something wrong but I couldn't figure out what. I still have the Challah Bread at home and I plan on making some type of bread pudding with it. I really wanted to make French Toast with my Brioche Bread, but the loaf I made didn't turn out as I planned. 

Brioche Loaf

Brioche and Brioche filled with Chocolate

Challah 

Wednesday 4.20.11

Cinnamon Rolls!!! Need I say more? No, didn't think so.

My first job was at Cinnabon- my experience paid off. 

Cinnamon Rolls 

Frosted Cinnamon Rolls

I really REALLY hate the way the photos turned out. :( Moving on...

Thursday 4.21.11

We had a group project for this class. We were required to research a bread that wouldn't be covered in class and write a one page paper as well as present the bread in class by doing a baking demo in front of our classmates. I worked with Maggie and Bobbiejoe and we made Tahitian Coconut Bread. I think our demo went as smooth as possible and our presentation with a Tahitian Cream Cooler was a hit. We served our coconut bread in banana leaf cones that Maggie made.

Coconut Bread in Banana Leaf and Tahitian Cream Cooler

Have a great week!

With Love,

Adriana 

(originally posted 4.26.11) 

Cupcakes

So a couple weeks ago, I got to make Jeff's cousin, Virna, some classic Red Velvet Cupcakes for her sons 16th birthday. I love making these Red Velvet! Not to jinx myself, but they always come out really yummy!

Here are some shots:

Red Velvet Cupcakes

Virna snapped a shot for me of the cupcakes in the stand. 

Cupcakes in stand

Thanks so much for the order Virna! I really appreciate it! 

I had some extra cream cheese frosting, so I rummaged through the fridge and pantry to see what I could do. I decided some Carrot Cupcakes were in order. My mom took them to Police Station where she work for the evening briefing and she told me she didn't get down the hall with them before they were gone! Such a great compliment!

I on the two outer cupcakes, I sprinkled them with cinnamon and the one in the center I did the same but added some chopped walnuts. Just to play around with different looks- plus, not everyone loves nuts. 

Carrot Cupcakes

I'm such a cupcake fiend! 

Happy Cupcake-ing! The baking kind... or the cuddling kind if you'd like ;)

-Adriana 

(originally posted 4.26.11) 

Bridal Shower Cupcakes

Last weekend I had the awesome privilege to make some cupcakes for a Bridal Shower for my friend Liz's friend. 

I made white and chocolate cupcakes with Vanilla buttercream. 

She sent me a photo of the bridal shower invitation so that I could decorate cupcakes based on it. Here is the invitation.

Here are the cupcakes I came up with!

The buttercream is a very pale purple and I sprinkled it with silver edible glitter and silver dragees. The hearts are made out of fondant. 

Here are the photos that Liz sent me of the cupcakes in the stand at the bridal shower.

I'm pretty happy with the way they turned out but I'd like to step out and experiment with different flavors. 

Thanks so much for the order Liz!

With Love, 

Adriana 

(originally posted 4.16.11) 

Yummy Breads!

Second week of Breads is complete!

The week started of with our first practical exam for this class. The week seamed to go by so slowly, not sure why. I think Spring Break through me off- it's been hard for me to get back into my studying routine. 

So, here is what we did this week and the photos!

Monday: 4.11.11 

Today was our Practical. Our Practical was on Baguettes and Decorative Bread. Silly me, I thought Decorative Bread meant êpis, which is a form of baguette that is cut to look like the shape of leaves.  Instead, our teacher told us to make milk bread, I think it was, to shape for our decorative breads portion of our practical. No worries though, I ended up getting 95 points out of 100 on the practical. I was really happy with my score. 

Here are my photos of my practical!

These are my baguettes. The one on the right is shaped into an êpi. 

Here is my decorative bread made with the milk bread. I did some simple braids and I did some knots. I think that the rolls proofed for too long because the knots were knot defined- they melted together. 

Tuesday: 4.12.11

Today we started our Sourdough starter which we will be using to make sourdough bread later in the term. 

We also made our sponge for our herb focaccia. We made it a day before because it needed to ferment over night in order to use it the next day for our herb focaccia. 

We also made pretzels! Yum! I worked with a new partner this day, I worked with Buck. Here are our pretzels!

I decided to make my pretzels plain (no salt) because I wanted to "dress them up" when I got them home. So, I melted some butter and sprinkled cinnamon and sugar on top. They were so tasty!

Wednesday: 4.13.11

Today we finished our Herb Focaccia. We topped it with rosemary and sea salt. It didn't come out very well. I think it needed to proof a little longer because it ended up not raising enough in the oven. My classmate Cindy suggested that I should make croutons out of it so I think I am going to do that this weekend and maybe put them on top of a caesar salad. 

We also made a whole wheat soaker and Pat Fermente for our whole wheat bread to makeup the next day. 

We had some extra time so we made desserts to freeze for an even that is taking place next weekend for the Ronald McDonald Charity Organization. I worked with my classmate, Sarah, and we made cinnamon brownies. Other classmates made pound cake. 

Thursday: 4.14.11

Today we finished our whole wheat bread. Buck and I made two loaves of it. When it was time to put them in the oven I wasn't sure if we were required to score them so I scored one and left the other one alone. The one that was scored came out really nice. The one that wasn't scored raised unevenly.

This is the one that was scored. 

Here is the one that wasn't scored. 

It's essential to score the loaves so that it has a place for the steam to escape. Buck took home the score loaf since he would be eating it more- I didn't really like the taste of it. 

Here is a photo of the loaf sliced.

We also made Santa Fe Chile Cheese rolls. They sound a lot better than they actually were. Maggie suggested that they probably needed more salt. The dough wasn't very flavorful even though there were spices in it. We rolled them up like cinnamon rolls and filled them with chopped chiles and shredded cheddar cheese. Here they go. The time written on the parchment paper is a reminder for us to know when we put the dough into the proof box. 

Friday: 4.15.11

Somehow the syllabus for our class got messed up and we had the same assignment for Friday and Monday. When Chef Jen realized the mistake she told us that we could just practice any bread of our choice. Maggie and I worked together and we made Baguette dough. The entire class also made Yellow Cupcakes for the Ronal McDonald Charity Organization. 

I didn't take a photo of my baguette. I shaped the rest of my baguette dough into a turtle and a heart. Maggie made a girl with hair and a bunny rabbit. Here they are before going into the oven (after proofing).

Here is my turtle after baking. I'm so happy it turned out good!

I thought the little tail turned out so cute! 

My heart, on the other hand, did not. 

A couple of my classmates made bears! Such a cute idea! 

Here is Liz's teddy bear.

This is Yadira's teddy bear. 

They are so cute!

Have a great weekend everybody!

With Love,

Adriana 

(originally posted 4.16.11) 

Baking Principles and Viennoiserie

This week we started a new term: Baking Principles and Viennoiserie. Bread making!

This blog is going to be very quick because I have some studying to do. Bread making is exciting and new to me. It's going to take some time to get used to because it's so new and I will have to do a lot of studying to fully understand it. 

Monday: 4.4.11

Today we did a lot of lecture and we made up our baguette to so that we could retard it in the cooler overnight. 

Tuesday: 4.5.11

We took our baguette dough and made baguettes and épis. 

I was so amazed that water, bread, yeast and salt could make something so delicious! 

Here are the photos of my baguette and épi before they went into the oven (after proofing we scored them and shaped into an épi). 

We also made a boule with our baguette dough. Here it is before being baked (scored after proofing). 

 Here they are after being baked!

Chef told us to make another baguette dough to practice because our first practical in this class is on baguettes.

Here is Maggie's and my baguette and épi before baking. 

I didn't take a photo of these after baking but I did take a picture of the bottom of my second baguette because I didn't seal the seam good enough so it expanded while cooking. I wanted to take picture for future reference. It's a learning process :) 

Wednesday 4.6.11

Today we made white pan bread and with it we made a cinnamon sugar swirled pan loaf and dinner rolls using various braiding and knotting techniques. 

Here is my Cinnamon Swirl Pan Loaf made with the white pan bread. 

Yesterday, I made french toast with it and it was so good. 

Here are the various dinner rolls we did using the braiding and knotting techniques.

The top-left roll is a simple knot. The top-right roll is a figure-eight roll. The middle row rolls are braided rolls and the bottom row rolls are double-knot rolls. 

Here they are after being baked.

They were pretty good. The next day I cut one in half, toasted it and drizzled it with honey. Yum-O! 

Here is a better photo of all the rolls together. I made some braids as well. 

 We also made several rolls and made a flower shape. 

Thursday 4.7.11 

Today we made Milk Bread and Italian Bread. 

With the milk bread we made some small boules, some braids and a bâtard. 

Here is a photo of them all together. 

With the italian bread, we saved half for pizza the next day. With the other half, we made a bâtard.

We also made up some baguette dough to practice the next day. 

Friday: 4.8.11

With half of the italian bread, we made this roll that I don't know that name of. I couldn't find the name in my text book. Here it is before baking.

Here it is after baking.

Here is the pizza I made. I put WAY too much garlic on it but I couldn't eat meat because it's Friday and it's lent right now. 

Finally, here is my baguette and épi.

Hope everyone had a lovely weekend!

With love, 

Adriana 

(originally posted 4.10.11)