First Week!

I LOVE CULINARY SCHOOL! 

(This is a photo of my tool kit. The only thing not pictured are my additional piping tips. There are about 10 or more)

I couldn't wait until this weekend to share it with you all! :) 

Ok, sappy stuff out of the way first! I started school on Monday (Valentines Day). Jeff is the only Valentine I have ever had and, strangely, I have never received any "typical" Valentines gifts from him. No Teddy Bears, Chocolates, etc. until this year! :) I was very happy! I just wanted to see him though for Valentines day but walking into this (picture to follow) just made me so happy! :) 

I named the Teddy Bear "Fluffy" because... he's fluffy. :) He's SO comfy to sleep with to. He's like my new pillow. :) I also ordered some Kara's Cupcakes (My fave cupcakes ever) for Jeff and I for Valentines Dessert. My mom picked them up in Napa for me since I had school. 

From Left to Right: Sweet Vanilla, Vanilla Chocolate, Sweet Chocolate and S'More

So now, about Culinary School!

Monday 2.14.11

I have two classes right now. First hour is Safety and Sanitation so that we can take the ServSafe test which will certify us for 5 years. Major points on our resumes. My instructor, Chef Parker, is so nice. I really like her; hope she'll be my instructor for some of my other classes. 

The first day was pretty much how first days of class go at any school: review syllabus, go over textbooks, go over dress code, take role, etc. 

In our Intro to Baking class we received our tool kits (which is pictured above). All in all, exciting but very basic day. We were all informed that we would be in the kitchen the following day so I think we were all excited/nervous. 

Tuesday 2.15.11

 Chocolate Chip Cookies and Brownies!

Our first day in the kitchen was, how should I put it? CHAOTIC! We had people cutting themselves left and right, Chef urging us to get our stuff in the oven, people measuring ingredients, spilling flour... pure chaos! We made the cookies and brownies but didn't have time to cut our brownies because everyone put them in late and they needed to cool. I wasn't sure if I was able to take photos in class until I saw someone on the second day taking photos. Then I decided to as well. I had my camera with me the entire time but I guess I was just shy.. or something. haha...

Anyways, I am getting used to the ovens so my product came out pretty over done. I wouldn't say burnt, but they are definitely over baked.  I took this photo when I got hom. lol. 

Poor cookies. You would look so much nicer in my oven. :(

Did you know there is a method for baking cookies. The Creaming Method! Ahh yes. Be nice to your cookies! :) This will be part of my practical exam next Wednesday. 

Wednesday 2.16.11

We cut our brownies and made Ice Box Cookies. We have been working in pairs due to the simplicity of all the recipes. It just cuts down on the chaos. We had more people cutting themselves; one person had to have stitches. :( My partner is Maggie. She's very sweet. Not much experience in baking; she's curious to the field of Baking and Pastry. You go girl! For not much experience, she does a great job. 

 Here are my brownies (this is the day I started taking photos in class)

We made our ice box cookies, allowed them to chill while we did lecture and then we assembled them into a checker board design. I didn't take photos because that would take a lot of time stopping and snapping and my dough was getting soft.  Once we assembled our cookies we let them chill until the next day. 

Thursday 2.17.11

Today we cut our Ice Box Cookies and made BISCOTTI! Yum Yum!

My partner, Maggie, and I decided to make Almond Espresso Biscotti with Chocolate Chips. So good! Chef Parker "warned" us about our Intro to Baking Chef, Chef Wright, saying that if we do something wrong, she won't "sugar coat" what she says; she says it straight up. So we were all a little nervous about her class. However, I really like her. You can really see that she loves what she does and she lets us experiment with different flavors and we don't have to stick to what's written in the book. Our biscotti recipe didn't call for Chocolate Chips; we added it in. :) Some people added hazelnuts, pecans, white chocolate, etc. 

Well, here is the photo of my Ice Box Cookies before they went into the oven:

So pretty right? You can tell my dough was too soft because they aren't perfect squares. I will be redoing this at home- soon! 

And here they are out of the oven. They don't look much different, just slightly brown and a little puffed up. 

These were really fun to make :) 

Now for Biscotti:

Biscotti means "twice baked". So, yup, you guessed it, we baked those puppies twice. lol. Here is the biscotti before we baked it the first time:

We popped that sucker in the oven and took it out and this is what it looked like:

Chef came by and said, "Nope, that's not ready". So we threw him back in the oven then we took it out when it was perfectly ready:

We then allowed it to cool then we sliced it and placed them cut side up on the baking sheet and baked them until they were dry and crumbly. 

Before going into the oven:

After, out of the oven. YUM!

Here's a close up. They were very delicious. I ran down the hall for some coffee to dip it in! lol. 

Oh yeah, they Culinary Students set up a small hors d'oevres buffet so our Chef allowed us a break to taste!

The Egg is obviously a deviled egg and it has some caviar on top, the one filled with the brown mixture is puff pastry filled with eggplant puree, the green product is a small corn chip with ceviche and the rest is various cheeses and I believe that is Rye Bread.

Friday 2.18.11

What a long week!

I was so tired today. I love going to school but I guess this new routine is wearing me out. 

We made Almond Macaroons with a Ganache filling. YUM!

Here are the macaroons before being baked:

This is what they look like once they have been baked. They are supposed to be crisp and lightly brown on the outside and moist on the inside but not gooey. If they are gooey you're eating raw egg. yucky. 

Not sure why ours came out with the little bubbles on top. Only thing I can think of is maybe that part of the mixture had something that wasn't fully incorporated... not to sure. Also, they came out crooked. I'm also thinking that the cookies aren't being cooked evenly because the ovens are constantly being opend which is letting the heat escape. :( 

Here they are with the ganache filling. Our ganache wasn't setting up properly so we had more of a sauce than a thick ganache. Either way, it was still super yummy. 

And that's all folks. I am having so much fun. I am so excited to go to school. Not so much this week because it's been raining and that's scary to drive in but once I am there, the time flies and it's a blast. 

With Love,

Adriana 

(originally posted 2.18.11)