Pastry Pro I: Week 9: Cakes

Pound cake

We had a surprise drill when we came into class. Make a 2 egg omelet--no utensils of course.
I was not afraid because I had practiced several times at home and I had actually watched Julia Child's original TV recording of the omelet show. She demonstrates over and over how to make an omelet with nothing but the pan and the movement you create. I mixed my 2 eggs with a little kosher salt and water, added clarified butter to the pan and heated it. It looked hot enough so I poured in the eggs and they immediately stuck to the pan! Chef Sively took the spatula and lifted the edges for me (thanks!) and then I recovered and made the omelet without anything but the pan and my arm. It turned out pretty good but I need to practice. AND make sure the pan is hot enough! We were given some advance warning that the first week of CP3 we'll be expected to make a perfect omelet, French onion soup, roux, risotto, eggs benedict, and demonstrate our knife skills. Time to start practicing!
Cake class was interesting. We learned the difference between foam cakes and high ratio cakes.
Foam cakes rely on whipped eggs for leavening whereas high ratio cakes rely on creamed fat.
Butter cakes are also known as creaming-method cakes. These are our typical birthday cakes and are supposed to be tender, yet sturdy enough to hold fillings and frosting. For a cake that needs to be rolled or sliced into very thin layers, the foam cake works much better. These cakes, called genoise, spongecakes, angel food cakes, and chiffon cakes, can be used as the building blocks to create multi-layered torts. As with all cakes, both butter and foam, can fail miserably due to any number of problems including undermixing, overmixing, undercooking, overcooking, not right temperature, etc. This is probably why cake mixes are so popular. But, a really well made butter cake is a wonderful thing I learned.
I have made many cakes in my life and some have been outstanding. I make a wonderful Italian cream cake, great carrot cake, outstanding German chocolate cake, and many others, but I never had a recipe for a good versatile basic butter cake, nor did I ever think of having a good basic cake to use to create other things. That's the reason culinary school is so great--it opens your eyes to new ways of thinking about things you already know.
For class we were given the following assignment:
Magnificent Moist Golden Cake--creaming method
Magnificent Moist Golden Cake-two-stage method
Magnificent Moist Golden Cake--dissolved sugar method
Classic Genoise
Orange Chiffon Cake
Angel Food Cake
Chocolate Sponge Layer
Joconde Sponge Cake
American Poundcake
Each table made all 3 golden cakes and then we chose just one other type of cake. I chose pound cake.
I worked on the dissolved sugar method cake and it turned out really well. It is so moist and tasty--but the two-stage method cake, made by Matt, was the best. It really was melt-in-the-mouth moist.
Recipe
2 large eggs (3.5 oz) at room temperature
3 large egg yolks (1.95 oz) at room temperature
1/3 cup buttermilk, divided
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups (7.1 oz) spooned and leveled cake flour (you have to use cake flour or it won't work)
1 1/2 cups (10 oz) sugar
1 3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
4 T unsalted butter, cut into 1 T pieces and slightly softened
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup heavy cream
Preheat oven to 350. Spray 9 inch round cake pan with nonstick spray with flour and line with parchment circle.
Stir eggs, yolks, 3 T of the buttermilk and vanilla together in a medium bowl.
Mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a mixer with the whisk attachment on low speed for 30 seconds. Add the butter and oil and remaining 2 T buttermilk. Mix on low speed to moisten, then increase to medium and beat 1 1/2 min. Scrape down sides and bottom of bowl. Add 1/3 of the egg mixture and beat for 20 seconds. Repeat, adding thirds until all egg mixture is incorporated. Scrape down sides after each addition.
In a cold bowl with cold beaters, whip the cream until soft peaks form and then beat a little beyond this soft peak stage. Stir about 1/4 of the whipped cream into the batter to lighten it, then fold the rest of the whipped cream into the batter.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Drop the pan onto the counter from a height of 4 inches to knock out bubbles. Place cake in oven and bake until toothpick comes out clean but moist, about 40 minutes. Cool on rack 10 min, then invert cake on rack that has been sprayed with nonstick spray. Peel off parchment. Cool completely before slicing into layers. Enjoy!
We also discussed our upcoming projects for the 3 weeks we will be making the "finished products". We will take things we've learned from previous weeks and using components we have stored in the freezer, such as sauces and fillings, doughs, etc. and fresh sauces and garnishes, we will make at least 6 finished products. We had to discuss and decide on our finished products in class so Chef Kurima can determine if they are reasonable and then make sure the ingredients we need are available the days of class. We have to make the following categories:
Stirred custard
Baked custard
Cake
Pie
Laminated Dough
For stirred custard I'm make a lime-mango curd, for baked custard, chocolate pots de creme, for cake, a coconut, lime-mango poundcake with Italian meringue, and pie a banana cream pie, and for laminated dough, blitz puff pastry with which I will made chocolate croissants. I will also make a free form apple peach and frangipane tart with peach coulis and some berry turnovers.
Wow, that sounds like a lot of work, but it is over 3 classes so it's not so bad. I will start testing some recipes at home.

Angel food cake was underdone and fell out of the pan. Oops!

Magnificent butter cake cooling. It was really good!

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Pastry Pro I: Week 8: Fillings and Sauces

I really enjoyed this class. Chef Loy lectured briefly about fillings, going over the differences between high and low pectic fruits, encouraging us to use a minimum amount of sugar so the fruit can be tasted. Fruit fillings need to have some starch so the rule is to use 1 1/2 tsp of starch per cup of fruit. Nutmeg goes with berries, cinnamon for apples, and cloves for peaches and apricots. Ginger goes with anything (but don't use too much). One thing he mentioned that I never really thought about was mixing 2 fruits to keep from being boring/ordinary. Mix 1 apple into a peach pie, or use 3 types of berries instead of 1.
My cooking partner Kristin and I had the following assignments:
Kristin:
tart glaze
caramel sauce
lime chiffon
baked fruit filling
I had:
dark chocolate syrup
frangipane
fruit coulis
blueberry pie filling (cooked juice filling)
champagne sabayon
For once all my dishes turned out well! Probably because this was an easy class, but what the heck, after last week it was nice to have success. It probably didn't hurt that I was really trying hard to improve my performance from last week. I read the instructions first this time and focused on producing a quality dish every time. I think the frangipane is really delightful. Nutty, fluffy, sweet and it will be great in a tart or bear claw. I used blueberries, raspberries and strawberries for the pie filling and it was tasty--a little lime juice and zest brightened it up.
I was very pleased with the peach ginger lime coulis. I pureed frozen peaches (thawed first) with crystallized ginger, strained them and added sugar and lemon juice. This was very fresh and wonderful. I like the fresh coulis better than the type where the fruit is cooked, then strained.
Fruit Coulis
16 oz fruit puree, strained
2 1/2 ounces sugar
1 ounce corn syrup
1/2 ounce lemon juice
Make fruit puree by taking 1 lb of fresh or frozen fruit, 2 T sugar and 2 T fresh lemon juice and processing in blender or food processor until smooth. Pour into a fine sieve set over a bowl and use a rubber spatula to press the puree through the sieve; discard solids.
My sabayon turned out very nicely and although I don't think I'll be making it for myself (it takes 8 egg yolks!) at least I know what it looks like and next time the Chopped or Top Chef contestants talk about their sabayon I won't be wondering how it's made.
My chocolate syrup was great--and I will find a way to use it when we make finished products.
The past few weeks we have been making components that we will be able to put together over 3 classes. We've made pie crusts, croissant dough, puff pastry, custards, etc. and put them in the freezer. Theoretically we should be able to pull out these components a couple weeks from now and make finished products. Trouble is who can remember what we made? My mind is clogged up with planning a national social work conference to be held in 3 weeks and I haven't even written my speeches yet! So when I can't sleep at night I'm alternately trying to remember what's in the freezer at culinary school and what the Bureau of Prisons social workers should hear about at the conference. The other problem is with my so call components. I know I can't use my puff pastry because it was not good. We froze the "lock-in" one week and rolled it out the next week and this was not successful. We are allowed to make another batch of puff pastry at home and bring it in but that is the only thing we can bring in. Some of my other components were not very good and I didn't save them. I threw out my pastry cream and creme anglaise so I'll have to re-make them as well. We will have to make 1 pie, 1 cake, 2 laminated items, a stirred custard, and a baked custard over the 3 classes. That really doesn't sound too bad, but then nothing does until you're standing in the kitchen at school and time is flying by!
I have been practicing though. I have made pie crust at home at least 4 times and my family is sick of coconut cream pie. I made blitz pastry puff twice now and palmiers are also on the "don't make that again" list. My pastry cream is light, smooth and delicious and everyone loves it.
For the 4th of July I am making a tart pastry filled with berries and mascarpone cheese with a blueberry coulis. I hope by the time we have the final exam I'll be able to make the required items with ease. As strange as it sounds I'm really enjoying the pastry class and find myself studying the notes from class and thinking about making things all the time. I have purchased several books and read them at night when I'm bleary eyed and tired. When my husband is watching TV I'm reading:
Bakewise by Shirley O'Corriher
Cookwise by Shirley O'Corriher
The Essentials of Baking, Williams and Sonoma
Baking Boot Camp
Chocolates and Confections (CIA) by Peter Greweling
Ratio by Michael Ruhlman
I have made lists of new recipes to try, tried new techniques for making puff pastry and pie crust and my counter is cluttered with stacks of my notes, recipes, books, equipment.
If someone were to come into my house and look at the books in my kitchen and then the ones in my bedroom they might be surprised to find that I'm also reading:
The End of Overeating by David Kessler
Move a Little, Lose a Lot by James Levine
Although I'm in pastry class now I am also interested in living a long time so another side of me is very aware of downside of gourmet eating and cooking!
At the 2009 Southwest Foodservice Expo earlier this week I was reminded of my interest in nutrition and health when I attended a demo by an instructor from Remington College. He spoke of 21st century nutrition and how important it is to be nutrition-saavy today. After all, the baby boomers like me are now in our late 40's through 60's and we are now focused on living a quality life well into our 90's. We are not passive and content with listening to mainstream authorities when there is a better way. The chef demonstrated using ancient grains to make things such as a quinoa tortilla, a crepe with amaranth, and a wild rice and black rice waffle. For moisture he used what he called "tri solution", a mixture of silken tofu, soy milk, yogurt, and rice milk. He spoke of reducing salt, fat, and chemicals in our food--all of great interest to me.
I tasted the things he made and found them to be very unusual and good. Compared to the very highly seasoned, fatty, sugary, and salty things I had been sampling earlier his things were rather bland but I know that if I'm not eating the aforementioned common foods the natural dishes taste much better.
The culinary trend of today seems to be more of a focus on healthy, sustainable, organic, and local. At the Texas Chef's Association meeting this week Chef Michael Moribito started the round table by asking all the attendees to consider growing their own gardens. All present spoke of their home gardens if they had one. I laughed to myself because I am now on my 3rd year of growing vegetables seriously. For many, many years my mother always had a huge yard of vegetables and fruits which she always wanted to show me. I yawned through most of her tours and photos of her perfect vegetables and fruits. She was particularly proud of her persimmon tree and fig tree. When she moved in with me in 2000 she wanted a small vegetable garden so we made her one every year which she faithfully watered, weeded, and cared for from the ages of 76 to 81. I enjoyed the vegetables she grew but was way to "busy" to get very involved. We moved in late 2005 to our current house and created a space outside her bedroom door for a small vegetable garden, but she died in the spring of 2006 before we could plant it. While she was in the hospital in late March she told me to be sure to buy the Japanese eggplants at Russell Feed Store in Benbrook, the only place she could ever find Ichiban eggplants. So I trekked over there and bought several plants. She never saw the end result but she would have been pleased.
The next year I had a man come out and create a raised bed that is 20 feet by 12 feet. I have since had both an herb garden outside her bedroom door (which is near my kitchen) and I always plant shiso (perilla) for her and a garden full of Japanese eggplant, Japanese cucumber, tomatoes, edamame, various peppers, green beans. I have a raspberry bush and strawberry plants. When I'm out in the garden I think about my mother and know she would have been so thrilled to see all the perfect vegetables and know how much I enjoy cooking them, eating them, and sharing them with others. I wish I had taken the time to learn all her gardening tips when she was alive but I was so "busy" then. The least I can do is have a garden in honor of her memory and perhaps pass on her love of gardening to my four children and grandchildren. One of my children, my son Glenn, loves the garden and the biggest enthusiast is my granddaughter Kyndal. At 5 she comes over every week and the first thing she wants to do is pick berries or tomatoes and always insists to have a lot to take home with her. She also wants to be a chef!

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Pastry Pro I: Week 7: Custards

A custard is anything thickened by the coagulation of egg proteins. Custards can be stirred or baked. Stirred custards are cooked on the stove top and must be stirred throughout cooking to stabilize the eggs and prevent curdling (overcooking). Think of the filling for a cocount cream pie, made with pastry cream. Pastry cream is a custard. Another common custard in creme anglaise (vanilla custard sauce). Now I have some experience making custards. I have made successful creme brulee, panna cotta, and recently a very good coconut cream pie so I went into this class with confidence. How hard could it be to make some custards after all? Chef Loy warned us about curdling and the thin line between perfection and ruin so I was a little worried.
Pastry class in Texas when it's 100 degrees outside is also a factor. It's hard to concentrate 80+ degree kitchen! We were given the the following assignments:

Pastry Cream

Vanilla Custard Sauce

Chocolate Mousse

Creme Brulee

Lemon Curd

Panna Cotta

Flan

Fresh Fruit Bavarian

I was teamed with Eric and gave him first choice for 4 items. He picked Chocolate Mousse,

Creme Brulee, Lemon Curd and the Bavarian.

I thought things were going well as I was making my flan. It seemed pretty simple. I made pastry cream and then realized it was awfully thick and lumpy looking although I did everything according to the instructions (and I have made this before!) The creme anglaise looked fine, however I saw some signs of curdling around the edges of the pan so that should have clued me in on the fact that it was overdone but I have never made this before so I wasn't sure. I now know what overdone creme angliase looks like though. My panna cotta looked pretty good but when it was tasted it was definitely a little too "tight", meaning too much gelatin. Working with sheet gelatin is a little tricky so this will take some practice to get right. The pastry cream turned into a too thick, lumpy mass by tasting time. Surprisingly, the flan was very good but the sauce I attempted to create was not so good--brown sugar, syrup, nuts got very hard and sticky.
Eric's mousse was good, the Bavarian cream OK, the creme brulee a little soft, and he did not get the lemon curd done. Although most of what we made turned out either mediocre to bad it was a good demonstration of the frustrating dynamic of failing to make something due to the situation. I could go into my kitchen right now and make very good pastry cream with a recipe from the textbook but I'm not juggling 3 or 4 other dishes using different equipment and around a lot of distractions. The factors at school that make cooking ordinary dishes hard are being timed, unfamiliar equipment, and unfamiliar ingredients. Also, making something for the first time is always a gamble. The pastry cream at school used flour but I prefer using cornstarch for smoothness. I would have also reduced the amount of flour but I didn't know it at the time.
Now do I want to go home and practice making something with these ingredients?:
1 quart half and half
1 vanilla bean, split
12 egg yolks
10 oz sugar
Whisk eggs yolks and sugar together in a mixing bowl. Temper the egg mixture with 1/3 of the hot cream, return entire mixture to saucepan. Cook over medium high heat, stirring constantly until thick enough to coat back of a spoon. Do NOT allow the sauce to boil. As soon as it thickens, remove it form the heat, strain it and put in a clean bowl. Chill over an ice bath.
(This is the recipe for Creme Anglaise)
I have a 5 year physical for my job coming up this fall so after culinary school for a year I'm afraid to see what the cholesterol level is going to be!

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Pastry Pro 1: Week 6: Laminated Doughs

Chef Loy

The thing I love about culinary school is learning new things and then seeing the finished
product. Other than cakes, which I bake for my family and friends, and holiday cookies, the occasional dinner rolls, quick breads, and cookies, I have stayed away from baking due to time constraints and the constant worry about weight gain. After working all day I hardly have time to make dinner let alone bake something. And then of course, the fact that it doesn't take too many pieces of any baked good to add on the pounds. I typically buy a loaf of multi-grain bread from Artisan Baking Company and enjoy a slice each morning. I would love to go to a bakery and stock up on danish pastries and croissants but then I would be in big trouble when I go for my annual physical (which is coming up soon!) One of the students in my class mentioned that her cholesterol level is up 70 points since starting pastry class. I'll soon find out the damage report on myself. I still treasure the learning process and even if I don't make laminated dough too often at least I'll know how if the occasion ever comes up and I am now capable of making a beautiful and tasty croissant I think a treat of homemade croissants at Christmas would be wonderful. And, if you've ever looked at a Williams-Sonoma catalog they sell frozen croissants for a small fortune ($39.95 for 15) and they come frozen and you have to bake them yourself!

Lamination refers to the process of layering the dough and fat. When baked, the butter worked into the layers of dough gives off moisture, and the steam causes the thin layers of dough to puff and rise. There is no substitute for butter here--can't use olive oil or reduce the amount of butter or it won't be the same thing. Folding is the most critical factor--the layers must be even and consistent. The process of folding is not all that complicated but requires repeating at least 3 times with resting and cooling periods in between. The whole whole process takes hours from start to finish but the finished product is out of this world. Much better than what they call "croissants" at most stores and even bakeries. I usually skip them because I've had so many bad croissants over the years. I do love a really good chocolate croissant though, so maybe I'll try making that eventually. Some good tips we learned--brush off excess flour between turns, keeep the dough covered during the resting and folding periods, and don't roll it too thin.

Last week we started our croissant/danish and puff pastry doughs by encasing the butter in the dough. We froze the dough for both puff pastry and croissants with the intention of doing the folds in tonight's class and then baking off a small piece of dough and saving the rest for a class later on when we would make finished products with our doughs. Chef Loy gave a very detailed and interesting lecture on lamination and then threw out a lot of French terms which I hope I can remember. Bouchees, vol-au-vents and feuilletees are some of the different types of puff pastries. We went to our stations and started by working on a new type of dough, blitz puff pastry. Now this is something very useful. It's a short cut to the much more time consuming real puff pastry and is made somewhat like a biscuit dough. We cut in the butter, some salted water and the made a shaggy dough, rolled it out, folded it, chilled it and folded it 4 more times, chilling it in between. This was not hard at all and resulted in a very flaky and puff like product. On the other hand, the puff dough from the freeze did not perform. Our puff samples were pathetic, flat and ugly. The croissant dough, however, made lovely croissants, largely due to the yeast in that dough. Since we were supposed to use the frozen dough later on I know I'm going to have to make my own at home, which is good because then I'll have to practice.

Croissants

We were able to use the blitz dough to make anything we wanted. I was attracted to the palmiers and wanted to make some. Later I realized that I used to buy very large palmiers at the bakery for my mother but they were called elephant ears. She loved those things and it made me sad when I thought about how tickled she'd be to have a homemade palmier from me. If fact, all the things we're doing in the lamination classes are things my mother dearly loved. In Japan she grew up eating French bakery goods--the cream puff, eclairs, croissants and such and always spoke fondly of them, but she was not a pastry maker and we never lived near any French bakeries so I didn't appreciate her good taste. I wish she could be here today when I practice making more palmiers. I miss her so much but her love of cooking, gardening, and making things for people will live on in me. Thanks Mom.

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Pastry Pro I: Week 5: Pies and Tarts

What is not to love about pies and tarts? I have made pies all my life, including my earliest pies when I was a young teenager. I didn't know anything about gluten formation then and couldn't figure out why my pie crust had the texture of cardboard. I just mixed that dough until it was completely together since I didn't know better. In recent years I have learned not to overmix the dough but my very limited practice, mostly Thanksgiving and maybe Christmas, has not always been successful. The great thing about culinary school is finding out why things didn't turn out right. Chef Kurima explained the importance of chilling the pie dough before rolling it, something I always did, but then she also advised chilling the pie crust after it's been rolled, something I never did. Chilling it keeps it from shinking while baking, which is what happened to my apple pie a few months ago. She gave us hints such as putting large rubber bands on the ends of the rolling pin to keep the dough from getting thinner than 1/8 inch and the best one was using a method where the butter is chopped, put in with the flour and placed on the working surface. Then a rolling pin is used to roll the bits of butter, the flour is moved around, more butter is rolled and this is repeated several times. Liquid is added until the dough holds together. We tried this technique and it worked very well. The interesting thing is that it took a lot less liquid than the other methods. We also learned to move the dough around as we were rolling it out, use as little flour as possible, and brush off excess flour before baking.
We also had a lesson on laminated dough. Think puff pastry and croissants. We learned to "lock the butter" and will continue with this subject next week. We made a dough, rolled it into a square, took 9.5 ounces of butter (yes--that is a lot of butter) and flattened it, then placed it in the center of the rolled and dough, folded in the edges of the dough like an envelope and double wrapped. We made both puff pastry and croissant dough. Next week we'll continue with the next steps. I have a feeling I will not be making too much laminated pastry on my own since butter is on my list of things to avoid for healthy heart reasons.
Pie crust, on the other hand, can be made with a combination of vegetable shortening and butter and takes less than laminated dough. We made the following:





Pate Brisee
12 oz pastry flour
.3 oz salt (1 1/2 tsp)
.3 oz sugar (1 1/2 tsp)
6 oz butter, chilled
4 oz eggs
.6 oz water (4 tsp)
4 drops vanilla extract

We also made Pate Sucree (tart dough) which was similar to the brisee, except we creamed the butter and sugar like cookie dough.
We chilled our doughs, rolled them out, place dough in mini pie tins, chilled again, then blind baked them. Blind baking involves docking the dough (poking holes in it too keep it from puffing up) and placing a piece of foil on the crust weighted down by beans, then baking it.
Our crusts were baked and we all sampled them. Some were made with butter only (best flavor), shortening only (bland), and a combination of both (ok). We also sampled the baklava we made as a class last week. I have never made baklava and have had it many times but didn't care much for it, however this baklava was wonderful, not too sweet and very flavorful. I will definitely make it at home. I will also practice pie making as soon as possible.





Preparing to lock in the butter...

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Pastry Pro I: Week 4: Pastry Doughs

This is not an area of familiarity for me when it comes to baking. Of all the topics we covered in class: Pate a Choux, Meringue, Crepes, and Phyllo I have very limited experience with most.
I've never made Pate a Choux (which means paste of cabbages), nor do I care much for the end products which include cream puffs, eclairs, and beignets. Oh, I've eaten my share of chocolate eclairs and churros but they are on the list of things I usually avoid. My mother was a big cream puff lover and pastries made with pate a choux are very popular in Japan. Her favorite treat was a cream puff but I always preferred cookies or cakes, preferably chocolate. I have made meringue before, a very good low fat cookie called "forgotten cookies" is made from meringue and I've made them before. Problem was they tasted so good I ate them all in a couple days therefore accomplishing nothing by making low calorie cookies. I've also made many dishes requiring whipped egg whites but we made some different things in class such as swiss meringue in which egg whites and sugar are cooked over simmering water, then whipped until stiff.
The stiff mixture is then piped into shapes, baked, then can be used as a base or cup for fruit, puddings, mousse, etc. I tried the finished product which looked beautiful but was so sweet it made my teeth hurt! Don't think I'll be using too much swiss meringue in the future. Making crepes was very educational. I've enjoyed eating them but never made them before. The batter is mixed in a blender, sits at least 1 hour, then spread thinly in the crepe pan. My first few were ugly but then they got much better. I made some apple filling and Tela made some brandy whipped cream. Crepes with caramel apple and sea salt with brandy whipped cream were delicious. (A little too much cinnamon though) We all participated in making baklava. I made the honey/sugar syrup, Eric made the nut mixture, and Lisa prepared the first several layers of dough. Tela, a baklava expert, cut it into perfect diamonds. We'll taste it next week.
I asked my husband later if he thought I should try to make it and he said he preferred chocolate baklava. Hmmm, I may look into that. Making popovers was a bonus and very interesting. This is another thing I've never made but it's very simple. I never thought about adding ingredients to popovers but Chef Kurima suggested adding fruit, herbs, spices, etc.
I'm including the recipe here. My version had grated parmesan cheese and finely diced fresh rosemary, however anything you like can be added--just keep the quantity small so it will rise.
10 oz vegetable oil
8 oz AP flour
1 tsp salt
6 eggs
16 oz whole milk
3 oz whole butter, melted
Place small amount of oil (1/2 oz) in each muffin tin or popover tin and use pastry brush to spread over all the surface. Place pan in 425 degree oven until hot.
Sift flour, salt together and place in large bowl. In separate bowl whisk together eggs, milk, and butter. Pour liquid over dry ingredients and whip until smooth. OK to do this by hand.
Remove pan from oven and fill each 2/3 full . Bake at 425 for 20 min. (less if using mini muffin pans), then reduce temp to 275 and bake 10 more min. (less if using mini muffin pans)
Serve hot.

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Pastry Pro I: Week 3: Yeast Breads

Bread baking is one of those things I do around the holidays, usually trying a new dinner roll recipe here and there but never quite finding the "right " recipe. I think it was more my technique than the recipe. I learned several things in this class that have already helped. Since class last night I have already practiced at home and made a huge batch of roll dough. I wanted to use the new information while it was fresh in my mind. Making yeast bread turn out right is not that simple. There are so many variables including room temperature, humidity, temperature of the flour, yeast freshness, etc. We were given demonstrations on how much to knead dough and it was then I realized that I've probably been under kneading dough all along. We learned a method called the "windowpane" which is a simple way to test the dough. When I tried it today it worked well. We have different equipment at school which makes it easier than home. The warming oven is great for "fermenting" (rising) of the dough because we can set it at an exact temperature whereas at home it's not always easy to find the right spot. Chef Kurima suggested using my oven with just the light turned on. She was right--that worked fine.

The mixers at school are also very heavy duty and made to knead dough. My home Kitchen Aid Artisan mixer is not up to the task of kneading bread dough. We were shown how to make bread crusty bread by using a steam oven. We turned a regular oven into a steam oven by placing a pan of water in the bottom, using a baking stone on the rack, and spraying the sides of the oven with water during the first 10 minutes. We contrasted rolls and bread made with or without steam and saw the difference. The steam oven rolls had a crisper outside and browner color.We were given the opportunity to make several types of rolls and bread. We made soft roll dough, an enriched dough as well as whole wheat bread, French bread and brioche.With the soft dough roll we made various shapes of rolls and bread, including round, braids, knots, and stuffed breads. The brioche dough took forever to knead and was a very sweet and tasty finished product. Imagine using 12 eggs and 1 1/2 pounds of butter in aroud 2 1/2 pounds of flour and you get an idea of what a rich dough it is. Not something I plan to eat much of unless I want to look like a fermenting roll. I made one stuffed bread with French bread dough and chunks of cheddar cheese and roasted poblano peppers. It was wonderful. I also made some mini cinnamon rolls with frosting and they were very tasty. The rolls I made today at home turned out better than ones I've made in past years. I believe my more thorough kneading and using the oven to ferment the dough helped. I also learned to check doneness by using a themometer. This is really effective and easy resulting in perfectly done rolls and bread. Too bad I couldn't eat more than a taste--but that taste was very good.

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