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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Pastro Pro I: Week 2: Cookies and Brownies

Cookies and brownies seem like such as easy topic when as a mom I've spent more years than I want to admit making them. I learned to bake first from my mother but more from a home economics class I took in high school. Over the years I have collected cookbooks and magazine recipes with many, many cookie recipes. I never gave much thought to modifying a basic recipe to suit my taste or using a "ratio" to make a cookie dough but that's the difference between the home cook and the professional. By learning the chemistry of baking it's possible to start thinking in a totally different way. Why did the cookie dough spread out so thin when I baked it?
It could be the fat (butter) or the type of flour (all purpose) and the temperature of the dough (room). To spread less the solution may be cake flour and chilled dough. If I want chewier cookies I can use bread flour and brown sugar. These are just a couple examples of the many facts we learned and then practiced in class. I also learned that creaming butter and sugar is a much longer process than I thought. To think, I've been undercreaming stuff all my life and probably drying stuff out by adding too much flour and overmixing it. Chef Loy did an excellent job of teaching this class and I learned so much.
Our class assignments included:
1-2-3 Cookie Dough: A very easy to remember recipe.
Take 2 pounds butter, 1 pound sugar, 1 Tbs vanilla and cream a LONG time, add 8 ounces of eggs, one at a time, then 3 pounds of flour and you have a basic dough. Add lemon zest or other flavors and make any type of cookie. The dough is missing salt, so adding it would be a good idea.
Rolled cookies from 1-2-3 dough
Gingersnaps (piped)
Nut cookies (molded)
Brownies (plain and cream cheese)
Carrot cookies (drop)
Whole wheat crackers
I volunteered to make a batch of the 1-2-3 dough for the class so I could use the "big bertha" mixer for the first time. That mixer is hugh and powerful. Imagine mixing 2 pounds of butter, sugar, and 3 pounds of flour in your home KitchenAid--no way.
Making all the different cookies was fun, not as stressful as savory cooking at all.
Tasting them at the end was very interesting.

I wish I hadn't accidentally left both my camera and cell phone at home so I could have photographed the 7 varieties of cookies we made. Four tables of students made a dozen of each of the different cookies--7 dozen per table--so at the end we spread out these 28 dozen cookies, brownies and crackers for all of us to sample. The sight of 336 cookies at 10:00 PM is hard to describe, particularly when you're hungry from not eating dinner but trying to lose a few pounds for an uncoming military conference requiring fitting into a too tight uniform. I nibbled on a few of the cookies and just brought the rest home. I was surprised to discover how much I loved the wheat crackers we made. When I saw the recipe I thought "yuk" and heard Chef Loy tell someone that "once you taste homemade crackers you'll never want store bought again."
I was doubtful, but the taste of the savory, spicy, salty cracker was unbelievable. Strange that in a cookie/brownie class I liked the cracker best. I spent the next day nibbling on my crackers making plans to try making them at home. My husband took the cookies to work and is becoming a very popular guy. He came home with a request for the brownie recipe but I told him to warn the guy that our recipes are written in pounds and ounces not cups and teaspoons.

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Sushi Demonstration at Texas Chef Association Meeting: May 6, 2009

I had the opportunity to volunteer for a TCA meeting held at the school. Chef Bobby Garza from Piranha Killer Sushi in Ft. Worth did a sushi demonstration and Chef Kurima asked for students to assist. Sign me up! Sushi is my favorite food and I have always admired the unique and beautiful creations at Piranha. The above photo does not do the sushi justice as most of it was gone by the time I could get my camera out. Everything he made disappeared instantly because it was not only beautiful but also delicious. I was able to make some things for him before the demo. He asked me to fry some corn tortillas cut into 6 wedges, put salt & pepper on them while they were hot. He showed me how to scrape tuna off the fish in such a way that the sinew and tough areas were omitted. He even allowed me to make it my own way which included mayo, sriracha, a chopped jalapeno. I tasted it and it was pretty bland but then Bobby added his touch to it--some finely chopped chives, more sriracha, and some tobiko (flying fish roe). It tasted fantastic after he was through.

Later, during the demo, he placed a spoonful of spicy tuna mixture on a tortilla wedge and added a squeeze of sriracha mayo. Out of this world! He gave us so many useful tips and new ideas I started taking notes so I wouldn't forget. He demonstrated how to hold a hand roll together by using a piece of rice as glue at the end. I have tried to make hand rolls and always struggled to keep it from unrolling. He had ideas for making a salmon tartare and using it on the chips like the spicy tuna or served alone. He had so many sauces in squeeze bottles that were made by mixing mayo with sriracha, mayo with wasabi, cilantro with rice wine vinegar, garlic and ginger, reduced soy sauce with sugar, and he had a few different tins of sea salts. He would take thin slices of sashimi, lay some thinly sliced Fuji apples on the plate and squeeze lime juice or one of the sauces on the plate, with a sprinkle of one of his sea salts. He took a plain tuna thin roll, placed several on the plate cut side up and sprinkled tobiko, some sriracha mayo, chives, then plain sriracha--a twist on spicy tuna roll. He showed us how to make a rainbow roll, then laid plastic wrap on top of it and cut through the plastic wrap which keeps the thinly sliced avocado and fish from moving around.

He demonstrated shaving a daikon and turning the thin spirals into shredded diakon for garnish.

I was so energized by watching him and learning his techniques. I can't wait to make sushi and try them out.

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Pastry Pro I: Week 1: Principles of Baking/Quick Breads

When Chef Kurima started the lecture for Pastry Pro I she told us that pastry is all about "chemistry". Later she said we would be "scaling" which involves math and weighing everything. This information did not thrill me since math and chemistry were not my strongest subjects in high school and college. Although I have been baking since the age of 14 which I took home economics in high school (do they still even teach that?) I have not used recipes that call for 2 pounds of flour, 1/4 ounce cinnamon, 8 ounces brown sugar, 1 1/2 pounds granulated sugar, and 1 1/4 pounds whole butter--and now take this recipe and scale it by making only 1/4 the recipe. Fortunately when table assignments were made I got Jessica who is a math teacher.

She said she always uses a calculator though so maybe that isn't such a plus. My other table mate is Brent, a firefighter who is just starting both Chef Pro I and Pastry Pro I at the same time. You see Pastry Pro I is a beginning class so a person just starting out could be in the class or someone like me who has already taken Chef Pro I and II. Brent is nice but he has not been baking for *&% years like me and has an irritating habit of calling me "ma'am" everytime I talk to him. Maybe I should let one of the hot muffin pans accidentally touch him next time he does it.

I learned about the "baking process" and the importances of gases forming which cause the dough to rise. Steam is created when heat is applied--as the moisture in a dough is heated; yeast and baking powder release additional carbon dioxide when placed in a hot oven. Gases expand and leaven the product. In a nutshell, starches gelatinize, proteins coagulate, fats melt, water evaporates and sugars caramelize. And to think, all these years I have been baking for my family and didn't realize all this technical information. I swear I have produced birthday cakes for my 4 children, numerous baked goods for bake sales, holiday gifts, for friends, and for my family in ignorance. Fortunately I have been a very good baker but I'm sure that will soon end now that I'm doing it for a grade. As I found out in Chef Pro, years of home cooking experience don't always give you a great edge since working in a commercial/production kitchen is far different from cooking at home. Baking in school is very different from baking at home. Although I have used recipes in which I measured ingredients with a scale, those recipes were already "scaled" and I was the only one baking. At school there are 12 people, all trying to get their things in the 2 convection ovens at different times which also means they are checking them and taking them out at different times which translates into HOW MANY TIMES ARE YOU GOING TO OPEN MY OVEN DOOR! We were told we need to start communicating about putting in multiple things at the same time so the door isn't opening at all during the first half of our cooking time. That will not be easy as I've learned that communication with fellow students can be very challenging.

We were given assignments to make the following:

Basic Berry Muffins

Creme Chantilly

Simple Buttercream

Country Biscuits

Sour Cream Muffins

Streusel Topping

Classic spongecake

After getting used to working alone last semester I now had to get back into the groove of working as a group. We started with biscuits and all took turns doing the different steps. I started working on the biscuit dough but Chef Loy noticed I looked like I knew what I was doing and asked if anyone else had ever made biscuits. The others hadn't, so I stepped back and watched Brent make the biscuits. He overworked the dough a bit but they still turned out good.

I did the same for the other recipes--tried to step back and let the others do things they haven't done before. All in all it was quite enjoyable and our products turned out very good (except for the spongecake which we overcooked). Our sour cream muffins were so pretty some of my classmates wanted them so I was happy to give some away. The only negative I can see so far in this Pastry Pro class is sampling the food we've made. Imagine sampling all 12 classmates' 4 or 5 recipes at the end of the night. Here I am trying to take off the few pounds I gained the last 2 semesters so I can fit into my summer military uniform and I'm tempted with the smell of fresh biscuits, muffins, cake. This is going to be very hard! Although the bottom photo is not related to Pastry class I included it. It is from the Big Taste of Ft. Worth, an event in which the culinary school was represented. Lisa and I staffed the booth and had a great time. The event was held at the Hilton Hotel in Ft. Worth and is a fund raiser for Big Brothers and Big Sisters. Many of the best local restaurants were there with tastings of their food. My husband, Steve, and Lisa's husband, Grady, bought tickets and enjoyed the event while we worked. But at the end we did get to make the rounds and sample things. My favorite was the gumbo from Buttons Restaurant.

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Week 14: Chef Pro II Final

After a quick written exam (25 questions) I was anxious to get into the kitchen and see what was in the "mystery basket", actually a mystery "tray". I drew the #1 and found the matching tray in the walk-in refrigerator. It had the following items: pork ribs, a beef steak, a chicken leg, shrimp, pork, fingerling potatoes, grits, cabbage, asparagus, snow peas, celery root, buckwheat honey and a mango I didn't feel too anxious about the items except for the celery root, something I've never cooked with. I decided on the following dishes (after looking around at what other things were available in the walk-in and pantry). Chicken spring roll with snow peas, cabbage, scallions, ginger and garlic with a sweet and spicy sauce (apricot preserves, soy, stock, ginger, garlic reduced). I also decided to cook the celery root, puree it and combine it with potatoes to serve alongside the beef with a chimichurri sauce. In the meantime, as I was writing down what I planned to make I did not see that there was a big case with a lot of fresh herbs, fresh fruit and other things we could use. I would have chosen some other preparations had I known, but I still was able to grab some herbs and fruit. I got off to a slow start by worrying too much about what I was going to do with all the items. We were told that students in the other class made 9 or 10 items. It was an hour into the 3 and 1/2 hour time period we had and I had not even plated 1 dish. I had problems with the chicken spring rolls because the deep fryer was the wrong temperature. I looked at the guage and thought it said 350, but it was really at 300.
By the time I figured out what was wrong I had to start over and make more spring rolls.
Although they turned out great I was chastized for making something "in my comfort zone".
So does that mean if someone who grew up on American food cooked a piece of meat in sauce they would be cooking in their comfort zone? Yes, I'm comfortable with Asian food, but I was also trying to find a use for snow peas and cabbage and that seemed a good way to use those items. After finally getting that dish presented it was 4:45 and I had until 7:00 to make everything else, at least 4 dishes but I wanted to make 5 or 6 more. I tackled the beef next but found it was freezer burnt and smelled bad. I lost a few minutes looking for Chef Kurima to get a new piece and that seemed to throw me off track as well. I did manage to make a nicely cooked steak with chimichurri sauce made of parsley, garlic, wine vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper.
My celery root and potato puree formed a base for the steak and sauce. It tasted good to me but did not have enough of the celery root flavor for the Chef. While I was making all the other dishes I had made a spicy Korean marinade for the pork ribs and planned to serve them with mango salsa. They were roasting in the convection oven very nicely next to a pan of fingerling potatoes I was roasting with olive oil. I worked on a dish with the pork coated in a herb crust, served with the fingerling potatoes and some sauteed asparagus with lemon. The pork was tender and juicy but the herb crust fell off in some parts when I sliced it. The asparagus was cooked nicely but a little to lemony and the potatoes were underseasoned. I presented the pork rib with the mango salsa next. The rib and sauce looked great together on the plate was tasted wonderful to me--salty, savory, spicy with the sweet sauce. Chef Kurima thought the salsa could use a little more heat. My last dish was shrimp and grits. Time was running out and it was 6:30 when I started making it. I threw together the grits quickly and then seasoned the shrimp, seared it, made a nice creamy spicy sauce like the one I made after watching a Bobby Flay Throwdown and plated it a couple minutes before my time ran out. It looked a little plain on the plate--2 creamy things, not enough contrast, but it was delicious in my opinion and I enjoyed eating a few bites of it at the end. I was so relieved to be done I couldn't stop smiling.
Overall I did just fine and even if I "only" had 5 dishes, 2 had 3 or more components and people who did 7-9 dishes could have made tasting type dishes with 2 components so I didn't feel too bad about what I made. I do not like these mystery basket challenges at all or the timed, rushed, stressed feeling that goes along with it. I know this will not be how I cook in the future, but I understand how it is a useful teaching tool. It has really pushed me to remember how to put food together without having to look at a recipe and gotten me out of the habit of relying on recipes. I also feel a lot more confident about plating food and how it should look on the plate.
I now own a big set of plain white plates and try to make some type of sauce with every meal even if it's just to practice sauce ideas.
Today for Sunday breakfast I'm making Vanilla French toast with my own caramel sauce, apples cooked in brown sugar and butter with toasted walnuts and whipped cream.
I have a week off before I start Pastry Pro I on May 6 but it will be a busy week as I am making all the food for a luncheon for 30-40 people at work. Tonight I will be representing the Culinary School at the Big Taste of Fort Worth at the Hilton Hotel along with my good friend Lisa Wright. We will be sitting at a booth giving out cookies from a cookie waterfall and telling anyone who is interested about the school. Now I'm having fun....
Halfway through Culinary School and I'm ready to use what I've learned. I have been asked to judge a chili contest at Saginaw High School on May 5 and I will help Chef Paula Ambrose with a big dinner for the grand opening of the Azle Library in late June.

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