June 20 , 2011 - Baking and Pastry I

Okay...so it's COOKIE DAY!!!  We were able to pick between three types of cookies (Oatmeal, Chocolate Chip, Peanut Butter).  As you may see below, We chose peanut butter to start off.  Making these cookies really took me back to my childhood.  One of my aunts is a baker.  She used to give us (children) of the family coupons for free cakes (personal size) and cookies.  She always forked (made the checkered marks using a fork) her cookies.  At any rate, she made some AWESOME COOKIES...and still does.  These were great but I'd say that her cookies tasted more peanut buttery :).  All in all, I enjoyed making my first batch of scratch peanut butter cookies.  Maybe one day I'll make the actual peanut butter and use that for the cookies. ;-)

Giant (approx. 3-4 inch diameter)Peanut Butter Cookies

The second batch of cookies we made were a little more elegant.  As a kid, we always called them a fancier sugar cookie, but today I found that the actual name is a Spritz Cookie.  Spritz cookies are made from a softer dough.  We actually used a pastry bag and star to put them on the cookie sheet.  I've seen my aunt (the same one mentioned above) use a pastry bag all while growing up, and, I've seen television shows where the Chef  used pastry bags with the greatest of ease.  Little did I know that they obviously practiced a whole lot to get that part down.  Just as with everything else, with practice comes a better product.  So these spritz cookies aren't so round, but they were as tasty, if not tastier than those that I've eaten before.  Maybe eating them just a few minutes from pulling them from the oven made the BIG difference. :)

Spritz Cookie with Raspberry Preserve

All in all, these are just a few more items that I've added to my baking and pastry repertoire.

June 6-16, 2011 - Baking & Pastry I and Quantity Food Production I

I really do apologize for those of you that have been supporting my blog.  I didn't post last weeks class projects and am posting those (Baking and Pastry I and Quantity Food Production I) pictures with descriptions along with this weeks Quantity Food Production I dishes.


First up is an Apple and Blueberry Tart.  Although you may see two different tarts, each are the same, with the top just having a streusel topping.  Both of them tasted extremely well, and I would eat both at any given moment.  I would have to lean toward the one with streusel, mainly due to the added texture that it gives you while enjoying it.

 

 Apple and Blueberry Tarts:  Hand made sweet dough pressed firmly in tart shells and filled with a cooked chopped apple and blueberry with light sugar feeling.  These can be enjoyed fresh out of the oven(of course allowing them to cool enough to eat) as well as cooled completely.  The top two pictures have a simple crumble that was cooked along with the tarts in the oven while the bottom two pictures have no topping.

Second up is the Quantity Food Production Meal from last week which was a stuffed Pork Chop (boneless) with Potato Pancakes and Brocolli Almondine and a small Salad.

Braised Stuffed Pork Chop with Potato Pancakes and Brocolli Almondine

Small Salad with shredded carrot and quartered tomato and a poppy seed vinaigrette.

This meal was full of tasts that would satisfy my ongoing craving for some stuffing.  Although I have to admit, I've eaten my share of Stove Top...but now, I know for certain that I dont think I'll ever need to make that purchase again.  Stuffings in general are extremely easy to make, and can be made within minutes.  The almonds added a different texture to the brocolli that I would've never thought of  putting together.  The braised pork chop was tender and the potato pancakes were crispy on the outside while staying soft on the inside.

The last meal is the one we compelted yesterday (June 16, 2011).  It consisted of a Beef Roulade, Asparagus with Creamy Mustard Sauce and Classic Rice Pilaf topped with Dill.  This was probably the most involved meal thus far. We had to chop each of the vegetables (onions, celery, green beans, zuccchinni, carrots, etc.) into half inch cubes for the soup, pound the beef thin enough to make the roulade and shred a load of parmesan cheese for the roulade and soup. The list of things to do for this creation goes on much further, but, I'll let you get to the pics. :)

Beef Roulade with Asparagus and a Classic Rice Pilaf

 Ministrone Soup topped with shredded Parmesan Cheese

I really enjoy the fact that we get to eat everything we make :)  Although weight gained should be reduced with exercise, the many different dishes and tastes that I've been able to make and discover have increased my palate and overall awareness of things that I wouldn't otherwise use in the kitchen.  I'm still enjoying this process and am continueing to drive forward in learning and creating mouth watering and tasteful foods.  Until next week...keep chewing.

May 23, 2011 - Day 3 of Baking and Pastry I

So the third day and we were able to discuss different types of doughs.  We used the straight dough mixing method in producing the items that you'll see below.

 Personal Pizza

At first sight, one would think that this is just an ordinary pizza with tomatoe.  If you know me, you know good and well that I am absolutely not a vegeterian, but if you thought thought, my plan was a success.  The first ingrediant on the pizza is actually small cubed pancetta, followed by fresh grated parmessan cheese and a bit of salt.  I then placed the nicely sliced tomatoes (6 slices) on the crust and finished it off with  a few nice sized slices (yes, not grated) of mozerella cheese.

Cinnamon Roll

This right here isn't your typical cinnaman roll.  It's decked out with not only the brown sugar, sugar, cinnamon, and butter, but raisens and chopped wallnuts.  When I say, Cinnabon better watch out...I'm being serious.  Most people know that I LOVE Cinnabon's Cinnamon Rolls.  This was much richer, totally fresh, and straight up AWESOME!  I didn't even want to think of the calories in it...oh yeah, the light icing on top was an added bonus.  That was made with just a few ingrediants (little butter, confectionary sugar, etc.).

We also made something else but I didn't like the taste.  Many of my classmates didn't really care for it either.  So I'll just leave it at that, lol.  All in all...these items seemingly daunting, are fairly easy to produce in any kitchen (even the one we had in South Korea).

Until the next class...keep chewing...and exercising :-\

May 16, 2011 - Day 2 of Baking and Pastry I

Today went really well.  We began in the classroom by going over our weekly words and then a short video on different types of breads.  We moved on by discussing the day's menu which consisted of us producing a flat bread  bread sticks, pretzels and pizza dough (frozen for our production with other items next week.

Here's a few pictures that I took of the finished products.

Flat bread:  This bread dough was made with chopped onions inside. The left half has crushed rosemary, finely grated Parmesan and salt and the right side has finely grated Parmesan cheese and salt.

Twisted bread sticks:  This dough was hand kneaded by yours truly :).

Pretzels topped with sesame seeds.

I enjoyed learning the recipes and producing these items.  I've found that making certain to follow recipes, especially when to add what, is the most important thing a person can do.  Also, if you're thinking of adding in something to a recipe, make sure to change other items, i.e. is the item dry or does it have liquid?  Berries and vegetables can add much more liquid to your mix than necessary so don't always add the actual amount of water.  Of course this isn't for everything, you have to know how the dough should look prior to resting and proofing it.

May 9, 2011 - Day 1 of Baking and Pastry I

So this is my first entry.  I plan on typing on this page at least once or twice a week, or maybe even after each of my classes.  This blog is meant to be a journal of the things that I've learned, or have done during my courses in Culinary and Baking & Pastry Programs.

Up first, Baking and Pastry Day 1 assignments:

1.  Blueberry Muffins

 

2.  Country Biscuits

Simple, yet a bit of work went into making these.  If this is/was day 1, I can't wait for days 2, 3, 4....and beyond in this course and the other courses.

By the way...I did have a homework assignment.  Each week in this course, I'll be given one word that I'll have to define and discuss in class the following week.  My word is Galaktobureko.  Don't ask me to pronounce it, but I do know that by the Greek definition, galakto means milk, and bureko means pie.  It is in fact a traditional Greek milk and butter pie made with filo pastry (paper thin type of pastry).  I do hope to make this one day just to see how it tastes.

Until next time... keep chewing