Goodbye Baking and Pastry...

The end of Baking and Pastry, and a sad day. Well, not horribly sad, but it was definitely the end of a very good thing and I will miss Chef Knaster.

Here's what I've been up to the last several days:

Wednesday, I was on bread team, so I made whole wheat pitas. It's actually a very simple bread - just combine and mix/knead the flours, water, yeast, salt and a touch of sugar and olive oil. Let the dough proof for an hour, then shape and bake. Actually, the shaping was a bit involved, owing to the fact that each of the 35 pitas were first rolled into a seamless ball, then flattened and partially rolled, then rolled out to a nine-inch circle. I slid them off the wood peels and into a 500 degree oven. They're done in just four minutes - puffed into a sphere, slightly brown on the bottom, delicious. I mixed up a huge batch of hummus and it made a fine lunch.

Thursday I made Armagnac Prune and Walnut Galettes - rustic tarts made with a flaky butter pastry, a layer of sweet walnut filling, and topped with prunes rehydrated in Armagnac and vanilla syrup. Life doesn't get much better than a slice of this tart, served warm from the oven with a dollop of creme fraiche. Thanks for the recipe, Chris!

In preparation for today's pizza, I brought in five quarts of fresh raw milk to class and made real mozzarella. Illegal cheese...! It's true; you can't buy fresh, milky mozzarella like this anywhere in the country. Italy, yes. But it's sad how most people don't know what mozzarella should taste like - all they know is the rubbery, plastic-tasting mass one finds in the grocery store. Mmmm! Plastic and rubber! For the pizza today we also had to use cheese curd mozzarella because I just couldn't make enough from the five quarts. I thought it might actually be good, but no. Sure, it melts. But it has no flavor, and is way too chewy. The handmade one tasted like fresh, sweet milk, and oozed rich cream when bitten.

I must say, though - the Italian stuff is even better. I experienced Mozzarella di bufala for the first (and only, regretfully) time in Florence about five years ago. What I make at home has the ability to transport me back to that sunny piazza where we devoured a whole ball of the luxurious cheese with perfect tomatoes and basil and olive oil, and slurped down handmade goat cheese tortelloni with shaved truffles. I must go back. Though I wouldn't say no to buying and milking my own water buffalo....

Back to the pizza. It was very good, though our ovens just aren't hot enough to produce the ideal crust. Better go to Italy or Stroll-Inn (McKees Rocks, Pittsburgh) for the really good stuff!

I worked with Kendall and Amanda today for our chocolate truffles. We made two types: Port (enlisting the use of a half bottle of port, reduced to a syrup), and Bourbon and Coke. We used Coke syrup in place of glucose, and added a healthy dose of Makers Mark, albeit over Chef's recommended 10% of the chocolate's weight - try 20-25% !!! Pretty awesome, I must say. They were visually stunning too, since I used colored cocoa butters to pattern the molds - purple swirls for the port truffles, red and gold splatters for the Bourbon and Cokes. I ate way too many.

The Other Part of My Day

i.e. the part not spent procuring New York's finest dairy products - was devoted to making yummy graham cracker bars - a base of handmade graham cracker, then milk chocolate and peanut butter, all topped with marshmallow. I'll cut them into squares tomorrow after I brûlée the marshmallow, then enrobe them in dark chocolate. Mmm - a one-bite peanut butter s'more...

After class I went for a walk 'n run through the woods. It was a fine, clear day - sweatshirt weather. I managed to find some deer and watch them for a while before they ever noticed me (the wind shifted). I consider this a great accomplishment, because I usually only spot them once they start bounding away from me with their huge white tails flopping back and forth.

The miniature daffodils sitting next to my laptop - bought only two days ago - have grown two inches and are suddenly blossoming all over the place. Every time I stick my nose over there I think it's spring, and then I see the snowflakes and Christmas lights I (still) have strung around my desk, and I get really confused. Daffodils in January in New York? At least it's spring in my mind.

Too much food...

The onslaught of delicious, buttery, lardy, sugary, carbolicious treats has gotten a bit out of hand lately. Bagels start coming out of the oven at about 9:30 or 10, and I make a point of being there. I eat them toasted, with lots of butter and cream cheese. (There is no other way.)

Then the croissants arrive, as beautiful and buttery as any in France. Then the baklava, the struedels (apple as well as mushroom), cheese danishes and ice cream (mmm, graham cracker), cookies and opera torte, and YES - real cannoli!

I look forward to a brief two-day reprieve from eating!

Yesterday I had a salad for lunch and steamed broccoli for dinner. Today was much the same - salad and then yogurt and fruit. Health food chasers - that's what I call it.

Only one more week of Baking and Pastry, though. I know I'll miss this gluttony some day.

Tomorrow I'll be farm-hopping around the Hudson Valley - first to the farmer's market, then a gamebird farm, sheep ranch, and Sprout Creek Farm, makers of fine Jersey milk cheeses. Stay tuned for an exciting report!

I Believe in Bacon

It's a lucky thing that I haven't suffocated yet. A tray of cinnamon rolls sits on my dresser, beckoning to me. The tray is covered in plastic and I keep pressing my nose into it to inhale the heavenly scent of butter, cinnamon, sweet yeasty dough and vanilla and smoky bacon and brown sugar. BACON?!?!?! Since when does bacon belong in cinnamon rolls? As of today, it does!

Natalie and I first heard of the idea from The Swinery, but decided to take matters into our own hands after being unable to obtain any over winter break. Chef K gave us a recipe for the best sweet dough imaginable (recipe to come soon). We used a half pound of butter and a half pound of rendered bacon fat in the dough, and maple sugar in place of white. We rolled it out and brushed it liberally with more bacon fat and butter, then spread it thick with dark brown sugar and cinnamon and 1 1/2 pounds of cooked bacon pieces. Upon exiting the oven, the rolls were slathered with a simple brown sugar - butter glaze.

It's stupid how good they are.

Too Cold and No Kittens

I was feeling all morose and angry that it was, once again, a cold day. What a surprise. It's been very cold here for quite a while, and I want spring to come sooner. It's times like these when I wish I could be back in Napa Valley (not in the kitchen, though...maybe some day I'll get up the courage to tell that story), where it was constantly 80-90 degrees and I wore flip flops every day. Grrrr.

Luckily a friend called just then and asked if I needed anything at Target, since they were going. Nothing at Target, but I sure needed to escape the school for a couple hours. We shopped at Target, wandered the mall briefly, looked for kittens at Petco (and upon finding none, lamented the fact that there isn't a K-Mart/Kitten-Mart closer to Hyde Park). We looked for an ice cream maker (and couldn't find any under $50). Yes, we want to make ice cream in January in New York. Especially tangerine. It's just what culinary students do.

Using the blitz puff dough from yesterday, I made tarte tatin in class today. Sugar and butter are melted in a pan (preferably cast iron, but we didn't have any in the bake shop), then apple halves (peeled and the core scooped out) are packed into the pan. They cook over medium heat for quite a while, until the sugar caramelizes and the apples start to slump down and become one with the sticky, buttery goodness below. A round of puff pastry is placed over the top of the apples, and the whole thing goes into the oven. The pastry puffs and becomes golden brown, the apples completely tender. The tarte is then flipped over (apples on top now) - and this is very important - eaten warm with gobs of whipped cream or creme fraiche.

Today's pretzel dough tasted exactly the same as yesterday's, so it seems like the butter is purely optional. But today's were far better anyway, because they were stuffed. Some we crammed with sauteed mushrooms and goat cheese, others went the sweet route with rum soaked raisins and cream cheese and a glaze of butter and cinnamon sugar. Both vanished within 15 minutes.

I didn't really eat lunch, so I had to make do with a couple hot stuffed pretzels and a slice of tarte tatin with more whipped sour cream than anyone else in class was brave enough to slap on their piece. The fools!

Pretzels

Earlier, I couldn't tell whether I was trying to force myself to go on a walk or stay inside. On one hand, I hiked about 4.5 miles through snow yesterday and my legs are really tired. But it was nice and clear and sunny, and (according to my computer) in the mid-30's! I compromised and went for a 3.5 mile road walk. It sure didn't feel like 34 degrees, though! The wind started up and the temperature dropped rapidly as the sun went down.

Today was a fun one for me - I made pretzels! Chewy, salty pretzels that we scarfed down with lots of mustard. I accidentally left out the butter in the recipe (a half pound), but they didn't suffer in the least. Maybe I discovered the trick to perfect soft pretzels (though generally, leaving any butter out of a recipe is about the worst thing I could do, ever).

I had forgotten just how good a banana cream pie could be when I had a bite of one in class today. All it takes is sliced bananas, pastry cream, and tons of whipped cream, but it's magic.
There was also a really delicious chocolate-banana cake, comprised of devil's food cake, caramelized bananas, a layer of thick chocolate-banana cream, all spackled with chocolate mousse.

We started preparing various laminated doughs for use tomorrow. These are doughs that are rolled out, inlaid with a thick sheet of cold butter, folded, rolled out, folded, etc, to produce several hundred to one thousand layers. The butter melts in the oven and produces steam, which puffs the layers of dough apart and results in really flaky, buttery pastries. Croissant dough uses yeast and less butter, puff pastry uses more butter but no yeast, and blitz puff dough is a shortcut method for making puff pastry that can be used for tart shells, tarte tatin, etc. All are delicious. In my opinion, nothing beats a warm croissant, torn apart and slathered with that divine substance, butter.

Here is the recipe for the chocolate sponge cake from yesterday. I've halved the recipe. It's a very resilient cake, so it would be perfect for rolling up for a chocolate cake roll. Just fill with whipped chocolate ganache or chocolate mousse, then frost the outside with whipped cream. Yum!

I would like to play around with the recipe and see if I could reduce the sugar by at least half, maybe adding coconut or almond flour in its place.

Flourless Chocolate Sponge

8 ea. egg whites

8 oz sugar

8 ea. yolks

2.5 oz Dutched cocoa

pinch salt

1.5 tsp vanilla

Whip the whites and sugar until stiff peaks form.

Stir the yolks, and drizzle into the whites while the mixer is on low speed. Add the vanilla and salt. Sift the cocoa into the eggs while folding together.

Pour into a sheet tray with sides (line the bottom with parchment).

Bake at 325*, until puffed and it springs back when lightly pressed. If using for a cake roll, dust the top with cocoa powder and lay a clean kitchen towel over it (while still hot/warm and pliable). Carefully roll it up and let it cool like that. Once it's cool, you can take out the towel and it will hold its shape.

Of Mice and Pastries

A little mouse died outside today, while I was warm and cozy inside and playing with chocolate and pastries. I followed his tracks in the fresh snow as he scurried from one old log to a decaying stump hollow. Blood dropped alongside the minuscule paw prints, dripping profusely at the entrance to the mousy den. I'm not positive that he died, but a fair amount of blood was lost from such a small critter. Let's hope he made a fox or coon happy (and full)! Poor mouse.

Today was an exceedingly easy day in Baking. I finished some chocolate raspberry tarts that were made yesterday. The shortbread crust was already filled with a raspberry and dark chocolate filling, and left to set up overnight in the fridge. I thinned some chocolate glaze out with raspberry liqueur and lacquered the tarts. Soft ganache was whipped (like cream) until it was airy and delightful. I placed a quenelle of this on each tart - and decorated the top of each with a chocolate spiral, a white/dark chocolate marbled square (from yesterday's demo) and a raspberry. They were beautiful to look at, and even better to eat!

Also of note today: fabulous foccacia smothered in sauteed onions and apples, bacon and goat cheese. A comparison of biscuits: one batch with Crisco, two with butter, one of those with buttermilk, the other with half-and-half cream. Butter-buttermilk wins hands down. Also, one of the best flourless chocolate cakes I've ever had, with a most intriguing texture - somehow dense and chocolatey and potent, yet almost disappearing the second it enters your mouth (the happy result of an error in mixing). Oh, and yesterday's eclairs were pretty wonderful - crisp pate a choux shell, luscious pastry cream, topped with thick ganache (ganache is a simple combination of heavy cream (most typical) and chocolate, made thick for truffle centers, thin for delicate glazing and whipping). One of the bread doughs wouldn't rise for some reason, so naturally we salvaged it by rolling little balls and deep frying them! Even better, this was a cornmeal, cheddar, and jalapeno dough. Hot and crisp and sprinkled with salt, they were the perfect morning snack.

Later today we worked on the fort for several more hours. It is coming along impressively in spite of the all the snow we are working in (got another 2-3 inches today). I was snapping branches too close to a very sharp, face-level branch and came away with an awesome gash on my cheek. Tomorrow's Saturday, so we can work on it even longer!

The Chocolate Demo

Tempering
Chocolate must be "tempered" for decorative work so that it sets up glossy and crisp; otherwise it would set but not be very firm, and would look dull and streaky. Chef K melted two bowls of chocolate, one dark and one white. It is melted at about 110 degrees. Unmelted chocolate pieces are added and stirred in (off the heat) until the temperature drops to the ideal zone (86-90 degrees). The goal is to end up with the chocolate at the correct temperature just as the last couple pieces melt in. These final pieces are the "seeds" that carry the proper crystalline structure. They start a chain reaction of crystalization throughout the bowl - the rest of the chocolate copies and multiplies the fine crystal pattern, so when the chocolate cools enough, it sets up as it should - with a perfectly smooth, ultrafine crystal structure. If the chocolate were not tempered properly, the whole batch would form any old size and pattern of crystals upon cooling. And then the chocolate wouldn't look pretty! But it would be just fine for re-tempering or eating.


Decorations
Working on a marble slab, Chef demonstrated chocolate decorations. For white and dark chocolate "cigarettes", he spread a really thin layer of white chocolate on the surface, then drew a toothed pastry comb over to remove all but parallel lines of white chocolate. He let it set up for a minute, then spread a very thin layer of dark chocolate over the whole thing. When it was just firm enough, he used a bench scraper to cut in and scrape up perfect curls of striped chocolate.
This photo demonstrates the concept much better than my description!
Chocolate Cigarettes (unknown photo)

Chef then made glossy colored chocolate squares by spreading chocolate on printed acetate sheets, and chocolate spirals. These he made by spreading chocolate on long rectangular acetate sheets, using the toothed pastry comb to strip away chocolate, leaving 1/8 inch lines of chocolate. He rolled the acetate sheet and let the chocolate set. When peeled off, it looked a lot like what's on this cake (unknown photo, cake, etc).
Chocolate ribbon spirals

A Lesson in Bread

Day 2 of Baking and Pastry

Our breads and pastries are analyzed each day by Chef K and the class. Chef sets one of each item on the table, and we gather around. First he dissects the breads, scrutinizing the color, the crumb structure and texture, the taste and appearance. The breads today were quite good - the crusty French rolls more flavorful than yesterdays, the soft rolls almost perfect, the semolina loaves properly crusty but needing a bit more salt and a healthy dip in some good olive oil.
Then the cookies and fig bars. Delicious. The chocolate torts had fallen because the eggs were over-whipped. The coconut flans were made interesting by using palm sugar and jaggery for the caramel. My creme brulee was just right, but the recipe made them far too sweet for my taste (just about everything we make is too sweet for me, so I just take a nibble). Yes, we have to taste everything!

Bread

To produce the perfect loaf of bread is to master yeast.
With the ideal combination of time, temperature, and ingredients, the yeast convert just enough starch into sugars to provide for a nicely browned crust, plenty of yeasty, bready aroma, and the supple, elastic yet tender crumb structure that signify an extraordinary loaf. Too much warmth or time, and the yeast grow too exuberantly, exhausting their supply of food. The fermentation shifts from one that digests the starch and produces carbon dioxide and alcohol to one that digests the sugar and produces acetic and lactic acid (desirable in just a small quantity for tangy sourdough breads). The result in an overly sour bread with no external caramelization (a dull, pale crust), and crumbly, tough innards. How sad.
Then there are the little details, such as having the proper humidity while the dough is proofing. Too dry, and the loaf will develop a tough skin and won't rise enough while baking. Or if the dough (for rolls in particular) doesn't proof enough, the bottom of the roll will be round instead of flat. Even the scoring of a loaf influences the final bread. The right cuts on the top of the loaf ensure that the bread rises to its full potential without being lopsided. I never knew bread was so temperamental before!

Back to School ... and baking cookies!

Day 1 of Baking and Pastry

Not the most exciting of days, mostly owing to the fact that I'm still catching up from my flight here and I'm in a daze. I made carrot cake cookies with cream cheese frosting today in class. Just think! a college where we make cookies, eat cookies, bake bread, eat bread, brownies, and more cookies, all day, everyday! Being Day 1 we didn't cover a whole lot of information, but I look forward to learning more about breads in the coming classes.


After class (done for the day at 1:30 PM - how nice!), Natalie and some other friends and I drove out to our favorite New York farm for fresh raw milk. We've made it a habit to go every weekend now, but Sunday was just too far away. I bought a gallon, which will no doubt be gone by Saturday. I could live off the stuff - especially when it's as good as this farm's. Freshly milked from happy cows, 6% butterfat... yum!
By the time we got back on this side of the river, it was far too late to go to the natural foods store (for staples such as almond butter, butter, yogurt, cheese, and fruit).

Tomorrow's another day!