Saturday, February 23, 2013

Week 3 - Baking and Pastry Class

As usual we had a awesome class today, a lot of fun baking cookies.
First we had a quiz #2 which I was better prepared for :) them we had a student presentation about syrup, which was great.
Today my partner was a really nice kid , we exchanged some thoughts about the recipe, he was afraid of asking chef some questions I thought it was funny, he was afraid of scraping the bowl in a wrong way, I fell very comfortable with our tasks , and seams that some people sees this on me because they come to me to ask questions about their tasks , recipes and how to approach them, I was happy with that because I love baking and if I know what to do I have no problem in sharing my experiences. I helped with what I was sure about when I didn't know I told them to ask chef .
Our recipe for basic dough was pretty easy to make, not a big challenge if you know how to do the creaming method , which is . Using the paddle attachment mix together the sugar and fat until creamy, pale and fluffy, add one egg at the time , the vanilla and for last the sifted flour, salt and mix until just combined, it becomes a very nice and soft dough, which we divided by 3 parts wrap it up and leave in the refrigerator for about 15 minutes . We roll out the dough between parchment paper to make easier to cut the cookies , for not use excessive amount of flour to open as we usually do when open a dough and less mess. After open the dough we put in the freezer until get hard. Using a cutter round cutter we cut out the cookies , and our cookie was special because was a sandwich cookie , the bottom was regular round shape then we piped raspberries jam with a  pastry bag  and cover with another cookie with a role in the middle this way we can see the jam, to finish sift sugar powder on top of the cookies.
While we were waiting for our dough get hard , chef gave us some rolled dough from Monday class to cut out the cookies, I confess that when I saw those cookies spreading in the oven I felt scary because I know that wasn't supposed to happen but at the same time I was happy to know that that wasn't our dough. Our cookies were way better, great texture, we could see perfectly the details from the cutter, right color just perfect and delicious.
When we were doing the tasting at the end of the class chef told us that the cookie that spreads probably had a bigger amount of fat or sugar.

Notes from Class
A presentation.
Syrups
1 or more types of sugar + water
Used in  sweeteners, oatmeal, desserts, add flavor
crystallization
Kinds of syrup:
Maple tree- 62% sucrose , 60% sweeter than sugar, used in pancakes, waffles, candy...
Molasses- sugar cane
Corn Syrup- Used in sodas (made from starch)
Honey- Natural, bees
Simple syrup- sugar + water
Agave - 90% fructose 10% sucrose
Birch- Candies, soft drink, dressing, glazes
Barley- High maltose (malt syrup)
Grenadine Syrup- ( progranate Shirley temple drink)
Pomegranate Molasses- (Turkish food)
Sugar made from cane or beets.
Cola made out of US, use cane sugar as sweetener
Cheap- Corn Syrup (HFCS)--Invert sugar, glucose, tremoline, all about texture, avoid crystallization to happen, playability texture without adding more sugar
Expensive- Maple (chill after open), Honey, Agave, all sweeter than sugar.
Cookie " little cakes"
Creaming method- used the most
1. Fat (room temperature) and sugar, beat with paddle attachment until pale, light and fluffy.
2.Add eggs one at the time scrapping down in between additions.
3.Sift dry ingredients (flour, salt, leavened, spices)
4. Add liquids mix until just combined
5. Add dry , in 2,3 additions
6. Mix, Add ins- (nut, chips, fruits, oatmeal)
Characteristics
Crispness- low in moisture, high in sugar and fat, long baking time, small thin shape
Softness ( cake like)- high in moisture, lower in sugar and fat, honey, molasses, corn syrup, under baking, larger, thicker shape
Chewiness (fudge like)- high sugar and liquid, lower in fat, higher in eggs, stronger flour, develop gluten longer mixing time. Coagulation leads to chewiness cookie.
Spread- Higher sugar and fat, higher in baking soda, low oven temperature, freeze dough to prevent spread, grease pans to increase spread.
More fat more spread. Prevent spread freeze the dough before bake it.
Development cake- if it is too crumb add more egg.
Make the cookies on same size, uniform- better presentation even baking
Keep cookie dough in the freezer for  up to 3 months, well wrapped.
Make-up
Bagged- fill pastry bag and pipe out cookies-ex: spritz cookies
Dropped- spoon or scoop dough- ex: chocolate chip cookie, peanut butter cookie
Rolled- Use rolling pin to roll out dough 1/8 thick, chill until firm, stamp out shapes- ex: short dough jam sandwich
(linzer cookies has nuts in place of flour)
Molded- Make a shape with hands-ex: molasses, nut cookies, snicker doodles (little balls in powder sugar)
Icebox- Form dough into log, chill, slice and bake-ex: almond slices
Bar- Shape dough in bar, flatten, bake, slice and  bake again-ex: biscotti (twice baked) mandelbrot
Sheet- Brownie, Blondie
Stencil- wafers, twists, lace cookies (decorative)-ex: spread a layer of dough on the stencil to make the shape.



No comments:

Post a Comment