Day 1: Let’s see…..we started by watching our Chef demo how to make lean bread dough. We have a huge mixer that mixes the dough, with a lot of steps following the mixing process. The whole class helped shape dough and all that. We made baguettes out of the dough and by the end of class, after all the steps involved, they came out pretty good! Also on day 1 each group made a certain product, either muffins, scones, cornbread muffins, or biscuits. My group made the biscuits and I say they came out pretty good! We used the rubbing method which is basically rubbing fat into flour to produce a flaky product.
Day 2: We basically did the same thing, except every group made all of the recipes from the first day. In my group I made the scones, which were made with blueberries. I didn’t know this, but scones are actually sweet biscuits. Biscuits in the UK are considered to be sweet treats like cookies. Scones in the US are sweet but have the same texture and method of production as biscuits. The other products came out well. I learned from other groups on when a muffin goes wrong. If you measure out the baking powder wrong and have too much, the tops of the muffins will look caved in. The excessive amount of baking powder makes the muffins grow so high that the top caves in. Ours ended up pretty nice though! :) But here’s a picture of my scones.
Day 3: So this was a pie day! We made the filling the day before; our group made the cherry pie filling. We made the pie dough also on day 2 but shaped it and made the pies on this day. First you cut the butter into the flour on the table.
Step 2: After the butter is incorporated, make a well on the table to add in the liquid. After the liquid is added in the middle, slowly incorporate it with the mixture until it forms a dough.
Step 3: Shape the dough and let it sit in fridge until ready to use.
Step 4: Roll out dough (we divided 8oz pieces of dough) and roll them out and place them in the pie tins. After they are shaped fridge them so the dough becomes a bit harder. Then that way once the dough is harder it is easier to cut off the excess dough.
Then after that it’s all about adding filling, rolling out a top piece of dough for the covering…if necessary, and decorating! Our chef did a demo on a really nice looking basket top pie that I want to try sometime. He also showed us a nice design that he had the whole class make! This is the picture of my pie design!
We also made pumpkin and pecan pies. I made the pecan pie for our group. It’s much more simple than I expected. We put all the pecans in the crust and pour a simple mixture in the pie crust until all the pecans are covered from the mixture. This is how ours came out!
Day 4: So this was an interesting day. It was our day to make laminated doughs. I had no idea what that even meant, but I learned it had to do with layers of dough and fat. The products made with laminated dough include croissants and danishes. In each group, two people worked on the croissant and two on the danish. It’s the same process for both, but I worked on the croissants.
The first step after making the dough is rolling it out into a rectangle, and roll out butter into a smaller rectangle.
Then you cover the butter with the dough so the butter is enclosed. After that rests in the fridge about 15 minutes you roll out the dough (with the butter in it) to about the same length as the picture above. A three-fold is then done by folding the top of the dough to the middle and then bottom to the middle. After that it is then covered and refrigerated for about 15 minutes, you roll out the dough again but in the opposite direction. That is done yet one more time. I’m sure you can see what I mean now by layers of fat and dough. After that time-consuming process it is rolled out and shaped into croissants.
They are egg washed for color and then put into the proofer and will expand. After that they are put into the oven and baked! This is what they looked like when complete!
We made the danishes on Day 5, and learned some neat designs like the bearclaw, turnover, windmill, and a few others! Me and the only other girl in class that day did the bearclaws! We filled it with an almond paste that my group made an earlier day.
On day 5 we also made eclairs! A different day we prepped for eclairs by making what is called a choux paste. (which is the dough that when baked, it puffs out and leaves a hollow center for a filling!
We also made soft rolls earlier in the week. I didn’t get a picture of the final product but here’s a picture of how we had to shape the dough before they were put in the oven.
So a lot has been happening during this first long week of class. We usually have 4 days of class but because we need to be done by Thanksgiving break, we had to have a 5 day week. But it’s worth it because that means the sooner I get home!! I can’t wait. College is cool but I miss being home. That way, I can cook from my own kitchen! (well my parents…) but yeah! And even though I’m a culinary student, I think I want to try to make a pie while I’m home. I get to put my pastry skills to the test right? There will be more baking experiences to come after this last week of school for the trimester! Hope this was a little informative for all of you! Have a great week! God Bless <3
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