Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Week two and all is good!

Week two of classes is almost through! We are on to breads, but are going to finish up pies tomorrow with a blueberry pie. It seems that as we go along and learn new things, we'll randomly whip up whatever we have laying around in between. I'm especially excited about the blueberry pie, because we are going to do a lattice top crust, and I like making things that both taste delicious and look pretty! Well, hopefully it will look pretty...

Last week we made both an apple pie and a vanilla cream pie. The apple pie was easier than I thought it was going to be. I've discovered that I really like making pie crust, but I'll need some practice with making both flaky and mealy pie doughs, and learning to crimp the crust in order to make it "pretty". It's all about the pretty.


The apple pies turned out all right. Nothing too exciting here, honestly. The pie we tasted was that of my classmate's. I may be on the search for a different recipe if ever I made it again, I felt like it was missing something. When we mixed the apples with the sugar and cinnamon and what have you, it seemed slightly dry to me. Perhaps it was the way I mixed it, but it tasted slightly dry when I ate it as well. Let's just say it didn't taste like my grandma's apple pie! ;-)


The vanilla cream pie, on the other hand, was awesome!!! When I was making the custard, I thought it would be too rich for my liking. 


But then this happened the next day. Whipped cream. And suddenly, everything changed. Super yummy! Again, I didn't get to taste the pie that I made- the bottom crust on this was a little hard to cut, but the added vanilla bean in the custard sure made up for that! 

Really looking forward to this blueberry pie tomorrow. We are on to bread dough, which has been slightly challenging, with the kitchen being chaotic and messy. I have yet to get a good proportion of ingredients and a good looking, elastic looking dough. It may all turn out fine though- we haven't baked off anything that we've made. 
Also on the agenda for tomorrow is some pizza! Myself and a classmate made pizza dough tonight in the super large mixer in class- it turned out perfectly! I'm looking forward to trying it out- finding a warm place for the dough to rise in this apartment of mine may be a challenge though. Looking forward to seeing how it tastes though!

This class is both wonderful but very bad at the same time...I kind of want to start practicing the things I'm making. If you are in the market for a pie or muffins, let me know....I could whip you up something delicious! Let's hold off on the bread dough though....that may take some time, ha!

Chef also makes large batches of things for us to taste along the way. Yesterday was focaccia bread, which lucky for me had onions on it so I wasn't tempted at all to try. Looked good though! Tonight she made a brioche and it was melt in my mouth deliciousness. Seriously dangerous to be baked for no reason. But perhaps could be tackled if I had someplace to bring it where it wouldn't be devoured by yours truly....it was like a party in my mouth! Woo!!

Some of my classmates whipped up some chocolate chip cookies tonight as well. I'm looking forward to this as a dessert for lunch tomorrow! =o) And hopefully this class will help me in my quest to bake off the perfect chocolate chip cookie!

Hopefully more wonderful things will happen tomorrow! Until then, think of something to request me to try out for you!

Peace out!
@--,--



1 comment:

  1. I want some of that brioche! That sounds great. You can make it for me! I like how you say baked off a lot now. I don't think I have heard that phrase before. It makes you sound professional because it sounds so nonchalant like you just bake things off constantly all the time and its so quick and easy for you. lol

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