A Tart-eeny Shortbread

This is one of those recipes that most people can do right then and there. It was awesome. This particular shortbread called for unsalted butter, cornstarch, a-p flour, salt and sugar! Since this was my first time to have ever consumed Shortbread, I really don't have much to compare it to...especially if it came out appropriately. All I can say is that it was delicate, melted in my mouth and was like a really really soft sugar cookie.

On a more savory note, a really nice customer from the coffee shop brought in fresh basil from his garden. I adopted it and gave it a good home. My belly. Here is what happened to the basil:


Got some very good use out of it and made a tomato-basil pizza with mozzarella and parmesan cheese. Mmm-hmm. I burnt my thumb while getting the pan out...Aloe vera did not help much. In fact, I think it made it sting more!

Tip: Wear oven mitts...when handling hot objects that come straight from the oven...seriously :(

Bread Pudding Flop :(

Bread pudding. If done correctly, it will taste moist, soft and absolutely succulent. Oy Vey. You know, I thought I followed the directions very clearly on this one. How hard could it be with so little ingredients? Milk, eggs, sugar, vanilla, salt and brioche. The consistency was nice but it had a bit of a sour taste to it. It was probably from my not so A+ Brioche that I had made previously.

I don't know if I have mentioned this yet but I started school at the local community college. It is called FON118: Commercial Baking Techniques. I'm happy that I'm taking it now so by the time winter comes around, I hope that my expertise level has risen at least a little bit. And maybe in the future, my bread pudding will be edible.

Brioche; A Success? For the Most Part.

So these are the Brioche loaves. What do you think? I think it looks pretty nice after all the trouble I went through. I did run into a little trouble during the final phase of rising.

When I finally shaped the loaves into the pans and placed them in an oven with a bowl of steaming water for about 2 hours...I made the egg wash. Right when I touched my pastry brush onto the surface of the dough, it immediately DEFLATED!!! It looked so weird...as if it lost all of its life and died in front of my eyes :( I asked my teacher last night what it could have been and she said I probably proofed it too long...

I will have to look up the definition of proofing.

Proofing (also called proving) is a step in creating yeast breads and baked goods where the yeast is allowed to leaven the dough. This step is not often explicitly named, and normally shows up in recipes as "Allow dough to rise".

Hmmph. I plan to make some bread pudding out of this lovely Brioche bread this evening. Can you say...soggy bread cake? Mmmmm!

Please Defrost Brioche

Hello.

This past week has been extremely hectic. What with the many reflections on my life, my boyfriend and I enrolling back to school and birthday family get togethers. I actually put together the Brioche dough with much ease this past Friday. I poured the dough into a shallow air tight container and planned to resume my work today.

Unfortunately, I was supposed to transfer the frozen dough to the fridge to defrost overnight but due to a hectic Saturday, I did not even remember falling asleep at my boyfriends' house. The dough has been defrosting since this morning and it is still rock hard in the middle.

Just spent about 15-20 minutes scraping off weird sticky dough on my kitchen counter and have decided to watch He's Just Not That Into You to take my mind off of it.

I hope tonight will be a more interesting post. See ya later!

A Nice Gift

My dad bought me a rolling pin today. I was pleasantly surprised by this gesture. Just a few days ago, I remember him telling me that if I'm not the type of person that likes money, I should definitely pursue being a baker. Hmm. I'm happy that my family supports me in this newfound career direction!

My mom and I went to Ross today to snag a few sales and dig for some deals. I found two 9" loaf pans for a total of 11 bucks! 

I'm getting ready for the next Tartine recipe: Brioche..."...light-textured, rich-tasting French bread or cake, made from eggs, butter, flour, yeast, sugar, and salt, likely originated in Normandy, which has long been known for its high-quality butter." Mmm, sounds good to me! 

Stay tuned! 

Croissants, Part Deux

Doesn't that croissant look like it's popping out of the book??

5.5 hours of sleep. 18.5 hours of giddy anticipation mixed with a good heap of nervousness. I kept thinking that I was bound to fuck up at some point.

For instance, when the recipe instructed me to spread and dot the butter onto 2/3rds of the 12 x 28 rolled out rectangle dough, I did exactly that. So far, so good. Until I realized that I had successfully spread the butter onto 2/3rds of the dough but saw that I had about 1/2 of the butter left! There was no more room to spread and dot the butter...SO I just told myself not to freak out and things will be fine :)

I also made chocolate croissants. Instead of rolling in a chocolate baton like the recipe said, I decided to be frugal and sub that for ghiradelli semi-sweet chocolate chips. High five, anyone?

Once the croissants finally made it into the oven, all I did was pace back and forth in the kitchen and peeked in. It smelled pretty good and just watching the mutation process of it all is so so satisfying...The fact that all these random individual ingredients, mixed together a certain way can result in something so enchanting. I'm freakin' obsessed.

The oven beeped. Wheee! It was so golden, puffy and again, deeply golden brown! Wow! Not bad for my first time at all. I bit into it slowly, the pastry flakes were divine. Success!

On a side note, I had $8.38 in my checking an hour ago. Right before I sat down in Barnes & Noble to get my free internet, I wandered into Williams-Sonoma like a lost soul, trying to find the light. The light turned out to be tartlett shells that were made in france, real shiny stuff. Needless to say, it's free movies from the library and ramen for the weekend ;) This shitty economy has taught me that it's not about the economy at all. It's about the time spent. Not money spent.

See ya ladle!

Here are the visual aids in this project:

i'm rolling

the final rising period (placed in oven, turned off with a bowl of steaming water for 2 hours, replaced water halfway)

Croissants & Pain Au Chocolat

Croissants, Part 1

So apparently making croissants by scratch takes a day or two. 

I wanted to start my project already so I said fuck it. I'm ready. 

FYI: I don't have any electronic help with these recipes...that means no fancy schmancy KitchenAid Stand Mixer or a Hand-held mixer...or a mixer with a dough hook...

I started mixing the Preferment which called for nonfat milk, active dry yeast and all-purpose flour. It was actually pretty fun getting down and dirty with my hands. Felt like mud! Then while I waited for that to rise, Debbie (my best friend) and I applied to work at the Courtyard by Marriott...Honestly did not expect them to interview right on the spot and ended up stuttering throughout the whole debacle. Debbie, on the other hand, did great! Good luck, girl!

Back to the house. Took out the risen preferment dough and had to incorporate more yeast, whole milk, 6 cups of flour, sugar, salt and melted butter with my own tiny hands. It was a massacre. I ripped apart the dough and shoved all the new ingredients into it, and mushed it back to a ball. Rinse and repeat. 

Left the dough alone for another 1.5 hours. Came back to it and shaped it into a rectangle. Chilled in fridge for another 5 hours. 

I prepared the butter a little differently than what the book instructed (due to its apparent dependency on technology to mix things). I took out all the butter and sandwiched it between two plastic sheets and beat the shit out of it with a rolling pin until it was "malleable".  I let it chill for a little bit...

Finally (well, sort of finally), I rolled the butter into the dough and created the tri-fold business letter, put a balloon on it and sent it to the fridge for another 1.5 hours. 

And that is where I stand now. I'm tired. I don't like my mom's rolling pin...the bearings are rusty or something because it squeaks everytime I roll it. 

Get this: I had a phone interview today and the guy from Fresh N' Easy asked me "Are you able to lift 50 lbs.?" in which I replied "Yes!". Then he asks, "What's your flexibility like?" in which I reply, "Great! I used to be a cheerleader in high school so that's not a problem, I guess." Ugh. 

TO BE CONTINUED...DUN DUN DUN 

The Challenge

Cookbook: Tartine

Recipes: 90

Deadline: Dec 31, 2009

I was so close to attending the Scottsdale Culinary Institute...I backed out when I realized I was not ready to plunge into $20,000 worth of debt and also planning to leave the state of Arizona within the year with my man Randy to Colorado. 

The first day of school would have been August 17th. Oh well. I got my $50 application fee back (yay for gas money, eggs, butter and iced teas). This project will be my semester of learning...learning how to make the best of the best pastries...the most decadent of desserts...

Thanks to Julie and Julia - - for your movie, your blogs, thanks for the inspiration and wish me luck!

The challenge starts...NOW!