In Pursuit of Pastry

Our first week back from Spring Break was spent studying Quick breads.  Quick breads are just that - breads that are quickly made.  This is because no yeast is used. Instead, they rely on either chemical leaveners (such as baking soda or baking powder and the like) or air ( Irish Soda Bread, and the other soda breads that I wrote about in a previous entry, are quick breads.  There isn't much to write about quick bread, I, at least, don't find them overly exciting.  But they are handy things to have in your repertoire.  There are two methods to make quick breads - the muffin method and the biscuit method.  The muffin method is used to make muffins and, believe it or not, the biscuit method is used to make biscuits!  It's the way the fat is incorporated into the flour that gives biscuits and muffins their distinctive characteristics.  I'm not a huge fan of muffins and biscuits, but if I had to choose, I prefer muffins. They're lighter and soft...

Two years ago this month, in April 2018, I walked through a doorway into a kitchen in Louviers, France. Little did I realize that it was a magic portal that would change the course of my life. In the kitchen, I met Susan Herrmann Loomis, chef, cookbook author, and culinary instructor who has since become my culinary mentor and a dear friend. It was while studying French cuisine under her watchful eye that my love of cooking and baking turned into a passion. When I first entered the “On Rue Tatin” cooking school kitchen, cooking was a hobby. A week later, I was on the road to a new vocation. Now two years later, I find myself enrolled in pastry school, contemplating retirement and beginning a second career. Whatever the future brings, for now at least I’m having the time of my life! Thank you for everything Susan!  The Portal of Destiny On Rue Tatin kitchen Ready to start cooking! Lemon Meringue Pie station Susan Me, Scott, Susan, & Jess Su...

I thought Week 5 was going to be a difficult week for me because we had to make Coconut Macaroons because I do not like shredded coconut.   At all.   I dreaded having to eat one because just the thought of a mouth full of shredded coconut makes me shudder.   After all, my earliest childhood memory is of getting sick after eating a cake decorated with shredded coconut.  But I did my best, and I made some nice looking (and I’m told tasting) macaroons.   I DID actually try one because we have to describe the taste and mouthfeel in our report.  I actually liked the flavor (I do like coconut flavor, just not the shredded stuff) but the mouthfeel was disgusting.  Like eating fingernails.  Blech!   Anyway,  I survived what I had thought would be the most difficult week of Baking 101. Little did I know another challenge faced me in Week 6. Week 6 focused on what are known as Pressed Cookies or Bagged Cookies.   They’re called this b...

During the Pandemic of 2020, most grocery stores have run out of one of the most basic staples of everyday life:  bread.  Several people will resort to making their own.  It's not really that difficult!  However, what do you do if you've run out of yeast and you live in one of those areas under lockdown (or you simply want to avoid going back to the grocery store or the local bakery)?  How on earth do you make bread without yeast? It's simple!  Do what the Irish did during the hard times of the 19th Century potato famine when yeast was a rare and expensive commodity....make SODA BREAD!  Soda bread uses baking soda as its leavening agent instead of yeast.  All you need to make a basic soda bread is flour, buttermilk, baking soda, and salt. And if you don't have buttermilk on hand, as many don't?  Make it yourself!  All you need is 1 cup of milk and a teaspoon of vinegar or lemon juice, or even cream of tartar.  Stir them togethe...

This week’s practical assignment taught us about the “modified sponge method” for mixing cookie dough.    The sponge method involves whipping egg whites in a Bain Marie (a pot over simmering water) to make a meringue.   The modified sponge method uses either the yolks of the egg or the whole egg instead of just the whites.   To learn this technique we made decadent Double Chocolate Cookies.   They’re double chocolate because they have melted "dark chocolate" and cocoa powder added.   My cookies were actually triple chocolate because I also added dark chocolate chips.   (I don't consider the white chocolate chips I added to be "real" chocolate, but that's another story...) Compared to learning Baker’s Math, which we also worked on this week (don't ask), this was pretty straight forward and easy.   The only challenge, really, was making sure the cookies were actually done baking when taken out of the oven.   The cookies are already...