Sunday School

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, I've started taking pastry classes. I'm enrolled in the Pro Baking program at The New School of Cooking, a small culinary school in Culver City, and for the next 16 weeks I will spend 4 hours every Sunday learning the fundamentals of all things pastry and you are coming along. I won't be posting the recipes we receive in class (you can find our textbook, Baking At Home With The Culinary Institute of America, on Amazon) but in my Sunday School feature, I will be sharing some of the things I learned, as well as my failures & success during practical.
This week, Custard Week, I had both the former and the latter but first, some Dairy Facts:
Whole milk is 8-10% fat. Half & Half 18%. Cream 20-40%. Milk from a cow milked in the morning has more fat than afternoon milking milk. Butter left out of the fridge is safe because fat is a preservative. So is sugar. Egg whites are all protein. The yolk provides fat (flavor) & lecithin (emulisification)

This week's practicals included Chocolate Pudding, Creme Brulee and Bread Pudding. The Chocolate pudding I made in class had good flavor but a consistency that strongly resembled spackle. Definitely over cooked. Very disappointing. When I got home, I made it again and cooked it slowly at a lower heat to a much shinier, smoother & creamier result. Yum.


This was my first creme brulee- I never make it a home because I don't have a torch and after scaring a few of my fellow students as well as myself through the handling of the class torch it is obvious I need a lot more practice. The custard itself was silky and delicious, especially with the high quality, plump and shiny vanilla beans we used. Gotta get me some of those.


This was also my first Bread Pudding (I tend to avoid them because just the idea of one makes me feel like I have to go work out) and I'll be sampling it this evening. Along with the Pudding Redux. Yeah, maybe going to the gym isn't such a bad idea after all.
Join me next Sunday School Sunday when our subject will be Souffle and Pate Choux. In the meantime, if you have any questions just post them in the comment section and I will try to ask them. Class dismissed!

2880 Minute Magic

Writing this post feels like I'm back in grade school coming up with an excuse for why my book report was late. It fell out of my backpack. The dog ate my homework. My oven broke. Seriously, my oven freaking broke! Saturday I had just taken my second attempt at coconut cake out of the oven (the first one wasn't done in the middle) when the oven door locked and the self clean when on by itself. I swear! Unfortunately I had left a cookie sheet with a silicon handle in there so the whole house started smelling like burned rubber and every single smoke alarm went off. After the cycle finished, and I cleaned up enough ash to rival Mount St. Helens, I tried to run the oven and nothing. Zilch, zip, stone cold. Two days later, my oven has been diagnosed with either a broken thermostat or a dead control panel and is scheduled to be repaired next week.
The good news is I have a double oven and once the bottom unit passed its physical I was finally able to make this mini Chocolate Amaretti Torte.

And for extra credit, I made the amaretti cookies (thanks Barefoot Kitchen Witch!) and couldn't help making these amaretti nutella sandwiches with the leftovers.

I loved this torte, it reminds me off a fancy brownie with an almond vibe, and once I had all the components together it really was a breeze to make. Head on over to Holly's blog for the recipe and don't let the dog eat your torte!

Back to School

Last Sunday was my first Pro Baking class and I was really nervous. So nervous in fact that I got lost on my way there. Would I like the instructor? What would my classmates be like? Was I out of my league? We went around the room giving our names and what we hoped to get out of the class and much to my relief I was definitely in the right place. While everyone's skill level was different, we were all there for the same reasons- a love of baking and a secret desire to see if it was possible to turn a hobby into something more. I don't know where this class will lead but one thing's for sure- these are the best blueberry muffins I have ever made.

I would like to post the recipe but I want to get permission from the school first. But trust me, they taste as good as they look.
If it weren't for this blog, and more importantly for encouragement of the people who read it, I would never have had the nerve to take these classes in the first place. So in the interest of sharing the experience here are some of the things I learned this week:

A small egg is 1 oz, large egg 2 oz, jumbo egg 4 oz.
Use a rasp (microplane) zester for overall strong citrus flavor, or a channel zester for a hint of citrus taste combined with the other flavors in your pastry.
Carrot cake is essentially a quick bread.
If your cakes are too dense or sinking in the middle you are most likely over mixing.
Wearing a chef jacket makes me feel awesome.

Southern Comfort

West Palm Beach Florida isn't exactly the south, what with the massive amounts of transplanted New Yorkers living there- my family included. Since we left Long Island when I was 6 months old, I consider myself a Floridian and identify with being a southern girl, if just a little on the Jimmy Buffet side. Now that I live in California I sometimes need to listen to the Margaritaville station on satellite radio so I can feel a little closer to my roots. And sometimes I bake pie.
Banana Cream Pie is this week's Tuesdays With Dorie and the perfect remedy for Southern Withdrawal (drawl?). I made tarlettes and gave them a sprinkling of toasted coconut for that added Florida/tiki vibe.


They are so good, you might just blow out a flip flop.

Balancing Act

After four months off, tomorrow I'm heading back to work...for one night. Being in the film business is so strange- crazy, 16 hour days filled with a madness, followed by long stretches of unemployment. When I'm on a show I barely have time to take a breath let alone do my laundry, and lately I've had so much time on my hands I spread my chores out through the week just so I'll have something on my to do list. What I really have been enjoying is the luxury of baking everyday and while I'm anxious to get back to work it makes me sad to think I'll have to give that up. When I finally do back to work full time, I hope to create a better balance between my work and home life so I thought use this one day job to create some bring bringing along these Banana Macadamia Biscotti. How can biscotti create balance? Well, while I'm standing on the set somewhere between Friday night and Saturday trying to stay awake, I will pair my (very) late night coffee with these biscotti, so my set self and my "self" self will be able to meet somewhere in the middle.
How do you find your balance?

Banana Macadamia Biscotti
adapted from Cookie Madness
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup mashed banana (1 banana)
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup chopped, toasted macadamia nuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
In a medium bowl, stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt; set aside.
In a large bowl, combine banana, oil, egg and vanilla and mix until well blended. Add the flour mixture, toasted macadamia nuts to the banana mixture and stir just until combined. If the mixture seems dry, use your hands to mix until the dough comes together.
Divide the mixture in half and shape into 8 inch logs. Place the logs about 4 inches apart on a cookie sheet lined with parchment or a silicone mat. Use your hands or the back of a spoon to shape the logs into 2 rectangles about 3 inches across. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until firm and cracked on top.
Transfer the logs to a wire rack to cool for 15 minutes. Reduce oven temp to 275F. Place logs on a cutting board and slice diagonally into 1/2 to 3/4 inch thick slices. Lay biscotti cut side down on the cookie sheet and return them to the oven for 15-20 minutes until they are crisp. Flip them over and cook for 15- 20 minutes on the opposite side. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.