More three sister cookies and a variation using almond paste.
It is a much slower pace...although I hear it picks up. To be fair we've only been in the lab for 4 days. Still learning the ropes and well, the formulas. One thing that I am finding the most interesting about professional baking is using bakers percentages and weighing out ingredients. It is safe to say that volumetric measuring is out. Gone. Goodbye. Well okay I still have many treasured recipes that use cups and I am not converting them all but in the bakeshop, we weigh it out. Surprisingly enough we use imperial measures but whatever.
A baker's percentage works on the idea that the amount of flour in a recipe is 100% and you base the rest of your measurements from this set amount. For example, the above cookies were made from a short dough that is 100% flour, 66% butter and about 24% sugar. There are also eggs and a touch of salt and yes I know, this adds up to over 100. That does not matter! What does matter is that you have a quick and easy way to scale up and scale down formulas.
Cream Puffs!
These babies were made in class on Friday and I made a few with a Bavarian cream to feed the culinary students however I took most of mine home so I could make a tasty savory appetizer for guests on Saturday. They were very crisp and tender and surprisingly easy. I see more cream puff based dishes in my future of entertainment. I am wondering if I can use a tofu instead of an egg . . . As long as there is moisture it should rise it just may not have the right structure or tenderness. Nonetheless I am going to try. The world needs vegan creme puffs damnit!
New kitten - Regina.
And no, I do not plan on eating the new kitten but I had to share with the world that our adopted kitten is here! She hates sleeping at night but loves to nibble on faces so it all works out! If I sound cranky it is the sleep deprivation typing. She's worth it though, incredibly sweet, playful and fun. I am really looking forward to watching her grow up and teaching her how to do all sorts of kitty tricks.
I get to finally make a cake in class tomorrow! Hooray!
I get to finally make a cake in class tomorrow! Hooray!
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3 comments:
Hey Allegra,
The cookies look yummy, and I am so glad to be able to keep up with you via the blog.
Good luck on the vegan creme puffs. If you perfect a recipe, let me know. I'd love to gift some to our vegan babysitter. Remember what Margaret Cho says about vegans, "Don't f*** with vegans; those m@^!*%f***ers are hungry!"
Also thinking that one of the tricks you should teach the kitten involves letting you sleep.
Shawna
regina!
in other news, the amount of math involved just made me realize i never want to bake ever ever ever. conversions? 100%'s? thanks, i'll stick to editing.
i offered to edit any of my obgyn's writing should he ever get cracking on the fiction he was talking about doing. i was only partially hitting on him. the rest of me thought it was good networking.
keep those sumptuous pictures coming, ladybird!
You know Shawna, I did some research for vegan cream puffs and it seems that Energy Egg replacer has been successfull. Not this weekend, but next I am going to check it out as I am hosting a meet the new kitten party.
Thanks for keeping in touch! I miss you guys at Moreau. Let me know when a few good mornings would be that I can come by and drop off some treats!
And Alicia - where does the time go? How are we only keeping in touch via blogs and text messages?
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