A Brave New World

Well, the final day of class came and went and we spent the day discussing the equipment, business, layout, organizational issues, supplies, and anything else that might be useful for the bakery to be able to open.  Marda actually gave me a diploma to show that I had completed a Complete Breads and Pastries course, in case I need to prove it to someone later.   I took some quick photos of the space that I spent the last month in which is just off of her kitchen and all of the equipment.

20 quart mixer

60 quart spiral mixer

Sheeter and oven (holds ten full sheet pans and is gas-fired)

Industrial refrigerator and proofing cabinet next door



Industrial freezer with a blast chiller (-60F) on the top half

I also include a photo of the bakery where I spent several nights learning to work in a real setting.  This experience was invaluable and the owner, Di Long, was very accommodating and a great person.  Her bakery was very fun and also takes the space next door where she has extra seating.

Marda and her husband David were such wonderful hosts during the month.  We shared many wonderful lunches and had dinner out together one evening, and I felt that I had made new friends in them.

 I could not have asked for a better teacher.  Marda was patient and supportive, which was a perfect environment for me to feel free to ask questions and soak up as much of her knowledge as possible.  I had a lovely day, and then spent the night packing up my belongings and the frozen goods and the truck so that I could travel home.  My roommate, Lin, cooked Chinese food and it was amazing and then I visited the Sauter's to say goodbye.

 I left very early this morning to stay with my mother, Nada, and my sister, Jarene, in Thayne, Wyoming for the night and I will finish driving home tomorrow.  The fall colors were out in full force on the way, and the mountain tops are getting their first dusting of snow this week.

 

So, now I enter a brave new world of baking and medicine.  I will update the blog when there is progress with the bakery project.  I am currently planning to test bake at home and sell limited bakery products from home before the end of the year...maybe for Thanksgiving and Christmas.  I will be working on my business plan as well.  I had a wonderful month learning the best way to make many wonderful bakery items and hope to share them with my community as I am able to implement them.  I need to get the bakery organization up and running.  I will also start using Facebook to advertise for The Bread Doctor.

 

Cookies, Cookies, Cookies

Who can argue with cookies?  We had a cookie festival today at the International School of Baking and it was great.  Marda's goal was for me to have a reptoire of cookies that would appeal to various tastes.  I think that she did a great job.  These formulas serve as jump-of points for other variations.  She has also given me formulae for chocolate chip, quadruple chocolate, peanut butter...etc.  I am so grateful for her thoughtfulness in planning the breadth of the curriculum.  It has been a perfect month for me and has been the best start to this project that I could have wished for.  I know that I have an ally in the baking industry and she would do anything to help me be successful.  That is a great thing.

Well, despite my many years of adamant disdain for sugar cookies, I baked the best tasting sugar cookie today and am now converted.  I just felt before that they were always unacceptably large and sweet for no reason and with no flavor.  But I had no been exposed to French sables.  These just mean sugar cookie, but are light and nutty.  And in this case, they have the added benefit of an icing made with cream, almond and a special powdered sugar.  I think that I have been convinced of the honorable place of sugar cookie in a bakery repertoire.

Marda's decorating philosophy is that you pick a color palate and all the cookies should share that palate.  We decided that summer was definitely not over yet, and I decorated more of a celebratory cookie.  The fall colors just seemed too depressing right now at the end of such a great month.  Also, you need something colorful in the pastry case or everything is just beige and brown.

 

Speaking of brown, I have also learned that 46% of people who walk into a bakery are looking for chocolate of some kind.  This is a good thing to know.  We made double dipped chocolate wafers that we dipped the rest of the way today, and they are a great chocolate cookie.  Here they are along side the Florentines that we dipped yesterday and are amazing.

 

 

These are chocolate-dipped hedgehogs

 

We also made Scottish shortbread that actually has cocoa nibs in it and chopped up vanilla beans.  My teacher says that they need up to a week to develop the flavor of the chocolate and vanilla.

 

 

 

We also made soft lemon cookies (the bomb) with a lemon glaze that are truly bright and delicious.  Next to the lemon cookies you will see Ranger cookies which are oatmeal cookies with coconut, cranberries and raisins.  They are chewy and delicious.

 

 

 It was a great day and I am feeling better about my cookie skills.  I hope that they travel well to Wyoming.  Bend is a beautiful town and has been a good experience for me.  My roommate has offered dinner tomorrow which will be great because he is a good cook.

Pièce de Résistance

Well...we did it.  Today we unmolded the Opera Torte which turned out to yield 56 pieces of luscious mocha buttercream, cake, chocolate truffle....well....I will let you be the judge

It is called Opera Torte because it was served at intermission at the opera houses in Paris.  And it was an amazing feat to create.  I am very glad that I did it.  I had this piece for supper that I split with the roomies.....it was very tasty....and very reminiscent of Tira Misu.  It is renowned for being difficult to make and now I know why.  We had to cut it frozen as you can see from the condensation on the pieces.

After this, we made three types of cookies.  The last one has yet to be dipped in chocolate, which will be tomorrow.  First, we made a piped cookie that was like a shortbread and it was done in two halves, which are then sandwiched together with raspberry jam and dipped in chocolate.  The cookies are called Strassburg cookies and are German.  However, when you sandwich them like this and dip them in chocolate, they are called hedgehogs.  You can see the resemblance to our mammal friend.

 

Then we proceeded to make Florentines.  These are an Italian cookie that is really like almond toffee with citrus peel in it that is baked in the oven after cooking the batter on the stove.  After they cool, you cover one side with chocolate in waves.  They are very thin and super tasty.  I had never made them before and was totally impressed.

 

 

The last cookie of the day is a chocolate almond wafer that still waits its chocolate dipping tomorrow.  It has ground almonds and tiny micro chocolate chips.  It had a very wonderful aroma while it was baking.  I think it will be great. 

 

 

Tomorrow we pursue more cookies and decorating.  It has been a wonderful and fulfilling month.  I spent three hours this morning at La Magie bakery shaping and grilling English Muffins, and making Babka and Baguettes.  Kevin has been a great sport to have me there and entertain my questions and I think I actually helped a little take away the mundane chores which are great learning for me.  He is a meticulous baker and makes great loaves.

 

.....and more cake

Well, just as the first week was all bread....this week is all cakes so far and we have made some fun ones.  We spent most of the day on an Opera Torte, which I will have photos of tomorrow.  It is multiple layers of great fillings and cake and is in the freezer setting up to make it easier to divide.  I literally put away a 50# sheet of cake and pans in the freezer so it can set up.  There is a special frame/mold system that it is put together in to keep the edges square.  The reveal will be tomorrow, and I am excited for it.  The remainder of the day was spent putting together Dobos Torte and making a special nougatine to put on the top.  Nougatine is a caramelized nut brittle, today's feature was slivered almonds.  What did not go on the top of the cake was ground up in the food processor into praline.  This was then pressed to the sides of the cake.  It is a pretty amazing looking thing and Marda and I had a great time today.  The final cake appears that it is ready to take flight, which is suggestive of the very light cake that it is made out of.  I have one in the freezer to set up for travel.....hmm.

 

I should mention that the cake is put together with milk chocolate buttercream and the layers are dressed with apricot rum glaze.  I was very pleased with the final result.  I did not know what Marda was planning with the nougatine when we made it.   I am headed back to the bakery tonight to work with Kevin and shape more baguettes.  Wednesday is French Bread day.  The seasons are changing and so is the household I am living in.  One roommate is moving into the family room upstairs as his bedroom since the ping pong table got moved out.  He will have an entire bedroom, movie-watching, game-playing suite when he is done, and school starts for him on Monday.  There is another roommate just waiting to move into my room on October 1 from Washington.  It will be his turn to sleep in the blue bedroom with the pirate flag.  I am going to miss it.

 

 

 

 

Let Them Eat Cake!

Well, we did it.  Today, we decorated three different cakes.  Marda is so great at teaching decorating, and we used the same chocolate cake in three different cakes today.  Then I finally got to bake a pure white cake.  That is something that I have never done.  The cake is lighter than air and is called White Velvet cake, because the crumb is so fluffy and is so fine that it feels like velvet.  It is amazing to bake and use all of these different cake formulas.  Of course, I baked a double batch (14# of cake batter) of the white cake, which baked up in a huge layer in a 18 x 26 " pan.  I then got to practice dividing (or splitting) the cake into layers for making Dobos Torte tomorrow. Even though I am adept at surgical technique, splitting the cake requires a very light touch on the knife and holding your body very still so that you cut an even layer.  It is not easy.  This white cake is often the one used for wedding cakes when a white one is requested and the batter is so thin you would not think that it would bake up so well, but it does.  So this was a day devoted to Marie Antoinette and her favorite snack.  Though I am sure that she never divided a cake layer or had to work on its décor.  Here is a sample of the goods from today, and there are still two kinds of cakes in the freezer that we have not touched yet.

Devil's Food Cake with just buttercream decorations

 

Same cake with a layer of chocolate glaze and cake crumbs on the outside.

Devil's Food Cake with a chocolate wrap around the cake and chocolate curls on top

My version of the chocolate wrap

Black Forest Cherry Cake

Well, I took that last cake home and had some for supper and I thought that I had died and gone to heaven.   The cherries are an Italian preserved sour cherry....the best I have ever tasted.  I had not tasted much of this along the way.  So this cake came home for me and the boys to eat and my roommate also gave it the seal of approval.  I am learning quite a bit about cake decorating and how it is done in the bakery.  It is a very different animal than when at home.  One other thing that is quite tricky is getting the sides of the cake straight up and it requires a square and a very careful hand and eye.  Of course there is art to everything about baking just like any profession, and that is what I am here to learn.  It has been a great month so far, and I am cramming as much as I can in before coming home.  The full moon was beautiful this week and shone right into my bedroom window at times during the night.  It was breathtaking.

Marathon Madness

Well, they did it!  My wife, Lisa, and my daughter, Grace, both ran a marathon this morning and finished well.  They have been training for months and working hard to get into shape so that they could run this together.  There have been many obstacles, and they have met them head on and did not give up.  It seems somehow funny that I am here in Oregon eating cream puffs, but there you have it.  What is even stranger is that my roommate came home from work at lunch all fired up about going to the sheriff's office to pay for his concealed weapon permit.  He took the handgun safety class last night.  I just wondered for a moment what a deli clerk needed with a concealed weapon.  Go figure. 

Tonight I went to dinner with the Sauter's and Bob grilled a burger that would put any burger joint to shame.  We had a lovely visit and I learned more about the cattle operations on his ranch.  They have been wonderful to me while I have been here in Bend.  It has been great to renew this acquaintance and I am blessed to know them.  The Sauters were an important influence on me as I was growing up in California.  Here is Bob working his magic on the grill.

Of course, I had to have one food moment today.  I made fresh Italian plum sauce to put over ice cream for dessert tonight with some of the palmiers from last week that were in the freezer.  It was quite tasty.  I am looking forward to the Sabbath Day tomorrow.   We will have dinner as a house at 3 pm.  I am cooking and may have to whip up some dessert for the roomies, but I will have to use all-purpose flour....oh well.

Here are a couple of views of the terrain that I traveled through in Oregon on the way here.

 

It is beautiful country, and I have one more week of baking immersion before I will be back home with my family, whom I miss.

Puff Daddy-O

Well, I went again this morning to the local bakery this morning for a few hours to work and it was again educational.  The baker I have been working with is a former student of Marda's and he is from Tiawan.  His name is Kevin and he does not bake on the weekends, so I will not be going in again until next week.  I was just feeling like I might come back earlier this morning due to a bit of fatigue, when I came around the corner and Kevin had baked me a Barbecue Pork Bun.....heaven.  Then after we finished shaping the rolls, he gave me a pain aux raisin to try and it was heavenly.  I felt like the cat who ate the canary.  I went home with a happy warm feeling brought on by the lightness of the dough and the sweet bursts of golden raisins and cranberries in the roll.  He has been great to work with and has shared a lot of insights.  He graciously agreed to pose for a picture.

Amazing baker with great technique

I then went to class this morning where it was all about cakes and pate choux.  This literal translation is pastry of the lettuce.  Presumably, it is because of the way the pastry blows up and puffs when it is baking.  It is used to make eclairs, cream puffs , and many other desserts and appetizers.  We worked on the classics and then moved to the exotic.  The pastry is a paste that is put into a pastry bag and piped out and then baked...not as easy as is looks if you want the finished product to be even and symmetric.

 

My teacher then got very exotic and we piped all of the shapes out of puff pastry to make a very distinct French dessert, Gateau St. Honore.  This is named after a famous street in Paris and required some liquid sugar to make the little caramel hats you see on the puffs around the edge.  Each puff is filled with pastry cream and under the ribbons of Diplomat cream is a layer of whipped cream and a layer of chocolate truffle filling.  This is all placed on a disk of puff pastry, and sweetened cocoa powder is dusted on the top.  A definite showpiece, and I got to play with the strands of caramel as well.

 

 

The last task of the day was to learn to split cakes evenly into layers and cover them with butter cream to form a crumb layer.  After this is done, the cake is refrigerated so the final layer of icing can be put on and the decorating done.  I had to split many cakes to try and get the even, and covered three cakes with the crumb coat.  This is one in the fridge awaiting final icing and decorating.  This will be a project for Monday.

 

I cannot believe that it has already been three weeks.  I am grateful for all who have been supportive and to my wife Lisa and children who have been a great to me while I have been gone.  Lisa and Grace are running a marathon tomorrow.  I am thinking of them and my prayers go out to them.  I am very proud of how hard they have been training and working to get ready for this.  Viva la familia!

I just can't help myself......

Well, I just could not help myself and I went back the bakery last night for three hours and shaped rolls.  I know that must sound mundane, but learning to shape rolls is a little bit tricky.  You want them to be round and have good surface tension so that they will rise well and not sag.  I was told that I would start to feel comfortable after hundreds.  I shaped over 200 last night, and will be back there tonight to shape more rolls for this weekend.  Kevin, the baker, has been great to answer my questions and share insights.  I then went to class today and finished getting the cheesecakes out of the freezer and cutting up the pecan bars.  I also glazed a special chocolate cake called a Sacher torte.  It is an almond chocolate cake that is soaked in an apricot syrup and covered with chocolate glaze.  It was designed by a hotel chef and kept secret for many years. In addition to all of that, I baked batches of lemon chiffon and devils' food cake that we will be decorating and icing tomorrow.  Here are a few pictures of all the goods from the last two days.  We also bagged up the biscotti and I am bringing some home as a gift from my teacher.  I am headed to bed to get a few winks before I head downtown to where people are still barhopping while we are shaping and making bread.



Pecan bars

Raspberry Cheesecake

Key Lime Cheesecake

Chocolate Chunk Cheesecake

Mocha Cheesecake

Plain New York Cheesecake

Sacher Torte
(my teacher says this is a man's cake)

I tasted the cheesecake tonight finally after dinner and the filling is super smooth and fabulous.  Well, I asked for the total baking immersion experience and I am getting it.  The time has flown by and I am going to make the most of it.