Puff Pastry

24 May 2008

Yay ! We made Puff Pastries today. This is quite interesting to make and also slightly simplier than when we made the croissants. Technique is roughly the same only that we used Puff Pastry Magarine instead of just pure butter. This enabled us to roll and fold the pastry sheets for a longer time compared to using just butter where we needed it to be cool most of the time. Here's what turned out ! ... oh yes, we also made Shortbread Biscuits!

Special Request !

23 May 2008

Had a special request from my mom today. She wanted me to decorate a cake for a family friend's birthday. The theme was golf ! As I had not been practicing icing for so long, I dared not do anything too complicated ! Here's how it turned out !

Pies Anyone ?

22 May 2008

Today we made many types of pies... another easy day for us 'coz we could use the same base (pie) and just put different toppings or fillings ! We also made the Florentine which I personally found a bit too sweet !

Choux Pastry

20 May 2008

We made Choux (pronounced like shoe) Pastry today. Quite a simple recipe. Just that it is very, very fattening !! The amount of butter and cream that we use !!!!! Oh boy! But it's delicious, that's why! We piped out the shape of the swan's head & neck and also the tail. Then attached them to the base (body) of the swan ! If you look at the pictures below you'll see what I mean. We also made them in shapes of flower baskets and also the ever popular Eclair. We had time so we learnt how to make butter cookies as well.

Picture of the choux pastry before they were baked.

The Swan
Flower Baskets & Eclair

Butter Cookies before they were baked.

Chinese Pastries

17 May 2008


Today is the first of our Pastries & Cookies Module. As I mentioned before, we have 8 lessons on breads which we have just completed and now begins the 8 lessons on Pastries & Cookies.

We made the Hong Kong Steamed 'Chicken' Bun, Kaya Puffs and Snow Skin Mooncake with both Lotus Paste & Red Bean Paste fillings.

The Snow Skin Mooncakes were'nt as difficult to make as I thought they would be, the Chicken Bun, I would need to practice wrapping it, and as for the Kaya Puffs, they were really fun to make !

The Hong Kong Steamed Chicken Buns straight out of the oven!

Kaya Puffs, before !
and after !!

dOughnuts

15 May 2008

At last we're making Doughnuts, my favourite ! It's not so difficult to make after all... just that we've got to fry it once we're done. We didn't make the Cinnamon Rolls like I thought but did the Chelsea Buns instead. It's similar to the Cinnamon Rolls but it doesn't have the cinnamon taste or the aroma which is quite a waste as I really like the cinnamon smell !! We also made a Ragi Walnut Bread. Ragi is a type of flour that is used to make thosai. We mixed it with walnuts and added our bread recipe and so we have the Ragi Walnut Bread !! This is the end of our bread making module and we start with Pastries on Saturday !

A picture of the doughnuts before they were fried !

Here's one of them in the fryer
The end product!

Here's one of the Chelsea Buns before they were popped into the oven.

And, after !
This is the Ragi Walnut Bread

'God' Mothers' Day ??!!

11 May 2008
Today is Mothers' Day and as usual all the restaurants will be crowded as everyone will be out having dinner. Which is why we opted not to go out and my brother and sister-in-law came over and we had my leftover breads, croissants, ... with ham that they bought during their recent holiday in Europe. Well, luckily we didn't go out 'coz my friends came over with my god daughter to give me a surprise ! It was so sweet of them ! And you bet it was a lovely surprise ! Made my day !

Mama Mia! It's Pizza Time !

13 May 2008

Today was a more relaxed day as we only had to make 2 types of pizzas. One was a plain dough pizza and the other the wholemeal pizza. We only had limited types of toppings so I didn't really bother and put similar toppings on both the types of pizza bases ! I think Thursday would be an exciting class as we will be making doughnuts and cinnamon rolls. Both are my favourites ! Can't wait ! It will also be the last class for breads and we move on to pastries on Saturday.

The plain dough pizza before it is put into the oven for baking.

Both types of pizzas just fresh from the oven !

Croissants & Danish

10 May 2008

At last we are making croissants & danish ! Didn't know that making croissants involves so much work. And we have to work quickly too. If not the butter will melt and whatever we've done will go to waste.







Yup! We made the Milk & Cheese Plait (bread) while waiting for the croissant dough to be cooled down again (in the freezer).

More Breads !

08 May 2008


Foccacia ! Another one of my favourites. Dip that into olive oil mixed with balsamic vinegar...yummy. Come to think of it, I won't mind making this at home. It's quite easy to do and I like to eat it anyway. ... which reminds me... I'd better start practising all these recipes and get used to doind so with my own appliances. I wonder if it will taste at least 90% like what I bake at baking school ? My mixer's so tiny compared to what we've been using so far. Even the oven is a midget now !



Ingredients for Foccacia

Ingredients for the German Muesli Bread


Both the Honey & Carrot Bread and the German Muesli Bread

Pretzels Anyone ?

06 May 2008

Yummy! I love pretzels and so does my aunt !! We made a Pumpkin Bread, Brioche and my favourite pretzel today. Also got to watch a video on how pretzels are made. Looked very easy on video but let me tell you that it is not so. Trying to tie the pretzel is another different story. The pumpkin bread was good coz I like pumpkin anyway. But the brioche, to me, is too much work for nothing ! Have alook at the picture of the brioche and maybe you'll agree with me ?












Ingredients for the Pumpkin Bread

Ingredients for the Honey Pretzel

My First Knitted Shawl !

05 May 2008

Didn't take photos of the stuff that I had knitted or crocheted the last time so when my mother asked me to re-do this shawl I took the opportunity to take a photo of it before undoing it ! This was the first item I ever knitted when I decided to take up knitting. My mother said that it was too heavy for her to use... now that I am holding on to it ... how very true ! Hahaha! Anyway, if you look at the photo you can see that they were'nt very good stitches ! Well, since I'm more into crocheting now, I've decided to crochet a shawl for her and instead of using 3 yarns at one go, I'll split them up. That way I can even make 3 different shawls ! Or maybe, a shawl, a hat and a small bag ?

Notice that the sides are not very even ? Hahaha!

Sweet, Sweet Breads

03 May 2008 - 3rd lesson today! Today's breads are the most fattening ! Aaaargggh! We made Sausage Rolls, Red Bean Buns, Coconut Buns, Tuna Buns, Chicken Floss Buns and also the Mexican Coffee Bun (which is like the RotiBoy that is sold in some stores in KL). We tried out different ways of making the buns look more interesting instead of just a round blob ! Here are some pictures !

Healthy Breads

29 April 2008 - had my second lesson today in bread baking. We made 'healthy' breads today.. meaning breads with no sugar in the recipe. The baguette was actually fun to make... and I think I'm beginning to get the hang of it already. We also got to watch some videos on the bread making processes and there was one where this baker did it entirely with his hands (no mixer was used)! I assume it will be extremely tiring if I ever tried that myself! We won't be having any lessons on Thursday as it is Labour Day so I really can't wait till class on Saturday. We'll be making sweet breads then.

01 May 2008 - I kept some of the bread from Tuesday, in the fridge and we had them today with some hams that my brother and sister in law brought back from their holiday in Eastern Europe. It was yummy and even my father liked the breads ! Mom made a mediterranean style salad to go with it and that was delicious too. Too bad we didn't have any Hungarian wine, so instead we had Chilean wine to go with the hams!

Here are some photos of the breads baked on Tuesday.

The one at the top (big fat one) is the French Country Bread, the long one is the French Baguette, the one with some stuff on the top (right below) is the Wholemeal bread.

Another closer shot of the French Country Bread

And another of the Wholemeal Bread.