I think everyone was relieved that we had passed the first week with no major accidents during class, besides the occasional little cuts obtained mysteriously on our hands and the chocolate stains on our chef' jackets.
I guess that's the price to pay for during a practical class - baking Muffin Au Chocolat & Brownies!
Friday was a good day for me, I had only one bag to bring to school, decided to leave out all those unecessary items which a typical lady like myself would carry (umbrella, water bottle etc) because i only had practical lesson and there was simply no time at all to drink water during my practicals. So it was a light packed day.
I had demonstration class on Thursday, and Chef Marc was showcasing some of American style recipes, but with a French touch to it! Like, brownies, chocolate cookies, cupcakes and muffins. The photographs are taken by my friend, Sonya, as I had forgotten to grab my camera & phone from my locker.
The Chocolate cookies is different from the American' style due to the texture. French like their cookies hard, whereas Americans like their cookies slightly chewy, like the ones we get from Subway. As for the muffins, that's not much of a story to it. Chef Marc uses Cocao Barry's cocoa powder for every chocolate recipe and a type of baking chocolate chips which melts during baking, but retains a slight solid form after the product is cooled down.
The muffins is slightly lopsided to the sides because of the blowing direction of the fan in the oven.
Cupcakes à la française - a french touch to the cupcakes as seen above. The frosting for these french touched cupcakes, is Mousseline Buttercream; a combination of Italian Meringue Buttercream and crème patissière. Chef Marc also made a surprise center of Salted Caramel Fudge and decorated with mini Macaroons, pearls, chocolate rice and fruits.
They are lovely aren't they?
I did tried my hands once on doing salted caramel, but they pales in comparison with this caramel recipe!
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The last demonstration is on a good old style Brownie. These are soft in the middle and slightly crispy on the sides, filled with lots of chopped walnuts. If you don't like walnuts, you can replace them with chocolate chips or other nuts.
For me, the only success I ever had when baking brownies, is by using the Betty Cooker's premix brownie box. So I was personally very pleased with myself that my brownie wasn't dry and all, but slightly soft and fudgy in the middle after learning the techniques to baking a brownie.
I have to apply the technique of melting the butter, chocolate and cocoa paste using Baine Marie - water bath. Chef said I have overbeat during crémage ; whisking the butter eggs and sugar together, hence resulting in the sugar crust being formed at the top. If I did not over beat, the top would be smooth, like in the previous pictures.
For better presentations, I chose similar sized walnuts for decorations.
Working with chocolate is a pain the ass, because I always tend to get a few stains over my elbow, hands, jackets and apron. Not to mention, washing them is always a challenge! I had some stains from on my jacket and I dropped a chocolate stained spatula over my worktop which then proceeded to roll happily around, leaving a trail of chocolates for my clean white cloth to pick up.
My classmates, Ray and Allaine just acclaimed - "It's not your day, isnt it?"
"Yeah, I guess so!".
A closer look at the surface; I'll remember to not over beat again, it breaks my heart when I see that the top is not as smooth!
Baking the Muffin Au Chocolat was alot easier, though each muffins has to be about 65g and you have to bake 6 pieces - which is a slightly difficult mission to complete if you barely have enough batter after completing the first 5!
We baked them in silicone molds; mine was like a little flower. I've never tried baking in silicone mold before, as I prefer presenting muffins or cupcakes in lovely liners.
I have had people asking me what's the difference between cupcakes and muffins, and I always tell them that muffins can be both sweet or savory, with on frosting on the top, and is with ingredients on the inside. I can have a ham & cheese muffins, or a blueberry muffin. Whereas for cupcakes, it's mostly with frosting on the top, and seldom have any ingredients mixed into the cupcakes' batter.
Whilst presenting my baked products, I had two muffins which broke into two while molding for because it was still warm. We had little time to cool them to room temperature, and required to chill in the fridge first. Mine didn't cool down properly yet, but I had to present them already.
It was a good thing that my chef in practical, Chef Aum understands that. He said not to get too upset over the broken ones as it is not my fault, but due to time constraints. Other than that, my muffins looked good. I had these for breakfast, and it is good! not dry at all, and goes really well with a good cup of hot coffee.
I honestly cannot wait to head back to Singapore and start churning these babies out for you guys back home!
Actually, they do looked really ugly. HAHAHA! Because of the fan in the oven, that's all. But hey, isn't there a saying, that 'muffins are ugly cupcakes'?
That pretty much sums up my first week of school! Very intensive, as we get right on to baking after half an hour or 15 minutes of rest after a 3 hour long demonstration class. I'm looking forward to school already, this coming week! We'll be practicing the same few techniques we have done for the previous recipes, but on new products.
I'm also pleased that my sister is joining me this week for a short week stay! Which probably means I have lesser time to blog because I'll be out! =D
Till then!
For better presentations, I chose similar sized walnuts for decorations.
Working with chocolate is a pain the ass, because I always tend to get a few stains over my elbow, hands, jackets and apron. Not to mention, washing them is always a challenge! I had some stains from on my jacket and I dropped a chocolate stained spatula over my worktop which then proceeded to roll happily around, leaving a trail of chocolates for my clean white cloth to pick up.
My classmates, Ray and Allaine just acclaimed - "It's not your day, isnt it?"
"Yeah, I guess so!".
A closer look at the surface; I'll remember to not over beat again, it breaks my heart when I see that the top is not as smooth!
Baking the Muffin Au Chocolat was alot easier, though each muffins has to be about 65g and you have to bake 6 pieces - which is a slightly difficult mission to complete if you barely have enough batter after completing the first 5!
We baked them in silicone molds; mine was like a little flower. I've never tried baking in silicone mold before, as I prefer presenting muffins or cupcakes in lovely liners.
I have had people asking me what's the difference between cupcakes and muffins, and I always tell them that muffins can be both sweet or savory, with on frosting on the top, and is with ingredients on the inside. I can have a ham & cheese muffins, or a blueberry muffin. Whereas for cupcakes, it's mostly with frosting on the top, and seldom have any ingredients mixed into the cupcakes' batter.
Whilst presenting my baked products, I had two muffins which broke into two while molding for because it was still warm. We had little time to cool them to room temperature, and required to chill in the fridge first. Mine didn't cool down properly yet, but I had to present them already.
It was a good thing that my chef in practical, Chef Aum understands that. He said not to get too upset over the broken ones as it is not my fault, but due to time constraints. Other than that, my muffins looked good. I had these for breakfast, and it is good! not dry at all, and goes really well with a good cup of hot coffee.
I honestly cannot wait to head back to Singapore and start churning these babies out for you guys back home!
Actually, they do looked really ugly. HAHAHA! Because of the fan in the oven, that's all. But hey, isn't there a saying, that 'muffins are ugly cupcakes'?
That pretty much sums up my first week of school! Very intensive, as we get right on to baking after half an hour or 15 minutes of rest after a 3 hour long demonstration class. I'm looking forward to school already, this coming week! We'll be practicing the same few techniques we have done for the previous recipes, but on new products.
I'm also pleased that my sister is joining me this week for a short week stay! Which probably means I have lesser time to blog because I'll be out! =D
Till then!
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