Éclairs

So this is what I went back to work for.

First of all, I would like to thank Chef de Partie Nuremalina of the Line Restaurant for enlightening me on the piping methods of éclairs. Before this, I was doing all sorts of unconventional piping methods which yielded éclairs of different shapes and sizes.

Here are pics of the preparation to pipe éclairs of the same sizes. (Check out the product placement thingy on the second pic) I used the previously burnt éclairs to roughly gauge the needed length.

This is what it looks like after piping the choux paste.

Let's compare the previously burnt ones with this new batch. No points for guessing which is which.

A pic of the oven with the smaller versions of éclairs in it.

Just realised I have forgotten to return the red marker to the room service department.

So long farewell

It's 1 am and I am going back to the workplace to redo the éclairs which due to a series of unfortunate events were screwed up at the baking stage. Came back home to take the piping nozzle. I thought I would also try out an almond biscotti recipe which I found intriguing.

Updates with photos later.

So long farewell, auf weidersehen, adieu.

Prima's Clover bread flour

Stayed back after work the other day and managed to bake a couple of rolls using the flour at work. I find that the flour produces breads that have very thin and crackly crusts and very tender crumbs, even the 50% rye ones. Here are a couple of pics of the cracks.

I believe the flour is blended in such a way that the baked goods are more tender than the usual artisan breads. I think it's greatly influenced by the consumer's demand here for softer breads. And by the way, this brand is very popular among local bakeries and hotels. Even my school use them.

But things might be changing soon for the bakery in Shangri-La though as they have bought in french flour which cost five times more than the local one. The bakers are supposedly revamping their recipes hence the new flour. I have yet to see the baked items of the french flour. That time will come soon though. (fingers crossed)

Anyway, it has been a busy week (what's new?) in the pastry kitchen and the load is definitely going to surge upwards starting from next week when we start supplying goods to a couple of other hotels. It's a challenge to work in the newly renovated kitchen as there is limited working and storage space for everyone, especially during "peak hours" when everyone's literally climbing on top of each other to get his/her task done. So I guess "new" doesn't necessarily equate to bigger space in hotel kitchen terms.

To give you an idea of how tight things are, imagine yourself clearing your way through the sardine packed walk-in chiller and opening the walk-in freezer door only to be faced by a whole bunch 6-footed trolleys jamming themselves from the back of the freezer to your face. One would have to do a "Mr. Fantastic" manouver if he/she wanted to get or put things in it, and this has to be done in front of three big fans blowing winds directly at you at head level in a temperature of minus 15 degree celsius (if not minus 20!). Definitely not good for morale... Top that up with disorderly and sometimes accident prone workflows.

Well, I am trying my best not to rant. Would love to keep this blog looking professional. So yea..... *Sigh* Welcome to my workplace....

Eventhough the system seems dissappointing, I am having the time of my life working with and learning from the people there.

Crème anglaise

I have been attached to the pastry department in the hotel for the past three months. While bread still seems more interesting to me, I can't help but be inspired by the science behind sauces, pastries and desserts. One of the first things that I was assigned to do was vanilla sauce (crème anglaise) or also known as the mother of all sauces.

Honestly speaking, I failed the first time. That is an understatement actually cause what came out from the pot was scrambled eggs, literally. So it was a terrible experience. Lots of chefs and cooks came to my rescue though. So that incident has inspired me to search for the science behind the making of the sauce.

Three basic ingredients make up the sauce, which are mainly milk, eggs, and sugar. I have always been fascinated with baker's percentage and thought maybe there is a similar way for cooking sauces. I came close in my search and finally landed myself on www.baking911.com where the author says the minimum ratio is 1 cup milk : 1 egg : 2 tbsp sugar. Adding more sugar delays the thickening, while eggs shortens the time.

This is just the icing on the cake. A lot more information can be found in http://www.baking911.com/custard/101_tips.htm.

The whole procedure seems very "artisanal" to me. The careful tempering of the eggs, the thickening temperature, the sieving, the cooling, the prevention of skin, etc.. Makes me wonder what goes through the minds of people when they eat it. It's probably something like "Mmmmmmmm..." or "I am going to lick this baby clean."

Now just imagine your favourite dessert sitting in the middle of the plate.

Broke my starter jar.

Yea, it finally happened. But I managed to salvage a teaspoon or two of the remaining starter so am growing that at the moment.

2 tsp culture

50g water

63g strong flour

Camp results

It was a fruitful experience overall. Hopefully, I will be able to do more of these in the future cause the ovens at work are shit hot, pun unintended. Anyway, I managed to get hold of two packets of Waitrose Organic Strong Flour which I thought had been out of stocked since months ago.

I started mixing my sour ciabatta dough as soon as I had set everything up. Left it covered on the bench for its first fermentation while I started mixing my sour baguette dough. Left it on an autolyse next to the ciabatta dough. Converted some of the starter to rye for the walnut bread. Realising I had run out of starter, I topped up the remaining few tablespoons with the organic flour.

Went dilly dallying and food hunting (it's my day off afterall!) for a moment before I got back to turn the ciabatta dough and knead the baguette dough. I then realised the bench was made of stainless steel so the temperature was going to be very uneven on both sides of the dough. Too bad there are no wooden tables. Sigh...

After another turn and 1.5 hours of final fermentation after shaping, they went into the oven, I only tried baking the ciabatinnis on the hearth while the rest were on a sheet pan. The difference in oven spring was very noticeable.

Baked the baguettes around midnight. Made the extra pieces of dough into petits (larger than usual though). The first loaf was scored by Gary, one of the midnight bakers, while the second one is mine. He gave me a few pointers and hopefully, it will be better next time. I want ears.....badly.

The midnight bakers finished most of their tasks by then so we went for a quickbite at the staff canteen. The rye leaven was ready when we got back so I proceeded to mix the walnut bread dough. I used the recipe from Dan Lepard's The Handmade Loaf. The dough was a little dry and I did not compensate enough water so the bread was dense. The honey scent was appealing and the diamond crust (my favourite bit) tasted just right.

I also took some pics of some of breads and items that the night shift guys do.

1st pic : The top tray is pain cereale while the rest are pain ordinaire a.k.a. hard rolls.

2nd pic : Trays of raisin loaves, goldkorn loaves, bavarian dark rye loaves, country loaves, walnut loaves and wholemeal loaves.

3rd pic : A trolley of proving jam doughnuts, baked ring doughnuts and twists.

4th pic : A typical breakfast setting of breads, danishes, croissants and doughnuts.

I am going to take it slow for these few days or so. I would like to take some time off to reflect on all the things that has happened since I started my attachments. Thanks to everyone in the kitchen for making my time there an enjoyable one and for inspiring me to get to new heights and discover new things. It's been a long journey but I feel that this is just the tip of the iceberg and there are greater things to come. But one thing is for sure, I am going to stick to my principles, the ones that I have engrained in my head since my first step into Shatec. To give all I have when doing or learning a task, to do something because I enjoy doing it, to respect decisions of others, to share all that I have learned and discovered and to stay humble and professional.

Camp out at work

I have got the Chief baker's permission to camp out at work for a night. So I am thinking of setting up a table in one of the corners and baking my breads using the ovens at work. There will be midnight bakers as well so I will have to stay out of their way. They won't be using all 8 decks of the oven at the moment though. This is going to be fun. Alright, time to shop for ingredients.

Marble butter cakes

Did these at workplace. The first few were a little dissappointing because the chocolate bits didn't turn up on the surface after baking, just like this one. Nice peak though.

I gradually got better thanks to Wan and Fauziah for guiding me.

I baked these last 5 butter cakes with maximum effort. 3 marble ones and 2 plain ones. I cranked the temperature up to get higher peaks and darker rustic colours. Gee...I have got to stop treating everything like bread. As I was cling wrapping the first one, I thought, "Hey! This looks like a Kodak Moment!" Hence, the pic.

New Wachtel oven at work

In my opinion. this is the next best thing since wood-fired brick ovens. Ok, maybe not....but it's still pretty impressive.

Another attempt

This time around, I sliced the bread in half sideways to get more crust per bite. Went very well with butter and strawberry preserves.

Attempt on sourdough half baguette

I like the colour of the crust although the scoring could have been deeper. Will try again soon.

Sourdough starter 35%
Strong Bread Flour 100%
Chilled tap water 60%
Sea salt 2%

5 Grain Mill Loaf

Wheat starter 40%
Waitrose Wheat Flour 60%
Gold Medal Whole Wheat Flour 20%
Bob's Red Mill Organic Dark Rye Flour 20%
Bob's Red Mill 5 Grains 20%
Tap water 70%
Sea salt 2%

School wedding cake project

Stumbled upon this when I was transfering my files from the old computer to the new one. The decorations were done using fondant and royal icing.

I still remember those painstaking hours when we struggled for ideas. We stayed back in school almost everyday a week before the dateline. Justin, the trainer, also stayed back to give us useful advice and make sure we didn't turn the whole kitchen upside down. Lol....

Although it was an individual project, it felt like a team task cause everyone was supporting each other by sharing ideas and giving positive feedbacks and suggestions. We were like a think tank. Definitely one of my best memories in Shatec.

Macaroons

This is one of the things that I did at work today. There is still room for improvement but at least this time they look round. Check out Canelé's macaroons.

Pain de Campagne

This one was a little tricky. It had about 40% rye flour so the dough was quite sticky and gummy.



Served with mountains of scrambled eggs and Tradiro and Clarance Truss tomatoes.



100% Wheat sourdough starter
Waitrose Canadian Very Strong flour 60%
Bob's Red Mill Organic Stoneground Dark Rye flour 40%
Cool tap water 70%
Sea salt 2%