Week 30 Baked Products Final Assessment

"How are you today?" that was what my trainer asked and I said "Excited" haha.... because I was excited that it was our final assessment for the term. Lets have some fun! 

We had prepared some of the doughs a day earlier and had them resting in the fridge for the big day! We made the croissant and danish pastries. We also started with the chelsea bun dough and the brioche dough. 

First thing in the morning, start with Panettone. This is the first to start and the last out from oven. We made a starter for the panettone and also a starter for the Stollen.

 Then we got the cold doughs out from the fridge. The brioche and chelsea bun dough had to be knocked back and brought back to room temperature before putting into the prover. 

Then the danish and croissant pastry were rolled out to about 3-5mm thick and went back into the fridge. Both the croissant and danish pastries are very similar, except the Danish pastry is softer because it has eggs. Both we did 3 single turns with 30 minutes rest in the fridge.

Doughs from fridge

We were required to make 10 danishes and I manage to get 12 squares out of the pastry. After cutting them into squares, I put them back into the fridge to chill them. We need the pastry cold so that the butter doesn't melt and leak. I was lucky because my bench was near the air con. The pastries were kept cool while I worked on them, just that I was feeling a little cold. Its ok, as long as the pastries come out nice! 

Danish squares

The panettone has to be proved 4 times before it can be baked. Here I am mixing in the fruits and then proving them again.

Mixing in fruits into panettone dough

As for the croissants, we need 10 serves. So we made 5 in crescent shape and 5 straight ones which we filled with some chocolate. The remainder pastries, I made some mini croissants.  

Croissants

Crescent shaped croissants

Straight Croissants

With the brioche, we had to make a loaf and some small traditional ones. The school didn't have the proper brioche cases, so I brought some small tart cases and made really small brioches. They looked cute. 

Small classic brioche

Brioche loaf

We made 6 fresh fruit danishes with creme patisserie and 6 with canned apricots. We were allowed to choose whatever design we thought was suitable. We made diamond shaped danishes for the fresh fruits and the apricots were in the classic shape. I egg washed them and proved them before baking. My trainer advised me to put a band over the classic shape ones because he said we are not familiar with the pastry so it might burst open when in the oven, so with the band, it helps to secure it in place. So I took his advice. 

Diamond shape Danishes

Apricot danishes

Things are coming out of oven. The little brioche had some casualties because they were slanting everywhere. Luckily we found 4 striaght ones to present. The brioche loaf came out nice and puffed. 

Casualty Brioche

Better ones 

The chelsea bun dough took a long time to prove and wer were worried it wont rise properly. But I have to say, I am happy with the end product. It was much nicer than we made before. It rose nicely and the colour was nice too. 

Chelsea Buns

I can't wait to see the result of the croissants and danishes. The croissants puffed up nicely and the colour was golden. The only thing was the crescent shaped ones stretched a little and didnt look too crescent. 

Crescent Croissants

Straight Croissants

Good thing I had the band on for the apricot danishes. I will be disappointed if I saw them open up. We then glazed the danishes with a little apricot glaze. Then with the diamond shaped ones, they were cooled completely and filled with creme patissiere and  topped with kiwis and strawberries. 

Apricot Danishes

The products were presented and marked. I think we did well. I am happy with the day's work. I am happy with the term. Time flew by too quickly this term. Good trainer, good teammate and loads of fun making these pastries. Now it is time to enjoy my holiday and more home bake projects. 

Products displayed

All the products

Here are some closer look of the products before they disappear into my tummy! Yum!

Strawberry and kiwi Danish

Apricot Danish

Croissants

Chelsea Buns

Brioche

Danish

Week 29 Gingerbread house

Our last week before our assessment. Not a big menu but an interesting day nonetheless. We made Stollen, Panettone and gingerbread house. It is all about Christmas!

Stollen is a traditional German cake, usually eaten during Christmas. It contains dried fruits, marzipan in the centre and heavily dusted with icing sugar.  Our Stollen didn't really cover the marzipan as it was bursting in the oven. Need to wrap it nicer on assessment day. We will be making Stollen again next week. 

Stollen

Stollen 

Stollen

Panettone is a type of sweet bread loaf originally from Milan, Italy and also enjoyed during Christmas.  It had a cylindrical base and can be as tall as 15cm and may weigh about 1kg. With such a big size bread, it took a really long time in the oven. It was in there for more than an hour. 

Panettone

Panettone

I guess for me, the interesting part was making the gingerbread house. We prepared the gingerbread dough a week earlier and kept it in the fridge. Now it is time to cut the shapes and bake them and also assemble the house. Gingerbread house is famous during Christmas time but we got to make them in April. So instead of a Christmas themed house, I made a different house. I call mine the "Simply Happy" house. We shared the dough and managed to get one small house each. Well at least we got to make our own house and take it home. We were not given a lot of time with the decoration but it was still fun. 

Gingerbread shapes 

 With the limited time, this is how far I got with my little house. I manage the get the shapes glued on the board with royal icing. I have a little car, 3 birdies and 2 fences. But I wanted to make it prettier, so I took some of the remaining royal icing home and continued with my work.

Incomplete gingerbread house

 I spent another hour at home with the decoration. I coloured some of the icing with yellow and some with pink. I added more M&M to the sides of the house and the footpath. I put up the moon with a wire, coloured it yellow. Gave the birdies some character. Coloured my little car pink. Just a few finishing touches and I told myself to stop after one hour. Otherwise I think I will go on and on with it. Ha ha.... 

"Simply Happy" Gingerbread House

 Moonlight brightens the night

Birdie on the roof

My "Simply Happy" front door

Back of the house

Simply Happy

My little pink car

Side of house with Heart shape windows

Maybe next Christmas I might try making another gingerbread house. What a good way to finish the lesson for the term. Next week will be assessment and then I will welcome the 2 weeks break with a big smile. 

Life is short, so be happy :) 

Week 28 Hot Cross Buns

Easter weekend is just around the corner and our trainer said we can change the oat fruit loaf recipe into hot cross buns. I was happy with the decision. It made it more festive and since I have never made hot cross buns before, it would be fun. 

Hot cross buns is a sweet bun with currants or raisins in it and is marked with a cross on the top. Our hot cross buns is a little different, we have sultanas, apricots and walnuts in it but it is still shaped like a hot cross bun. It is traditionally eaten on Good Friday. It is nice toasted and eaten with a little butter. 

Hot cross buns

Naan with sesame seed and melted butter

We made some naan bread and a pita bread. I have eaten naan and pita before and I think I  have a lot to learn because I am not very happy with these that we made. Our puri had some interesting results. On a same tray, some puffed up nicely and some remained flat. I don't really understand why. 

Naan

Puri

What took the most time was the Turkish Delight. I think I was standing there for more than an hour stirring the pot of hot sticky starch. It is basically a mixture of cornflour, water and sugar. Turkish delight is a popular Greek traditional delicacy in the 19th century. It really requires a lot of patience with the stirring over low heat. Luckily my patience paid off. The turkish delight was a success. It set properly and I was able to cut it into cubes and coated it with lots of cornflour and icing sugar. 

Turkish Delight

We made friands again. It has a nice burnt butter flavour and the texture was nice because of the almond meal. But today I brought some frozen raspberries to add to the recipe to make it a little more appealing. It was really quite nice to eat. It disappeared not long after it got home. 

Raspberry Friands

Hmm.... I am feeling a little hungry for one friand now.

Raspberry Friand

Week 27 Challah

After an interesting week 26, this week the menu was really quite boring. We made muffins, savarin, walnut bread and challah. 

Muffin was an easy recipe and didn't seem interesting at all. The savarin, we have made them before during our first stage. So this was not an interesting day in the kitchen.

Challah with a plait on the top

braided challah

Braided challah with poppy seeds

Chocolate chip muffins

Challah is a festive Jewish braided bread eaten on Sabbath. It is a white bread and the interesting part was the braiding of the bread. 

Walnut bread

The walnut bread was a white bread with walnuts in it. So again, it was not very interesting. I think our walnut breads were a little under baked. It could have been in the oven for a  little longer to give it a better colour. 

Savarin with fresh fruits and whipped cream

Savarin, we made one ring and a few small ones in dariole moulds. The funny thing about the savarin was that I put ours in the middle of the oven and when I went back to check it after some time, it was still not ready. So i waited and kept checking after a few minutes. Then my partner came to check with me and she said "Chen! that is not ours!" Ours is on the left! Oh no!!! she was right, our names was on the one on the left! It was a little too brown by the time we took it out. Ha Ha.... someone pushed ours to the left and had theirs in the middle. But luckily the big ring one was fine, just the smaller ones were a little too cooked. Lesson of the day, make sure you look for your name and recognise your tray. 

Over baked Savarins