A comment about Thanksgiving

Halloween kicks it all off. Before you know it, you see a worker at Trader Joe's dressed up as a turkey. The Food Network starts to air Thanksgiving themed shows. Bakeries have printed out signs regarding ordering pie.

There is something about this time of year; it makes you stop and think for a moment: of the things that you have learned, in the ways that you have grown, and of the good and bad experiences that you have come across.

Sometime, you get so caught up in life, you forget to be grateful. So here are some things I am grateful for regarding my culinary experience:

* For my supportive husband, for my friends, and family who encouraged me to persevere
* For God for listenting to my many prayers of "Help me! I'm sinking!"
* For my first boss, Joey, who pushed me hard because it was good for me (even if it didn't feel good.)
* For hot showers
*For long oven mints and the Chinese burn ointment my mom gave me
*For being able to do what I love
*For coffee, good and strong and lots of it
*For family meals
*For flat sheet pans, Silpats, offset spatulas, and my santoku knife...

Happy Thanksgiving!

Sweet and Spicy

Ever have a chocolate chai tea latte? Is it chai spices in my hot chocolate or is chocolate added to my chai tea?

However you want to see it, a nice warm bowl of it is perfect for a chilly day like today. First you taste the chocolate. Then the spices make their way through your taste buds: the cardamon, the cinnamon, the cloves, and ginger.


Here it is pictured with a double ginger cookie. There is nothing like a good ginger cookie. I finally found a recipe that I really enjoy in Williams-Sonoma's Essentials in Baking. But one thing that I do different is that I candy my own ginger. It is actually quite a pain to do it if you only want candied ginger. (For the time and labor, I would recommend buying it, instead.)

First, I peel and slice gingerroots. They are then placed into a sauce pan with one part water and one part sugar. Then they are boiled until it is syrupy.

The original reason why I started to candy ginger was because I needed to make syrup for the ginger lemon mimosa on the menu. But, since I didn't want to waste perfectly good slices of ginger, I decide to salvage them. I strained out as much liquid from them as I could. Then tossed the ginger with sugar, letting them dry out.

Chocolate chai and double ginger cookies for the spice junkies amongst us.

Change

It's been a bit rugged lately. The effects of the changing economy are apparent during lunch; they are just not as busy as they used to be. This time last year, there were often times where people had to wait outside for a table. Not so much now.

Along with a reach-in refrigerator and a freezer breaking down, we have been forced to be a lot more efficient with our space. But it is frustrating at times, when you find frozen shrimp sharing space with some frozen cookie dough because there is just nowhere else to put it.

As a result, I've taken two of my cakes off the menu: the chocolate stout cake and the midnight cake (chocolate cake with ganache and vanilla buttercream.) Sigh. There just is no space. But, on a good note, there have been requests for the chocolate-cardamom pot de cremes. So they are back accompanied by two petite pistachio cookies.

I've shifted my focus more on the pastry case: the breakfast pastries and cookies. This upcoming week will be a series of experiments of different cookie doughs, maybe a new brownie. Today I baked off some almond apricot chocolate cookies. (I may add oats to it. I taste too much like the regular chocolate chip cookie.) Tomorrow is nibby shortbread. I am letting it sit and chill overnight to let the nibs infuse the dough, a tip I picked up from Alice Medrich's Bittersweet.

I am also brainstorming what I can egg white. Because I am going to be making the pot de cremes again, I will be using more yolks. Perhaps a hazelnut chocolate meringue? I also have a ton of nuts that I have to figure out what to do with. Without our old chill chests, their shelf life is shortened. (I have a five pound bag of pistachios.)

The holidays are in sight as well; I keep in mind cut-out cookies, rugelachs, and flavors of peppermint.

Scones

Interestingly enough, two of my friends came to me over the weekend regarding scones that each of them had made. I thought that was funny since I don't know too many people that would choose to make scones just because. So I was happy to answer whatever questions they had.

Ah, scones. Nothing like a hot cup of coffee and a blueberry scone with a hint of lemon. I didn't really start enjoying them until after culinary school. Crumbly (or flaky) scones. There is so much I can write today about scones, but let's keep it short and focus one of the basics.

Mixing. It is really easy to overmix scones. Unlike, cookies or cakes, scones are mixed until they just come together. What does that mean? Well, it will look like a messy mass of dough with some dry clumps. (There should be clumps of butter.) It should not feel too wet or sticky. You should be able to shape the dough, patting the dry clumps into the wet areas. You can always add more liquid (either cream or buttermilk, usually) as you go.

Why is it important that you mix scones to that point? If you overmix the dough, it becomes dense. The texture feels like a giant cookie, rather than the crumbly (flaky) scone. That texture comes from the small chunks of butter trapped between layers of dough. (Depending on the shape, scones can vary in texture. A crumbly scone is made when you make a rough lump of dough for each serving. To make a flaky scone, the dough is rolled out and then cut with a knife or with round cutters.)

A good tip in adding fruit to scones: I usually just add dried fruit. But if you want to add real fruit, like berries, for example. I recommend frozen berries only because the frozen berries won't bleed when you mix them in. Also, fold the berries in toward then end of our mixing so you get hunks of the fruit rather than having just swirls of fruit through the dough.

Happy Halloween!

"Death by Chocolate" Cupcakes.

A note about weddings

So B and I went to a wedding this past weekend.

We didn't just go the wedding; we had been asked to help coordinate the reception for our friends, Gabe and Dorise. So, it was a busy evening for us: setting up the chair covers, tying to gold sashes, making sure the banquet was set up, setting up the cake...

A word about cake...why are they so expensive?

I don't think many people realize what goes into a cake, especially a wedding cake. It takes a lot of energy out of you, a lot of work and time and that is on top of all the normal production that you have for your bakery or pastry shop.

There have been many times where I wished that I had a magic wand to make the cake. Cake decorating can be painstaking, especially if you have much detailed work ahead. Sometime you feel like you are buried in cake as is slowly comes together. Just thinking about the work into making a wedding cake can be stressful.

I think the biggest thing is planning: with cake, having a plan and executing it right plays a huge part in ensuring success. (Something that I learned making my first wedding cake outside of culinary school.)

It is rare that a wedding cake is baked, finished and decorating all in one day. It is often done in stages. Mixing and baking the cake take time, and even more time if you have several tiers to do. (It gets more complex if the tiers are different flavors.) Also calculated in that is the cooling and proper storage. Then you have to make sure that you have enough buttercream, ganache, stabilized cream, or fondant to finish the cake. You also have to make time to cut the cake into layers, put in the filling, and crumb coat it. Then it is on to icing it to have that nice seamless exterior.

The time it takes to decorate can vary depending on the complexity. If you have a whipped cream cake that is dressed with organic rose petals, then the labor is a lot less than if you have hexagon shaped tiers with gumpaste flowers.

On top of all that, you have to make sure that you work cleanly and that you are organized. Because if anything happens to your work: if the cake gets damaged, if the fondant gets niched, if the gumpaste flowers break, you have to stop and fix it or start all over.

And it is frustrating.

Then set up and deliver. This is probably the worst time for anything to happen to a cake. Because you have just finished all that hard work, of making everything look perfect. I think one of the most relieving feelings is when the cake is delivered: it is out of your hands and you've done the best you can. There is nothing more that you can do about it.

But as stressful as it can be, it is rewarding when you see what you have made with your hands and find satisfaction for a job well done.

(Here is my friend Kike, helping me assemble the cake at the wedding. To save some money, the bride and groom decided to have the cake picked up by one of the guest, rather than to have it delivered.)
Note: The cake (with the purple flowers) is from Ambrosia Bakery and Cafe in San Francisco.

and another thing...about bread

I like bread that has big holes in 'em.

Here's a photo of a piece of ciabatta. The reason why you have those big holes is because of fermentation. The purpose is to improve flavor and texture. Fermentation in bread comes in two forms. You can ferment the dough by punching down the dough after its first rise and letting it rest in the refrigerator overnight. The other is with a sponge, also referred to as a pre-ferment, starter, barm, or poolish. In any case, it is a mixture of flour, water, and yeast that is allowed to sit (usually overnight.) This process allows the yeast to mutiply and create acetic and lactic acids. This in turn leads to more flavor.

I think that is why baguettes tastes so great. In general, baguettes are water, flour, salt, sugar, and either yeast or a starter.

Here is a picture of the ciabatta starter. Because of its continual process of a multiplying community of yeast, a portion has to be measure out and discarded of. (Salt it through on the discarded portion so that it will cease to multiply.) Then a measured amout of flour and water is mixed with the original batch. Essentially, the starter needs to be fed everyday to keep it alive, but a portion has to be thrown out or it would get to big.