Driving Miss Haley.

I am officially done with Baking Techniques, and tomorrow, I head to my third bakeshop, Bakeshop 1, with Chef Schorner for Pastry Techniques. It is crazy how quickly time flies here, with classes being only three weeks. I really enjoy how the curriculum is setup at the CIA. I feel like I just started class with Chef Haymon, but I have learned so much from him in just fourteen short days. I loved Baking Tech. and cannot wait to see what is in store for me in Pastry Tech.

On Wednesday of last week, Chef Haymon gave us a project. Each team of two was paired with another group of two working across on the same station. There are five stations and each group of four had an ingredient of focus: sugar, baking soda, baking powder, control, flour, and fat. In order to see the effects of these ingredients, we took a basic sugar cookie recipe and changed the ingredients slightly, the granulated sugar to light brown sugar or tripled the baking soda, etc. The goal was to understand the science (go Food Science!) behind baking and how ingredients affect the color, height, spread, etc. of the cookie. It was fairly enlightening.
Here is a grid of all the cookies we made. You probably cannot read the writing but just look how different they look with only one ingredient change!

On Friday, we had our skills verification final. Each student was required to make two eight inch genoises, one batch of pate a choux for eclairs, and pastry cream. Thursday was a practice day for Friday, and besides making these three products, all we did in class was take our written final. I scored a 62.5 out of 70 on my written test and a 27.75 out of 30 on my skills test for an A- on my final. Our final grade is not posted yet, but I am thinking a B+!

Today is the last day of my three-day weekend. It has been a gloriously relaxing weekend. Nate and I literally drove all around the Poughkeepsie/ Hyde Park area, through back roads and main roads. It was low key but sooo fun, with me enjoying the scenery, unlike any fall scenery I have ever experienced in Georgia. Our weekend included:
*Red Lobster.
*House of Wax.
*IHop.
*Popeye's in Kingston complete with at-your-table interactive games.
*Starbucks.
*Football.
*Shutter Island.
*Glee.
*Lots of school work for Nate's next class, Cuisines of Asia.
*Shopping.
*Thai Spice... you know, with all this Asian talk we've been doing.
*Loving the beautiful fall foliage in the Hudson Valley by taking a few pictures at the Vanderbilt Mansion.
My backyard, literally. I wish you could see the colors of the trees.
At the Vanderbilt Mansion. The Hudson River. My favorite picture of the day today.
Yes, I spent a few minutes to find some fun leaves. Imagine a landscape on the Hudson River of these colors. These pictures do not fully capture how beautiful it is outside right now.

Chef Haymon asked me on Friday if I was going to be on campus today, a Monday with no class. Chef Migoya, who runs the Apple Pie Bakery Cafe, and Chef Greweling, who teaches the Chocolates and Confections class for second-year pastry students, gave demos for New York members of the Retail Baker's Association. He asked me to film these demos for him. My response was, of course, "yes, Chef." So, this morning I woke up early to film from around 9 to 11. I rather enjoyed myself, and I helped a chef, which is always a plus.
This is a chocolate they served today for the Retail Baker's Association demonstrations. Mmmm. We are cool here at the CIA, with out emblem even on our own chocolate!

Tomorrow, a new week, a new block, a new class, a new chef. I love my life.

SHOPPING CART OR BUGGY?

Hay Reh

Rainbow Sprinkles.

This is a teaser of two of the treats I made today. I am working on externship documents right now, but I thought I would post a little something anyway. There is not much to tell you about today, as today was a wrap-up of all things puff pastry. These are palmiers, puff pastry with sugar-in-the-raw caramelized on the outside. (We also made several products with our croissant and danish dough that we will bake tomorrow. Dalmations, or Swiss meringue with chocolate chips, dried into cookies and pastry cream were extra things we made today too.) Enjoy!
We fried cake donuts today, for fun I think, as they have nothing to do really with our recent subject matter in class. A good day for a baker, or just me, is a day when you can sprinkle the rainbow. Today was a success by my standards!
DOUGHNUTS OR DONUTS?

Hay Reh

Puff the Magic Dragon.

I am tired and do not feel the greatest. Today was a long day; I even had to miss dinner waiting for my genoise to finish baking in the oven. Therefore, I am going to try and make this post short and sweet. Then, it's beddy bye time on clean sheets! :)

I enjoyed giving Katy a tour around the CIA. This is not my first rodeo, aka tour, and pretty soon, I will be giving tours on a regular basis. That's right... you are looking at the CIA's newest tour guide. I am fulfilling a lifelong dream really. I will start training soon, and I know y'all are excited about hearing MORE about the CIA when I learn the ins and outs and history, etc.

I was horrified at the Apple Pie Bakery Cafe today when they served me an EXPIRED Coke. Proof, yet again, that the North hates Coke. This is the CIA people, and I have expectations to drink an "always refreshing" soda when I want it. The Nutella cupcake did make up for this slight slip-up. And, the company, Ms. Capers, was not too bad either.

In Baking Techniques on this Day 10, each person in class cut their puff pastry that we made on Friday into two portions. With the first portion, we rolled palmiers in raw sugar to be made tomorrow. With the other half, we made (top to bottom) apple turnovers, vol au vonts (with bear claw filling and apple pie filling), and pinwheels (with almond cream and apple pie filling). It was exciting to see our hard work in flaky, buttery, quite tasty layers!
In learning more about lamination of dough with fat, half of the room made and folded (4 fold- 3 fold- 3 fold) danish and the other half croissant. Puff pastry differs from these two products in that it is folded 4-3-4-3 (I cannot explaining folding... you will have to look it up) and has no yeast, while danish and croissants do. We will bake these tomorrow.

We also made spongecake, again. I am getting bored with making so much spongecake. Team 6's genoise was perfectly acceptable today (we are not allowed to say "good"), not too dense with no flour lumps. This makes the boringness worthwhile, I guess.

Now, after two loads of laundry and soup for dinner, I am going to bed. The cold and third week of the block are getting to me.

LIVED BY THE SEA

Hay Reh

*Happy 49th Birthday, again, to my second mother, my Aunt Deb! The Nutella cupcake was just for you, in honor of this anniversary of your 49th year, except that I had to eat it for you. NY and GA are just too far away, most of the time! I love you, and I am sorry I missed your parrrr-ty.

My UGA Red Shaker Exploded.

Once again, this weekend has proven to be equally as fabulous as the last, and last weekend included Chickfila, family, and a UGA win. Speaking of a UGA win, I have had a red shaker or pom-pom in my car for a while now, and I wanted it to make the trip to NY, in case I ever needed to really cheer for my team. Well, now that my team is 3-4, my red shaker decided to take its fury out on my car, Katy Capers, and Nate. I guess with the change in temperature from hot to super hot to fallish weather to cold to comfortable to temperature confusion to the max, the plasticy material fell apart. There is red bits of pom-pom all over my car, and I am finding it attached to me and things that have come into contact with my car now. Here's to you, UGA VIII, Big Bad Bruce, UGA's new bulldog mascot, a red shaker that looks like you chewed it. I am waaaaaaay too OCD for this!

That's enough randomness. Friday began with a meeting with the Director of Menu Research and Development at the CIA. He has an AOS in Culinary and a PhD in Food Science. We talked about the future possibilities for me to help with research, utilizing my Food Science degree and "actively participating in my own education" by exploring culinology. I could be working 5-10 hours a week doing projects by myself or assisting different chefs on campus. I am excited about this possible opportunity.

In Baking Techniques on Friday, we made Puff Pastry and genoise, or sponge cake. On Day 14, or the last day of this class, we will have a skills verification test, and genoise is one of the products we must make. We are responsible for making the cakes for second year pastry students to use for their wedding cake project. Therefore, we get to practice "mastering" the technique for our skills test, for the future, and for other students to use for their cakes.

I love Puff Pastry; it is probably the coolest thing I have learned to make in my time here at the CIA. Locking butter in dough and folding it to create hundreds of layers for a flaky, buttery masterpiece. How cool?! Our puff is in the refrigerator as I type, and we will finish learning all about puff tomorrow in class. Lamination, lamination, lamination, or layering butter and dough will be our main topic for this last week of class. I am super excited.

On Friday night, Nate and I went to see a movie, The Town, in Poughkeepsie. Two words: Ben Affleck. One other word: ripped. Enough said.

My friend, Katy Capers, the one who lives in Boston now, came to visit me this weekend. Saturday in New York City included:
*Shake Shack. Black and White Shakes are ridiculously delicious.
*One hour in the TKTS line. Three half-price tickets to see a Broadway show. Check.
*Meeting Katy's friend Lizzie at her sweet apartment.
*Breaking in to NYU to eat Chickfila at their dining hall.
*Meeting Sean Hayes and Molly Shannon from Promises, Promises. (I will try and post another pic tomorrow.)
*Jumping pictures in Times Square.
*Train ride at midnight, arriving in Poughkeepsie at 3:30amish.

This morning, Katy and I slept and slept and slept until around noon. We ate linner or dunch at the Palace Diner in Poughkeepsie. We drank Starbucks. We sang with the windows down. We walked halfway across the world's longest pedestrian bridge (and took a few unsuccessful pictures). I drove her around to "see the sights" of Hyde Park and Poughkeepsie. Now, we are watching The Last Song (judge us, I dare you). Perfect night. Tomorrow, I will give her a tour of what I have the privilege of calling my school. :)
I SAY A LITTLE PRAYER FOR YOU

Hay Reh

Easy as Pie.

Today we made PIE. Each person in the class (there are 19 of us) made three pies. We were able to choose our pies**:

ONE Custard:
**Pecan
*Pumpkin

ONE Fruit:
**Blueberry (lattice)
*Cherry (lattice)
*Apple (second crust on top)

ONE Cream:
**Chocolate
**Banana

With the fruit, we used a second pie crust to create a lattice for the blueberry and cherry. For the apple, the second shell was placed directly on top, with a small cut to vent in the center.

With the cream, we made pastry cream to fill. If you wanted chocolate, four ounces of chocolate was added to the cream immediately after finishing the cream with butter to melt. Chef Haymon allowed us to made chocolate banana cream pie if we so desired, and I so desired. (I have no picture of my cream pie, as it went straight to the refrigerator upon cooling.)
The pecan pie was delicious (sorry for this weird picture angle), but it was not Gamma's Pecan Pie (no chocolate :().
My blueberry pie turned out well, for it being my first lattice pie. I tried the cherry and it was tart. Unfortunately, I did not try the blueberry but maybe tomorrow?!

Tomorrow we are making genoise, or sponge cake, again and puff pastry. Wowsers. I heart culinary school!

PIE YA LATER

Hay Reh

Biscuits and Scones.

Today in Baking Techniques, we learned about the Cut-in or Rubbed Dough method. Basically, this is the simpler version of creating layers in dough, called lamination, which is the process used to make products such as puff pastry. The butter used in the Cut-in method is COLD. Folding with this hard, pliable butter creates a flaky product, such as with biscuits, scones, and pies.

As teams, we were able to chose our garnish for our biscuits and scones. Stephanie and I decided to make cheese biscuits with herbs de provence. After our egg wash, we added a little cheese on the top for looks.
For our scones, we added chocolate chips and toasted coconut to the dough. After egg washing our scones, we added sanding sugar to the top for shine, crunch, and a little added sweetness. During evaluation at the end of the day, Chef Haymon commented on the uniform shape of and amount of layers in our scones. Good job, Stephanie.
Each team made a double batch of 3,2,1 (ratio of flour to fat to liquid) pie dough today. Each person rolled four pie crusts each. Tomorrow, we will make three pies each (and take one home I guess?!). Teams 5 and 6 (Steph and I are 6) made the cherry pie filling today for tomorrow. Other teams made pecan, pumpkin, blueberry, and apple. Yummy.

Dinner (I keep forgetting): Swordfish with Pineapple Salsa that some of my friends made. :)

THREE FOLD, FOUR FOLD?

Hay Reh

"Airplanes in the Night Sky"

Life has been crazy since my last post. I learned how to make pastry cream, a fundamental for any pastry chef. I flew home to Georgia. The Bulldogs won, and the number one team in the country lost (Poor Bama). I ate a lot of food. I spent some much needed time with my family. I actually even went to see a movie with my mom (Life as We Know It... it's about a baker in Atlanta... yay). I am amazed that this is the life I get to live as a 23 year old.

On Friday, like I said, we learned how to make pastry cream. Pastry cream is the base for many other sauces in the pastry world. First, ninety percent of the milk, half of the sugar, the vanilla, and salt are added to a pot on the heat. The cornstarch, remaining milk, and sugar are mixed in a separate bowl. Seventy five percent of the hot liquid is added to temper the egg mixture. Then, the tempered egg mixture is added back to the hot pot and cooked to thicken. STIR STIR STIR. Seriously, in order for there to be no lumps, you must stir the pastry cream vigorously. I thought my arm was going to fall off, to which my chef replied that I need to go to the gym. I will call it my buff pastry cream arm one day. (Pastry cream has a shelf life of two to three days, before the starch retrogradation occurs, or starch breaks down, causing the cream to separate.)

In addition to pastry cream, each team of two made fifteen ramkins of creme caramel. The caramel is made and heated first, until the proper color stage, and poured into the bottom of the dishes (where it hardens). The custard is made and poured into each ramkin. The creme caramel is then baked at a low temperature in a water bath. After being baked and cooled, we placed the creme caramels in the refrigerator. The moisture from the custard and baking over time turns the hardened caramel to a smooth sauce. Today, when we served the creme caramels, we released them from the ramkins and flipped them. A beautiful custard with a caramel sauce was the result.

There are three different types of custard:
1. Boiled- pastry cream.
2. Baked- creme caramel and creme brulee.
3. Stirrred- creme anglaise.

My flight departed from LGA at 6 am on Saturday morning. With class so late on Friday, the train schedule, and sleeping arrangements, I decided to let Nate drive me to LGA from Hyde Park. I woke up from my nap (ha) at 1:30 to shower, left the CIA at 2:15ish, arrived at LGA around 4:15, flew out at 6, and landed in ATL before 8 am. I arrived in Athens around 10. I ate a little. I walked to the game. I cheered for the Dawgs. (We won 41-14.) I ate and tailgated a little more. I napped. I watched USC beat Bama. I watched LSU beat Florida. I watched Auburn beat Kentucky. I ate froyo with Katie Weiser. I made an appearance at the YL tailgate to see JCon. I slept. There you go... Saturday in a paragraph.
My mom likes having me in the South. I like to think I am Georgia's good luck charm. We like watching the Dawgs win together in Sanford Stadium. Man, I love Saturdays in Athens. (And, yes, I did burn my face scrubbing that tattoo off. Red scab on my face... sign of a true fan.)

On Sunday, the fam and I ate at Farm 255. My mom, sister, and I shopped. My mom and I went to a movie. We ate yogurt. We went to Target. We dined on sushi. We ended the night with Letters to Juliet before I passed out from being awake 36+ hours the day before.

My mom and I took Chick-fil-a to my sister at her school on Monday before heading to ATL to eat at Chow Baby (one of my favs). We also spent half an hour at Atlantic Station, shopping a little more, and capping the weekend with Cashew Turtles from Kilwin's. My mom dropped me at the airport before heading back to Thomasville. When I flew out of LGA on Friday, it was dark, and when I flew in on Monday, it was dark. My whirlwind weekend ended with Nate picking me up from the airport and me driving in horrible rain.

Today, we made pate a choux, another fundamental knowledge a pastry chef must possess. With pate a choux, you heat milk, butter, and salt until it boils. All the flour is then added. Once a film forms on the bottom of the pot, the mixture is taken off the heat and transferred to a mixer bowl. On low speed, eggs are incorporated until the proper consistency is reached. Three inch eclairs are piped and baked. After cooling, two holes are made on the bottom of the eclairs, and pastry cream (made Friday) is piped to fill the eclair. The eclairs are then dipped in chocolate fondant, made with chocolate, fondant, simple syrup (for viscosity), and corn syrup (for shine) reaching 100*.
We were allowed to take all ten of these home. Now granted I have shared (because I would eat them all otherwise), but I only have four remaining. Yes, I have only been out of class for an hour.

I can't wait to make these goodies for you!

ACLAIRS, CHEF HAYMON? NO, ECLAIRS!

Hay Reh

French, Swiss, Italian?!

I like French Bread and Swiss Cheese and Italian food in general. I never knew, however, that French, Swiss, and Italian are the three different types of meringue, as well. The topic for yesterday, and today too, was foaming. We made several different products using the foaming method and two of the three different types of meringue.

French meringue:
*Egg whites whipped to "bad cappuchino foam" stage, gradually adding the sugar.
*Egg and sugar whipped until the desired stage is reached, soft, medium, or stiff peaks.
*The hardest of the three types to make.
*Used with products that are usually baked, as the meringue is not heated when made.

Swiss meringue:
*Egg whites and sugar heated in a double boiler until the mixture reaches 140* and the sugar liquefies.
*Egg and sugar mixture whipped until desired consistency.
*Used as a topping, as the product is heated and safe to consume.

Italian meringue:
*Sugar syrup, or simple syrup, formed, by dissolving sugar in water, and heated to 240*, or soft ball stage.
*Syrup added to the egg whites gradually to temper the egg and whipped to desired stage.
*The strongest of the three.

Yesterday, we reviewed the Creaming method by making Butter Spritz Cookies. Also, I piped for the first time in culinary school with this product. We piped the cookie dough using the 826 fluted tip (for you piping people) to make rosettes. Then, with water on our fingertips, we created a "crater" in the center of the cookie. One person on the team piped raspberry jam and the other apricot. Here are my Butter Spritz Raspberry Cookies. I have eaten all but two, and you see how many I had at one point in time. (They remind me of Sam's Club cookies I used to buy at Walmart, minus the two layers with creme in the middle. And, they are waaaaaay better.)
Today, our group practiced making meringue alone and our rosettes. Chef asked each person in class to make a Swiss meringue with 8 ounces whites and 12 ounces of sugar. I need to work on my piping a bit.
I have never made a homemade Angel Food Cake before. My mom (sorry to call you out, mom) usually just buys those little angel food cakes in the package. Angel Food Cake is light and airy, made my folding flour into a classic French meringue. An Angel Food Cake pan resembles a pound cake pan but is taller. Chef said our Angel Food Cake was appropriate, with the proper color and "holey" crumb structure.
With Ladyfingers, egg yolks and sugar are whipped together. Egg whites and sugar are whipped and folded into the yolk mixture. Flour is then folded to create a slightly thick, pipeable batter. We used a large round tip to pipe three inch Ladyfingers. In honor of Halloween, Chef Haymon allowed us to add red-colored almonds to three of our fingers. Now, they really look like Ladyfingers. Chef's only comment for me was that I need to make sure I do not make them too long.
As far as life outside the bakery, the weather is changing here in New York. For the most part, the temperature fluctuates throughout the day between the 50s and 60s. Apparently, it is cold and dry enough for my face to peel, which is awesome (not), and I do not think working with flour all day helps this situation.

My roommate is working in the kitchen right outside the dining hall this block, which serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner at specific times during the day. Because she is serving breakfast, she goes to class around 1:30am. It is interesting to live with someone who literally has the opposite schedule as you. I am going to bed when she is getting ready, and I am leaving for class when she is just getting back. We are respectful of each other, and it works for us.

I am headed back to Georgia this weekend for the last time for a while, I think. I have been living here knowing the next time I was headed home. After this weekend, I have no plane tickets booked or specific trips down South planned. It is a little sad and a little exciting. Sad because I miss GA and exciting because I can finally enjoy living here (and not be exhausted from traveling every other weekend).

12 O'CLOCK, 6 O'CLOCK, GIVE A QUARTER TURN (the proper way to fold)

Hay Reh

Princess Peach?

Just when I think I am caught up blogging on all that is going on in my culinary world, almost a week passes and I feel like I am drowning in information and fun happenings that I need to blog about. I am sorry, faithful followers, and I will try and be less distracted. Let's start with Thursday and Grand Buffet Day.
All of the pictures on the blog today were taken with my phone. I apologize that they are not the highest quality. Unfortunately, this is the only photograph I have of my own from Grand Buffet. This is just the bread table, two large circular tables, and it looked incredible. I was proud of our work as a group, and this display was basically a representation of three weeks of work and learning.

You remember when you were in elementary school, and there was an end-of-the-year pizza party. Well, in honor of our last day in breads, we had a pizza party. I go to culinary school, of course, and therefore, we made our own pizza.
I grew to love Breads class, and Chef Adams is an amazing teacher/chef. Just as you begin to settle in a class here at the CIA, the class is over. Final exam done. On to the next bakeshop. It is crazy, and I will miss Bakeshop 6.

On Friday, Michie (aka Nate) and I celebrated his birthday with dinner at Bonefish. He, a self-proclaimed food snob, had never eaten at Bonefish, one of my favorite restaurants. I was a little nervous and hesitant about taking him, but he seemed to enjoy himself.

On Saturday, my sister flew to NY. We watched the UGA game, which was miserable. (Jenny, I still love you, even if your Buffs won.) The highlight of the Dawgs' game was AJ Green's catch in the endzone. I've missed AJ. We ate wings and drank beer, in true football-watching fashion. It was a wonderfully low-key night in New York City, with one of my best friends.

The next morning, Morgan, Jess, and I explored the street fair/market. I am a big fan of street food. I am also a big fan of Nutella crepes. Crepes at a street fair? It was like a dream come true. I asked Jess if we could share and she said no. It was a rudely wise answer, and I enjoyed every bite.
After watching a bit of the NFL on Sunday, Jess and I headed back to Poughkeepsie. We ate dinner with Michie (Jess meet Nate) at Coyote Grille. Jess and Nate gave me a new nickname (see title above and shortened it to Pri Pea). Nate stole my sharpie. I did laundry. Jess watched Sister Wives. It was an eventful Sunday night to say the least. My sister, being my sister, slept in my bed while I slept on an air mattress. Well, for five seconds, we did not think the pump for my new mattress would work, seeing as a dummy (me) did not charge the pump. Oops. I almost froze on the air mattress, but other than that it was fun having Jess stay with me.

I gave Jess a tour of the CIA. When she moved me here in June, it was Memorial Day and there was no one on campus (no classes and no open restaurants). We also ate at the Apple Pie Bakery Cafe for lunch. I had the Corn and Poblano Chowder with Parmesan and Truffle Salt Fries. Jess ordered the grilled chicken sandwich. Our intent was to split the Nutella cupcake for dessert, but Jess ate it all. (I heart Nutella, if you did not know. It is one of my favorite things in the entire world. I enjoy hazelnuts and hazelnut flavoring in general.)
Can you believe I am finished with my first semester here at culinary school? I started my second term yesterday with Baking Techniques. It is only Day 2, and I am still scared. Chef Haymon is intense, to say the least. Most people say that he is a difficult chef but that his class is awesome, with there being so much to learn from him. I am enjoying myself for the most part, and it is only the beginning.

Yesterday, chef gave us an overview of the class and a tour of the kitchen. From there, he lectured on the creaming and blending methods. Creaming, with fat and sugar, is done to create a homogeneous mass, a light color, and increase in volume. The fat used in creaming, such as butter, should be solid. With blending, dry ingredients are placed on top of wet and blended until mixed. With blending, a liquid fat is used, and aeration is chemical. DO NOT OVERMIX BLENDED PRODUCTS. The main things I learned today are to "stop, drop, and scrape" the bowl and that eggs should be scrambled before adding them to a mixture (not one at a time).

Chef demoed how to make pound cake with streusel and corn muffins, and as a class, we performed an evaluation. In our teams of two (Stephanie from NY is my partner for the block), We mised (got everything measured and ready) for today's class, before breaking for dinner and the day.

In class today, each team made their own pound cake, and each person made a batch of corn muffins. Once both of those items were in the oven, chef gave us an additional product to make, sugar cookies.
Team by team, chef evaluated and commented on each product on the station. As far as my products, the pound cake was slightly underdone and there was not enough streusel on the top. He said these things would not affect being able to sell the product.

From our introduction yesterday in class, Chef Haymon knows I have a Food Science degree from UGA. He seems impressed that I am here, furthering my education, and he references it every now and again to the whole class. Chef says that I am the odd one out, having attended a traditional school. Today, while he was lecturing on foaming, he asked why the eggs are heated to a certain temperature. Proteins relax at this temperature or "denature" was the word I used. "Ms. Science, can you explain this in terms that the rest of the class can understand?" I even had the opportunity to talk to him further after class. Chef wants help in finding a book for Baking Tech, a Food Science-type book. He also suggested some organizations and contacts to stay on top of my education; he does not want me to get bored here. "I hope you do not think I am putting you on the spot." I think he likes me. Phew.

I HEART BAKING

Hay Reh