Try the Mushroom Muffin, Really!

It is exciting to be back in baking mode. It's why I'm here afterall.

Once again we are working in rotations, meaning one tables makes all the rye breads, another tables makes all wheat breads, and so on. I am currently on the quick breads station. We are responsible for producing clover buns, cinnamon knots, muffins, scones, and soda bread. Those items alone are not the most exciting things to bake. But do you know what makes this class so much fun? Freedom! Our Chef gives us a lot of creative reign over what flavours we make the muffins and scones or if we want to add some orange flavour to the soda bread. Of course, we have to work within certain parameters. For example, I really wanted to make a "Blue" muffin. It would be flavoured with blueberries and blue cheese. If some people like honey and blue cheese, why not do a sweet berry with the cheese and then glaze the muffin with honey? Genius, right? Luckily for the masses of The Marketplace, the Chef reigns us in when we get a little too creative and experimental. :P

Mixing by hand, literally

My original flavour plan for Wednesday's muffins was jalapeno cheese. Nothing too far out there. But then I found out another table was using the exact same flavours for their buns. I refused to do the same thing. As such, when my blue muffin idea was shot down, I just threw various fruits into a muffin, glazed it, and topped it with fresh berries. The final flavour was candied ginger, lemon, orange, and blueberry. A safe option. Not terribly creative, but not a complete bore either.

Shiny

My awesome partner, who is part cook, sweated some onions, wilted some spinach, and threw everything together with spices and feta cheese into the scones. Absolutely wonderful!

My table mate made some lovely looking chocolate chip muffins. The Chef got her some chocolate cups that she cut up. M is definitely a cake girl and it shows in the elegance of her products.

The doughnut group got really fancy. Aren't those the fanciest doughnuts you have ever seen? They remind me of eclairs. The only downside is that you smell like fry grease afterwards.

Mini boston creams

The first day back to baking was fun, but I was determined to make a savoury muffin. Something different! While I thought about it, the image of roast beef popped into my mind. This led to mashed potatoes, which led to gravy, which finally led to mushrooms. That's it! I wanted to make a mushroom muffin! When I asked the Chef for ingredients, he thought I was crazy but decided to let me try it anyway. My awesome cook partner helped me pick out good mushrooms to use and how we could use them. This morning, when we came into the baking lab, Chef handed us a box of white mushrooms, a bag of portabellas, and a giant bag of dried mixed mushrooms. Awesome! We were pumped!

Mushroomy goodness!

We rehydrated a big handful of mushrooms in the milk being used for the muffins along with a sprig of fresh rosemary.

Infuse the goodness

The mushrooms in the milk got blended together and I also sauteed some more mushrooms to mix into the batter. We flavoured the mix with rosemary, thyme, garlic, and black pepper.

To top our muffins, we decided to rehydrate some more mushrooms in whipping cream, blend it together and whip it all up. This might sound weird but just think of mushroom soup. I added a bit of salt to the mushroom cream to make it extra savoury.

I spooned the cream on and finished it with a sprig of rosemary and a mushroom. They turned out absolutely amazing! So mushroomy and hearty. If you like mushroom soup, this is the muffin for you. And that cream just takes it to a whole new level! Chef was impressed and very eager to get his face into one. :)

While I was doing all sorts of cooking, my partner banged out more delectable scones. We saw a bag of mini marshmallows in the dry storage and were inspired to make something based on s'mores.

Chocolate and marshmallows

Oh so good

We also found a giant bucket of leftover candy. It had smarties, gummies, gum balls, and other random tid bits. We had originally wanted to make a candy scone, but the Chef squinted his eyes and said "Let's not". Haha. But across the table, M took the smarties and threw them into her muffin batter. Chocolate chip and smarties muffin, not too bad. Her decorative abilities are top notch though!

Smartie flowers

Another group broke out the blue cheese! Blue cheese and candied walnut buns. So good!

Chef is always trying to get us to use the blue cheese. He was really happy with these.

Today's mushroom success got my mind buzzing with all sorts of ideas! How about a dark chocolate and chili muffin? Or a mushroom and spinach scone with an egg cracked in the middle of it, like eggs in a basket? How about a doughnut version of bananas foster with a caramelized banana drizzled with cinnamon rum caramel? I have one ingredient in mind that I have always wanted to make work in a baked item. What is it? Well, you'll have to wait and see, and you'll know it when you see it! Or should I say, when it pops in your mouth! Creative freedom is dangerous. :P

It's Bread Time!

What am I?

Hi everyone! How are you all? I know this is major late, but I hope you all had a wonderful winter break and New Years. I spent time with family and friends and definitely got my bake on.

Classes actually started on the 7th. I spent that week learning about how to start your own business. While it was a lot of theory to sit and absorb all at once (6 hours a day!), I learned a lot. We broke up into groups of four and over the next two months, we have to write a business plan as if we were actually opening a business. On Thursday, during that ridiculous snow storm, our group drove out to Crowfoot Towne Centre to scope out a potential business space. We ended up picking a space currently occupied by a travel agency. It's a good size and already contains a bathroom. :)

Today I started Yeast Fundamentals. I love bread. The wonderfully crispy crust of artisan bread paired with the chewy insides or the soft fluffiness of sandwich bread. I went on a bread baking stint a few years ago, even inspiring my dad to challenge the baguette. There's something about mixing simple ingredients together, letting it sit, working with it, and watching it all come together into something beautifully delicious that inspires - that makes me go "Ahh...this is baking."

My attempt at garlic and cheese pain d'epi

Today and yesterday have been demo days and heavy in tasting sessions. :) In this class, we'll be making light rye bread, sunflower rye, cheesebread and buns, cinnamon knots and clover buns, kaiser buns, doughnuts, muffins, scones, and soda bread.

The first bread out of the oven was light rye. We exchanged some bread for some steaks with the Chef next door. Bread, butter, and steak, what luxury!

Our class demolished the loaf, we were hungry

Bacon cheddar scones!

Raspberry white chocolate muffins

Along the way we practiced shaping buns. This was my attempt at shaping a kaiser by hand. It is extremely rare to see a hand shaped kaiser bun these days but ones shaped by hand have much more crust than the ones you stamp out.

Stamped on the left, Chef's hand shaped on the right

Fancy bun knot shape

Mini baguette and swirl shaped bun!

Here's how my kaiser turned out. Such a cutie, I took him home. :)

One of the appeals of a hand shaped kaiser is that the folds are much more pronounced. The two buns below were both stamped, but the right one is more ideal because the star shape is deeper. The one on the left wasn't stamped hard enough so it is very round.

Most people in my class seem to have a love affair with cheese. We put it in as many things as we can. And plenty of it.

You better believe there's already a lot of cheese inside

While the cheese buns had a great fluff and chewy texture, it just seemed like something was missing. It would be amazing with some Italian sausage though!

Cheese buns!

Have you ever tasted soda bread before? I haven't and I was really interested. My first bite was actually quite off-putting. The taste of the chemical leaveners is so strong it makes the bread taste metallic. But after a few bites, it started to grow on me. Soda bread definitely wouldn't be my first pick (and the Chef really dislikes it), but it is surprisingly popular at The Marketplace.

Currents and icing sugar

Doughnuts are also part of our line-up of products. Fresh made doughnuts dipped in cinnamon sugar really reminds me of K-days and events like that.

Do you know what that giant smiley face is? Why, it's a giant scone, of course! We decided to push the leftover scraps together and make one giant one for the class to share. :)

If you are a carb lover like myself, look forward to more indulgently bready pictures to come!

Happy Holidays!

Finally! Exam week is over and  freedom ensues!

I must say, this week wasn't easy. I even felt like breaking down and crying at one point, but it is all done and I did pretty darn well, if I say so myself.

The first two days concentrated on baking, prepping, and finishing a sponge cake and a red velvet cake. I really did not want to spend the time tempering chocolate to make another lattice roll so I opted out and instead topped my cake with an extra snowflake from the red velvet cakes. I think it looked better like that. While it is fun to make the lattice roll, it seemed out of place before.

We ran out of the premade carrots for the carrot cake so most of us had to pipe cream cheese carrots. A little anemic looking, but I think you can still tell it is a carrot.

Wednesday was marzipan day. This time we had to make 12 each of bananas, apples, pears, strawberries, oranges, and peaches. So much fruit!

On top of that, we had to make three marzipan roses with two leaves each.

Marzipan doesn't take long so compared to the previous two days, Wednesday felt relaxing. We used the extra time to prep pie dough for Thursday.

Thursday Pie day. The worst day of the week. I'm not sure about you, but I still have yet to get pies down. Or maybe pies just don't want to be understood by me. My crust for the lemon meringue pie kept breaking over and over again. I had to remake it three times!! I was so frustrated I had to take a moment to breathe or else risk an angry cry face - the ugly kind, and no one wants to see that. I cannot send enough hearts to S who made the lemon meringue filling and meringue topping while I fussed over the pie crusts so that when the crusts finally turned out right, we could finish them up right away. Also, hearts to V who gave us her extra dough as I used up all of mine! Can I say "Yay for teamwork"? Yes I can. I'll shout it even. Saved my day. :)

While the apple pie ended up being a bit of a disaster (the filling burst out in several places, but I managed to patch it back together), the lemon meringue pies were great!

Disaster apple pie hiding in the background

The last task on our examination list was another fondant covered cake. The previous one I had made was my first time working with fondant and covering those corners was a pain in the derrier! YouTube to the rescue! V and I found a youtube video about covering a purse cake just like ours. It really helped and we managed to get that cake covered perfecty. :)

I decided to make a panda purse. Chef thought it was Mickey Mouse and another lady called it a polar bear. Really?

V made a Chanel purse. There was amazing detailing in the zipper and the individually made pears on the CC logo!

My favourite purse - S's alligator purse! I just love the mouth! So creative.

By today, most of us had already completed all the tasks and were just helping with cleaning the lab room in preparation for next semester. What is one to do with a leftover cookies base, meringue, and chocolate? Make a s'more pizza of course! Cookie base topped with toasted meringue, melted chocolate, and more toasted meringue. One delicious sugar rush!

So sweet, but so good!

Leftover roses from peoples' exams

The ridiculous amounts of sugar we ate this morning may or may not have contributed to a sugar high for V and myself. :)

Afterwards, the three of us went out for a celebratory lunch at a korean restaurant. Bakers tend to crave salt by the end of all those sweet sweet days. :)

Salty bibimbap goodness

Until we meet again, happy holidays everyone!