Day thirty-two: I’m baking

Posted on | August 20, 2009

Today was one of those odd days where I actually got more out of the lecture than I did the kitchen time.

See, I’m always chomping at the bit to get into the kitchen. But, today, I left the kitchen with so many more questions than learning that I’d have preferred to spend more time in the classroom.

Or that we learned better in the kitchen. Sigh.

“Baking is all about chemistry.”
~ Chef Ewok

The highlight of our lecture was on two baking methods: Biscuit and muffin (also called batter). Wanna learn the two methods? They’re easy and handy to know.

Biscuit method
In the biscuit method, you sift your dry ingredients, then rub in pieces of cold butter. Then you add your wet ingredients, mixing as little as possible.

Want a great trick for getting perfectly-sized pieces of butter and keeping them perfectly chilled? Grate your butter! Yep, using your box grater (the grater you use for cheese) just grate your butter. And store it in the freezer until you are ready to mix it into your dry ingredients. And, hey, if you have the time, you should also store your dough in the freezer for a few minutes before your bake it to make sure the butter in your batter is nice and cold. Both tricks will make for lighter items.

Pretty smart, eh?

You can use this method to make biscuits (doh!) as well as pie dough and scones.

“Weighing and sifting are two of the differences between home bakes and professional bakers.”
~ Chef Ewok

Now, before I move on, I see hands in the back. Okay, let me see if I can answer some questions:

• What are perfectly-sized pieces of butter? For biscuits, think pea size. For scones, you want a mealier dough, so think smaller.
• Why do you want pieces as opposed to perfectly incorporated butter? Butter pieces will give you a nice, light dough. Instead of, say, concrete.
• Why does the butter have to stay cold? For that nice, light dough!
• Why do you mix as little as possible? Mixing develops the gluten. Gluten in, say, a baguette, is great, it gives the bread that wonderful, chewy texture. Gluten, however, in a biscuit is one nice way to make a hockey puck. Not that hockey pucks are bad; just inedible.
• Why do you sift? Sifting mixes the dry ingredients nicely and gets rid of unsightly lumps (it is important everywhere, but critical with brown sugar which is the sugar version of cellulite). I just pour the dry ingredients into a strainer and shake them into a mixing bowl, below. No special sifter needed.

Muffin method, also known as the batter method
This is easier than the biscuit method. Here, you simply sift your dry ingredients in one bowl, mix your wet ingredients in another, then mix the two together.

Not as fussy as biscuits, eh?

And, with this technique, you can make muffins (another doh!), pancakes, waffles, cupcakes, and even some cakes.

“Bakers, they hang out, the vanilla fumes get everywhere, they dance around. It’s very Midsummer’s Night Dream.”
~ Chef Ewok

So there are all sorts of ways to flavor your muffins and scones.

Certainly, you can add everything from nuts to fruit to chocolate. I’ve got some tips on these:

• If you are adding nuts, toast them first. Do it in the oven for even toasting. And do it because it makes them more aromatic and flavorful. Wanna know how to do it? Just turn the heat up, pop the nuts onto a pie tin or a cookie sheet, and slip them into your oven until you can smell them when you are only a few inches away (give it a few minutes, then check them). But keep an eye on them because they love to burn (as in, if you wait until you can smell them from the living room, it is too late.).
• If you are adding fruit, go for frozen fruit and toss them with a bit of flour. The frozen part is to keep them from bleeding their juices (Ever had lavender blueberry muffins? Yeah.) And the flour part is to make it easier to toss them with your other ingredients.
• And, if you are adding chocolate, your best bet are chips.

If you are adding any of the above, the general rule is to add no more than 1/2 of the amount of flour you have. So if you want to add chocolate chips and toasted almonds and your recipe calls for 1 pound of flour, then only add a 1/2 pound of chocolate and almonds, total. Otherwise, you run the risk of your lovely bakery treat falling apart.

Of course, there are plenty of other items you can use to add flavor. Here are four more:

• Extracts – Such as vanilla extract.
• Compounds – Think essence, such as essence of coffee. These are just ingredients that have been severely cooked down to their essence.
• Oils – Think flavored oils.
• Infusions – Ever add a whole vanilla bean to white sugar to flavor it (if you have not, you should – it is amazing)? Then you have made an infusion with that vanilla bean, infusing the sugar with flavor and aroma.

Meaning, with one simple recipe, you can play around a lot, making all sorts of unique and wonderful baked goods.

“What goes into a baguette? Flour, salt, yeast. You can price a baguette at ten, twenty, thirty cents, but they charge four, five, six dollars. What are you paying for? You’re paying for labor.”
~ Chef Ewok

The first thing we did in the kitchen was get broken into new teams. I exchanged Mama for Gawky Guy, but, alas, kept Mr. Big.

I’ve barely exchanged more than two words with Gawky Guy, so this is all I know: He is President Lincoln tall and thin, has teeth that look like a dilapidated fence surrounding a long abandoned house, and skin that is the stuff of nightmares for teenagers everywhere. He rides a motorcycle, works in a restaurant, and is constantly comparing notes with Other Guy on how much weed they smoked, how much weed they are going to smoke, or how much weed they want to smoke.

As for Mr. Big, I was hoping not to have him in my team again because he is constantly commanding me as if I was a wayward six-year-old (“Go wash your dishes.” “Don’t wipe the counter that way.” “Turn your burner up.”). He’ll only be in my group until the end of this term, so I just have to hang on for two weeks; just two weeks.

Mama, on the other hand, seems delighted with her new group. A month ago, before I started working with Mama or Mr. Big, I found her in the student lounge, struggling against tears and wailing that Mr. Big was constantly hounding her. She was beaming after she found out she was no longer working with him.

“Baker’s are so quiet and mousy, I would go running through there, screaming, just for fun.”
~ Chef Ewok

Today was not a great learning day in the kitchen.

The first thing we did was get a demonstration from She Chef who is back for the week to demonstrate baking and pastry. Today, She Chef demonstrated how to make biscuits, muffins, and scones. As she did that, we were instructed to take turns whipping cream to make whipped cream.

Which meant there were times when we were whipping and not watching. Which meant we missed some of the demonstration. Alas. And her demonstrations are good. Too good to miss.

After the demonstration, Mr. Big and Gawky Guy went outside for a cigarette. So I dove in and got started on the biscuits and the scones.

Now, when we are cooking (or, this week, baking) the chef’s often wander. They wander out of their kitchen to other kitchens for a munch and a visit. Or they go to the administrative office. Or they return to the classroom.

Compared to chef’s from other levels, Chef Ewok and She Chef rarely wander. But, today, it always felt like I was either hunting for, or interrupting, a chef every time I had a question. And when I did have a question, it always felt like everyone was so eager to get back to their conversation that getting answers longer than one sentence was like pulling teeth.

So I soldiered on.

Then, at the end of the session, when everyone had piled their items on the prep tables, She Chef walked from plate to plate, cutting one item from every plate with a big knife and passing judgment: “Perfect!” “Bit doughy.” “Needs more time in the oven.” “Odd color.” “Good.” “Overworked.” And so on. Then she told us we had twenty minutes to clean up and get out.

The “Overworked” was for my biscuits. But I have no idea what to do about my overworked dough. I have no idea at what point to stop working it. I have no idea what a perfect dough looks or feels like. I have no idea how to make a perfect dough.

I wish I did.

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