you can't survive on ice cream alone
Within the past month, my world has been compacted down to these few things: food, school, Inception, and sleep (or lack thereof).
I'm pleased to report that I did not lose my camera after all, as I mentioned in my last entry. It turns out that my mom had it tucked away in her carry-on bag, not her check-in luggage, the latter of which did make its way to our airport eventually. Which means, obviously, pictures of school projects.
Biscuits made using the aptly named biscuit method, meaning cutting pieces of cold butter into the flour. This is the same technique that I use to make pie crusts, and yet I got 2.5 out of 3 because my biscuits were slightly overworked. I attribute this to the fact that we combined the milk to the flour on a tabletop versus a bowl. I kept worrying about pouring in too much milk and having it spill all over the table, and so I ended up pouring the milk in smaller portions but doing it often, which resulted in more kneading and developing more gluten than was necessary. These still came out very good in my opinion, and a nice departure from all of the sweet things we make. I had one for breakfast nearly every morning until we ran out.
Double chocolate muffins garnished with powdered sugar. I actually wasn't a big fan of these because there was just too much chocolate for my tastes, but they were fun, if a bit messy, to make. We had to chop chocolate from an 11 pound block, melt it, and then pour it into the bowls of our mixers while they were running, so chocolate inevitably got everywhere on our uniforms.
Because I had brought so many muffins home (22 in all, minus one that I gave to my bus driver), I asked my mom to bring them to her work and give them away. I made sure to have her tell people that I received 3 out of 3 for them, and I made this sign as even further enticement. Don't ask why I drew a vanilla muffin when the sign clearly mentions chocolate muffins. I really have no answer for that.
This past week was all about crèmes, specifically crème brulée, crème caramel (also known as flan), and crème anglaise. These were by far the most stressful competencies yet, but this was also the first week where I received perfect scores for every project. And of course I completely forgot to take pictures in class before transferring everything into containers to transport it all home! I could just kick myself.
I think out of the three, my crème brulée came out the nicest. The texture was nice and creamy, and the layer of burnt sugar was nice and consistent. We used gas-powered torches to burn the sugar, and I'll be honest, I was kind of scared to handle the thing. I just do not like fire or heat, and I was afraid that I'd leave it on for too long and completely scorch everything. I tried so hard to be conservative that when it came time to present to Chef Tim, he told me to do another pass with the torch because the sugar on top could stand to be more golden in color. More time with the torch? Nooooooo. But I did it and I survived, and I got a nice layer of caramel on top that made such a satisfying crunching sound as the spoon punched through the surface.
The other two, however, were complete pains in the ass. We had to make a simple caramel sauce for the crème caramel, but the batches I was sharing with two other people kept burning or going just slightly beyond the precipice to where it became bitter. It was only on the third try that we managed to not burn our caramel, and that was only because we were being super conservative and took the pot off of the flame a lot earlier than was recommended. Our caramel topping was much lighter in color than everyone else, but Chef Tim let us slide because he knew how much trouble we were having with it. Eh, I just labeled it "blonde" caramel and called it a day.
Crème anglaise was an ordeal to make just because you had to stand over a stove top for what seemed like an incredibly long time, constantly stirring its contents to make sure that the eggs didn't cook or curdle. The goal was to get it to a certain thickness so that you use it for drawing designs when you plate desserts, but it goes from thin and soupy to straight-up curdling so quickly that it's no wonder that at least a half dozen of my classmates had to do their crèmes over. I did not have to do so, thankfully, since I was already running a little bit behind. I'm just glad to know that there will be a payoff for all of that work, as one of my classmates is going to take all of our batches of crème and make ice cream out of it. Yum!
Finally, we had an extra project of either bread pudding or cheesecake. I choose to do the latter, but I wasn't able to finish it in time to bring home yesterday, which resulted in a disappointed mother of mine. Note to self: Do not announce beforehand what you're going to be making. People will be on your case if you are unable to supply the goods.
So, Inception. Uh, is there anything to say besides that I loved it? That macro that's been floating around of Floyd from 30 Rock after seeing Tarzan on Ice is so, so apt; after the movie ended, I immediately thought to myself, I want to see it again, right now if possible. I've NEVER had that reaction upon leaving a theater before, that's how much I was in awe of this film. And I've just discovered that there's a theater about 15 minutes away that's playing it and that only charges $5 for matinee showings. Five dollars! I think the last time I've been to the movies for that cheap was back when I was in elementary school. Needless to say, I'm going later today.
I owe some people emails and/or comments, so I'll get on that once I get home. Pinky swear!
I'm pleased to report that I did not lose my camera after all, as I mentioned in my last entry. It turns out that my mom had it tucked away in her carry-on bag, not her check-in luggage, the latter of which did make its way to our airport eventually. Which means, obviously, pictures of school projects.
Biscuits made using the aptly named biscuit method, meaning cutting pieces of cold butter into the flour. This is the same technique that I use to make pie crusts, and yet I got 2.5 out of 3 because my biscuits were slightly overworked. I attribute this to the fact that we combined the milk to the flour on a tabletop versus a bowl. I kept worrying about pouring in too much milk and having it spill all over the table, and so I ended up pouring the milk in smaller portions but doing it often, which resulted in more kneading and developing more gluten than was necessary. These still came out very good in my opinion, and a nice departure from all of the sweet things we make. I had one for breakfast nearly every morning until we ran out.
Double chocolate muffins garnished with powdered sugar. I actually wasn't a big fan of these because there was just too much chocolate for my tastes, but they were fun, if a bit messy, to make. We had to chop chocolate from an 11 pound block, melt it, and then pour it into the bowls of our mixers while they were running, so chocolate inevitably got everywhere on our uniforms.
Because I had brought so many muffins home (22 in all, minus one that I gave to my bus driver), I asked my mom to bring them to her work and give them away. I made sure to have her tell people that I received 3 out of 3 for them, and I made this sign as even further enticement. Don't ask why I drew a vanilla muffin when the sign clearly mentions chocolate muffins. I really have no answer for that.
This past week was all about crèmes, specifically crème brulée, crème caramel (also known as flan), and crème anglaise. These were by far the most stressful competencies yet, but this was also the first week where I received perfect scores for every project. And of course I completely forgot to take pictures in class before transferring everything into containers to transport it all home! I could just kick myself.
I think out of the three, my crème brulée came out the nicest. The texture was nice and creamy, and the layer of burnt sugar was nice and consistent. We used gas-powered torches to burn the sugar, and I'll be honest, I was kind of scared to handle the thing. I just do not like fire or heat, and I was afraid that I'd leave it on for too long and completely scorch everything. I tried so hard to be conservative that when it came time to present to Chef Tim, he told me to do another pass with the torch because the sugar on top could stand to be more golden in color. More time with the torch? Nooooooo. But I did it and I survived, and I got a nice layer of caramel on top that made such a satisfying crunching sound as the spoon punched through the surface.
The other two, however, were complete pains in the ass. We had to make a simple caramel sauce for the crème caramel, but the batches I was sharing with two other people kept burning or going just slightly beyond the precipice to where it became bitter. It was only on the third try that we managed to not burn our caramel, and that was only because we were being super conservative and took the pot off of the flame a lot earlier than was recommended. Our caramel topping was much lighter in color than everyone else, but Chef Tim let us slide because he knew how much trouble we were having with it. Eh, I just labeled it "blonde" caramel and called it a day.
Crème anglaise was an ordeal to make just because you had to stand over a stove top for what seemed like an incredibly long time, constantly stirring its contents to make sure that the eggs didn't cook or curdle. The goal was to get it to a certain thickness so that you use it for drawing designs when you plate desserts, but it goes from thin and soupy to straight-up curdling so quickly that it's no wonder that at least a half dozen of my classmates had to do their crèmes over. I did not have to do so, thankfully, since I was already running a little bit behind. I'm just glad to know that there will be a payoff for all of that work, as one of my classmates is going to take all of our batches of crème and make ice cream out of it. Yum!
Finally, we had an extra project of either bread pudding or cheesecake. I choose to do the latter, but I wasn't able to finish it in time to bring home yesterday, which resulted in a disappointed mother of mine. Note to self: Do not announce beforehand what you're going to be making. People will be on your case if you are unable to supply the goods.
So, Inception. Uh, is there anything to say besides that I loved it? That macro that's been floating around of Floyd from 30 Rock after seeing Tarzan on Ice is so, so apt; after the movie ended, I immediately thought to myself, I want to see it again, right now if possible. I've NEVER had that reaction upon leaving a theater before, that's how much I was in awe of this film. And I've just discovered that there's a theater about 15 minutes away that's playing it and that only charges $5 for matinee showings. Five dollars! I think the last time I've been to the movies for that cheap was back when I was in elementary school. Needless to say, I'm going later today.
I owe some people emails and/or comments, so I'll get on that once I get home. Pinky swear!