Baking Techniques Day 3 - Cookies

Finally, after 2 full days of bread baking, the bread teams (including mine) swapped roles to become cookie teams.

When you have toiled through the baking of baguettes, boules, fougasse, challahs and batards, cookies are seriously as easy as ABC. Trust me!

And there is definitely no better way to end the week by baking one of my newly discovered favourite cookies - the Russian Tea Cookies.



To be honest, I'm not a big cookie fan. If cookies are on the plate, I'm pretty picky about them especially when I'm unsure of the ingredients used and its shelf time. Hence, I do not really have a favourite except for one - Aunt Judy's amazing layered Almond cookies. They are only available during Chinese New Year and I'm really missing it this year :(

As always, there are pleasant surprises and this year, the Russian Tea Cookies are my CNY cookie-fix!

I'm not sure how Russian these shortbreads are but they melt in your mouth! I suppose its Russian origin is derived from the icing sugar sprinkled on the cookie - similar to the falling snow in the northern hemisphere Russia.



The Russian Tea Cookies are also commonly known as Mexican Wedding cakes or snowballs. I've seen Mexican wedding cakes cookies at Cedele but hmmm, I'm not too sure how appetizing they are given the outlook.

But these cookies that I made at the CIA won me over! They simply MELT once you pop them into your mouth! It has a texture of a light shortbread and the crumbs give way gently as you take a bite. One cookie and you will love its nutty burst of Pecans!


Plated Cookies

We also made Spritz Cookies that are essentially Almond cookies piped into pretty shapes and dipped into chocolate. While the cookie dough was easy to make, the piping was a challenge. KC and I were busy practising different shapes and later realised that we were only supposed to make rosettes and sea shells. We made hearts too :)


Our Almond Spritz Mickey Mouse Mascot




The early night was important as I had to wake up at 4 AM this morning to help Chef Brown bake Foccacias and make petite fours for a special event in school. I'm totally exhausted today :) though I'm loving every minute in the kitchen!


My teammate, KC, and me. All the cookies have made me gain weight!

I hope you can experience the wonderful taste of the Russian Tea Cookie too! The cookies are perfect with a cup of unsweetened coffee or tea. Here's the recipe from adapted from Baking & Pastry, The Culinary Institute of America.

Have fun!

Russian Tea Cookies
Yields 30 cookies

170g Pecans, toasted and cooled
71g Super Fine Sugar
227g Butter, soften at room temperature
1/2 Tbsp vanilla extract
255g All-Purpose Flour
Icing Sugar

1. Grind the cooled pecans with 25g of sugar in the food processor to fine meal.
2. Cream the butter, remaining 46g sugar, the vanilla and salt on medium speed, with the paddle. Cream until light and smooth for 5 - 6 minutes and ensure that you constantly scrap down the sides of the bowl.
3. On low speed, mix in flour and ground nuts until just blended. Do not overmix.
4. Use an ice cream scoop (small size) to scope the dough and place each cookie ball onto lined baking pans.
5. Place apart to allow the cookies to expand up to 3 times the original size.
6. Chill the dough for at least 1 hour.
7. Bake the cookies at 160 degrees until light golden brown ( 20 - 25 minutes)
8. While the cookies are still warm from the oven, transfer to racks and dust generously with sifted icing sugar.
9. Cool to room temperature.
10. Dust again with sifted icing sugar before serving.


Chef Brown and me

Baking Techniques Day 2 - Enriched Dough

While the wheat aroma of baguettes refreshes me, I'm still a fan of sweet dough breads. If I'm eating carbohydrates, I prefer mine with honey, milk, butter and other enriching ingredients that produce a softer crumb.

So while the French can go crazy over their baguettes, I love breads that make delicious french toast! And Challah is one!


3-Braid Challah, 2-Braid Challah, 4-Braid Challah

Challah, pronounced as "Hall lah", is a traditional braided Jewish bread eaten on Sabbath and Jewish Holidays (except for Passover when only unleavened bread is allowed).

The word "challah" refers to a portion of dough set aside for the kohein - the priesthood. This portion is offered to God and it has symbolic resemblance to the Christians' tithing of 10% of their income.


Challahs, brushed with egg wash and ready to be baked.

For more details, do research on the Challah and email me :) I'll like to know.

The Challah is an enriched dough with egg yolks, honey, olive oil. It is fun to make and extremely satisfying when you complete the 2,3 or 4 strands of braids.


Each team has to produce 3 trays of 3 challahs each.

The 4 strands of braids are the hardest to make and reminds me of Rapunzel's long hair. But KC (my teammate) and I had so much fun that we just kept braiding and braiding!


Baking Challahs in a convection oven

I have never eaten a Challah before and was so excited for the braided breads to be ready! They smell heavenly and I just kept inhaling the air to capture the sweet scent of the honey and bread.


Freshly baked Challahs on the cooling rack

Besides its smell, the dark golden brown crust of the Challah simply invites you to touch it! Beautiful and as rich as gold, Challahs are truly worthy breads eaten during Jewish celebrations like Mitzvahs


My very own Handmade 4-Braid Challah!

With its honey-laced crumb and luxurious texture, the Challah tastes amazing! While the Challah is soft and springy inside, each bite is a well-balanced one because of the contrast with the crisp crust.


My breakfast for the next 2 - 3 days! French Toast!

With my successful Challahs, I'll try a chocolate chip one :) though not kosher, I'm sure it will taste awesome! Rich, Milk bread with the sweetest of honey, marbled with bittersweet chocolate --> what can be better?


The cross section of a Challah

Besides the Challah, the bread teams (including my team) made Sunflower Seed Batards and Pullman breads :)

With an enriched sunflower seed dough, we rolls 14 Batards (shorter version of Baguettes) and coat them generously with sunflower seeds.


Cooling Sunflower Seed Batards

With the inclusion of whole wheat bran and honey, these sunflower seeds bread were very healthy and wholesome. They were excellent for making sandwiches and great on its own.


Cooling the Pullmans upside down

The Pullmans were baked in Pullman pans, just like the way Gardenia Bread were baked in. This ensures its uniform rectangular shape when the bread rises in the oven.


Chef Brown evaluating our breads

We had to turn each Pullman over to cool, as the base was very fragile when hot. Hence the base was unable to adequately support the heavy top.


My team's bread production - Challad, Batards and Pullman

Each of us were allowed to bring one loaf of bread home. Hence I chose my 4-Braid Challah :) I'm really happy and proud of it!


I have been unwell today and yet, my breads turned out nice :) by God' grace.
Indeed, He has sustained me throughout the day and has provided my daily bread!

Baking Techniques Day 1 - Lean Dough

A Hard Day's Work

Finally, after 3 weeks of intense studying, I'm in my chef coat and all ready to touch flour, sugar, butter, eggs and the all important chocolate!

This is the first of the subsequent weeks in the kitchen and here are some sneak peeks of the kitchen and equipment that I've been using today.


Section 50's side of the baking and pastry kitchen (I'm in Section 50)


My daily dining hall with the hot side section in the background (I promise better pictures next time)

Today, I made 2 types of lean dough:

a. White Wheat Lean Dough made of only water, bread flour, yeast and salt.
b. Lean Dough with Pate Fermentee

The White Wheat Lean Dough is the basic bread dough for the Parisian Baguettes, Dinner Rolls, and Pizza Dough etc. It is simple in taste and texture and usually served to compliment the main course.

For the White Wheat Lean Dough, we made 3 types of bread:


1. Fougasse, brushed with extra virgin olive oil and sprinkled with coarse sea salt.


2. Baguette, 4 scores on the surface. I made my own Baguette!!!!! Mine were long and skinny and reminded me of Olive (Popeye's wife)

3. Batard, a shorter and fatter version of the Baguette

Preparing to load the Batardes. Notice the Fougasse at the bottom deck


For the Lean Dough with Pate Fermetee, we made:

4. Boules (it means "balls" in French)


Pate Fermentee is actually a prefermented dough that has been a day old. No worries, it's pretty normal to use old dough and in fact, some of the sourdough bread were made with sourdough starters that are decades old! :)

The longer fermentation process helps to develop the flavour of the bread. Hence the boules were tastier and more aromatic than the other 3 breads.


Loading - the loader is very heavy and hence I was exempted from doing so. I unloaded the breads using a wood peel

Bread Making is really hard work and now, I'll appreciate every bite of my daily bread.

I love the crackling sound of the breads when they were hot and cooling down. The sparkling "sounds" excite me and though my breads were incomparable to the beautiful once my chef made, they were mine.


Beautiful, Rustic Baguettes made by Chef Aaron Brown - Master Baker

I wish I can write more but I need to rush off for the next class :)
I'm making enriched bread for Day 2!

My Sweet Valentine

This year, my sweet Valentine arrived one day earlier! Though I'm thousands of miles away from home, my valentine reached my doorstep yesterday morning :)

My special delivery while I was in the bathroom! The nice delivery guy gave me a wink and reminded me that it's V Day!

Being apart from YH and the pressure of getting As, Valentine's Day was seriously the last thing on my mind; I didn't want to place too much focus on this day since I'll be alone anyway.

But with my new buddies - 15 colourful tulips! My room will be crowded this Valentine's. Oh if how you can see the beautiful tulips - my favourite! nested comfortably in the box, waiting to be hugged.


The Tulips made my day, knowing that YH remembers me and loves me! Haha!
Seriously, this post is about us :)
So enjoy these flowers and trust me, they are so precious and gorgeous!



As for me, I've sent YH some interesting gifts and hopefully he'll like it too!


Delivery Label

As both of us are in a long-distance relationship, it can be a challenge given the time difference, absence and the fact that we miss each other tremendously.

But this is also a time when we continue to seek Jesus first and trust in God for His providence, provision and comfort. To make Him the priority in each of our lives and not let each other overtake the position of God.


With Jesus as the head of our relationship, it has been a great time so far! For the Joy of the Lord is our strength and He will deliver us :)


Of course, we will always welcome your prayers for us as a couple :) that we will commit our relationship to Jesus first and rejoice!

Also, tomorrow will be my last day in class as I prepare to enter the kitchen next week!!! Finally, I can't wait to touch flour, eggs, butter, sugar and milk!


In preparation, I need to mark my tools so that they will not mysteriously go missing :) So I spray painted them in my favourite colour - PURPLE!

Now, I simply can't wait to use them!

And there was light

The Bay Area (San Francisco and surrounding counties plus Napa Valley) has been experiencing the long awaited rainfall for the past week. It was simply pouring and pouring non-stop for almost 7 days and the days were just dark and cold. Yet, the farmers have been praying for this rain - the crops need water desperately. With little rain this winter, the prices of oranges and other fresh produce have increased significantly.

So instead of dreadful thoughts, these heavy showers have placed a smile on everyone's face! Well, for me, I simply wanted the rain to stop so that I could walk to church today. And praise God that it was bright and sunny this morning for my must needed walk :)



Today, I attended a small, family congregation at the Saint Helena United Methodist Church. Pastored by Reverend Amy Beth Durward, there were approximately 40 people attending the service. Everyone was so inviting and friendly and I was the youngest adult there - average age was 60 years old :)

Worshiping God with the hymns of Charles Wesley and familiar songs from the United Methodist Hymnal was simply the best! I'm still a Methodist at heart and really enjoyed the strong sermon and warm Christian fellowship.


Visit www.sthelenaumc.org

Tonight, they will be having a contemporary worship session at 6pm and I may be going. Still concern about getting there and back because I need to walk 25 minutes each way in the dark.

I'm looking forward to attending the church again and hopefully serving in the small Sunday School there (I believe there are only 5 kids).


Lunch at Cindy's Backstreet Kitchen

I met up with Wanyi, a fellow Singaporean attending the CIA Culinary Programme, for lunch at a local favourite. Owned by the executive chef of renowned Mustards Grill (she has a cookbook too!), Cindy Pawlcyn operates this cosy establishment located next to the railway tracks.


www.cindysbackstreetkitchen.com

After last night's heavy meal, Wanyi and I opted for something simple - starters, salads and a shared dessert. The conversation was certainly more important :) as we learn more about each other and just being happy speaking in "British" accented English without the American slangs.


Crispy Backstreet Flatbread, local cheese, wild mushrooms, garlic and truffle oil

Unlike doughy naans and pitas (which are supposedly flat unleavened breads), this flatbread is thin to the core! So crispy and thin that it cracks like a paper cracker . Each piece was infused with black truffles, my favourite mushrooms and light cheese. 100 times better than thin-crusted pizzas!


Gianduja Chocolate Pot de Creme, Espresso Cream and Chocolate Cookie

Salads were normal so I'll go straight into dessert. Smooth and rich hazelnut chocolate mousse with cappuccino whipped cream plus a chewy cookie to complete the day. More comforting than ice cream and after having the cup, I have decided to start my weightloss regime.

3 weeks in USA and I believe I have gained 3 kgs!!!!!


I live next to a vineyard!

I pray that everyday's weather will be like today's, so that I can start jogging around the compound :) I need to lose the weight before YH gets a huge shock in July.


Each morning is God's blessing as I wake up to beautiful blue skies, cotton candy clouds, green pastures, rows of vines and fresh clean air. God is good, all the time!