The day of the final...
As a group, we are to make Peanutbutter Cookies, Blueberry Muffins, and Soft Dinner Rolls. Individually, the Cream Pie.
The Cream Pie takes about 2 hours to chill completely, so all of us started making our own pie crusts right away. Thank goodness for the practice at home! The result would've been disastrous if I hadn't...
All of us wrapped our dough and put them in the fridge. I got started on the Dinner rolls right away, while the others started working on the Peanutbutter Cookies. The other girl in our group had a brilliant idea of adding molasses into the dough. As for me, I added a little extra butter and reduced the amount of shortening juuust a bit for the rolls.
While the rolls fermented and the cookies chilled, each of us shaped our pie crusts.
Even with the practice, I was still clumsy at shaping the dough into the pan. With the upcoming fall (THE season for pies!), hopefully I'll get plenty of opportunities to practice making pies.
I fluted the edges on my crust, put the pie weights on, then put it in the oven.
I checked on the rolls--they were ready to be shaped. We marked our own sections on the baking sheet, shaped, and rounded them--that way, Chef can check our shaping techniques.
I put the rolls in the proofer (to proof them of course) and checked on the crusts. They were nice and golden!! I took out mine and put it on a rack to cool.
In the meantime, the other girl sectioned the baking sheet and started shaping the cookies on it. Chef wanted to make sure that each of us have the skills to portion the dough so that they all look the same. The other two worked on the Blueberry Muffins. I started making the cream filling for the pie. For variation, I wanted to do something interesting, so opted for the Peanutbutter & Chocolate Cream Pie (which I dubbed the "Reese's Cream Pie")
The muffins were now in the oven, and the others either shaped their cookies or started on their cream filling. Chef wanted to see the crusts before we filled it, so I showed her mine. She looked at it, touched the bottom part, mumbled, "...Good job..." and walked off.
......I dunno, but I keep getting this notion that she doesn't like me...either that, or she's just really, really, really tired.
Then a disaster struck while I was making the cream. One of my teammate checked on the muffins--only to discover that the batter had spread all over the muffin pan! The pan was overfilled, and we had to start the muffins over!
Fortunately, we still had plenty of time. The others hastily mixed the batter for the muffins while I continued to work on the cream. I divided the cream in half, added chocolate to one and a dollop of peanutbutter to the other. After I poured the chocolate cream into the crust, the peanutbutter cream was carefully spooned on top. I wrapped it and put the finished pie into the fridge to chill.
We put the muffins into the oven. Phew. That was close....
All of a sudden, I remembered that the rolls are still in the proofer. I looked at the clock--it's been 45 minutes. CRAP.
One of my teammates grabbed the rolls out. Oh my....they looked VERY puffy. We used the egg whites leftover from the cream filling to do the egg wash on them, and hurriedly placed them in the oven.
By this time, our muffins were done!
The colorful muffin cups were contributed by the other girl in our group.
Then our rolls were done. As you can see, some of the rolls are misshapen (due to improper shaping & rounding...) and rather flat, due to overproofing. The picture on the right are the ones I shaped. I'm surprised mine didn't deflate like the others did.
Chef said that they taste great, but the texture is too airy due to overproofing. All of us tasted the rolls...and agreed that we actually like our rolls light and airy (one of my teammates stated, "I don't care what she says, I like my rolls overproofed!").
Our peanutbutter cookies turned out great!
Aren't they lovely? The molasses definitely enhanced the peanutbutter flavor, and made them moist and chewy!
Then it was time to present our pies. I piped whipped cream on mine.
When I told Chef that it's Peanutbutter & Chocolate Cream Pie, she said that we were supposed to use the variations from the textbook and not come up with our own.... (that way it'll be fair for everybody, which makes sense)
But upon tasting it, she said that the crust is nice and flaky, the filling is smooth, creamy, VERY rich, but good. Relieved, I took the pie back to our group's table. Others in the group tried the pie, and stated, "This pie is (expletive) phenomenal!!" Yay.
Overall, we did very well, I think. I wrapped up the leftover cream fillings, cookies, the rolls, and the muffins to take home. As for the pie, since there was no way my family can eat it, I took it to my previous workplace.
Once home, I made special desserts for my family:
PeachesN'Cream Pie using the vanilla cream...
Chocolate Creme Bun, (sort of like the Pain au Chocolat) using the chocolate cream filling.
Next week...the Kitchen cleanup!
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