Intro to Baking Recap: Week 8

Finally, an update! So much went on last week...we had a Bible study at our house with three adults and two preschool kids. But more on that later...

Intro to Baking Recap: Week 8

Our projects for the day: Bagels, Fresh Berry Tart...and Sorbet and Ice Cream!
Yep, we made frozen desserts today. I've been checking out those ice cream makers that can be used at home. All of them states, "easy, home-made ice cream in 20~40 minutes!", so I assumed it won't take very long. Got to class, and the Instructor says, "Be sure to get started on the Ice Cream and Sorbet right away, those take at least two hours to churn!"

....eh??....

Apparently, the industrial/professional-grade ice cream and sorbets are churned for at least two hours in the said grade equipment. Shouldn't be too bad though--we just need to make the ice cream and the sorbet base, throw it in the machine and forget about it for two hours. In the mean time, we had plenty to do.

First up, Bagels and tart crust for the Fresh Berry Tart. I started measuring out the ingredients for the Bagels, while one person in our group started on the Ice Cream and the Sorbet bases, another started on the crust...and one (I'll call her 'J') just sat there. Literally. She just sat there looking bored. She finally started doing something when I gave her a task: separate 5 eggs. Getting back to the bagels, I mixed the dough, kneaded it, placed it in a greased bowl to ferment the dough. I turn back, and J was just barely finishing up on separating the 5 eggs I gave her. I looked at the clock.... 30 minutes!?? It took her 30 minutes to separate 5 eggs!??

I was a bit weirded out by her behavior.

But by this time, the tart crust was finished. The dough needed to be portioned out to the other groups in the class, so I asked J (since she was, again, just sitting there) to get me a pastry cutter. She stammers out, "I...I don't know where that is...".

We've been in class for 8 weeks and she doesn't know where the pastry cutter is...?

Puzzled by her remark, I point to the shelves and tell her it's in the middle rack. She goes over there, and stands there looking baffled. I go over to see what's taking her so long. She stammers out, "Um...I...don't know what that looks like...what is a pastry cutter?"

EX......CUSE....ME....????? WE'VE BEEN IN CLASS FOR 8 WEEKS AND YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT THE PASTRY CUTTER IS!!????

Fed up with her ineptness, I ended up mostly ignoring her the rest of the time. We're all supposed to work together, which means that she needs to take the initiative and find things to do to help others by herself...not wait until someone gives her a job.

Anyway, back to the projects. The bagels were punched down, shaped, and proofed. I poached them, put them on the baking sheet, and popped them in the oven.

Our tart crust was baked to perfection--it just needed to be filled with the Pastry Cream. One person in the group started on the pastry cream while another cut up the fruits for the tart. By this time, we had 1 1/2 hours to finish up everything (our ice cream and sorbet were still churning).

Our bagels! I forgot to sprinkle the cinnamon-sugar before baking them...and also added a littletoo much cinnamon to the mixture. Otherwise they turned out pretty good.

Then a mini-disaster struck.

The person making the Pastry Cream accidentally curdled it. Unsalvageably badly. We had an hour before the tart needed to be filled, cooled, and the fruit arranged on top.

I jumped in right away. While heating the milk and cream, again, I put J to the task of separating the eggs. This time I watched her. She slooooooooowly cracked the egg open, gingerly put the whole egg into her hand, allowed the white to sloooooooowly dribble out, then caaaaaaaaarefully put the yolk into the bowl. I think it took her 5~6 minutes to do one egg.
...OK, that explains it....

But phew! We managed to finish the tart on time! Isn't it pretty?

We checked on our Ice cream and Sorbet. We added raspberry to the sorbet, and coconut puree to the ice cream.

I actually liked the Coconut Ice Cream--and I'm not a fan of coconuts. It had such complex flavor; it starts off with the regular vanilla ice cream flavor, then as it melts in the mouth, the coconut gradually sneaks in, and finishes with the intense, creamy coconut. It was pretty good.

That was Week 8. The following Monday, we had the Bible study at our house. While the adults studied, I provided fun activities for the kids....baking cookies, of course!

The night before, I had mixed up a batch of Sweet Tart Dough--the same recipe we used in our class--and kept it chilled in the fridge.

After we washed up the kids and dressed them up in aprons, I handed out the huge tub of cookie cutters. They were stoked!

Some of the decorated cookies and others ready to be decorated. One of the kids was obsessed with number 5 cookie cutter for some reason...

This is when a mini-fight broke out.

Boy: I'm gonna do the sprinkles!

Girl: But it's my turn to do the sprinkles!

Boy: NO! You do the icing! I'M doing the sprinkles!

Girl: But I wanna do the sprinkles too!

Boy: NO!! You suck at doing sprinkles!!

Me: Hey!! If you guys don't stop fighting, I'M gonna be in charge of the sprinkles!!!

But after about two hours, we finished baking and decorating the cookies. The Sweet Tart Dough made simple, yet buttery cookies that were quite good.

I used to have enough stamina to teach 30 first-graders how to fold paper cranes. Now I can barely bake cookies with two very energetic preschool kids for two hours. Alas...I'm getting old...