Shenanigans at work Part II

It's Tuesday and things have been a bit slow so far, although I'm pretty sure we'll get busy towards the end of the week.  My supervisor had me make three kinds of chocolate truffles...

 

From the back: Peanutbutter, Coconut-Almond Caramel, and Raspberry-White chocolate truffle.  I sprinkled red powder food color on the molds for the raspberry ones.  These turned out quite nice, with the shine that's characteristic of well tempered chocolate.

As I've mentioned in the previous post, I was having issues with the Napoleons.
Here are the ones I've made a little over a week ago...

 

They look fine on the outside.  But notice that the middle pastry is still underdone :(  And the pastry cream?  It was very stiff, glue-like, the texture was just weird, and even the taste was a bit off.  I freeze the half-sheet sized cake, then cut it once it's completely frozen.  I'm wondering if freezing the pastry cream posed a problem?
As an experiment, I froze a dollop of pastry cream overnight, then thawed it to see if that changes the texture.

It did.

Although still soft, the texture was grainy and not creamy at all.  The freezing process probably broke down the cornstarch.  As for the cream getting unusually stiff, I'm guessing maybe the pastry themselves sucked the moisture out of the cream?

More research needs to be done.  I've looked up recipes online, browsed through textbooks...and none of them instructs the napoleons to be frozen before slicing.  The only ones that do use diplomat cream or mousseline, which are basically pastry cream with whipped cream or whipped butter (respectively) incorporated into it, which will help stabilize the cream.

I've noticed that my supervisor has been acting kind of cold...I dunno, she rarely smiles around me and is extremely nitpicky only to me.  She's probably not happy with me.  Last few weeks have been bad...the lemon bars cracked badly, then the Napoleons, the Cherry poundcakes, the lemon madeleines were apparently overcooked as well.... *sigh* Feels like I can't do anything right these days...

Shenanigans at work

Work has been quite hectic.

 

We're collaborating with a fairly high-end hotels/restaurants, and we were making TONS of products for them to sample.

We made several different kinds of mini cupcakes.

Caramel cupcakes.  Vanilla cake with caramel frosting, and drizzled with caramel.

 Blueberry-Maple cupcakes.  Blueberry cakes with maple buttercream, topped with a fresh blueberry.

 Blackforest cupcakes.  Chocolate cakes with ganache filling, vanilla buttercream, and topped with a maraschino cherry.

And macarons.  They had me make six different flavors/colors in the course of two days: pistachio (green), blueberry (purple colored), cherry-almond (pink), plain almond (white), raspberry (dark pink), and orange (pastel orange).  And they wanted them overstuffed.  I've noticed that Americans like their things overstuffed, whether it be Oreos, turkeys, or themselves.

After making so many different flavors/color macarons, my skills for making these have improved considerably.  I've figured out how to make multiple color shells in a single large batch, and how to mix and bake them off so they come out perfectly every time.

The next topic...Napoleons.

Epilogue from yesterday

In yesterday's post, I've mentioned about my failed Cherry-Almond poundcake.  When I asked my supervisor if I should redo them, she said no, she'll redo them.  So next morning, she redid them, and here they are...

 

...very flat poundcakes they are.  

 Here's mine from yesterday, for comparison.

...Hers aren't much lighter than mine.  And mine's actually nicely domed. :P

And here is the cross-section of her poundcake...

 

...Again, VERY flat.  At least it's pink.

And here's mine from yesterday.

 

 ...I dunno.  Which one looks more appetizing?

Maybe these are supposed to be flat.  I guess they should be all pink.  Hmmm....next time (if there is a next time) I'll see if I can make them pink AND nicely domed.

What I do in my spare time Part II

My sister just had a baby (a boy!)...and as much as we wanted to go visit her, we couldn't, due to dad's health.  So we decided to send her goodies instead.  We had some sweet adzuki beans, so I made some adzuki buns....

 

...And shaped them into Anpanman, Melonpanna, Doraemon, and Kogepan.  The faces are made from shortbread cookie dough; the eyes, mouths, and markings with chocolate-egg glaze.  Kogepan is sulking in the corner, as usual...
We packaged them up along with Earl Grey poundcakes.  Few days later, she sent us a pic of my little niece happily chowing down Melonpanna :)

The church that I attend had our 50th anniversary (since its establishment) potluck dinner.  The strawberries were on sale that week, so I made...

A Strawberry Tart, with chopped pistachios for color and a nutty crunch.  This one disappeared fairly quickly.

Work has been OK, we have both busy days and slow days.  I'm still learning things, making mistakes every now and then...like today for instance.
There was an order for a Cherry-Almond poundcake, so I made it.  When I put the cherries in, I didn't mix them in too much, since I didn't want to crush them, and thought the marbled effect looked pretty.
I checked after an hour, and they were still gooey on the inside, so I left them in for additional 15 minutes.  After glazing them, I left.  Well, an hour later, my supervisor sends me this pic...

 

...saying that "These are BURNT and the cherries aren't mixed in well enough, the cake should be pink."
...?  I understand the cherry part, but "burnt"?  They were underbaked otherwise...little things like these greatly stress me out (although temporarily), not only because I just messed up, but because I just wasted precious ingredients, cost the business money, etc. 
It's been four months since I started working here, but of course, there are still lots of stuff to learn.

What I do for a living Part III ~ March of the Cupcakes

In previous posts, I've showed samples of tartlets that I've made at work.  With tarts, we (for the most part) stick to the standard staples, like the chocolate tarts, pear-almond tarts, lemon and lime tarts, etc.  Cupcakes, however, are a different story.  Every time we make cupcakes, we try to get as creative as possible.  My supervisor actually instructed me not to "make boring cupcakes"...by that, I'm assuming plain vanilla and/or chocolate.  So these are some that I came up with...



 Key Lime Cupcakes with lime curd filling and creamy coconut frosting, topped with toasted coconuts.  This one sold pretty well.

 Pistachio Cupcakes with apricot jam filling and orange-honey buttercream.  Topped with orange zest and chopped pistachios.  There's no actual pistachio paste/nuts in the cake batter, just flavoring.  I know, it's kinda sorta "cheating", but let's face it, pistachios are FRIGGIN' expensive.  They still tasted good though.  Let's see how this one sells...

These are the ones my co-worker made.  The ones in the back are what she named "Banana Split";  roasted banana cupcake, chocolate ganache filling, strawberry frosting, caramel sauce, and maraschino cherry.  The ones in the front are Blackbottom Cupcakes, basically chocolate cupcakes with ricotta cheese filling baked into it, almost like a cheesecake.

...Have I mentioned how much I love working at Pierre's Bakery??  I get to fully utilize all the skills I learned at school, get to come up with my own creation, learn from whatever mistakes I make and thus improve my skills.... I mean, this is what I went to school for!  To whoever is reading this post... if you hate your job, leave it.  Don't stay because "it pays well".  Go for the job/career you've always wanted to do, even if it mean less pay (unless you absolutely have no choice but to stay...).  Trust me, you'll be glad you switched. :)

What I do in my spare time... Part I



So what does a baker/pastry chef do on days off?  Well, I don't know about others...but I end up doing what I do at work...make desserts and pastries.  I think it's cool that my hobbies and my career matches.  Unfortunately, this career has turned me into a monomaniac, which makes me almost always turn the conversation back to food.  Hence socially awkward.  But what I make in the kitchen is well-accepted by others, so I guess I make up for it...?

 

Anyway, here are some of the things I do at home, on my days off.  Most of my days off are devoted to culinary experiments, gastronomical exploration, and every now and then, cleaning.

 

I had a bunch of dried fruits and nuts leftover from the holidays, so to utilize them, I made...



 A Mendiant Tart.  A mendiant is a chocolate confection composed of a disk of chocolate embedded with bits of dried fruit and nuts, each representing the four monastic orders of Dominicans (raisins), Augustinians (hazelnuts), Franciscan (figs) and Carmelites (almonds).  Over time, the traditional recipe for this has changed to incorporate other fruit and nut combination.  Here, I used pistachios, almonds, hazelnuts, cranberries, golden raisins and apricots.  It looks almost like a jewelry box.
 

 This is the sugar cookie I made for Valentine's Day.  I wanted to do a Japanese theme, and came up with this design;   a design seen in Japanese lacquer (i.e. urushi) jewelry boxes.  It turned out too pretty to eat.

Key lime and lemon bars.  If I had some tequila, I would've turned those key lime bars into Margarita bars.

Tarts galore!

Last week, we received orders for a bunch of tartlets from a fine dining restaurant.  They are...

 

Key Lime tartlets.  The tart shells are ready-made.  I know, at first I felt like we were "cheating"  but considering the time and labor that can go into making these shells from scratch...it's just easier on all of us.  The key lime tarts are topped with whipped cream and fresh lime zest.

Quadruple-Berry Tarts.  Filled with vanilla pastry cream and topped with four different kinds of berries.  I made extra for the shopfront.  Outside orders have kept us so busy we haven't had the time to restock the front...which looked a bit empty.  The fruit tarts sell very well.  They're usually gone within a day or two.

 

Lemon Meringue tartlets.  I would've used Swiss or Italian meringue, but we were pressed for time.  They were going to get served within 24-hours, so it was OK.

Milk Chocolate tartlets.  Filled with 37% milk chocolate ganache, topped with chocolate whipped cream and chocolate shavings.  Also another one of our popular items.

This one I made last month, when we were a bit slow and had time to play around with different tarts.  It's filled with pistachio-flavored pastry cream and topped with poached apricot slices and chopped pistachios.  It sold OK.

What will I make next???

What I do for a living Part II

Once Christmas is done, Valentine season keeps us extremely busy.  The shopfront need to have Valentine cookies, cakes, and goodies.

 Here are some Valentine cookies...

Our products aren't limited to baked goods either.  What's Valentine's Day sans chocolates??

Chocolate dipped strawberries, 75 of the 290 that was ordered from a hotel.

No, this is not a scenery from ancient Egypt.  These are chocolate truffles, filled with several different flavors of ganache.

 

We also get orders from individuals (of course).  Someone ordered a bunch of sugar cookies for a baby shower.

 

 

...Did I mention sugar cookies are a pain in the butt to decorate?  Our backs were killing us by the time we were done.

What I do for a living Part I

After quitting Scheels in December, I got the job as an assistant pastry chef at Pierre's Bakery...which happens to be a two-minute drive from my house.  The time and the gas money saved has been tremendous and I am eternally thankful for that.

We make everything from scratch--which is exactly what I went to school for.  I've been working here only four months, but I'm loving every minute of it.  Here are some of the stuff I've been making.

When I applied for the job, the owner called me a few days later and asked me to come in for a "test/audition".  They are going to have me make something on the spot and see how I do.
So on the first day of the job, they had me make a 10" fruit tart...from scratch of course.  Other than not knowing where the ingredients and equipment were, the "test" was a breeze.
Here's the finished product...

 

They were impressed, and hired me on the spot! :)

 

The next few weeks were super busy, being Christmas season and all.  We had tons of orders from hotels and restaurants.  We made gingerbread boys...

Mini apple tarts....

....and Mini triple berry tarts.

 

While filling orders are important, keeping the shopfront well-stocked is just as important.

Here are the Pear-Almond tarts--tart crust filled with almond paste, pear slices, then baked.



 

Oh. My. Goodness.  I made a carrot cake.  For the first time.  Seriously.  Carrot cake is a very American dessert--there's nothing even remotely similar to it in Japan anyway.  Since my family isn't a big carrot cake fan, I never really had the opportunity/incentive to make one in the past.  Well here it is...my first carrot cake!  Ours have shredded coconuts and bits of pineapple for added moisture and flavor.

 Our bakery doesn't just do sweets.  We also have savory stuff, like soups, salads, sandwiches, and quiche.  As an experiment, we made some savory tarts.  The ones in the back are sun-dried tomato & goat cheese;  the ones in the front are mushroom & asiago.  The mushroom ones were more popular than the goat cheese ones.

I will keep posting some of the pics I take at work, to keep record and for future reference...and for your enjoyment. :)

Belated Easter Pics...

Happy belated Easter everyone!  And of course I had to make something Easter.  But with every store adorning their aisles with bunnies, eggs, chicks and lambs, I was ready for a change of scenery.  I mean really...Easter isn't about bunnies and eggs and chicks.
So behold...

...Easter Cupcake.  Complete with a moai statue.  For those of you non-geography nerds, a moai statue is a monolithic figures carved out of rocks, made by the Rapa Nui people on Easter Island in the Pacific.  The island was so named when the Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen discovered it on...you guessed it, Easter Sunday.  The island is famous for the aforementioned moai statues dotting all over it.  So, just like putting a Christmas tree on a cupcake instantly turns it into a Christmas cupcake, perching a moai statue on a cupcake turns it into Easter cupcake.

But for the heck of it, I made the other version as well.

Bird's nest Easter cupcakes.  Chocolate candy eggs, toasted coconut nest, on chocolate cupcake.

 

Granted, these are way cuter than the moai statue--those statues were erected to honor the inhabitant's ancestors and by no means designed with aesthetics in mind to make the island look cute.

 

Anyway, happy Easter!