This week I was paired with one of the girls with whom I live. The convenience of this is that we don’t have to quickly arrange who is cooking what during our brief break in afternoon demo. As a result, We found ourselves perched on the bed trying desperately to decide who would cook what, but with each attempt came a digression. Such digressions as childhood stories and so on led to much laughter and discovery as we got to know more about each other as cooks, something we may not have done had we not otherwise shared a kitchen. It is so great how you can learn so much with each person you meet and talk to.
Anyway, as it so happened my partner this week loved to cook dishes like the chilli con carne which was on the menu. This meant that I got the dessert the following day. It would be so easy for me to slip into desserts every day but it is important that I continue to push and challenge myself each day and so with the decision made that I would make the apple pie, I went about setting my challenge. This soon became a pastry dream as I lined up three types of pastry and a variety of breads on my order of work.
The set apple pie required shortcrust pastry, I would make another batch of choux pastry following yesterdays attempt and finally I would make flaky pastry in preparation for a dish on either Thursday or Friday. I chose also to make white soda bread and butter and milk bread.
For the shortcrust pastry I used a magimix. A time saving machine that I am growing to appreciate more and more. I have to admit that I prefer old school ‘do it with your hands’ cooking, but with a hectic schedule, I was curious to try this potentially time saving method. I took my flour ., sugar and butter and allowed it to beat up to the breadcrumb stage and then I added an egg watching for the point when it comes together. I wondered quite what this meant as I presumed one had to gather it in their hands to do so, and so I watched as the egg bound the pastry together, wondering just when that point would be. I started and stopped the machine, testing every so often with my hands, when suddenly in a split second, there it was, my ball of perfectly mixed shortcrust pastry, ready now to be wrapped and chilled. When it came to completing the dish later, the pastry was just as good as the hand made one and so it’s good to have a steady back up should I need one in a hurry. It also makes a task less daunting, in so far as I might be much quicker to whip up a quiche or a tart of some sort at home now that I can make pastry in no time.
Then came the choux pastry. I was confident with the method now, only to cook them better and pay closer attention to cooking time. This I did, and consequently encountered no problems, leaving both my teacher and I confident in the knowledge that I had mastered the skill of making this pastry.
As for the flaky pastry, it is a funny one. The teachers all said that you will make it once and then it’ll be puff pastry. The flaky pastry is a much more complex procedure, but one which you are required to know anyway. Chances are, they said, that this would be the only time you would make it in your life. It wasn’t difficult by any means, it was just time consuming as it requires rolling out your pastry four times, leaving it to chill for 20 minutes or so between each roll. It didn’t stress me out, and I urge you to make it if you ever find the opportunity to do so. When you eat something that you have put a lot of effort, time and work into, you have a much deeper appreciation for the food, or so I believe. You want to savour this precious creation and so you enjoy every bite like it was the last. This for me is the best way to eat food and so I encourage you to try this technique.
Then I got to my bread making. White soda bread was one which I hadn’t made for quite some time and so a refresher can be a valuable experience. With this I was happy, only that in my hesitation of overworking the dough, it hadn’t quite achieved the neat finish that I should really be aiming for. Again, I will remake this the next day.
However, my main focus was on the butter and milk bread, a new white yeast recipe that involved using milk rather than water. The end result left a softer, fluffier texture in the demo, and so I hoped to achieve the same. The problem with making the breads with butter however is that first thing in the morning, the butter is so hard coming out of the fridge, and can take up to an hour to soften to the required state. I therefore enquired if I could substitute olive oil for butter in this recipe. I was met with uncertain answers and a ‘nothing tried, nothing gained’ response. Debating it in my head, I just had to go for it. I simply couldn’t wait half an hour for soft butter. I am glad that I did. The bread was a great success. It was so easy to work with too. I used my dough in a number of different ways, leading me to have a bread covered counter top by 12. That is one thing that I love with bread, is that you can take a simple dough to many different places: breadsticks, pretzels, loaves. I made bread buns, loaves and also a rolled loaf stuffed with wild garlic pesto, sundried tomato, mozzarella and parmesan. It was a big hit!
Looking at the work I managed, I was impressed to say the least. Got to challenge myself in all ways. Speed and multitasking are key requirements in a busy kitchen, and so I am determined to perfect these skills.
Dirty Whites 