Viennoiserie Final

Today was day nine in my Viennoiserie class. For our final we had to make danishes and cinnamon buns. This was not a difficult task to do but it was hard to make sure that each pastry was exactly the same. When we made danishes, they all had to be the same shape and size and have the same filling. This is a lot easier said than done especially when you have a time limit to have everything completed. The cinnamon buns were another story. We had to roll out the dough and put  pecans and raisins on top. Once you roll up the dough, you have to cut out 4 ounce pieces. Now between the thickness of the dough and amount of ingredients you decide to put on top of the dough, it's hard to tell how much is 4 ounces. So you basically have to guess and if you cut it too heavy then you can just cut more off but if you have less then you can't do anything about it. It's unfortunate because our chef would weigh the cinnamon buns and if they weren't 4 ounces then points would be taken off. But other than every pastry having to be exactly the same, it wasn't that hard to do. Well today is not only my last day of class but also my last class for this trimester. I have a 10 day break and then when I come back I will start academics. I'm not really excited about that but I may as well get it over with. So the next time I have labs will be in the spring so I will let you know all about those and everything that happens. See ya then!

Cinnamon Rolls

Well I am still in my Viennoiserie class and we made cinnamon rolls the other day. They were delicious! Here's the recipe:

Cinnamon Buns (Sweet Dough)

      9 oz.         Sugar, gran.

      3 oz.          DMS

      0.5 oz.       Salt

      9 oz.          Butter, soft

      9 oz.          Whole Eggs

1 # 4 oz.          Water or Milk

3 # 8 oz.          Bread Flour

      5 oz.          Yeast, fresh

                       Vanilla Extract

                       Lemon Extract

Straight dough mixture: 3 minutes 1^st speed, and then 10 minutes 2^nd speed. Bulk fermentation 20-

30 minutes. Roll out dough to desired shape (1/8 - 1/4 inch thick), brush with water or egg wash

and sprinkle cinnamon sugar, then golden raisins and crushed walnuts (almonds or pecans may be 

used as well) on top. Roll the dough together to a log. Using a serrated knife, cut 4 oz. pieces and 

place them on a paper lined sheet pan (3 x 4). Proof to 75 %. Bake at 375 degrees F. until golden 

brown.

Glaze: Mix confectioner’s sugar with water until 

a thick consistency is reached.

Drizzle over the top of the cinnamon buns. To do this you dip your hand into the glaze then spread your fingers out and let the glaze just fall onto the cinnamon rolls while you move your hand back and forth over the cinnamon rolls.

These are absolutely delicious. They will be the best homemade cinnamon rolls you will ever make!

Danishes

The past few days in class we have been making danishes. We made the dough one day, shaped them, and now finally baked them today. They were delicious. The recipe for this is written below:
Danish Dough

3 # 8      oz.     Bread Flour

1 # 9.75 oz.     Milk

      6.25 oz.     Whole Eggs

      6.75 oz.     Sugar, gran.

      1      oz.     Salt

      2      oz.     Yeast, fresh

      1.5   oz.     Butter, soft 

Roll-in fat:

1 # 11    oz.     Butter, soft     

  

Straight dough mixing (top ingredients only): 3 minutes 1^st speed, then 8 minutes 2nd speed.                                                                              

Cover and chill the dough for 30 to 60 minutes. Then soften the roll-in fat.

Roll out the dough to a rectangle, then spread the roll-in fat over two thirds of the dough.

Give the dough a 3-fold. Cover and refrigerate for 20-30 minutes.

* A three fold is when you fold a third of the dough over and then a third from the other side on top, like an envelop. 

Roll out the dough and give another 3-fold. Refrigerate (or freeze for 30 minutes).

Roll out the dough again and give it a 4-fold.

* A four fold is when you fold one side to the center, and then the opposite side to the center and then fold it again in half.

Cover and retard the dough over night. Roll out the dough to 1/8 - 1/4 inch in thickness, cut different shapes (fillings). Some should be egg washed, then proof the pieces to abut 65 %.

Bake at 375 degrees F. until golden brown. When it comes out let it cool for a few minutes then put a glaze with Apricot Preserves then with Fondant or a sugar glaze on top.

 

Above is just one example of the danishes that we made. They can be all different shapes but they are all delicious. We made an apple filling for ours and it is definitely my favorite, although you can use any filling that you want. These danishes take a lot of work and patience but they are definitely worth it.

Viennoiserie

I started my last class for my first trimester of college. Viennoiserie is the name of my class and it just means enriched breads. A few of the things we will make in this class are croissants, danishes, scones and doughnuts.Yesterday we muffins and the dough for brioche. Today we finished the brioche and made the dough for croissants. Brioche is just dough that is shaped in a little tin and then has a ball of dough on top. Why you would go through the trouble of putting a little ball of dough on top, I have no idea. We put pepper jack cheese in ours and it was pretty good.Today we made the croissant dough and it gets really complicated.

Croissant Dough

 2 # 10    oz.     Water (cold)

        5    oz.     Sugar, gran.

        2.5 oz.     Salt

        5    oz.     DMS

        3.5 oz.     Yeast, fresh

5 #                   Bread Flour

        5    oz.     Butter, soft

Roll-in fat:

3 #                   Butter

        2.5 oz.     Bread Flour

Straight dough mixing: 3 minutes 1^st speed then 8 minutes 2nd speed.                                                                    

Cover and chill the dough for 30 to 60 minutes. Combine the 3 # butter (room temperature) with the 2.5 oz. flour. Roll out the dough to a rectangle, then spread the roll-in fat over two third of the dough. Give the dough a 3-fold. Cover and refrigerate for 20-30 minutes. Roll out the dough 3 more times (rotate 90 degrees at the start of each rolling process), and give it each a 3-fold. Refrigerate after each fold for 20-30 minutes. Cover and retard the dough over night. Roll out the dough to 1/8 - 1/4 inch in thickness, cut into triangles and shape to a croissant (fillings can be added as well as toppings). Place on a paper lined sheet pan 3 x 5, egg wash and proof to about 75 %.

Egg wash again and bake at 375 degrees F. until golden brown. No second egg wash is needed if the croissants have a topping. 

Challah Breads

Ciabatta Bread

This breads class has been a pretty good class. We haven't learn that much information but we have learned a lot on technique and I have really liked this chef. For our practical we had to make four different types of breads. We made the dough with our group but then had to shape our own breads. It was really easy. On day eight, we made baguettes and rolls. We had to shape three baguettes and then eight of both round rolls and knotted rolls. Then on day nine, we had to shape challah bread and ciabatta bread. This class was really fun and I still learned a lot about bread. Now that it is over I am going into my last class for this trimester. I have Viennoiserie next, which is just more bread. I am really excited about this next class because we should be making really good pastries.

    

 

 

Breads

So in my last post I described how it is easy to make the bread dough and the fun part comes when we shape the breads. When you go out to eat, most places often serve dinner rolls which are just plain round balls of bread. Now they taste delicious so most people don't really care what they look like but we learned a really easy way to make these plain rolls look more decorative. You start off with the same amount of dough as you would a plain roll and roll it out to a log. You then take the two ends and tie a knot. Once you have done this, you should have two ends hanging out. You simply tuck one end around the outside and then the other on the opposite side. And you will get the little ends sticking out of the top, which you can see in the picture on the bottom right. The picture on the left is an example of a simple dinner roll that has seeds on top. And the one on the left is our knotted rolls. There is nothing wrong with a plain roll because they taste the same, this just gives it a nice appearance.