"I can smell a lazy bugger miles from here!!!"

Today, there's a HUGE drama in the kitchen. Everyday after cooking or baking, we are responsible to clean up all utensils, machines, working tables and floor everyday. Since there are only two basins, some of us have to do the general cleaning, sweep and mop the floor. 8 days had passed and I felt some of us are not pulling their weights. I noticed that some had decided to do a little bit of washings and left the kitchen without making sure the rest of works were done. Worst is that they will stand in one corner and chit chat about the latest movies or gossips while the rest busting their asses off.

So today, I couldn't keep quiet any longer and decided to ask three of the coursemates who were standing talking about the weather to help up and making sure the rest of the kitchen are clean. Obviously, the mother hen became defensive and lashes out on me. Poor me, with soapy hands and dirty dishes in the basin had to listen to her screams. So I decided to target her as the main culprit. Reasons being, she's the oldest of the bunch and you thought she would have some sense of responsibility. And, I felt she's the one who's wasting everyone's focus when she continuosly talking rubbish.

The drama went straight to the main chef. I was at fault because I did not make a complaint first...duh! But, I am not a back-stabber. If I am not happy with someone's work ethics and attitude, I will tell her/him straight in the face! 

Well, immediately a meeting was held and I was requested to explain the drama from my side of the story. I told everyone exactly what happened (as I remembered) and agreed that a work schedule is important for everyone. Obviously, she was not happy because in the end my motive was genuine which is to make sure everyone's treated fairly and was given equal workload.

As we came to a solution to work according to a work schedule, she again bursted "I will not work with Brandon!"..."you're full of shit"..."stop your charade"... Well, I do not want to work with you either and do not start cursing or name-calling coz you will be surprised the words that will come out from my mouth when I am pissed. She demanded that I apologise to her which I quickly replied "Never!" and accused me of no self respect. Erm...dearie, self respect means you respect others NOT just yourself...so please check the dictionary before you even use a word bigger than yourself...Surprisingly throughout the whole drama, I was very very calm...  

In the end, sadly my cookies were burnt, lost a knife, everyone had a stressful day and I was pissed with myself to get into such mess. Sigh...

Cookie Monster

I was quite excited about this week. Cookie making is like Baking 101. I remembered my first baking experience. It was a cookie recipe - chocolate chip cookie to be exact. This week, we were given 3 cookie recipes to try. Although in general, cookie making is quite easy, there are quite a few technical ways to prepare different cookie depends on the texture such as crispness, softness and chewiness. Also, there are different make up methods based on the final mixture and the intended presentation. Cookie mixture can be piped, dropped, cut-out, moulded, iceboxed, barred, sheet and stencilled...The first part of the week, we learnt to pipe, drop and icebox the cookie dough. Oven temperature is set between 160-170 degrees Celcius.

First, the all-time favourite butter cookies. It has a soft end mixture which allows us to create all kind of shapes based on the nozzle used for piping. Once the ingredients are ready, Creaming involves mixing the room temperatured butter (120g) and sugar (60g) with vanilla essence (3 drops) and eggs (1) added gradually. This allows the sugar to melt while incorporate some air but not too much. Too much or too long creaming will cause cookies too crumbly. Mix the flour (120g) and ground almond (50g) together before add in to the mixture.

By now, mixing should be done slowly by hand. Once it is evenly mixed, prepare pastry bag fitted with a star nozzle. Pipe the soft mixture according to desired shapes. Various garnishes such as glazed cherry, choc chips, coloured sugar can be used. The above recipe will produced approx. 20 delicious butter cookies.

Second, chocolate chips cookies. This recipe is much dryer thus, piping is not possible. Drop method is used by using two teaspoons to move desirable cookie size onto the baking pan. Similar creaming method is used to mix both butter (100g), brown sugar (60g) and vanilla essence (3 drops). Sift flour (100g) and baking soda (2g) three times. This is to incorporate more air in to the dry mixture before added into the batter followed by chocolate chips (70g) and crushed nuts (60g) - we used walnuts and pecans. Apparently, almonds, cashews, macadamias are all possible. Again, not to over mix the mixture.

Third, almond shortbread. Personally, I am not a big fan of this cookie. It involves more work and more ingredients yet the end product looks dry and unappetizing. However, one of its steps is the icebox/frozen method where the dough is frozen hard and can be cut according to shape and size before baking.

Mary's bathed, sponged and creamed...

Today is the last day of the first week and we got the chance to do our first baking. Exciting!!! Of course, one of the more interesting terms I learnt this week is Bain-Marie which means Mary's Bath in French and comes from a medieval alchemist who invented a slow heating in a double walled container filled with hot water while cooking his wife named Mary. OK, I made up the last part.

Genoise Sponge Cake
*recipe is for ONE cake.

• Eggs.............................. 280gm (approx. 5-6 medium sized eggs)
• Sugar.............................180gm
• Flour...............................180gm
• Butter (melted).............. 60gm
• Vanilla essence............ a few drops

1. Set the oven at 190 degrees Celcius
2. Mix eggs, sugar and vanilla. Whisk over a "bain-marie" to approx. 60 degrees. This is noticeable when mixture starts to increase in volume. 
3. Transfer to a mixer and whip till "ribbon stage" mixture forms layers of ribbon-like strings when lifted with a wooden spoon.
4. Remove mixer bowl and starts to fold in flour, follows by melted butter. Stir in gradually but no too long as air cells created during the mixing will be lost if stirred too long.
5. Pour batter into cake tin greased with butter & floured. An alternative will be a baking paper cut to shape and place in the bottom of the cake tin.
6. Bake for 30 mins.

Hints for cake when it's ready:

• Poke in tester. The cake is cooked if it comes out clean and dry.
• Softly tap the middle part. The cake is cooked if the part tapped does not sink in.

Of course, we could not end the lesson with just baking. So we got to do our first cake topping using cream. Two types of creams.

1. Topping Cream which we used today is sweetened, non dairy (vegetable extracts) and more stable than the Whiping Cream.
2. Whiping Cream is unsweetened, dairy (cow's fat) and less stable towards heat.

Important: All creams have to be chilled before whipping to achieve great volume.

Today task posts a challenge to my overly-structured mind. My wrist is not as flexible as I hope but after a few shots I managed to completely covered my cake with 3 patterns from the topping cream. The first one is called "shell" mostly applied around the cake edge. Second is called "rosette" which is the most difficult ones for me. Finally, the frilly thing which applied to the cake wall which I have no idea what you call it.

Fruits and "nuts"

Third day into the course, it was not as stressful as I thought. However, I psyched myself a bit on the first two days and had restless sleep. It is a small class which I like. As usual, almost immediately I labelled each of my coursemates into cliche categories. There's the bored housewife who was a former trolley-dolly (I'm not the oldest there...haha). She's obnoxious, show-offy and asks too many stupid questions. Then, there's a weevil-looking teenager who was home schooled for the last 8 years. I believe she has a mild ADD and she actually freaks me out. An Ah-Beng who immediately spells trouble and always late even though he stays like 5 minutes walking distance from the school. Finally, a likely high-achiever who is working part time at a bakery and seems like the one who is most likely to be successful. Yes, I am judgemental. And, of course myself...half-closeted, goodlooking, smart and blah blah blah...

This week we learn how to cook with fruits. As much as I love fruits. I don't really like them cooked. I got to learn the different methods of cleaning and preparing a variety of fruits according to each recipe. Besides the easy clear syrup, we learnt to make sabayon. A sweet and creamy sauce served with fresh fruits or any cooked fruits. Sabayon is a egg-based sauce with whipped cream. Easy to make and storable for a few days.

Most importantly, I was introduced to decorate and garnish the end products. Garnishings are important to make the food looks delectable. I wish there are more stuffs available for us to decorate our completed dishes. Another important lesson is of time management especially making multiple dishes at the same time.

We made poached pears using red wine. I don't think I will like it but it seems easy and I got to learn to turn the red wine syrup from the poaching into sauce by thickening it using corn flour and water. Most of the sauces used were encouraged to add in spices such as cinnammon stick, cloves, black pepper corns and bay leaves.

One of my favourites got to be the fruit fritters where we dipped selective fruits (banana, apple, pineapple, breadfruit and cherry) into batter and fried them. Then coating them with icing sugar. Looks great but I would not recommend eating them too much. Finally, there's the Rote Grutze. A German dessert with sago and raspberry sauce. Looks yucky but tastes refreshing. Drizzles of sabayon brings some colour to the otherwise, monotonous red. I am looking forward to next week where we will be doing our first baking.

Late Bloomer or Simply Wiser?

Two months had passed since I quit my job in Shanghai. One of the first things that came into my mind was "What now?..." I read an article recently which stated that when one is lost about what to do next with their lives, he/she should look back and figure out what they were good at or interested in when they were young...

So I made two short lists, limiting to just 5 each (based on personal evaluation).

Things I am good at:
1. sketching
2. baking
3. cooking
4. poetry
5. organising

Things I am interested in:
1. baking
2. photography
3. writing
4. painting
5. gardening

After thinking over and some researches on the net, I finally made up my mind to take up a one-year diploma course in pastry hence the blog's title :)

Am I a late bloomer? Maybe. I started many things in my life much later than most. The creation of this blog is just one of them. And enrolling into a pastry school is another. There are millions of blogs like this one in the virtual space and I just started one myself. Probably because I was never good at recording anything or maybe I felt like I got something to say to the world finally.

At this point of my life, I want to learn a skill. So far, I've equipped myself with extensive education. While I made decent money previously, I always feel empty in the skill department.

Am I simply wiser? Definately. By the time you hit 30s, your body will tell you that it is time to wise up. Stop doing things that will hurt your mind and soul. Making careful steps and to spend wisely. While this course will burn a huge hole in my bank account, I know that it will worth every cent spent. I knew I will be thrown in with a bunch of school leavers during this course. I hope I won't be singled out as an old fart who just a wannabe pastry chef.