Last Day

     It's our last day in Maya Kitchen and it's a special day with the presence of Chef Crista, and she's going to do euro breads! This are specialty breads that really deserved one's attention because it's not easy to do, especially in our country, with our tropical weather handling the ingredients for this types of breads really is a hassle. It uses special butter that needs to be in a constant chilled temperature to prevent it from melting..

She's eager to start the class that on the dot of 9am everybody was told to settle down.:) Recipe leaflets was handed down and it's a bunch! Guess she's going to cover a lot of breads! I scanned it and this are weird sounding ones, like Brioche, Bechamel, Yogurt Bread, Danish Pastry, Danish Bear Claw?? hmmm.rest assured that no bears were harmed during this baking session..:))

The most important thing to remember for this day is to work fast so that the butter/shortening won't melt! There's a lot of rolling pin use for this kind of bread, a lot of folding and chilling and resting..Chef Crista is right that if you are going to do this breads you have to have a lot of patience because there no short cut way..and it's also a good source of arm toning..:)

Hours passed, chatter and banter coming especially from Surigao Boy "wala sa amin nyan"  made everybody laugh and made Fatz blush like a tomato ( peace mama bear ) ! hahaha!

   This is the first time that we passed 2 pm, guess 

Chef Crista thought she's still in the cooking class and didn't realize that we are supposed to be up to 2 only..oh well! One by one some of the guys started missing, I guess they still have some appointments to make..and in the end only three of us waited for the last batch of goodies..PG's!! hehehe!

Dan Surigao Boy

Fatz blushes

through the looking glass

bear's paw

Chef Crista Mendiola

me & chef Crista

Part-three!!

:)

bel doing her stuff

ms cutie pie camille :)

brenda's always ready for a photo shoot (",)

kneading it up!

miss professional

fatz doing the doughie..I mean the dough!

pang profile pic na pose ni brenda

instructor elvie laughing while kneading

super serious

enseymada to the max!

chefs in the block!

Day 3 in Maya and I'm super late!!!@#$%^! Damn traffic everywhere! plus they already finished taking the exam! :( gotta take a special one later...

We're doing commercial bread today like the ones you buy from your local panaderia or french baker..why I said that? Chef Subida told us that bread making is an exact science that everybody uses the same recipe, the only difference is the quality of ingredients one is going to use! So it means if you're willing to spend a lot with your bread ingredients, like getting the best stuff out there, it will taste better..:))

So to the kitchen we go!...There are only two recipe that we're going to make..one is the regular dough and the sweet one...in one kind of dough mix one can make different kinds of breads, like on the sweet dough we are going to prepare some cinnamon rolls, enseymada, and spanish breads! On the regular dough we're going to prepare our favorite breakfast bread which is pandesal..oh yeah!

Bhel started mixing the dry ingredients together and it was my job to knead the dough manually since they did not allow us to use the mixer, it's a way to make us feel the proper texture of the dough..I have some experience kneading onboard that it's not a big deal for me, Ms Charina even commented that "praktisado"..hehehe..I turned it over to Bhel and I saw that she knows it too..then Fatz had her shot and...hmmm..a little bit more..?? :)))

Disaster struck on the other dough mixture...Ms Elvie noticed that it's too white and immediately commented that all purpose flour was used instead of bread flour! hahahah! One of my group mate did not notice that the recipe needs bread flour and put in the" mise en place" ( pronounced miz on plas, a french term literally meaning putting in place...soo frenchy! ) all purpose one...to late to change since they already started the kneading process...

Notable technique I saw was the preparation of the bread pan for the cinnamon rolls...putting water, butter, and sugar all together to make the bread super moist!! Got one there!

Time passed and time to taste our creations...the best is the cinnamon rolls..it has dreamy sugary delight taste !! The enseymada was a close second with it's puffy soft texture, then the Spanish bread can be improved upon..and lastly was the pandesal..maybe because of the flour fiasco..:))

Sum it all up it was an entertaining day!! plus a little bit of side note for miss Fatz and Dan "wala sa amin nyan" Surigao boy..hehehe..