Making Doughnuts and Fondant

Today in class we made a variety of doughnuts. Yeast doughnuts, French doughnuts, and Cake-type doughnuts. I'm not a huge fan of doughnuts but they were fun to make and light to eat - not nearly as greasy as the ones you often find at the store.

Tagged as: [ doughnuts fondant pastry sugar ]

A Sticky Dough is a Happy Dough

I like the fact that in class we are not using Kitchen Aids for the mixing and kneading of doughs. By doing everything by hand, we are learning to identify when a dough has been kneaded enough just by feeling it. When people move on to using machines in big production kitchens to make large quantities, they will be able to look and touch the product to determine when it is done. What has amazed me most during this past week of bread-making is that most of the doughs that we have kneaded by hand are extremely sticky initially but then come together as they are kneaded more. Even the end result is something stickier than I'm used to. The home baker will undoubtedly feel the urge to add additional flour at the onset to make the dough more manageable to knead?but this is actually the worst thing they could do.

There is a lot of science behind bread making and I have a greater appreciation for the artisan baker. Formulas were created to calculate the Desired Dough Temperature (DDT). This is the precise temperature that dough should be at after kneading and before resting. It is not something that is found in recipes on the web or in many cookbooks but rewards professionals with excellent results. Accurate gluten development, hydration, fermentation, and proofing times have to be understood to create an optimal product.

For most lean doughs (ones that have very little or no fat in them), the DDT is between 75°F to 80°F (24°C to 27°C). For enriched doughs (ones that have more butter, milk, eggs, etc.), the DDT is slightly higher to keep the fats soft while kneading.

So how do you find a DDT? The only temperature you can control in a recipe is the temperature of the water that you are adding. To find the DDT for a dough, you have to calculate the sum temperatures of certain factors: room temperature, flour temperature, mixer friction (the heat generated by mixing/kneading)¹, and pre-dough (sour dough, etc.). If your recipe includes 3 of the aforementioned factors, you multiply the desired dough temperature by 3. If there are 4 factors, multiply by 4 and so on. Once you have multiplied the factors, you subtract the sum temperature of the room, flour, mixer friction, pre-dough, etc. The value left is the temperature that your water should be at when adding it to your recipe.

It is quite amazing that when you follow these calculations, and after kneading for the appropriate amount of time, that the DDT will be spot-on. The benefit of having a DDT is that the yeast will be most active during this resting period and will produce gases which will be trapped between the network of gluten strands, creating a beautiful rise in the oven.

To calculate DDT (example):


What is also interesting to me is that you can take roughly the same ingredients (flour, yeast, water, salt, butter) and form such incredibly different products from the same things just by altering the amounts, the proofing time, the baking technique, etc. Click here for more pictures of the finished products.


¹ To calculate mixer friction multiply the total kneading time by 2 (when kneading by hand). Fahrenheit should be used when calculating DDT.

Tagged as: [ baking bread ddt dough gluten kneading temperature tips ]

39 Recipes in 10 Days

Over the past 10 days in the Pastry program at NWCAV, we have already made 39 different recipes. Flaky and sweet doughs were turned into beautiful pies and tarts. Strudels, crepes, and choux paste were stuffed with a variety of goodies. Different laminated doughs created croissants, Danish, palmiers, and cinnamon straws (among many other things).

I learned a new French technique to make puff pastry. It is called an "inverted" method where the butter remains on the outside of the dough as you complete a series of turns. There are many advantages to using the French inverted method. It creates 145 layers of fat and 144 layers of dough (versus the traditional German method which creates 145 layers of dough and 144 layers of fat)–giving the French method one extra layer of fat. What are the benefits of having the butter on the outside layer? It makes it easier to roll (even though the initial thought is that it would be harder), gives it better color and rise, and there is less of a chance that your dough will dry out as the fat layer protects it.

We have also made quick breads and now we are beginning a 7-day series on bread. The pace of the course is definitely different from culinary. In pastry, even though you may have the same number of tasks to complete it is different in the sense that it all doesn't have to come together at the same moment (i.e., when you go to plate something). At least not yet! All doughs need time to rest and proof. Other things need to be chilled or frozen before you can continue. Multi-tasking definitely comes into play here but we are easing into the course. There is a tonne to learn. Pastry is very precise and scientific and patience is an absolute must.

Tagged as: [ choux dough laminated nwcav pastry pie puff tart ]

Things I DO Want to Know

The more I learn about where our food comes from, how it is genetically modified and unnatural, the more perplexed I become as a shopper. Certified organic and local products are making their appearances in my kitchen more and more. I am still highly uneducated on the topic but with little changes here and there I think some progress is being made (albeit slowly). I read an article today in the New York Times called "Things You Don’t Know, Can’t Know and Don’t Want to Know". I actually DO want to know these things. The more the word is spread about how foods are being altered and what is actually in some products, the more people can make informed choices.

Tagged as: [ food gmo organic tips ]

Critique Your Process First, Before Critiquing Your Food

Perhaps I'm being a bit dramatic but I've had two disasters in the kitchen recently and unfortunately both of them occurred when I was cooking for people that are really close to me. It reminded me of something Chef Tony said last term, which was "critique your process first, before critiquing your food".

The first meal left me shaking my head in a daze and disbelief that I had actually completed the culinary term. The second wasn't as bad, however, I felt that it didn't meet my standards. I know I'm often hard on myself but that first meal was dreadful. The great thing about serving a gawd awful dish to your family is that they don't let you forget it.

When my brother and mom were visiting, late in the day, we decided to bbq some rib eye steaks. I don't know what I was thinking when I purchased some "naturally grass fed rib eye" from the butcher. There was hardly any marbling or fat in them and I just didn't clue in at the time that they wouldn't be as delicious as the previous fatty rib eye we had bought. I also prepared a panzanella salad and some bbq'd corn on the cob. The panzanella was missing its zing and the corn was, well...burnt. I couldn't believe how everything had gone wrong. At least my brother commented that he liked the toasted bread in the salad. Too funny.

That brought me back to when I was about 12 years old and my mom made my brother and me stuffed green peppers for dinner. My brother and I always enjoyed what mom served but we were in shock and awe when those shriveled green things arrived at the table. We politely started to eat and my brother and I quickly glanced at each other and began to snicker. It was the only time that my mom had really done a number and made something that bland and that gross! My family has always respected food but that was the first (and last) time that we actually played with our food, making it even more inedible. To this day, we haven't let mom forget and we all get a chuckle.
 

The other night, my dear friend Wendy, visited. Thinking I would get a head start on the week, I was busy preparing a few dishes that would make life a bit more convenient with our hectic schedules. I think I put too much on my plate. Before I knew it she arrived at 4:30 and I hadn't started dinner. I planned to make a heart-of-palm risotto with some rib eye and a salad to start. Marcelo and I had eaten heart-of-palm risotto in Brazil at a beautiful seaside resort town called Buzios. It was absolutely delicious and I had replicated it once since we have been home, so, I thought I'd do it again. It was ok but my timing was off and that damn rib eye (the good marbled one) was a disaster too. It was tough and just boring. I felt a little sad because I want to be able to show my family and close friends my honed skills.

Anyway, I'm over it now. I know that I'll still hear about that rib eye from my brother 20 years down the road. That night that I made it, I was the first one to bed and apparently he asked my husband and mom if they wanted to order pizza when I was out of the room. They all laughed, kiddingly. Sniff sniff :(

So what did I learn? If I go back to what Chef Tony said, I think that my focus stunk on both occasions. The first meal was thrown together at the last minute – with not a lot of planning – and I'm a planner. On the second meal, I put too much on my plate that day and tried to get too many things accomplished and the snowball effect took over. Cooking and entertaining at the same time doesn't always work. In any event, I couldn't save either of the dishes. My process wasn't very well thought out and my end result suffered dearly. So the next time something doesn't work out for you, examine the steps that you took and you are bound to learn a thing or two.


We all have our bad days in the kitchen.

Tagged as: [ critique culinary food processes tips ]