Day 4

Feb.2, 2005

Day 4 of Bars and Squares, the continuing education course at GBC.
We made Pecan Blondies and Decadant Brownies.

... Here they come.
SWEET, SWEET, SWEET!!!!

今日も激甘！お菓子教室からのお持ち帰り品。。
茶色いのがピーカンブロンディー、
黒いのがデカダントブラウニー。

panettone

Jan.28, 2005

I baked Panettone.
What's Pannetone? It is bread eaten on special days such as Christmas in Western countries. It has fluffy texture because a plenty of eggs and butter are in it. It contains raisins and orange peels so that you may eat like a dessert.

This is one of the recipes I got from school.
.... Damn! I did it again!!
I forgot to double the bench time!!!
Fresh yeast is used in the recipe. It is useful when you want to bake bread quickly. The dough leavens faster than using dry yeast. But it is hard to find it in regular supermarkets. I only have dry yeast at home and used it. I should have had to double the bench time but I totally forgot it!! It didn't rise properly...

See the size of the bread above.
It should be twice as tall. ..

パネトーネを焼きました。
クリスマスなどの特別な日に焼かれるパンだそうですょ。
…ほんとはね；これの倍は膨らむはずだったのです。。
勘違いしてて、ベンチタイム半分しか取らなかったです。
悲惨。。
味はだいじょぶでしたが、やっぱりふわふわ感が全然足りませんでした。

mixing machine

Feb.1, 2005

In North America, there are some kitchen appliances that you cannot buy in Japan.
An electric mixing machine is one of them.

Do you know what it is like?
No, it's not a hand mixer most candy lovers tend to have in Japan. Take a look at the picture above. It weighs around 30 kg, comes with a mixing bowl, whisk, paddle and dough hook.
I have been dreaming of it for months!
I really wanna get one of those cool appliances.

I had never known such a mixing machine before I came to Canada. I wouldn't have even known about it if I didn't take the baking courses!
When I first attended the class, I admired the facilities at school. There are around ten mixing machines in each kitchen lab. Since the school is a renowned career college, the machines are all professional use. ... The one above is just for domestic use though.

I like whisking and kneading by hand too, but the machine makes things 10 times easier! I'd just love to get it...

Two days ago, I found a blog in which a mixing machine is mentioned.
According to the article, the blogger bought the machine on line. Wow, I was amused that the mixing machine is in style in Japan among those who love baking.
I left a comment immediately because she clearly has a thing in common.
If you want to check her blog, click the title “好きなもの…” bookmarked on the left side.
Here is URL of the American kitchen product company Kitchenaid below.
KitchenAid?: Welcome to KitchenAid.com


ミキシングマシーン
私の憧れの電化製品v
ベイキング教室に通い始めて、その存在と性能を知って以来、とりこです。
…買ったは良いけど使わない・という恐れあり。
ちょっとイイお値段なこともあり、
けちけち根性な私は、買いあぐねています。。
でも！
日本でも、わざわざ輸入業者から購入してまで
使ってる方がいると知りました。
ぅわ～！
俄然、購買意欲UPだ!

choc pecan bars & choc flake crunch

Jan.26, 2005

I was so prepared to take another heavy sweets home like last week. Fortunately, they are not as heavy this week.
It was the third class of Bars and Squares, the continuing education course at GBC, this evening.

What I made were Chocolate Pecan Bars and Chocolate Cornflake Crunch.
The latter was really easy to make. I almost thought it was a kind of waste of money to take this class because I could make it without the demo!
In a medium souse pan, melt butter, corn syrup, dark and white chocolates. When completely melt, put cornflake, toasted shredded coconuts and toasted sliced almonds in. Mix well until all the dry ingredients are coated with chocolate. Place it into the square pan evenly and refrigerate. That’s it. Easy, isn’t it?

The texture of Chocolate Pecan Bars was very sweet and as chewy as caramel. A tiny piece of it would be enough for you to satisfy your appetite. The cornflake one is not as heavy. It is a home-made version of … what is it? I forgot the name of the product… hmm… OK, whatever.
Last week, I gave away ¾ of all the bars I made. I was like crazy finding someone who likes candies. Oh, gosh… I was sorry about pushing the food. The people seemed to be pleased but I still felt sorry. I had assumed that I would need someone again this week but it turned out to be unnecessary.
Yoshi likes the Chocolate Cornflake Crunch quite a lot. He was like “Why don’t you give away only the pecan one?”
I gave half of them to my friends today. As Yoshi wished, I kept the cornflake ones more than the pecan ones.

By the way, there is a Japanese woman in the course.
Her name is Yuko. She is gentle and polite. I like her. She did’t have a partner this evening and so did I. Sam didn’t show up at the beginning. I asked her to make a pair and she said OK. We started to cook. Wow, she is much more efficient than Sam… I mean, Sam is efficient too when baking bread. Bread is his expertise but not sweets. I thought we wouldn’t be the last pair to finish work today. …. Unlike Sam and I being always the last ones... Sam showed up 15 minutes later so we helped him catch up. Yuko ended up letting me be back to his partner. Ho-hum.


今日のバーアンドスクエア教室は、チョコレートピーカンバーとチョコフレーククラ
ンチですょ。
チョコフレークのは、Yoshiがお気に入りなのでしたｖ　食べる人が喜ぶときが、一
番嬉しいのですよねｖお菓子作りってｖ

chiffon cake

Jan.25, 2005

My friend kotori-san ( check out her blog "おいしい毎日とわんこ") had given me a recipe for chiffon cake the other day. I wanted to try as soon as I got it but I didn't. I had already had other plans to come up, which were to bake cakes with friends.
It has been almost 2 weeks and at last I made the chiffon cake referring the recipe!

Whoa, whoa. It's flat!!
Chiffon cake should be as high as, what, 15 cm? This is only 3 cm tall.
But wait, for your information, it doesn't mean I screwed it up. It went pretty well, actually. However, I used 10" diameter angel food cake pan instead of 15 cm that the pan was supposed to be, according to the recipe. I used the 10" (23 cm) anyway because it is the only angel food cake pan I have.
I will increase the ingredients next time.

The disadvantage of having an interest in baking is, by the way, that you always have to eat up what you make. I hate to waste any food. You too, right? You are not necessarily able to do a bake whenever you want. Eat it before make another!