nanaimo bars

Jan.13, 2005

I had registered for Bars and Squares, one of the culinary arts courses provided by George Brown College. And It was the first class this evening.
This is my forth course I have ever taken at GBC. There are 6 classes in all in this course. We are going to learn 2 kinds of bars or squares in each class.

... To be honest with you, I had totally no idea what bars and squares were!! I guessed that they would be the ones sold at Starbacks Cafe or some other places. Yeah, I was kind of right. Take a look at the picture above, something like those, right? They are called Nanaimo Bars.
... Oh, my gosh. Bad picture... I failed to cut it nicely so I made the picture look blur by closing up. But you still can see the cut edges with many crumbs! I should have used a saw knife and cut with back and forth motion... I will do next time.

Bars consist of 3 layers. The base is crunchy because it has Graham crams, flaked coconut, chopped walnut, and some other ingredients such as butter. The filling in the middle is made mostly from icing sugar. ( powdered sugar, I guess.) And the top is the mixture of Couverture chocolate and whipping cream.
Sounds sugary, isn't it? YES, IT IS !! You have to be prepared when you eat one of those bars. It is madly sweet. You definitely need a coffee or black tea. Some may need two or three cups or them!
No, I am not kidding!

今日から、ジョージブラウンキャリアカレッジのパートタイムコースで、
バーアンドスクエアというコースが始まりました。
バー？スクエア？なんじゃそりゃ？？って感じで始まったこのコースでしたが、なんとか私の第一作完成。。ナナイモバーと言います。
だんなYoshi は、「“七芋”？なんで日本語なの？」と言っていました（笑
画像が…。き、汚い～。。がくー。切り方失敗しましたー。
めちゃめちゃ甘いので、コーヒー紅茶は欠かせませぬぅ。

... Oh, I have one more to tell you!

Sam, the guy who was my partner in the bread-baking course ( See my diary on Dec.5 ), is taking Bars and Squares too !!!
Oh, my ... !! I ended up giving up my most wanted Breakfast Bread course because Sam was going to take it and I didn't want to see him again. Why, why is he here???! It means nothing that I gave it up!!

I got to the cooking lab 30 minutes earlier and took one of 10 wooden top long tables on which 2 people can cook. I saw a few people taking other tables alone. I was wondering who would be beside me being my partner. It was 10 to when the class started, I heard the voice "Hi, Sassia!!" right behind me all of a sudden. Wha ... ?
" ................ Hey, Sam! " I am so good at being superficially nice...

He immediately got right beside me being my partner. He acted so quick and natural that I couldn't even say a word. ( I said "Hi," though...)Ah, I should have made a team with someone else right after I got into the class room. He seemed all OK about what happened between us. ... No, of course nothing happened !! Things just had been awkward but, looks like, it was just myself who cared a lot.
Thus, we made a pair "again."
We are going to have to be together cooking for another 5 weeks.
Yeah, I think I am going to be OK but, I don't know. I should be more clear and honest about what I feel.

whole wheat bread

Jan.11, 2005

I baked whole wheat bread today.
I am sorry but I didn't take its picture...

Because Yoshi said that he doesn't like the texture, I fixed the rate or the flours. I scaled the whole wheat flour and bread flour from 5 :1 to 3 : 1.
... It didn't make a difference in texture and taste though.
I can tell the difference only when I kneaded it. It was slightly stickier.

: Ingredients :

yeast (dry) 20g
water(lukewarm) 425cc
whole what flour 450g
bread flour 150g
sugar 42g
salt 10g
soy milk powder 22g
molasses 17g
gluten flour 20g
margarine (no trans fat) 20g

(bran as you need)


また胚芽パンを作りました。
今日は、画像無しってことで。ごめんなさい！

blueberry muffins

Jan.7, 2004

These are the blueberry muffins I baked today.
Looks yummy, huh?
I had put the blueberries in the freezer last summer. 6 months later, finally their time to be eaten comes! The recipe requires cake flour only but I used the same amount of whole wheat and cake & pastry flour. That made the muffins a little tougher but I liked it better than regular muffins.
I was kind of surprised when the blueberry juice leaked out as baked. It looked kind of gross (giggle) like a bleeding nose or something! The juice turned into fresh sugarless jam.
This is the first time through my life to bake muffins but, quite successful, it was. Nice, eh??

: Ingredients :

transfat free margarine 100g
sugar 100g
eggs (L) 2
yogurt 50g
vanilla to taste
cake & pastry flour 60g
whole wheat flour 140g
baking powder 3/4 tsp
blueberries 100g

ブルーベリーマフィンを作ってみた。
ちょっと適当に改良を加えつつ。。
これから、何か作ったら材料も書き込むことにしよぅと思いました。

cream puffs

Jan.4, 2005

Following yesterday's raisin bread, I made cream puffs.

This actually is a retry. I tried to bake them the other day but, I have no idea why, the batter came out too runny.
There were two possible causes, however.
First, I broke 8 eggs instead of 6 into a bowl. I noticed they were too many before mix them in so I took 2 eggs out of the bowl. I think egg whites might have been still too much.
Second, I ran out of shortening so I put 25% of margarine among the whole fat. Margarine contains more moist than shortening.
I tried to make the batter stiffer but it didn't go well.. I thew them all away. What a waste!!

It went well this time! I exactly followed the recipe..

今日はシュークリームを作ったョv
カスタードクリームがつやつやにできました～！

raisin bread

Jan.3, 2005

I baked raisin bread~~
See? It looks ugly that the right side rose higher.. This is because I had formed the dough awkwardly. ... Yeah, let's focus on its taste! It tastes just dreamy!! The key is ground cinnamon, I bet. A couple of pinches of cinnamon makes it taste graceful.

Baking bread is fulfilling work but you have to work on hard!!
It's much easier if you have a mixing machine but ... if you don't, you are going to have to mix the ingredients by hand. Which takes you quite a while. Plus, you need strength to work with the tough dough!!
Oh, my goodness, gluten develops in the dough so that all the ingredients stick tightly together.

The recipe I got from school is for 4 loaves. I had to divide the amount into four. ...Damn! I accidentally doubled eggs!! It was supposed to be 1/2 egg to put in, but I put a whole egg...
The excess moist made the dough sticky. It was hard to reach to clean-up stage. I sprinkled a fistful of bread flour (or less?) so the stickiness settled and the dough finally became a ball.
Phew, the egg didn't make much difference. The bread came out a bit softer though, this is acceptable.

レーズンパンが焼けました。
卵を分量よりも入れ過ぎたので、どぅなることかと思いましたが、
なんとか無事に焼けました～v
不細工な形。。でも色は良い。味も良い＝v
決め手はシナモンパウダーですかね。上品な味に仕上がりますよね。