Hey Guys! Its the weekend!! Some of my classmates have school tomorrow but i didnt sign up for this session and im so glad! We have a test next week and im definately going to be doing lots of reading (well actually re-reading but the textbook is a little difficult to understand)

Okay so wednesday we did a walnut rye! it was good but very sweet!  Those are both the same bread but as you can see one is kneaded better as the nuts are mixed in better.

We did a Rosemary Olive one as well, but since i dont like olives i didnt put them in :P It was definately interesting dealing with herbs and spices in bread.

The other interesting one we did that day was the Asiago Sourdough. And it doesnt sound very interesting but the Cheese was 30% when the general rule of inclusions is no more than 12% so it was definately harder to work it into tho dough but showed us that it is possible to exceed that amount and that it can work. Not saying that it always will as it just depends on what you are including into your bread.

Also my class is awesome and apparantly we work fast so this day we had enough time to try another recipe, And a fellow classmate brought her naan recipe with her from India and so we did that as well! And oh my word! it was so good! much better than the naan we had made the other day. She then made a curry butter to put on it once it was done. My mouth is watering just thinking about it!

So in the picture the very bottom one is raw, the top left is cooked and then top right is with the curry butter! 

Thursday was our last day of Breads! So we had an easier project of humburger buns as the other one was that we had to create our own bread! Yeah! thats right.. make up your own bread recipe!

So hamburger buns were easy, very unique shaping as they have to be so thin before proofing or else they are too huge for their purpose.

Then for our bread!!

So i love the spinach dip you get at restaurants, so i designed mine around that. This project was very neat as it used all the knowledge we have learnt these past two weeks and combined it all in one package.

This next part is going into depth of my bread. you can skip to the picture if you dont care :P
I manipulated a typical North American White Bread Recipe but then changed the flour a bit as i love rye bread. and then because i was using rye bread and it doesnt create gluten as well as most flours i used a preferment, And then i had to decide on what kind of preferment. And i decided to use Miyo(which is the one my class made like the first day of school) Using a preferment meant that i had to reduce the amount of yeast in my recipe. Then deciding on how much of each inclusion to use. I added parmesean cheese, spinach, pepper as well as artichokes.

Once i had the % of each item i had to decide on how big i wanted my bread. and their is general rule of weights for bread so i chose the very middle. Then i figured out how much of each ingredient based on thier % i needed.

Once i had my recipe i then had to pick what mix method to use. And because of time restrictions i decided on the improved mix method.

Yes, if you havent been able to tell this project was very cool and i loved it!

So this is my bread before the inclusions. although i had already mixed in the pepper. And me trying to be smart decided to use white pepper so that you wouldnt be able to see the specks... cough.. yeah...

So there is the finished product! Looks amazing! But.. taste gross. white pepper DOES NOT taste like black pepper so i ruined it with that.  Oh well,  live and learn!  hah yeah i will never make that mistake again.



Today we moved onto Croissants and Danishes!!

Definately not very good at making danishes but i will learn! It is interesting learning about laminated doughs. Kind of an odd idea. Whoever came up with rolling butter in dough, and then folding it, rolling more, and so on had to have been on some kind of drugs!
 

This is an almond creme croissant with apricot glaze, chocolate and almonds on top. So delicious!  I also made cheese Croissants and just plain ones :) The Danishes i made i used the almond creme, as well as cream cheese filling.

So that is the goodies i brought home today. the 3 months of training is definately Delicious, but Probably not Nutricious.. lol

Hope Everyone will have an Awesome weekend!
<3 Amz

Hey Everyone! Okay another catch up blog post!

So friday we got to play with play dough! yes i know that sounds ridicolous but it was actually very helpful. We learned how to do a two braid for out challah bread. So using the play dough was way better than having to play around with our dough.

So you can see that we are only using two strands, they are different colors to we could learn better. And then the end product :)

Then i actually did it with dough! Didnt turn out too bad. although it could have been not as stretched out. But thats the point of learning, you dont do things perfectly everytime

So here it is after baking. and you can see how it could be more taller instead of length ways.

That day we also did Ciabatta ( i loved eating this one! Made excellent garlic bread!)

This next one was very interesting to me. I have never seen bread like this before. Reminded more cracker like. It is the armenian/lavash. was very tasty but reminded me more of a cracker instead of bread

See what i mean about more cracker like? And i dont have a picture of the whole thing as there was a bus mishap. Some drunken lady, cuz it was a friday and around 9 or later , fell on me and cracked it :(

The last type we did that day was Naan bread. This had an interesting way of baking it. You take your bread and put it right on the bottom of the oven. No pan or parchment paper.

 Then weekend which was nice! got caught up on notes and just studied.

I did go down to the beach one night, the water was so still and the city light reflection was beautiul!

Monday was back to breads, We did Bagels, Pretzels, New York Rye, and Pain Meunier
Interesting to learn that you boil bagels and pretzels before baking.

Tuesday was sourdough multigrain, Two Castle Rye, and Pumpernickel.

 

 These first two were a bit difficult due to the soakers, you had to make sure your gluten was developed before adding as they rip and damadge your gluten. but you didnt want the gluten too developed or your bread would become overworked from you working in those soakers.

 And forgot to score my pumpernickel but it turned out okay.  Realized i am not a fan of this bread. Dont like the taste of it. lol.

We continue doing bread for a few more days and then friday we move onto croissants and danish's! 

Hey guys if you wanna see some better pics of the first day check out this site! My room mate is a photographer and she took some awesome pics of my stuff!

 http://lani.myfotojournal.com/2011/sep/23/treats-away-amys-buns/

<3 Amz

Hey Everyone!

Sorry that i havent updated the blog in like a week!! School has been Crazy!!

Monday was just a general first day. This is so and so. This is where this is kept. Do this. Dont do this. Introduce ourselves to everyone. The typical first day of school.

Tuesday we jumped right in! We made
a Whole Wheat Loaf Bread



Semolina Loaf Bread ( A is for Awesome Amy :P)

as well as Parisienne.

 

Wednesday we made two different baguettes(one with a sponge preferment the other without)

the one on the left is the one with the preferment (all that means is that we mixed the flour, water and yeast a bit before hand and let it sit and so it helps bread quality,  the strength, as well as the aroma)


 as well as more parisienne but we got to put inclusions in them :)

The first picture is the dough and my inclusions(the add ins) are in the container. I used parmesean cheese and spinach.  The second picture is my attemps at knots and a braid. These buns were delicous!!

Thursday was Focaccia, which was amazing!! i love the taste of it.

We also did a Fougasse, which we got to try out an artisan design. I tried doing a leaf.  This was pre baked

It got a little burnt so i dont have a great picture of it but i did take one of all the things we did that day, so you can see how much it had risen and that the cuts could have almost been a bit bigger.

Also did pizza dough and then got to make mini pizzas  :) it was so good! almost like a margherita pizza!

So i have been pretty full of bread this week but it has all been delicious with different flavors and textures :)

<3 Amz

Well i have had two days of school :)

Ill try to make an actual post but have been really busy since school is here. I start at 1:30 and go till 8:30 but my bus to get there and then to change into my uniform and what not i leave my house at 12 noon and usually dont get home till 10. And when i do get home we have had to read a chapter from the textbook each night. which is not a lot but it is super boring because it is all about the history of things so far.

So im hoping this weekend (sunday as i have school on saturday) that i will write into more depth about what i do at the school and other stuff.

If you have any certain questions just leave me a comment and i will answer them :)

Well im off to bed. Gnite <3 Amz

So i bought a bike! i forgot to mention this is the earlier post and it is a pretty big deal so it will have its very own post!

It is a Black Micargi Rover 7 Speed

I love it!
I have been searching craigslist, kijiji, anywhere i could think of! My friends Candice and Daniel even helped me look through craigslist one night!

and the verdict was i always loved the look of the cruiser bikes, although Candice said because they are only one speed that they would serve no purpose here and that it would be a waste of money and time to get one. Needless to say i was heartbroken!
But i had a breakthrough when i saw an ad for a 7 speed cruiser bikes! and they were brand new from a store, instead of just a random person! And they were 50% off cuz its the end of summer clearance sale!

I was so happy!!

So yesterday i went down to the store and bought it! i took a cab home with it cuz they box was kinda heavy and would not be able to take it on the bus..

I worked on putting it together for 3 hours!!

finally when my room mate got home from work she could see how frustrated i was and just how little i accomplished, so she took me out of the house and called her boyfriend to come over for supper.. tee hee.. well once he was over for supper she asked him to take a look at it and then he spent maybe 15 mins and put it all together! i was little mad but then at the same i just wanted my bike to be assembled!!

Today i took it to the pedal depot which is a bike place that bike mechanics will walk you through what you need to do and help in any way they can.

(It is totally awesome, and i would recommend anyone in the vancouver area to go there!)

Well my bike had a lot of work that needed to be done! I was there for 3 hours!! and had to catch the bus home because my bike stayed there and i have to go back tomorrow and work on it some more.

Good part of this whole situation is that i am learning a lot about bikes!

<3 Amz

Adventure!

Well i had/have a week here before school starts :)

School officially starts on Sept 19 and can not wait!!

I have went adventuring on my own and took a few pics but not very many.

Daniel took me to wreck beach, if you dont know what that is i suggest you google it. tee hee. its the only clothing optional beach and is located sort of by UBC campus. That was wel uhm.. an interesting experience! lol

Although dan did take a couple of really nice pictures of me and the ocean :)

Also i live like 4 blocks away from china town, so any banking or even sometimes just to catch a bus, ro to bother lani at work i have to walk through it, and at first i will admit i was scared, but now not as much :P i dont have any pics because that doesnt seem like exploring since it is so close haha

I did go down to granville island again (my school is right before the entrance so i had went on monday but didnt do much exploring)
I went through the public market down there, and walked along all the beautifulness that is down there. I also had a delicious crepe!

It was a dreary day but still beautiful!

Lani(she is my room mate) and i went to the farmers market, She bought a bunch of veggies, some fruit and some quality pork. I bought pork jerky(which is so good!) as well as some farmer sausage

So needless to say supper was delicious! all fresh and local food :)
And then having Saskatoon Crisp for dessert was definately a bonus!!

Hope everyone is having a wonderful day!!
<3Amz

My School

So today i went on a tour of my school, i have went on one last time i visited vancouver but they just did a bunch of remodeling so about half of the school looks completely different!

So I am going to the Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts

And im enrolled in the 6 month Baking and Pastry Arts Diploma program :)

While on my tour today i fell even more in love with the school! It is just so awesome!

They have 2 spare kitchens that the students may use while not in class, and we dont have to pay to rent them or the materials. Just sign up with the office and we may Practice to our hearts content. Another good thing about the school is if their is any competitions we would like to enter the school will pay our entry fee and then of course to practice we can just use those spare kitchens and not have to worry about having to buy all the practice ingredients and also having access to the right tools and equipment. Another bonus is each of the culinary students have a week where they decide a menu and make supper for all the stuents and staff.

There is so much more i could say but i wont bore you to death.. tee hee

The school is located right before granville island

And the restaurant part of the school looks out over the harbor

Well i guess i have rambled on enough
<3 Amz

Vancouver!

Well i made it here yesterday around 3 pm, the drive was good, long (as expected) and warm, very very warm (the a/c in the car quit working about 15 mins out of saskatoon.. Yay! lol)

Still in the middle of unpacking, and trying to figure out where the heck i am in this huge city lol

I have a meeting at my school on monday so ill try to take some pics!

Hope your all having a wonderful day :D