Baking 101: Whole Wheat Cream Puffs

When I had a short internship in the commissary of a local restaurant/bakeshop, my job there was mostly about finishing, which included piping pastry cream into thousand of choux pastries for cream puffs. Since then, cream puffs had a special place in my heart. Just about as special as croissants or macarons or cheesecakes are to me. I was telling myself to try baking them at home for a long while now, but never really really tried because they seemed difficult to make.

What part of it seemed difficult? Well, firstly cream puffs seem so complex. Your choux pastry has to be crunchy and browned outside and hollow and soft inside. And secondly, I'm horrible with fillings and icings. I wouldn't hesitate to bake a cake but if you told me to make some buttercream icing I would faint and fail.

But I tried the other day, with some help from my brother. He actually gave me P100 to buy some butter and cream. Yay! <3 Jenro you rawk. It isn't as difficult as I thought it was. I picked up a recipe from joyofbaking.com which you can find here. I'll also post it in this blog post for your convenience.

The only adjustments I did was that I used whole wheat flour instead of normal flour since that's what I have on hand and my sis is into the 'healthy food' thing. What's also great about this recipe is that it barely has any sugar in it.

Whole Wheat Cream Puff with Whipped Cream.
Sorry for poor photo, my bro wasn't there to work his photo magic.

Choux Pastry:

1/2 cup (65 grams) all purpose flour  (I used whole wheat flour in the same amount)

1/2 teaspoon granulated white sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt (if using salted butter, take this out)

1/4 cup (4 tablespoons) (57 grams) unsalted butter, cut into pieces

1/2 cup (120 ml) water

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

Glaze:

1 large egg

Whipped Cream:
1 cup (240 ml) heavy whipping cream(double cream) (35-40% butterfat)

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (NOTE: This says "PURE VANILLA EXTRACT". So please use that. Do not use the vanilla flavoring that we can buy for 5-10 PHP in le palengke. It will seriously ruin the taste of the whipped cream, trust me. Take this out if you don't have a good vanilla extract, or squeeze in some fresh lemon juice instead.)

1 1/2 tablespoons granulated white sugar, or to taste

Garnish:

Powdered (Confectioners or icing)sugar

PROCEDURES!

Choux Pastry: Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C) and place rack in center of oven. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or lightly butter or spray the pan with a non stick vegetable spray.

In a bowl sift or whisk together the flour, sugar and salt.

Place the butter and water in a heavy saucepan over medium high heat and bring to a boil. (Make sure that the butter melts before the water boils to reduce the amount of evaporation.) Remove from heat and, with a wooden spoon, add the flour mixture, all at once, and stir until combined. Return saucepan to the heat and stir constantly until the dough comes away from the sides of the pan and forms a thick smooth ball (about 1-2 minutes). Transfer the dough to your electric mixer, or use a hand mixer, and beat on low speed to release the steam from the dough (about a minute). Once the dough is lukewarm start adding the lightly beaten eggs (dough will separate and then come together) and continue to mix until you have a smooth thick paste (dough will fall from a spoon in a thick ribbon). Spoon or pipe 12 small mounds of dough onto the baking sheet, spacing about 2 inches (5 cm) apart. With a pastry brush, gently brush the tops of the dough with a lightly beaten egg.

Bake for 15 minutes and then reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C). Continue to bake for a further 30 to 35minutesor until the shells are a nice amber color and when split, are almost dry inside. Turn the oven off, poke a couple of holes in each puff and, with the oven door slightly ajar, let the shells completely cool (and dry out). 

They'll keep on expanding and expanding in the oven. I used muffin pans to bake them so they have a uniform shape and aren't messy on a tray.

After they're baked, they look nice with all those little cracks on top that are distinct of choux pastries.

Choux Pastry is sorta hollow inside--that's why it has space inside for all that filling!

 

Whipped Cream: In a large mixing bowl place the whipping cream, vanilla extract, and sugar and stir to combine. Cover and chill the bowl and whisk in the refrigerator for at least 15 minutes. When chilled, whip the cream just until stiff peaks form.

To Assemble: Split the pastry shells in half and fill (or pipe) with whipped cream. Place the top half of the pastry shell on the whipped cream and dust with powdered (confectioners or icing) sugar. Leftover Cream Puffs can be stored in the refrigerator.

Makes 12 cream puffs.
Read more:http://joyofbaking.com/CreamPuffs.html#ixzz1r9MuYy2r

Fill them in with the filling of your choice and enjoy.

As I said, I used whole wheat flour and chose to bake these babies in muffin pans so they have a more uniform shape. The butter I used was the Ambassador brand (from President) and it works well with the flour. When I want a good but cheap butter/butter compound I buy that or Queensland. The butter you buy really has an effect on your baked goodies. Ambassador is good because it's unsalted and tastes neutral. Queensland or Magnolia Gold has a salty, savory, butter-spread that you put on your sliced bread taste. The Butterfresh brand has a distinct smell to it. 

The cream you're going to use for the whipped cream matters, too. I only ever use Nestle all-purpose cream, but their premium heavy cream is the best thing I ever used for ganache. But, as with the butter, the taste of your whipped cream will depend on the taste of the cream you use. Buy what you like.

As for the finished product, since I used wheat flour, my bro and I got the impression that this choux pastry will be better fit for a savory filling--like chicken or basil pesto pasta, or something similar. It's texture is great, though, just amazing. The whipped cream was not sweet and it didn't go so well with the whole wheat choux pastry. I'm contemplating cooking some pasta tomorrow to go with the whole wheat whoux pastries. I still prefer putting pastry cream into my cream puffs--like what they do in Dulcinea Restaurant--even if those are absurdly sweet.

Also, I played around with the temperature of my oven for this. I use a small, electrical oven so I always lessen the temperature and cooking time when I bake because if I follow exactly what's on the recipe, I almost always end up with something being burnt. Well, miraculously, nothing burned here. I thought I was burning it, but I found that I wasn't, so maybe I should have stuck to the real temperature, because if I did, I'd get those pretty cracks that choux pastries have on top and a crunchier outside. Will post again if I re-do this.

Have a great day! Feel free to ask or comment here about anything!

Baking 101: Oreo Stuffed Choco Chip Cookies w/ recipe

A few months ago was the 100th anniversary of Oreo, so an Oreo recipe made it to the headlines of Yahoo! News and I just had to try it out. The recipe can be found at Becky Bakes but I'll post it here too for your convenience.

Photo by my amazing brother.

Oreo Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookiesrecipe from the fantabulous Jenny of Picky Palate

2 sticks (1 cup) softened butter
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon pure vanilla
3 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
10 oz bag chocolate chips
1 pkg. Oreo cookies

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter and sugars together with a mixer until well combined. Beat in eggs and vanilla.

In a separate bowl mix the flour, salt and baking soda. Slowly add to wet ingredients along with chocolate chips until just combined. Using a cookie scoop take one scoop of cookie dough and place on top of an Oreo Cookie. Take another scoop of dough and place on bottom of Oreo cookie. Seal edges together by pressing and cupping in hand until Oreo cookie is enclosed with dough. Place onto a parchment or silpat lined baking sheet and bake cookies 9-13 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool for 5 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.

Makes about 2 dozen VERY LARGE cookies.

(Above text is copied from here.)
Sad to say, I'm not in-love with these cookies yet. I love Oreos (especially with milk) but I find this recipe a little too sweet for my tastes. I find that replacing Oreos with Cream-Os work wonderfully, Cream-O isn't too sweet and is a lot less cheaper. Don't bake them too long or they'll be hard; you want a softer cookie here because there's still a cookie inside.

Great Find: 'Iced' on Sale

You know it's your day when you go shopping for innocent things like lemons and then you come back from the grocery trip with a thick book that you got for P75 instead of P429.50. I got the book "Iced" which is a collection of around 180 ice cream recipes, from traditional vanilla ice cream, to Italian gelato, to more exotic recipes like wasabi ice cream and even our own 'halo-halo'.


The great thing is that these recipes don't exactly require that you have an ice cream maker! If you didn't know, you can make homemade ice cream without the machine. The book touches up on that, too, and I'll quote it here. Another good thing is that the ingredients here aren't uber rare, and that the measurements are written in grams and their cup equivalents. Couldn't anything be more convenient?

It was only 75 and it was pretty thick and heavy. And so many beautiful pictures!

Cappuccino ice cream cakes! Awesome. I want to try this out. They have a recipe for the cake and the ice cream.

Anyway, for those curious about homemade ice cream without needing an ice-cream maker, I quote the book:

If you don't own a machine, good ice cream can still be made. Put the chilled ice cream base into a large metal bowl that allows for room for expansion and freeze for about an hour and a half, or until the edges start to freeze. Using a wire whisk, or electric beaters set to slow speed, whisk the mixture to break up crystals and also aerate the mixture--these two processes are what a machine does mechanically and they are responsible for the soft, scoopable texture of the ice cream. Repeat this procedure at least twice more, freezing the ice cream for an hour and a half between beatings.

Each recipe had an instruction for what to do when you have an ice-cream maker, and for when you don't. This is a great book indeed. Will start making some homemade ice cream soon and will share them here when you do this. 

When Life Gives You Lemons... Make Lemon Bars

Last Sunday I made Lemon Bars by request of my brother. He now declares them his 'favorite'. He loves desserts that have a touch of fruit in them--his other favorite, so far, are my mango bars, and anything with strawberry in them.


To bake, I used a recipe from Joyofbaking.com which uses easily accessible ingredients and is very easy to make. Here is the resulting product:

Photo editing care of my brother. He loves them so much he did this for me! :3

I didn't garnish them with the powdered sugar, so they look a little different from the ones at joyofbaking.com but they taste wonderful! It's tart and tangy, and just right. The lemon flavor and smell really comes through. I can't wait to make more!

Everything you need for this recipe can be right at your own home, and for Filipinos who don't store lemons at their homes, lemons are around P50 for three pieces at Puregold. For this recipe, you'd only need 2 lemons anyway. I'll quote something from joyofbaking.com about buying lemons:

When choosing lemons look for ones that are fragrant with brightly colored oily yellow skins. The best ones are firm, plump, and heavy for their size. Don't buy lemons that have blemishes, soft spots, or are hard and wrinkled. 

Read more:http://joyofbaking.com/LemonCurd.html#ixzz1oLODBfGK

It's important to use fresh lemons instead of imitation lemon juices--fresh is best. With that being said, I can't wait to buy fresh vanilla someday.I also can't wait to make lemon ice cream. :3


xoxo
Xarin


PS: While making these, my brother helped me with squeezing the juices from the lemons. And then he asked me, "Why do fanfictions say 'lemon'? What does lemon in fanfic mean?" I told him, "Smut." And so he laughed and said, "Ooh, we're making smutty bars! Yum. They taste smutty."

Cakes at Chocolat

Went out with my cousin and my aunt to window shop at Mall of Asia--bad idea when we were there and it was packed  with people because of the fireworks competition that was going to happen later that night. You'd barely enjoy window shopping when you'd bump into someone in an attempt to just walk. We walked around hoping to find something good but then just gave up and decided to eat something. My cousin wanted to eat cake and so we ended up eating that at Chocolat. The place was packed and we barely had anywhere to sit. When that was resolved, though, we ordered our cakes.

I had the Chocolate Caramel cake (P82) with some ice cold chocolate drink

My cousin Kiss had the Chocolate Hazelnut cake (P88)

My aunt had a cup of cappuccino.

Kiss and I taking a pic together before eating.

Chocolat seems to make their cakes in the same area, because there are staff making cakes by the counters and icing them as we ate. The cake slices are priced at around P80-P120, which is the price range you'd expect for cake slices in other cake shops and bakeries too.

The cake tasted good enough. The cake was moist and the chocolate flavor not too sweet; just right. Its a bit filling after a slice or two. I like it but it doesn't haunt me and make me want to immediately buy another one. Maybe next time I'll try another flavor? Red Ribbon still has my favorite cakes.

Should I Study in Culinary School?

I've been debating with myself if whether or not I'm going to enroll in culinary school. Should I enroll in culinary school? How much will it cost me? What school should I enroll in? ...And all those questions. But monetary questions aside, I've also the question if it's practical at all for me to enroll in it or just pursue my degree in HRM, since I'm only a graduate of its associate version, HRS.


Why I DON'T think it's practical to enroll in culinary school


Firstly, if you're looking for local employment, you hardly need a culinary diploma to be hired as a kitchen staff. You'd be amazed of how many cooks and head cooks and head chefs I know that have not studied culinary at all. You'd be amazed how many bakers I know who went abroad and have made a fortune and have not studied in culinary. My ex himself is now a chef in a cruise ship, earning dollars, and he went to the same school that I did, graduated from the same 2-year-course, and never went to culinary.


He's only 24, by the way, and he started working in a fine-dining resto since he was 23, starting out as a dishwasher and then eventually getting promoted for his enthusiasm. Everytime he finished doing the dishes, he'd go make usi with the cooks and chefs and help them with finishing and garnishing and ask around and ask to be taught. It wasn't long before he got promoted to assistant, and then to a full-time cook. He's always a strong, living proof to me that you don't need to have the damn culinary diploma.


You'd be amazed that fine-dining restaurants and some hotels in the Philippines hire kitchen staff that are never culinary graduates. I've interned in a few and worked in them. I was a kitchen hand myself and learned from these men, and while they want to study culinary themselves, there are things I learned from being there and working with them that I know I would never pick up from school.


Whether or not you graduate from a culinary school, you'd still be applying for the same entry-level position as everyone else, the same position open for HRS and HRM graduates, and if they have actual experience in it, they have the upper hand.


If you want to study culinary, first consider if you can get a kitchen-related job that doesn't require you to have that culinary diploma. If you're male and in your twenties, you'd find that there are a lot out there. And try to get into a resto with a good rep--try fine dining. If you can't get into fine dining yet because they prefer workers with experience, try casual dining restos, they're usually more lenient with who they hire, and then move on to fine dining restos. After gaining experience there, you can easily apply for abroad or for cruise ships.


It's a hard climb, but it's been proven possible by countless cooks and chefs that I know.


Why SHOULD you enroll in culinary school, then?


If you're female and still kinda young, like I am, chances are you will hardly be considered for a kitchen-related job by any resto at all and passed over for a male. Sometimes I feel like I want to enroll in culinary school so employers don't belittle me for my gender. In the Philippines, the commercial kitchen is still dominated by males. A few restos and reputable coffee shops will specifically want to hire a female for pantry/cold kitchen positions, but they would want those with more experience. Males have stronger chances of an onward and upward climb without needing a culinary diploma, lucky guys.


There are also lot of things you learn from school, that even seasoned cooks that I know still want to enroll so they could expand their knowledge.


And if you want to major in Baking and Pastry, I'm afraid you might have to study Baking and Pastry arts, because there are hardly any entry-level jobs in that sector of the food industry that don't require skills and experience. I'm a home baker and I can bake, but without that diploma, I will never be qualified to be employed as one.


Why do you want to study in culinary, anyway?


If you're reading this, chances are you're probably thinking of enrolling in culinary, too. Can you tell me why you want to? Is working in the kitchen your dream or goal? Or do you think it's a profitable career?


Let me just tell you these things:


The food industry isn't as glamorous as many people think, or as media makes it out to be. It can be dirty work. If you expect yourself to be a chef immediately after you graduate from culinary, you're in the wrong train of thought. An instructor at MIHCA (or the Magsaysay Culinary school, whatever the acronym stands for) even said something about it. I quote him when he says that their students or potential students shouldn't expect to be immediately chefs. Everyone starts at the beginning, as line cooks, so they train their students to be efficient cooks and be able to handle real problems that happen in the kitchen.


And don't expect to not do any dirty work; we clean up after our own stations and scrub our own pots and pans, and even go to the grocery or wet market to shop for ingredients. If you're appalled by the thought of being sweaty, this probably isn't for you.


I suggest everyone think carefully. Try a hand at it before doing anything that cannot be altered (such as paying P200,000 for a few months of culinary school). I always dreamt of being a baker and working in a kitchen ever since I was small, and all I ever saw of it was what I saw on TV and what media made the profession look like. But getting and internship in the kitchen and actually working for a few and knowing others in the same path made me realize that this is a difficult job and it isn't exactly how media portrays it. I suggest you try out being a kitchen hand/helper to see how the real world is, or if you can, apply as an OJT and asked to be put in the kitchen. You get experience, and you make connections, and you can get endorsements from chefs--it's a win situation, and who knows, if you work hard, they might even hire you. If you are friends with a resto manager, ask to help out for a few days in the kitchen if possible, just so you get a view of how it is before you make a big decision.


If your love stays strong even if you see the realities, then you truly know that it's your calling.


As for me, I'll weigh my options some more.