Use-By Dates

Haven't forgotten about this blog - but, as is usually the case, I have been caught up in work, school and the general busy nature of this season. Things are starting to wind down a little bit, which is great news - but until things get a little more under control, I thought I'd share some interesting food articles that I've read.

The one I want to focus on today is regarding the 'use-by/sell-by/best before' dates on products that we buy from the store: http://www.grist.org/food/2011-11-18-use-by-dates-a-myth-that-needs-busting

I find that I am one of those people that are crazy about the 'use-by' dates, because I don't ever want to be in a situation where I eat or drink something that has gotten nasty. Case in point? The time I drank coconut water and didn't realize it had gone bad until after I had consumed a glass and poured myself another one - only to see small floating items in the most recent glass I poured.

**shudder**

Thankfully, I didn't get sick - but I did learn that coconut water should be consumed within 2 days after opening the container (it had been a good 2 1/2 weeks by the time I had my fateful glass) and I became more strict about 'use-by' dates. I personally also label and date everything that I put in my fridge so I know exactly when it was prepared. It saves the hassle of seeing a container in the back of the fridge and not knowing what new creations you are going to find when you open the lid...

With the knowledge of the 'use-by/sell by/best before' dates in my back pocket (and now in yours, if it wasn't already) you can use good food longer and use your common sense as to when things should be thrown out. Hopefully it will save you some money and some good food.

A day in the life...

Life has been busy. I realize that is everyone's excuse - and I feel that for each one of us, it is true. Sometimes we have be honest with ourselves and think how we are going to use our time wisely, effectively and efficiently. With that in mind, school work, training for my upcoming marathon and being in the midst of the busy season at work has monopolized my time - to the point that I feel lucky if I maintain 5-6 hours of sleep a week. By health standards, I am lacking. By my family's standards of regular sleep, I'm getting more than enough. :)

It got me thinking, however, that nobody knows what my regular day at work consists of. It can seem fairly mundane and regular when I am doing the same thing without pursuing any other projects because it is so busy, but you... the reader of this blog... may not have an idea of what goes on in my pastry shop... or any pastry shop, for that matter. So, the other week, I took some pictures of what my regular day looks like to give you all a visual of what a day in the life is like for me while I'm at work.

My main tasks include making breakfast pastries and breads for all the outlets for the following morning - the hotel's coffee shop, the restaurant, all banquet events and, if necessary, components for other kitchens (for instance, if they need croissants to make breakfast sandwiches or if our pastry kitchen needs extra pastries to make our bread pudding - things of that nature...) Since my shift starts at 9:00 p.m. and ends at 6:00 a.m., I ensure all of the product is as fresh as possible and am still there when the other employees come to pick up their various breakfast goods in the morning. In that way, I make sure that everything is taken care of for all the functions and am still there in case there are any issues.

My day usually begins with putting the croissants and danishes needed in the proof box and to get the rising going. To make things a little more productive, a few of us employees have broken up the tasks of making the dough, laminating it (putting butter in the dough, folding, resting the dough, folding again - to create the flaky, buttery layers that croissants and danishes are used for), then rolling it and cutting it. My task is to proof the danishes and croissants, fill the danishes with a variety of fillings, egg wash, bake, glaze and ice with icing. The entire process would just be too much in one night, so luckily, we have it all figured out to make it fairly seamless.

This is a picture of the pre-made croissants and danishes - when I come in, I look at all of the orders and take what I need from this stock to use for bake off.

After proofing, I egg wash the croissants and bake them off. Here is a picture of them coming out of the oven:

The danishes are similar - I usually lay all the trays I need out (usually full sheet pans which fit 24 danishes), then I divide each tray to have 4 flavors, 6 each. The flavors usually depend on the season - to keep the idea of seasonality and freshness - so recently the flavors have included raspberry, apple-cinnamon, cream cheese, and lemon. The raspberry and apple-cinnamon filling are shipped in to the hotel, though the cream cheese filling and the lemon curd I make from scratch every few days.

The day I took these pictures, it was a particularly busy day - I used every rack of our oven to bake off the danishes, meaning we had orders for nearly 500 danishes the next morning.

Here is a closer view of the baking...

After all the danishes are baked off, I lay all of the trays out on the tables and glaze them with an apricot glaze to give them a delicious looking shine. It adds a subtle sweetness, though this is certainly more of an aesthetic quality.

Here is a view of nearly all of the trays laid out. After the glaze has set after a few minutes, I ice each of the danishes with a basic icing (literally just powdered sugar, water and vanilla extract) Luckily, we made a tool for the bake-shop that makes this process tremendously quicker:

After I fill this tool up with icing, I can go over all of the danishes in a matter of minutes - while maintaining an attractive appearance. Here are a few pictures of the final product:

Another aspect of my day includes muffins - not only for all the outlets I mentioned already, but we also do other orders for another hotel nearby. As with the fillings for the danishes, the flavors generally depend on the season, though we have blueberry muffins and bran muffins as regulars.

Similar to the danishes, I usually lay out all of the muffin pans that I need and line them with the paper cups. I do a personal assembly line and take each task step by step - first I fill the muffin cups with whatever mix is needed with a scoop, (the kind that most people would use for ice cream) to keep things uniform in size, then top it with an appropriate topping (in these pictures, bran gets oats, blueberry gets crumble, chocolate chip gets mini chocolate chips and banana gets chopped pecans)

The muffins that get ordered out by another hotel are my personal hell - they order a chocolate marble muffins - the process involves one medium scoop of chocolate mix, one medium scoop of basic mix, then a small scoop of chocolate mix again... and then I need to swirl each one. It may not seem like such a bad task until you consider an order for 150 of these muffins means I have scooped 450 times, then spend additional time swirling each one. They are delicious, but take up some serious time.

After all of the muffins are baked off and cooled, I pop each of them out on the table and finish them off, if needed. The blueberry muffins and chocolate chip muffins usually get dusted with powdered sugar - so I line them all up and dust them at one time.

After all of the baking is done, I usually separate the orders. Everyday, I usually separate my entire bake-off onto carts - for room service, the restaurant, and for various banquet events. If an order says that they need 50 croissants, 100 danishes and a variety of muffins, I pull that from my bake-off and place it on the appropriate cart. Here's a picture of what a standard order may look like on a cart:

After they are all organized and wrapped, I am able to move on to other tasks. Some of which include piping all the butter rosettes for the banquet dinners. This task isn't so bad - though this past week, I had to do about 3,500 for the week. It can certainly be a bit rough at times on the hands...

Also, I usually need to make all of my mixes and fillings for the next few days. Since I work in a hotel, I usually make large amounts of each of the items I need on a regular basis. For instance, the basic muffin mix I make requires an 80 quart bowl - and I need to make two batches for what I need in a given week. I can usually store all of the mix in a giant bin (pictured below).

Most all of items are stored in similar ways - though not in such large quantities. I usually only have to make anywhere from 8 -20 quarts of the danish fillings and 16-40 quarts of the other muffin mixes.
You'd be surprised how fast the night goes with how much needs to be done on a regular basis. Add that to the fact that there are specialty orders (sticky buns, filled croissants, specific muffin flavors, mini items, etc.) on any given night.

October and November is certainly the busiest months, though it seems like this summer has been insane as well. Add that to the fact that I've been in school and marathon training, it hasn't given me much time to sit down, let alone sit down and write this blog. Hopefully this gave you a glimpse of what it's like in a day - let me know if you have any questions about how things are done or other things you might be curious about. (Since this is all so common for me, I may have missed out on some essential details that I forgot to mention!)

Until next time!

Update soon...

Hey everyone - I just wanted to post a quick update and say that I'll be posting something soon. My computer crashed last month in the midst of mid-terms and crazy days at work and I haven't had much time (let alone the extra cash) to buy a new computer. Luckily, I was able to use a dear friends laptop to finish my school work and since then, I've been able to use my partners laptop for the bare essentials. But this week is the week that I'll have my own computer again and celebrations will be had (in the form of extreme blogging). You've been warned...

I was finally able to master a recipe for a gluten-free Apple Cinnamon Bundt Cake which is surprisingly fantastic. There are many gluten free items that taste... well... off. I talked to someone recently who said that she was frustrated with gluten-free and vegetarian items that restaurants and shops generally sell because they are always trying to be an imitation of something they are not - and it usually falls short of expectations. My goal with any of the dietary recipes is to avoid that disappointment - this bundt recipe is one that is great without trying to be something it's not. Be prepared for that soon. Until then, eat healthy, enjoy life and check back soon for an update from yours truly.

Scones!!

Let's talk scones. Growing up for me, a scone was a deep-fried dough that was made primarily for a dessert. My favorite was spreading honey-butter on it and maybe a little bit of cinnamon-sugar. It wasn't until I moved out of Utah and was asked to make scones at work, that I realized my definition of a scone was very different from everyone else. I quickly discovered that a traditional scone is more like a biscuit - which can include a variety of ingredients, such as fruit, nuts, spices, etc. I became simply fascinated with it - not only were they delicious, but they were a perfect pair with coffee. Every morning before church while my partner was in choir rehearsal, I would take a walk up the street to Great Harvest and try a new scone every week. Their scones are about as round as a C.D., and probably a good 4 inches high - terribly filling, but with flavors like Blueberry-Orange or Mocha, I would consider Sunday my free day to indulge.
I thought to myself, I would really like to learn to make these. And, the Law of Attraction came in to play, and it was soon my project at work to make scones to replace the ones we buy for the coffee shop in our hotel. The idea was to save on food cost and to make nearly everything we could from scratch and I was excited at the idea. The scones the hotel bought were a lemon-blueberry with coarse sugar sprinkled on top - so I did some research online and played around with some recipes. Here are a few pictures from those experiments:

The goal of my first experiment was to try to match the flavor - the look and size weren't a huge issue for me at that point. Luckily, the flavor was comparable (might I add that mine may have tasted a bit better - I credit lack of preservatives... and extra lemon zest) so the next task was to try to match the size. This was a little more tricky because scones are very similar to regular biscuits where you don't quite know how much they are going to raise and if they will raise up or out or split...
The second test went a bit smoother regarding the size - there was still the issue of making it look exactly alike, but with the flavor down and the size generally figured out now, Mothra and Clara gave me the thumbs up to start mass production. I figured that the coffee shop would order about a dozen a day - but it ended up being 2 dozen a day. My jaw hit the floor because these scones weren't exactly the most simple to make and my recipe (at the time) yielded 48.

So, since then, my main goal for these scones have been to stream line production and get a solid game plan to how these need to be made in mass production. When I tried to simply multiply the recipe and create it, I found that they didn't turn out quite as well. Also, rolling the dough out on a bench and working it didn't seem to work as well with a larger batch. Suffice to say, it's been a game of trial and error, but I finally have it.

Feeling adventurous? Here is the recipe I used.

Blueberry & Lemon Scones
(Makes about 12 scones - cut into squares 3 1/2" x 3 1/2", then cut down the middle diagonally)

Ingredients
3 C. all-purpose flour
1/2 C. sugar
1 T. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
8 T. butter (cold, unsalted)
2 large eggs
3/4 C. heavy cream (plus some extra to wash top of scones before baking)
1 T. lemon zest
1 T. lemon juice
1/2 C. blueberries, frozen (plus more to add to top of scone before baking)
coarse sugar, as needed for tops of scones before baking


Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl and stir.

Cut the butter into small pieces, and add to the flour mixture. Mix with a pastry blender or fork, until a coarse meal forms with tiny pea-sized butter pieces.

Whisk eggs and heavy cream in a small bowl. Stir in zest and juice. Add to the flour and butter mixture. Begin to gently mix with a spatula. When mixture is nearly combined (though you see some flour mix not incorporated), add the blueberries. Mix until just combined. (It's OK if a few berries bleed.) Do not over mix.

Using a floured surface, shape the dough into a rectangle, roughly 1 inch thick. Cut the dough 3 1/2" by 3 1/2 " squares, then cut each square diagonally (it helps at this point to use a knife with the blade wet to help make the cut smooth and precise, wash off knife as needed). Place scones on parchment paper-lined baking sheets. Brush scones with heavy cream and sprinkle tops with coarse sugar.

Bake scones for 15 minutes, rotating pans mid-way through, or until puffed and golden; transfer to a rack to cool completely.

Voila. The perfect companion to your morning coffee or favorite morning beverage.

It's been funny too because now that I feel pretty confident about this recipe, it's been popping up more and more on regular banquet orders - though the flavors change every time: maple with lemon glaze, triple berry, cinnamon-pecan, dried apricot.... But I think that is one of the great things about this recipe is that the lemon and blueberry can be substituted for almost any other ingredient you want. It gives you that creative freedom to explore new flavors in baked items.

(I should also note that by making these scones in house instead of ordering them in has saved the hotel about $6000 anually... Ridiculous, right?!)

I bet you're asking - What? No rant?! And the answer is no. I'm going to do my best to keep this blog focused on delicious food, nutrition, and the learning process along the way. I mentioned in my last post that I wanted to start making recipes with more a more dietary specific focus. Luckily for me, I presented that idea to Mothra who completely loved the idea. Beginning sometime next week, we will be getting various flours and ingredients in to start making and experimenting with gluten-free products. I am incredibly excited about that.

Also, I know I mentioned this in my other blog, but I am going back to school. My goal is nutrition and nutritional science - but unfortunately, since my credits didn't transfer over from culinary school, I am starting from scratch. So, while I won't be taking classes specific to my major for a while, I wanted to be more involved with nutrition at work. As much as I love pastry, the truth of the matter is that Americans consume more fat and sugar than their bodies can handle - not to mention the other artificial ingredients, preservatives, and other nutrient-lacking items that are usually incorporated in everyday foods and desserts... So the idea of experimenting more with foods that are specific to special dietary needs and with a more health-conscience focus is really exciting. I'll post more about those adventures as they happen.

To end, I'll post a few more pictures of some things I've done at work and in my free time:

Spring time at the pastry shop means spring time cookies - you all were well aware of my... er... love of the snowflakes and mittens from last winter. Luckily, these were made with a soft fondant which meant it was easier to handle, had a beautiful shine, and hardened up in a few hours (compared to the days it can take for some icings and frostings to take)

Couldn't do tulip cookies and not do yellow ones...

Here in Chicago, there is an annual event called 'For the Love of Chocolate' which is a benefit for scholarships for adults wanting to pursue an education in pastry arts. It's a pretty fantastic event and usually pulls out some big names - last year, I was able to meet Rick Bayless, who was serving some home-made mole sauce (which was out of this world). But this year, I was able to meet Sherry Yard, the pastry chef at Spago in California, author of multiple cookbooks and the one who usually does all of the desserts for Oscar events. Bottom line? A BIG name in the pastry world and I suddenly felt like a little kid meeting one of their favorite sports stars (which actually happened when I was younger - but didn't come close to this) Turns out, she is fantastic and incredibly down to earth.

Quick picture of more scones I've made - I know they aren't as glamorous as cakes and decorated cookies, but there is something so fantastic to me about the simplicity and, ironically, complexity of a baked item. There is so much science involved in each one that people don't usually take time to appreciate.


I had the opportunity to cater my roommates Senior Recital reception and she wanted mini cupcakes. I unfortunately had to work the night of the event, but I did snap some pictures of the items I made. These are red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, a white and dark chocolate garnish, dusted with a little cocoa powder. In back are some banana cupcakes with a vanilla buttercream frosting, garnished with a dried banana chip and dusted with cinnamon.

These are dark chocolate cupcakes with dark chocolate buttercream frosting, garnished with a homemade chocolate design (and chocolate covered croquants (puffed rice). (There are also some more of the banana cupcakes in back)

And finally, my personal favorite, was a lemon cupcake with lemon buttercream with a homemade white chocolate garnish and a wedge of candied lemon.

Yesterday I was talking to my partners mom who asked me if I was still doing cakes at work at work, to which I replied I hadn't been. She told me it was such a shame. I couldn't help but laugh - I see her reasoning and felt flattered by her comment, but I guess it's the funny thing about life. For years, there was nothing I wanted more than to do wedding cakes for the rest of my life and then, while I've been working at the hotel, I was able to do just that. So, while I do love making and decorating cakes (and will probably do more in the future, whether through work or my personal business), I am finding I want so much more. These various alleys of pastry (working with croissants, danishes, quick breads), as well as focusing attention on nutrition and dietary needs have been so thrilling to me. While it may not be as glamorous as cakes, I hope you will all enjoy this journey with me as I update this blog with those adventures.

Sourdough and Sour boss

It's been quite a couple of weeks! Business at the hotel has been picking up tremendously, I've been given a heavier workload (more on that to follow) and overtime has been abundant (whether I've wanted it or not!) Suffice to say, I haven't had much time to do projects at home like I would love to do - I did make the sourdough bread, however, which turned out to be completely fantastic. Here is a picture of what my loaves looked like:



Not only has it been great for eating with various cheeses, as well as different jams and preserves, but my partner and I actually made caprese sandwiches with it (which included sliced tomatoes, melted mozzarella cheese, fresh basil and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar) It was incredibly delicious. I think part of the fun of creating the various breads is thinking of unique ways to use it. (My partner and I actually gave up meat for Lent, so we've been having to be more creative than usual) Unfortunately, the mother starter that I made was exposed to air in the fridge and I didn't catch it in time - so it's no longer usable. But considering the entire process of creating the starter and making the bread was exciting and worth the wait (about 8 days from start to finish) I look forward to doing it again.

In other news, work has been a rollercoaster once again. I mentioned that the night shift was working tremendously well because I was able to be in control of what I did, manage myself and my time and be able to use my skills in the kitchen more creatively. As a result of that, Mothra nominated me for employee of the month for the hotel and I actually won. In the description on the nomination, she gushed about how I have streamlined productivity for the night crew, how I was a valuable asset in helping the day crew with projects that the night crew normally didn't take care of, and how I took advantage of cross-training opportunities and did them exceptionally well. All wonderful stuff and I was flattered that she would say those things and even more flattered to hear that I had won.

Not even a day later, I was taking my break in the pastry departments office with my fellow coworker and the executive chef came in to ask for some specialty items, so we helped him out and he was on his way. Apparently, he talked with Mothra about how he saw my coworker and I in the office, sitting and taking a break - which she interpreted as, if we are sitting in the office taking breaks, we must not have enough to do. Since then, my coworker and I have had our workload doubled and overtime is not only encouraged, but expected. This past week, I averaged 10-11 hour days - and I don't know what it is about the night shift, but overtime is so much harder than it was during the day. Similarly, I seem to be getting in trouble for the most random things lately. For instance, My coworker (I'll think of a sufficient pseudonym soon enough) wasn't able to finish something on her list before she needed to leave, so I said I'd help her out with the project. When Mothra found out that I helped out, I got in trouble for it, saying that my coworker should've finished her tasks before leaving. As a result of that incident, Mothra felt that, again, I must not have enough to do since I am helping out my co-worker and gave me a list of items that needed to be done for the day crew (which resulted in a 12 hour day for me). Things like this keep happening nearly every other day... it is terribly frustrating, but oddly, I've almost become used to her acting like this.

One of my new tasks is actually quite similar to the restaurant writing tasks that I've had in the past. I'm now required to make at least one new recipe every week for her to sample and have one of these recipes on a menu (whether for the banquet events, the restaurant or coffee shop in the hotel) every month. So be prepared to hear about various recipes that I have tried. I've actually been more inclined to make recipes with dietary restrictions in mind (gluten-free, lactose-free, vegan, diabetic options, etc.) so I will probably be making more of those options as time progresses.

It wasn't my intent to simply vent about Mothra in this entry - but, seriously, this woman is the closest anyone will ever get to the obscene celebrity chefs you see on television - it's hard not to write about these experiences as they happen. That being said, I will try to focus more on the food and experiences in the creation process. Until next time.

Hiatus, Night Baking and Breads - Oh my.

I apologize it's been a while since I have updated this blog - many different things, personally and professionally, have happened over the past few months. One of which is the fact that I have moved from the day shift to the night shift (9 p.m. - 5 a.m.) to be the night baker. It sounds crazy, but it has been a tremendously positive experience. I've been able to focus my attention primarily on quick breads (muffins, bundts, etc.), croissants and danishes that are used in the mornings at the hotel for the banquet event orders, room service and the restaurant. It has also given me more time to personally prioritize, take control of how things are run at night and in the process, I've gained a lot more confidence since I wasn't being micromanaged by Mothra and Clara. And that has been a very lovely thing.

This entry is primarily for the fact that I just wanted to touch base and tell you all that I'll be writing more frequently. So I won't say much, but I will tell you about a fantastic book that I got recently that I've been using nonstop. It is called Peter Reinhart's Artisan Breads Everyday.

(By the way, don't do what the picture says and 'click to look inside' - I swiped this picture off of amazon.com's website - if you click on it, you won't get far...) This cookbook is one of the best bread books I have come across yet - all of the recipes are non-pretentious and practical for the home. Things like croissants, bagels, french loaves, sandwich breads... all items that people normally buy at the store, but are items that are fairly easy to make. All it takes is some time (he is a firm believer in overnight proofing in the refrigerator to help develop flavor) - but is completely worth it. My goal is to make an item from this book every week. So far, my partner and I have made french loaves, bagels, whole wheat bread - and I'm currently in day 5 of the process of a sourdough starter (which smells deliciously funky). So I will update you about the adventures in the kitchen with that. It's been such a fun time experimenting with the various recipes.

Anyway, much more to follow soon. Until then~