Michael Zhou

Michael Zhou

Culinary & Food Service Management
LaSalle College Vancouver

Intro to Baking: Mile 0 (wk1-wk6)

This is a story of a zero-knowledge baking dummy cold started to a baking apprentice.

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Sift al

Wk1 Blueberry Muffin

Procedures: Sift all dry ingredients. Mix egg, buttermilk, oil, vanilla and lemon zest together. Fold liquid and dry ingredients together to have a lumpy batter. Dredge frozen blueberry with small amount of flour and gently fold into batter. Pour into muffin tins. Spread streusel toppings on top of batter layer. Bake at 375 Celsius for half an hour. Outcome: I was not paying attention about streusel topping, therefore, did not have the topping on mine. Batter was overly blended, and without the blueberries. I had to pour the batter into muffin tins and manually put berries into the batter. Will pay more attention on steps later.

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Wk1 Dinner Rolls

Procedures: We started making dinner rolls due to one-hour fermentation of dough. Dissolve yeast into water, mix all dry ingredients together, create a crater and pour yeasted water into the middle. Knead the dough by hands until a gluten window achieved. Set aside and ferment till double the size. (More than one-hour later) divide the dough into several 40 grams portion and roll them round. Place the dough into a warmer and wait until doubled the size. Egg wash the surface and steam at 200 Celsius for 12 minutes. Outcome: I placed the dough into a conventional oven instead of steam oven. They ended up with harder surface. A few key points need to be aware: 1) kneading until gluten built-up 2) fermenting in a warm environment 3) baking in a steam oven because steam will help building up dough and making them soft.

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Wk1 Peanut Cookie

Procedures: Sift all dry ingredients. Mix softened butter with sugar. And gradually add eggs, peanut butter and salt. Slowly add dry ingredients into butter mixture and mix to a firm dough. Use an ice cream scoop to scoop out the dough into paper-lined sheet pan. Use a fork to press down the ball to half inch depth and make crisscross makings on the surface. Moist the surface with water and press peanuts into each cookie. Bake at 200 Celsius for around 12 minutes. Outcome: Quite a nice burnt color and cracks around the edge. I intentionally did not put sugar after moistening the surface due to already excessive sugar content. Maybe cut the sugar from original recipe and spread them on the surface instead in the future.

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Wk2 Focaccia

Procedures: We started focaccia first due to longer fermentation time of dough. Dissolve yeast and sugar into water, pour flour onto the table and make a crater, and pour yeasted water in the crater. Mixing with fingers and start kneading dough by hands until gluten window achieved. Oiled the bowl and let dough ferment until doubled the size. (about 1 hour later) stretch the bottom of the dough to the top, flip upside down and ferment again. Lay dough on tray and flatten with fingers, but without popping bubbles. Lay tomatoes on the surface and sprinkle rosemary and salt. Bake at steam oven at 200 Celsius for 20 minutes. Outcome: Baked around 25 minutes instead of 20, and ended up a bit harder surface. Holes at cross-section were little too small due to insufficient fermentation time. Otherwise it smelled and tasted quite good. A few points to be aware: do not poke the bubble in the beginning, and leave overnight if possible, to get a better formation.

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Wk2 Apple Pie

Procedures: Cut butter into small dices and mix with sifted flour, water, salt sugar and vanilla extract. No need to knead, just mix them to flaky texture. Divide into two portions, and shape into two round patties. Cover them separately with plastic wrap and freeze before using. When ready, use a rolling pin to roll them to a 5mm sheets. Cover the pie pan with dough sheet, fill inside with apple fillings, and seal the top with the other dough sheet. Cut several venting holes and finish with egg wash. Bake at 190 Celsius for 1 hour. Outcome: Nice burnt color, the top of apple filling was a little not ready due to time limit. Not enough venting holes, only two on each side. The crust was a little too thick, may need to roll longer.

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Wk2 Chocolate Cookie

Procedures: Cream the butter and sugars in mixer, and followed by the eggs and vanilla. Stir salt flour and baking soda together and add to the creamed mixture. Cut pecan and chocolate into small chunks, and mix with dough. Using a scoop to scoop into 12 portions. Bake at 180 Celsius for 10 minutes. Outcome: Baked for 15 minutes instead of 10, turned out to be hard biscuits. Taste was quite good. Really have to set a timer next time.

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Wk3 Soft Rolls with conchas topping

Procedures: We started soft rolls first due to one-hour fermentation. Same as week one, dissolve yeast in water, combine all dry ingredient and mix all of them with hands until gluten window achieved. Let it ferment to double its size. Turn upside down, punch down air bubbles and fold edges inward to center to strengthen the surface again. Wait for 15-20 minutes, punch down air again, and divide dough to 12 portions. Shape them with swirling hands. Cut the premade conchas, brush a little water on dough, and place conchas on top to glue in place. Proof and bake at 200 Celsius until golden color. Outcome: Dough shapes were fine. Time maybe a 2 or 3-minutes longer, outside skin was a little hard when taken out, but after taking out of the bag at home, it was not that bad. the weight for decorate conchas needed some practice. Otherwise it was way better than week 1.

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Wk3 Banana Bread

Procedures: Cream the butter and sugars together with eggs and banana right after. Sift all dry ingredients and add to the mixture with alternating buttermilk. Mix chopped walnut at the end, then pour mixture to loaf pan. At last, sprinkle streusel topping we made on week one on top. Bake at 190 Celsius for 25 minutes until light brown. Outcome: The color and texture were good, but somehow when loaf was cooled, the middle collapsed a little. Maybe it wasn’t fully done in the middle, so the structure wasn’t set properly. Longer time may be required.

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Wk3 Brownie Cake

Procedures: Melt the chocolate and butter together over a steamed pan to 50 Celsius, and hold the mixture at this temperature. While melting, mix eggs and sugar for 10 minutes, and followed by salt, vanilla extract and coffee extract. Pour melted chocolate mixture to the mixer. Blend flour and nuts to the mixture until well combined. Pour mixture to the paper-lined ring and bake at 160 Celsius for approximately 40 minutes. Outcome: The cake tastes very sweet, may consider use only 75% of suggested sugar content. When checking the cake after 40 minutes, still a little wet in the middle, and we left for 10 more minutes. That ended up a harder outer edge. Need to check the edge in the future to prevent over harden, a little moist in the center should be fine, like chocolate lava cake.

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Wk4 Whole Wheat Bread

Procedures: We started whole wheat bread first due to one-hour fermentation. Same as week one, dissolve yeast in water, combine all dry ingredient and mix all of them with hands until gluten window achieved. Let it ferment to double its size. Turn upside down, punch down air bubbles and fold opposite edges inward to center to strengthen the surface again. Put into the greased bread pan, and proof until double the size. Egg wash the surface and bake at 190 Celsius for 50 minutes. Outcome: Dough did not rise much. Mainly due to 100% whole wheat flour was used instead of half whole wheat flour and half bread flour. Also, dissolving salt into yeasted water inhibited fermentation slightly. Dry ingredients should always combine together, same as liquid ingredients.

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Blend

Wk4 Shortbread Cookie

Procedures: Blend softened butter and icing sugar without creaming. Stir in the vanilla, salt, and flour. Mix until just combined. Roll mixture on the bench into 20cm rod. Wrap in plastic and freeze for 30 minutes. Remove the wrap, cut into 1cm thickness disk. Egg wash each disk, and sprinkle sugar onto them. Bake at 190 Celsius for 15 minutes. Outcome: A few minutes overcooked due to cleaning up. Taste is really good. A relatively easy recipe to do, do not forget to freeze until hard.

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Wk4 Chocolate Cherry Scones

Procedures: Cream sugar, buttermilk, sour cream, salt and vanilla together in a container. Combine flour and baking powder on table. Place butter on top, gently combine them. Pour liquid mixture to the dry ingredients and mix very roughly. Mix in the cherries and chocolate to just combined. Place mixture into an 8-inch ring to shape it, and cut into 8 portions, and bake for 20 minutes at 190 Celsius. Sprinkle with icing sugar after done. Outcome: Other than not fully mixed cherries and chocolate, the scones tasted really good.

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Wk5 Bageutte

Procedures: We started baguette first due to one-hour fermentation. Same as always, dissolve yeast in water, combine all dry ingredient and mix all of them with hands until gluten window achieved. Let it ferment to double its size. Cut dough in half, let each dough relax. Flip upside down, punch out air, start rolling edge inward in order to tighten the bottom surface (actual top). Roll dough into a long rod shape, and further ferment for 45 minutes. Use razor blade to cut top of baguette with 3 or 5 cuts. Proof and bake for 20 minutes at 232 Celsius. Outcome: Traditional cuts look fine, but my innovative cuts seemed too shallow. Remember to use a lot of bread flour to avoid dough sticking to couche, and ferment baguette dough with key on top.

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Combi

Wk5 Peacon Pie

Procedures: Combine cold butter with flour to flaky in texture, mix in water, salt and sugar. Keep mixing until dough hold together. Wrap in plastic and freeze thoroughly before using. Whisk together eggs, sugar and melted butter with vanilla and salt. Mix syrups as well. Take out the dough, using a rolling pin to roll the dough large enough to cover the pan with thickness of 3mm to 6mm. Evenly divide pecan at the bottom of pie, pour in syrup mixture. Blind bake at 160 Celsius for 45 minutes. Outcome: The crust cracked a little, possibly due to too much flour during rolling the dough. Even I squeezed the dough together, may have quite a bit inside.

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Wk5 Spritz Cookies

Procedures: Cream butter and sugar together until fluffy, and add in salt, vanilla extract and eggs. Blend well with flour, and transfer to piping bag and size 8-star tip. Pipe around 16 grams to sheet pan. Bake at 180 Celsius for 10 minutes. Outcome: Did not add more sugar to the center due to already excessive sugar content in the recipe. Cookies took longer than 15 minutes to bake. Still a tiny bit softer at center, may take a couple more minutes to finalize.

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Wk6 Raisin Bread

Procedures: We started raisin bread first due to one-hour fermentation. Same as always, dissolve yeast in water, combine all dry ingredient and mix all of them with hands until gluten window achieved. Then mix in softened butter to the dough, knead to obtain gluten window again. Let it ferment to double its size. Punch down, let dough relax, and push to a rectangular shape. Sprinkle cinnamon sugar on top, roll dough into a brick shape, and proof for 25 minutes. And bake for 45 minutes at 190 Celsius. Outcome: Adding butter to the dough has to be gentle due to easy to tear. Adding raisin is also a tricky part because of tearing as well. Just keep flip and fold. Dough did not expand double the size, maybe using warm water next time or ferment beside oven. We also did not bake full 45 minutes, but only 20 minutes. Middle was still soft. Took home and bake for another 30 minutes, came out ok.

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Combi

Wk6 Chocolate Cream Cake

Procedures: Combine cold butter with flour to flaky in texture, mix in water, salt and sugar. Keep mixing until dough hold together. Wrap in plastic and freeze thoroughly before using. Boil milk, sugar and cocoa powder, and whisk together egg yolks, and corn starch. Mix two mixture together, and boil for two minutes to a thick texture. Take out the dough, using a rolling pin to roll the dough large enough to cover the pan with thickness of 3mm to 6mm. Bake at 180 Celsius for 15 minutes. Pour chocolate paste into pie dough, and freeze. Whisk buttermilk and sugar to make pastry cream and spread across the pie. Outcome: Cocoa powder was with egg yolks instead of boiling milk. Came out fine, but may not be ok next time if wrong ingredient added to the wrong place.

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Wk6 Oatmeal Cookie

Procedures: Cream butter and sugar together until fluffy, and add in orange juice concentrate, salt, vanilla extract and eggs. Blend well with flour and raisin, and scoop out with ice cream scoop onto paper-lined sheet pans. Bake at 190 Celsius for 12 minutes. Outcome: Might be a best cookie I made since the beginning of class. Light brown on the edge. Soft but intact in the middle. An easy recipe can be made well within one hour. Maybe cut 10% sugar next time if make at home.

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