Day 26: Mixed Up Pies

Today we took another attempt at making cinnamon rolls using the milk bread recipe. I made mine with  Nutella spread and cinnamon sugar and butter. Instead of making individual rolls, Chef decided that we should bake them in a round cake tin. The result is similar to that of Chelsea buns where there is a sticky sauce all over the bread when you turn it out of the pan. The cinnamon rolls came out very nicely and were yummy too. I'll have to make this for a family gathering. I'm sure that everyone will enjoy these and may even be surprised that I am bringing baked goods. My younger sister is usually in charge of that area.

With our cinnamon rolls completed Chef had us making a few apple based deserts. We started out with individual apple and cheddar cheese pies. We used tart granny smith apples tossed with brown sugar. In our tool kits we have Y shaped peelers. I've never used this type before and it took me a little while to get use to using this type of peeler. Once I got the hang of using one, peeling an apple was very easy. When the apples were peeled we cut around the core and made apples slices of half an inch thick. The apples were tossed with brown sugar ~ sugar is used to keep the apple from breaking down in cooking. Nobody wants a flat pie. A pie filled with apples high is what appeals to our sense of "we eat with our eyes first".

Before I could fill the pie with apples I needed to make a crust. The ingredients for the crust are pastry flour, butter, cold milk, and salt. Butter is pinched in to the dry ingredients and when all incorporated, the milk is mixed in and the dough is lightly kneaded. If you knead the dough too much the pie crust will be tough and not flaky. My dough was rolled and my pies were made with apples piled high inside and topped with aged white cheddar. I was looking forward to eating my cheddar apple pie with a scoop of ice cream when I got home... But when I got home, I discovered that I hadn't come home with the pies I had made. There were so many bags with baked goods in it, that I had gotten mine mixed up with others. I was disappointed that I didn't get to try my cheddar apple pie or get to take a a picture either.

I also made an apple crumble in class. Apple crumble is a very simple desert to make. If you are ever in a bind for a quick and easy desert ~ apple crumble or any fruit crumble for that matter will do. The apples are mixed with sugar and placed in a baking dish and topped with a crumble. The crumble is made with flour, quick oats, sugar and butter. A serving of apple crumble with a scoop of vanilla ice cream is always good.

I was appointed Sous Chef for the week by Chef. I was put to the task of delegating clean up to my colleagues to different areas in the kitchen. Chef is putting each of us in the role so that we know what to expect should we decide to find a job in a kitchen. In small kitchens, kitchen staff may be responsible for clean up at the end of the night. This could be washing up the remaining dishes, cooking utensils, pots and pans, cleaning the stoves, sterilizing work counters, sweeping and washing floors, rotating product/stock, and topping up cooking essentials such as spices. The role is also responsible for checking to ensure that clean up is done properly and completed each day.

Homework tonight is to review the recipes for chocolate mousse, Genoise cake, and coulis. Chef is marking us on the preparation of the chocolate mousse desert that we made last week and the plating presentation for service in an upscale restaurant.