4/9/18 Hot Cross Buns

4/9/18 Hot Cross Buns

Our prayer breakfast group did not meet Easter Monday. So we had Hot Cross Buns on 4/9 instead.

Chelsea Buns are a traditional sweet roll with raisins from England. On Easter Friday, the buns are baked and marked with a cross. Raisins add flavor, texture, and nutrition to the bun. Loved by the prayer group!!

4/8/18 French Toast Redux

4/8/18 French Toast Redux

With Skills USA practice, there is an abundance of baguette cut into cubes in the freezer. Sunday  morning is becoming French Toast day. Here is the latest:

French Bread with Sausage

French Toast with Sausage

4/6/18 Skills USA Practice

4/6/18
Heidi, Nina, and I continue to practice our Skills USA baked goods with the help and patience of Chef Summers. We improve each practice session and discover ways to streamline the operation and produce better products.

Video: 4/6 Practice

Nina's Cookies and Baguettes

4/5/18 I Love Lucie

4/5/18 My friend Lucie had bunion surgery and I prepared dinner for her family to help out. Chicken Tetrazzini, Roasted Cherry Tomatoes, Sweet Potato Rolls, and Strawberry Triffle. Saved a few rolls for my family and we had them for breakfast the next day.

Sweet Potato Rolls

Nice Golden Color

For Breakfast

4/3/18 Truffle Practice

4/3/18
The Chocolate Artistry class is practicing Truffles to prepare for our final. We improve with each practice. Here is the link for video:Truffle Practice

Packaged Truffles

4/1/18 French Toast

4/1/18
With practice for Skills USA, there has been left over baguettes. And, the best use for leftover baguettes: French Toast. This is overnight French toast. Layers of cubed leftover bread is soaked in eggs, milk, brown sugar, salt, and a little vanilla. We enjoyed ours with drizzled honey.

Overnight French Toast from leftover baguettes.

3/27/18 PBJ Confections

3/27/28 PBJ Confections Video: PBJ Confections
Our Chocolate Artistry class made lovely PBJ Confections using a recipe from our textbook.
Three layers were prepared: raspberry jam. peanut butter, and milk chocolate. All three were layered in a pan and set aside. Dark chocolate was melted and tempered. The layers were cut into 1" squares. We had trouble with the squares breaking while being cut. Chassitity used a kitchen torch and heated a knife to cut the squares and this solved the problem. The squares were dipped in tempered dark chocolate and topped with chopped peanuts.

PBJ COnfections

3/26/18 Fifth Service Hot and Cold Desserts

3/26/18 Hot and Cold Desserts
Fifth Service: Fifth Service Video

Sue and Chassitity prepare Pineapple Cake and Burnt Sugar Ice Cream

Patrick and Ayana prepare Coconut Creme Pie and Strawberry Shortcake

Sampler Plate for Fifth Service

3.26.18 Sticky Buns for Prayer Breakfast

3.26.28
The Early Bird Prayer Breakfast loves Sticky Buns! Many say this is their favorite sweet. I will treat them again today with this fave bread.

Baked but not flipped

Turned out

Ready for my close up Mr. DeMille

3/23/18 Skills USA

3/23/18 Skills USA

Preparing for Skills USA requires much practice. We keep trying to improve our baked goods and meet time limits. We have made many mistakes and improve with each practice. At this point we have 3 more Fridays to prepare for competition and Butter Tea Cookies to add to the French Bread and Pumpkin Bread.

A few photos: Practice

Nina's Great French Bread

3/20/18 March Escoffier Dinner Series

3/20/18
March Escoffier Dinner Series

Video of Event:March Escoffier Dinner

Featuring Chef Anthony Garnett

The Baking and Pastry Department prepared Fleur de Cinque Mousses

3/12/18 Fourth Service

3/12/18
Fourth Service

The Hot and Cold Desserts Class presents the Fourth Service! Here is our features menu:

Photos from our event:4th Service

3/10/18 Beaufort Food and Wine Event

3/10/18
The Beaufort Food and Wine held a culinary fundraiser on 3/10/18 to announce the Artist of the Year and to pledge $100,000 to the new CCC Culinary and Hospitality Building. Chef Scarborough,  Heidi, Michael, and I volunteered to help serve this event. Our space was not ideal, but Chef Garnett and Chef Park directed the process and all was well.

The NC Maritime Museum Boathouse by day is a workshop for boat building and boat repair. But on this special night, it was transformed into a beautiful venue for the event. Four long tables were set ready for attendees. A fabulous dinner was served accompanied by four wines. Follow this link for video: Beaufort Wine and Food

 Beaufort Wine and Food Event

3/6/28 Baguette Practice

3/6/18
Practicing again for Skills USA at home.

3/5/18 Chocolate Babka

3/15/18

The Early Bird Prayer Group was treated to Chocolate Babka this morning fresh and hot out of the oven.  Cook's Illustrated Bread is a go to recipe. Originally a Cinnamon Bread, I usually make the Chocolate version.

See the Chocolate Swirls in this bread?

3/3/18 Sam Brake's Birthday

3/3/18
I know of no other happier recipients of my baked goods that the Brake family. My husband John and I are invited for Sam's birthday dinner tonight. Sam is the only person I know born on Leap Year's Day and this year is his 70th birthday. When these fabulous friends invite us to dinner, I do try to bring dinner rolls. For this evening, I prepared Sweet Potato Rolls. The rolls have a lovely golden color and a slightly deeper flavor than regular rolls.

2/28/18 Skills USA Baguette Practice

2/28/18
As a member of the CCC Skills USA, I will be competing in Commercial Baking at Guilford Tech in Greensboro, NC on April 18. The competitors will need to prepare French Bread, Pumpkin Bread, and Butter Tea Cookies. Heidi and Nina are friends in my Baking and Pastry Program and they will be my partners in crime in this adventure.

Here is my first effort for French Bread:

Baguettes Ready for the Oven

Baked Baguettes

Interior View

Uneven Holes: Just what I want

2/27/18 Escoffier Dinner

2/27/18 The Baking and Pastry students help prepare dessert for the February Escoffier Dinner.
February Escoffier Dinner link for video.

First Course

Second Course

Third Courser

Dessert

2/27/18 Filled Chocolates

2/27/18 Today in Chocolate Artistry, we our choices of Chocolate Confections.
A display of our work:

A short video of our days work:
Chocolate Confections

2/26/18 3rd Service for Hot and Cold Desserts

2/26/18 Our third service event for Hot and Cold Desserts. Here is the sandwich board with our desserts menu:
Here is a video of  prep for: 3rd Service

Creme brulee and bread pudding!

2/19/18 Moravian Sugar Cake

2/19/18 For the Early Bird Prayer Group, I prepared Moravian Sugar Cake. This recipe hails from Winston-Salem, NC where Moravains settled in 1759. They immigrated from Moravia to escape religious persecution. Although named a cake, this is actually a sweet yeast bread. Cooked potatoes and potato water are also used into this recipe. This gives a boost of carbs for the yeast and gives a heartiness to the cake. Notice the crinkled top, a characteristic of this cake.  I baked the cake the day before but would cool rise the cake and bake the day of the next time

The recipe comes from a cookbook gifted to me from Kathy Ausband of Beaufort. Kathy grew up in Winston-Salem and was raised in the Moravian church. This is her church cookbook and has the favorite recipes associated with the Moravians: Chicken Pot Pie, Sugar Cake, Lovefeast Buns and cookies.

The wrinkled top of  Moravian Sugar Cake

2/18/18 Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls

2/18/18 Wanting to make use of  Arlene Dough (family sourdough), I found a recipe for Sourdough Cardamon Rolls but substituted cinnamon. This was a wonderful final product, beautiful and tasty rolls. The sourdough did not stand out but was helpful in leavening the rolls and giving depth of flavor. I actually first made Cardamon Rolls and my family did not like cardamon and the recipe seemed to have too much of this spice.

Arlene Dough and her Cinnamon Roll

2/16/18 Philly Cheese Steak on Dutch Crunch Roll

2.16.18 Philly Cheese steak on Dutch Crunch Rolls is certainly a family favorite. This classic sandwich is wonderful on this roll with a slight sweetness, a crunchy coating on top, and an interesting appearance.

2/13/18 For Valentine's Day

2/13/18 For Valentine's Day, our class prepared Chocolate Covered Strawberries, and Filled Truffles. Follow the link for a video of prepared delights: Valentine's Day

Pistachio filled truffles with transfer

Chocolate covered strawberries with white chocolate decor

Packages of delights for friends

Second Service

2/12/18 Our 2nd service day from Hot and Cold Desserts and we doubled our customer base.
Here is a slide show of our preparation and service: Second Service

Our sandwich board with offerings of the day

Sample plate of our desserts

2/11/18 Cinnamon Apple Pull Apart Bread

2/11/18 Looking for a sweet bread for Early Bird Prayer Group, I searched through the King Arthur Flour site for something new to try and found Cinnamon Apple Pull Apart Bread. Oh my!!
https://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/cinnamon-apple-pull-apart-bread-recipe

I found more apples would be preferred for this recipe and actually the recipe should have yielded 2 loaves but actually could have been divided into 3 loaves. look closely at the apples between the dough pieces!!

Unrisen dough fills the pans and the risen dough spills over the top of the pan

Appearance and flavor is wonderful. Great streusel topping.

2/9/18 Sourdough Bread

2/9/18 After many attempts, Mary Margaret and I finally have a very active sourdough starter. We have named our starter Arlene Dough! It lives on our counter and is fed constantly. Our first bread turn out just OK. It wasn't dark enough but it had a lovely crumb and flavor. The loaf was proofed in a banneton basket. I like the look of these loaves

Risen Dough

Checking the temp of baking bread

Final product