petit four "little oven"

for the last two weekends in school we have been working on our petit fours. these are small cakes and cookies that can be eaten in a few bites. the word petit four translates to "small oven". back before oven thermometers were readily available oven temperatures were tested by placing these small items in first.

i really enjoyed working on these even with the whip cracks of one group member constantly snapping at my back. when we completed our petit fours they were displayed on a serving tray, which we decorated with some first attempts at marzipan flowers. my flower (upper left) is a little ragged, but not bad for an initial attempt. i'm excited to work on this more.

the future

originally i had intended for this blog to be nothing, but documentation of all my baking endeavours at home and in school. this format has become slightly boring for me, soi've decided to expand my posting to encompass all things food related.

so, with that said prepare yourself for future posts containing topics like unique foods, cooking tools, specialty grocers, eateries, kitchen failures/successes, book reviews and anything else that strikes my fancy.i'm hoping this will spark more consistent updates on my part and leave everyone more captivated. as if you weren't already.

and just so your not left without a visual stimulus here is a photo of ground zero, a picture of the kitchen i now inhabit. and just in case you were wondering that is not a dead animal wrapped in plastic on the stove, it was actually my second round of sourdough experimentation that i left to rise on the warm range top. covering with the trash bag helps prevent a crust from forming on the dough.

building a better loaf

i'm out to try and figure out a good home recipe for the sourdough starter i've been tending to. past attempts have resulted in too dense a bread, but this last effort was a little more successful. although i think i was a little timid with the salt. anyway, its only a photo, so forget what i said, it was actually salted perfectly.

one more trick i want to hone my skills at is scoring bread. its one of those things i noticed that over thinking can really slip you up.

there is one thing...

forgot that i had this picture. after a small stint of taking the bus due to chilly weather and my concern of further bodily harm (wrecked twice in one weekend in the beginning of dec.) i followed the bus route via bike. i was hoping it might be a quicker route. it wasn't, but i did get to shoot a photo of dreary downtown with a view of the "smile" sign i saw every rainy weekend morning while using the trimet. and look there in the distance, its the bus!

picture upon picture

more blabbering soon. enjoy.

slow burn

i apologize for my lack of posts lately. i'd bore you with excuses, but instead here are some photos.

i had to do a little catching up when i first got back to school due to miss communication that resulted in me having to skip the final weekend before holiday break. as a result i must have produced nearly 10 loaves of bread in one weekend leaving me to ponder if an impromptu bake shop should spring up in our garage.

the next weekends that followed were all about laminated doughs (flaky doughs). we made danishes, which i didn't get to shoot, along with croissants and some puff pastries.

you may also notice the couple of sad looking brioches, whose heads didn't setup just right, morning their decapitated brethren. he sure was tasty.

anyway, have a look and enjoy.

on holiday

its been a while. i was working on bread in school before i left for ohio, but wasn't able to get photos up until now.

the rest of the images are from my stay in columbus slaving away in the kitchen to appease my carb repressed family. ok, there not actually a fan of dr. atkins and i wasn't forced into it, i actually wanted to spoil them with food. in any case it kept me busy and content. although i produced a variety of goodies, even beef stew with a stock from scratch, i some how managed to only photo cinnamon rolls, which i attempted twice. oh and i got a few shots of pie. one is an osgood pie (short for "oh so good pie"), a request of my dads. it was sort of like pecan pie with apples and raisins in the mix. not too bad.