June 2013- Week 3

ORGANIZATION SKILLS

This week wasn’t very productive as I was out of the city most of the days. Though however, I think I really learned quite a lot of things from experimenting on different batters. I also managed to develop baking skills and ingredient knowledge.

COMMUNICATION WITH SUPERVISOR

This week, I only emailed Mr. Patrick about my online process journal.

INFORMATION

I decided to experiment on two new recipes at the Indonesia Pattiserie School this week: blueberry muffin and cappuccino chocolate chip cookies. For this recipe of blueberry muffin, I found out three new ingredients that I have never used in any of my muffins before: emulsifier, high gluten flour, and pregel starch. I began on creaming the room temperature butter and margarine until the color turns pale or broken white, about 3-4 minutes. I then added the sugar and cream the batter for 3 minutes or so. These two first steps need a plenty amount of time and are very important, as I realize then the steps allow air to incorporate to the batter to achieve the moistness in a muffin. The egg whites first are added, and the chef told me that it is because egg whites contain more water that will mix better firstly with the creamed butter and sugar, and egg whites make the batter rise better. After that then, the yolks are added. The other choice to allow air to incorporate is to ground the granulated sugar so it dissolves quicker. The dry ingredients then are added. I learned that a mixture of high gluten flour and all-purpose flour is used to achieve the crumbs in a muffin, as high gluten flour is commonly used for bread and all purpose flour is used for cakes. Emulsifier is then added, as the instructor said that emulsifier allows the pregel starch to soften (act as starch complexers) and therefore make the batter rise, and moist yet crumbly. I learned to never overmix the batter as the batter will turn tough and dry. After finishing the batter, the instructor said that resting the batter in the freezer is also important to allow it to relax so it doesn’t sink when baked in the oven. As for the cookies, I learned the same things, except that the ingredients for cookies needed to be cold and dry ingredients needed to be sifted properly so that ingredients don’t crumble up together.