Introduction to Baking Week 1 - Cookies, Muffins, Rolls

Introduction

Our first week in Intro to Baking started with a quick overview of the class and some of the methods and procedures we would be using. Some of the terms we reviewed were:

Leavener - an ingredient or process that produces or incorporates gases in a baked product in order to increase volume, provide structure and give texture.
Sugars - The most common sugar being sucrose, refined from sugar cane, there are a variety of sugars used in the bakeshop including demerara, sanding sugar, regular granulated, cubed sugar, brown sugar, superfine or castor sugar, and icing or confectioner's sugar. There are also liquid sweeteners such as honey, maple syrup, corn syrup, and molasses.
Simple Syrup - a combination of sugar and water.
Mixing methods - while there are a variety of mixing methods used, we focused on the straight dough method, a mixing method for yeast breads in which all ingredients are simply combined and mixed, and the creaming method where softened fat and sugar are vigorously combined to incorporate air.
Punching down - folding down dough after fermentation in order to expel excessive gas pockets and even out the dough's temperature.

Recipes

Blueberry Muffins

Yield: 12 muffins

8 oz all-purpose flour
4 oz sugar
3 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 egg
8 fl oz milk
4 fl oz unsalted butter, melted
1 tsp vanilla
6 oz blueberries, or other frozen berries
1 tbsp lemon zest

Preparation:

1. Sift the dry ingredients together.
2. Stir together the liquid ingredients, including the melted butter.
3. Stir the liquid mixture into the dry ingredients. Do not overmix. The batter should be lumpy.
4. Gently fold in the blueberries and lemon zest.
5. Portion into greased or paper-lined muffin cups and bake at 350°F until light brown and set in the centre, approximately 18 minutes.
6. Cool the muffins in the pan for several minutes before removing.

Soft Rolls

Yield: 24 rolls, 50g each

385g water
23g fresh yeast
670g bread flour
13g salt
64g sugar
32g milk solids (powdered milk)
32g shortening
32g butter

Preparation:

1. Mix all ingredients together, allow proofing until dough has doubled in size. Punch down.
2. Divide dough into 50g units and round.
3. Roll to desired length. Twist into shapes as desired.
4. Brush rolls with water and finish with sesame seeds, poppy seeds, or corn meal.
5. Place on sheet pan.
6. Proof once more.
7. Bake at 400°F until done.

Peanut Butter Cookies

Yield: 2 dozen cookies

360 grams pastry flour
2 grams baking soda
2 grams baking powder

238 grams butter
238 grams sugar

50 grams eggs (1 large egg)
150 grams peanut butter, smooth
6 grams salt

Peanut pieces, Granulated Sugar

Preparation:

1. Stir together flour, baking soda, baking powder, set aside.
2. Cream the butter, add sugar and continue creaming.
3. Gradually add eggs followed by peanut butter and salt.
4. Add dry ingredients to the butter mixture and mix to make a firm dough.
5. Divide dough into 2 logs and cut each log into 12 pieces.
6. Roll each cookie into a ball and place on pan. Press down. Using a fork, place criss-cross markings on surface of each cookie.
7. Lightly brush with water and sprinkle with granulated sugar and press peanut pieces into cookies.
8. Bake at 350°F until golden brown, approximately 12 minutes.

Observations

Our first day of baking went relatively well, with some delicious yet fairly simple formulas (bakeshop talk for recipe) being followed.

Our muffins turned out very well. They had a good colour to them after baking and were light in the middle. Some of the class had issues with over-mixing their dough which caused the muffins to be very flat and run across the bake pan rather than rising. This demonstrated that over-mixing can drastically effect your final product, and when following a muffin-method recipe mixing should only be done just so that the ingredients are together, not trying to smooth out the batter altogether.

The peanut butter cookies also turned out well, as was the case for most of the class. The biggest issue here was baking time, ensuring that the cookies were removed from the oven early enough that carry-over baking would not over cook the cookies. This is something that will mostly come with experience observing baking as cookies will always be soft in the oven so firmness cannot be used as a doneness indicator.

Our soft roll formula was where we encountered the most difficulty. Our dough did not rise very much while proofing, perhaps due to a mis-calculation of yeast required. Although we corrected the yeast before proofing the dough, it took quite a long time to proof. Once punched down and rolled out, we were unable to roll it into uniform shapes, so some of the final rolls were slightly misshapen. While the finished rolls were light and tasted fine, we were behind on time so we hadn't glazed them which gave them a dull luster rather than an attractive sheen produced by glazing. Chef noted the size inconsistencies and glazing while reviewing our finished product.

Overall, a mostly successful first day in the bake shop.