Baking Boot Camp, Day One

For Christmas last year, one of Rick's presents was a 3-day (6 hours per day) Baking Boot Camp put on by The Chopping Block--a culinary school for the masses in Chicago. They only have the boot camp a couple of times a year and this was the weekend for it (usually, it's Friday/Saturday/Sunday, but they took over Monday this time around because it's President's Day). There are only 6 people (including me) in the class--5 women and one guy. It was my second time at The Chopping Block, though it was my first time attending an actual class. The first time was for the Quaker Law Department Christmas Party two years ago when we did an Iron Chef-style competition with three teams of law department employees and their spouses. (Best. Christmas Party. EVER.)

The Chopping Block is a nice-enough facility with several teaching kitchens outfitted with All-Clad pans, Wolf stoves (*WANTS*) and the Worst Mixers Known to Man: Viking Professional Mixers. They're so awful, one of our instructors, Chef Ethan, said he was embarrassed that they use them. He's been nagging the owner to replace them with Kitchenaid models. All I can say is that the engineers that designed those mixers must have graduated from Michigan State. None of the attachments--dough hook, paddle attachment and whisk actually reach the ingredients at the bottom of the pan. If you're trying to beat up butter until it's creamy, it's a major failure since it sits at the bottom of the pan mocking the paddle that's clearing just above it. What a nightmare! If it wasn't so heavy, I'd lug in my Kitchenaid tomorrow to make things easy on myself and my partner, Noelle.

What did we do today? It was largely a prep day. If people came with their appetites ready, they were disappointed. We started dough for brioche (that was interesting--can't wait until it's done), croissants, and lemon lavender cookies. We baked up devil's food cake that we're going to assemble on Monday. We beat the butter for croissants (all I can say is this is the strangest croissant dough recipe I've ever seen). Things we actually made and were able to eat? Burger buns (been there, done that) and a rustic deep dish apple pie made in a Springform pan. How were they? I personally think the King Arthur Flour Burger Bun recipe from their Cookbook is way better and tastes better than the recipe we used. Part of that was because they proofed it in the oven due to time constraints. Our lunch was comprised of burgers on our buns. They made me a grilled cheese with rustic bread. I think I got the better end of that deal. The apple part of the apple pie was phenomenal! But I've always been VERY "meh" about pie crust in general. And yes, I've had very flaky pie crusts;. (We hit Norske Nook every time we go up and return from Minneapolis and they routinely win national awards for their pie.) It's just, if I'm eating butter and flour, it's going to be in a croissant or add some sugar and it's a cookie. Pie crust just doesn't TASTE like anything to me. Calories with no taste? What's the point? But throw some crisp on top and I'm in heaven! We added some spiced rum and vanilla to the sugar we tossed the apples in, which made all the difference. The carmelization was INCREDIBLE!

I have some reservations about their croissant recipe. First of all, their recipe takes 3 days to finish and it's not just because we're only there for 6 hours a day. They honestly believe that you need 3 days to make croissants. Let me just refer you to my post on making croissants. 16 hours. Tops. Longer if you really want it to, but not much more than that. Also, Chef Ethan insisted that the best way to do the butter was to beat it in the Worst Mixers Known to Man then try and form it into a rectangle and chilling it overnight. Nah. Smacking it with the rolling pin is not only more more therapeutic, it also keeps the butter sufficiently chilled so you only have to chill it for 20 minutes or so before inserting into the dough and doing your first fold. Besides, I'm pretty sure the boulangieres in France a few hundred years ago didn't have the Worst Mixers Known to Man. I'm pretty sure they used the rolling pin method.

Tomorrow: Pate a Choux, Pastry Cream, Chocolate and Caramel Ganaches. All stuff I've done before (save for the Caramel Ganache), but I'm hoping to pick up on few more techniques.