Baking

Baking

Methods:

• Creaming
• Melting
• Whisking
• Rubbing In

Tips:

• Avoid Over mixing
• When flour is combined with wet ingredients, proteins in the flour are activated that help hold the dough together, if the proteins are over activated, however, your cookies will turn out tough. To avoid this, stop mixing when there are no streaks of flour remaining in your mixing bowl
• Store Your Sweets
• Wrap dark chocolate in foil, and keep it stored in a cool, dry place (It could last for 2 years)
• Milk chocolate and white chocolate have a more limited shelf life so those could last for 8 to 10 months
• Caramels stored at room temperature should last 6 to 12 months.
• To prevent fruits from sinking to the bottom of cakes and cupcakes, try dusting the pieces lightly with flour before adding
• Bring all the ingredients to room temperature before baking
• Preheat the oven
• Have all the ingredients in front of you to know what you have and don't have (also its neater)

Basic Cocoa Muffins

Reflection
Throughout this units I have learned a lot about food tech. I learned about how to use appropriate equipment and how to correctly measure the quantities about marketing and most importantly learning about how to make my muffin and breakfast. I think that I did really well in the muffin and breakfast unit. I could have done better by using more fruits in my muffin and not just chocolates. Overall, I really liked the two units and I really enjoyed eating the result. I really hope I could do this again and I had lots of fun.

Pastry

• Puff/ Flakey
• Pies lids
• Egg Tart
• Sausage Rolls
• Shortcrust
• Custard Tart
• Quiche
• Pies
• Filer
• Spring Rolls
• Samosa
• Baklava
• Strudels
• Hot Water Paste
• Pork Pie
• Choux
• Eclairs
• Profiteroles 
• Suet
• Jam Roly Poly

8 rules about Pastry

Flour

• If you're making shortcrust pastry plain flour is recommended because it will create a crumbly surface instead of tough. If you're making puff pastry, adding some bread flour that's high in protein to your plain flour is a good idea. This will help it be stronger so that is doesn't fall apart.

Temperature

• Water mixed with flour is very helpful, because it swells helping form gluten. However it is harder to be absorbed in a cold environment (which is what you want). That is why, when making shortcrust or puff pastry cold hands a marble bench, cold ingredients and cold equipment are ideal.

Fat

• Butter is added to Shortcrust pastry for flavour and also to stop the development of gluten. In Puff pastry butter is added cold in between thin layers of pastry to make it puff when it melts in the oven. Butter(fat) is very important.

Sugar and Acid

• Adding sugar before the water is a must. This is because once the water is added it the sugar creates a barrier stopping the water be absorbed into the flour, creating gluten.

Water

• By adding the water gradually to either pastries you're minimising gluten development. If you add to much water, add some flour until it's not sticky. If don't add enough water it will look lumpy.

Working with Dough

• When working Shortcrust you need to treat it like a girl. Be gentle and kind otherwise it will become tough. When working puff pastry it's the opposite. You need to roll and fold, activating the gluten so that it puffs up in the oven.

Rest

• Letting your pastry rest is vital. Normally after rolling it the recipe will tell you to place it in the fridge for 15min, but ideally 30min is better. Refrigerating is important because it lowers the risk of the pastry not holding it's shape. 

Blind Bake

• Soggy bottoms are ver common in tarts, especially with a runny filling(such as custard). That is why cooking the base/pastry before filling it is a good idea, because it allows it to repel moisture and stay firm. This is called blind-baking.

Reflection

Overall, I think I did a good job in making the tarts, as it tasted really nice and it had lots of flavour. If I could do this again, I would add lemon jam into it as the tart was really really sweet. I learned how to use proper equipment in making the tarts and how to blind bake. I really enjoyed making this and hope to do it again. I might try making these at home.