tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-91731901846268691342012-01-17T23:11:48.970-08:00A pastry school student's culinary successes, fiascoes, and adventures in betweenRachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13160614497122541578noreply@blogger.comBlogger261100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9173190184626869134.post-11485574312784259002010-03-25T21:39:00.000-07:002010-03-25T21:39:01.177-07:00

6 months have come and gone so quickly.  It's as if these past months have whipped by on fast forward, like standing in the middle of a speedway, watching only the streaks of colors from the cars careening around the bend.  I wish I had more time, but in a few weeks, the next professional program will begin and the etch-a-sketch squares will be shaken and reset for the next group.  A classmate

Rachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13160614497122541578noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9173190184626869134.post-58737472308571275722010-03-16T19:44:00.000-07:002010-03-16T19:44:02.697-07:00

It's been 6 months and a lot of damn breads, pastries and confections.  Our last week of official learning has ended with plated desserts, bringing all elements we have learned up this this point together in a nice little satchel.  Our highly awesome instructor Frank, who was with us for the breads section and wedding cakes made another cameo appearance to take us on the roller coaster ride

Rachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13160614497122541578noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9173190184626869134.post-91974032075090297372010-03-01T18:25:00.000-08:002010-03-01T18:25:55.237-08:00

Chocolates, caramels, candies and confections.  That's been the theme of the past few weeks.  It's enough sugar to give you a tummy ache like the time your parents were away for the weekend and the babysitter let you consume an entire bag of Starbursts before dinner.  Lesson learned?  Apparently not!  I've been on a daily rollercoaster of sugar highs and crashes.  Along with massive amounts of

Rachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13160614497122541578noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9173190184626869134.post-83398754542556582942010-02-16T22:25:00.000-08:002010-02-16T22:25:15.296-08:00

Here I am again, wondering how the hell 3 weeks have passed me by like greased lightning.  I have since become a proud owner of a one way ticket to awesome town.  Proper cakes and mousses which had previously intimidated me are now completely accessible.  I feel as if I have the power! We started cakes with what could best be described as a Fischer Price cake - made as both training wheels and a

Rachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13160614497122541578noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9173190184626869134.post-21393914032477967852010-01-27T16:13:00.000-08:002010-01-27T16:13:09.694-08:00

For years, I've been the girl who could make a kick-ass batch of cookies with her eyes closed.  Perhaps I'm being a bit of a braggart, but you can ask my friends, my exes and the peeps back in the office.  After countless varieties of chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin, toffee, peanut butter, what have you, they've all got my back.  However, there were many moments during those nostalgic Cookie

Rachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13160614497122541578noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9173190184626869134.post-84717848647362132212010-01-14T20:20:00.000-08:002010-01-14T20:27:08.931-08:00

With computer back in action and 2 weeks worth of pastry photos uploaded, it's time for show and tell! The weeks before and after the holiday break, we worked on pies, tarts and pate a choux.  Clearly, we have arrived in the land of desserts.  Sugar, cream, eggs, butter.  The sheer thought of the volume of these ingredients we have gone through thus far is aversion alone.  Honestly, after

Rachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13160614497122541578noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9173190184626869134.post-17128068803391342412010-01-09T18:34:00.000-08:002010-01-09T18:34:21.056-08:00

Damn.  Story of my life these days.  I have entered an alternate universe in which time has no real meaning.  The days blend together so quickly and on the same toss of the coin, 2 days can seem like 2 weeks.  It's a strange zombie-like haze which has colored my world over the past 3-4 weeks. A few reasons why this lazy bum has not updated her blog during this time: -I've been lazy.  Step off. -

Rachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13160614497122541578noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9173190184626869134.post-84842599545327350062009-12-11T19:09:00.000-08:002009-12-11T19:12:40.051-08:00

The past 5 days have been a week long practical on viennoiserie.  It has been a crazy combination of new challenges, creativity and stress which culminated in the past 2 days of baking like mad men.  Monday and Tuesday were individual practical days, where each of us were responsible for mixing and baking our own doughs.  This sounds easy enough, but when you don't have team members to bounce

Rachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13160614497122541578noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9173190184626869134.post-87289044685666285162009-12-03T21:03:00.000-08:002009-12-03T21:03:06.003-08:00

By the time I swing back into Salt Lake City for the Christmas holiday, I'll have completed half of my bread and pastry training.  The first 2 months were breads.  So many breads, I never realized the subtleties between them until recently.  Month 3 has consisted of Viennoiserie, which is the magical land where breads and pastries meet.  Unicorns graze in the mountains, wine flows freely and

Rachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13160614497122541578noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9173190184626869134.post-34720515443414217402009-11-30T20:11:00.000-08:002009-11-30T20:32:35.540-08:00

This past week has been nice and lazy and full of super fattening food and drink.  What better time to post more pics of food! In keeping with my theme of laziness and procrastination, I'll keep the verbose geek outs for another day and post some pics of what we had been working on before the Thanksgiving break. Clockwise starting at front center: Pumpkin brioche tarts, pumpkin brioche,

Rachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13160614497122541578noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9173190184626869134.post-5482498960301917332009-11-12T21:30:00.000-08:002009-11-12T21:30:07.097-08:00

This week has been our first venture into enriched doughs.  Throughout most of the breads section, we had been working with lean doughs, or doughs with no fats or sugars added.  The mixes we've been working with this week are yeasted doughs which contain at the very least, eggs, butter and sugar.  They can also contain milk, honey, milk solids and just about any inclusion you can think of (ie:

Rachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13160614497122541578noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9173190184626869134.post-53348132977451171862009-11-10T17:43:00.000-08:002009-11-10T17:43:58.872-08:00

This past Friday was bittersweet.  It marked the end of our 8 week long journey through the artisan breads world as well as 8 weeks working and learning in close proximity with each other.  As much as some of us may want to contest it, our small class of 14 students has become a bit of a family.  Our first day, Michel Suas, founder of the San Francisco Baking Institute, advised that we'd become

Rachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13160614497122541578noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9173190184626869134.post-11079780175966393142009-10-28T17:35:00.000-07:002009-10-28T19:20:57.414-07:00

The current breads section of the professional Baking and Pastry program is coming to a close at the end of next week.  If you've been keeping up (and shame on you if you fess up to the contrary), you know that it's been a German bread bonanza.  Rye, rye and more rye until the loaves are so dense, one could conceivably build a house out of the heavy as concrete rectangular masses. We started

Rachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13160614497122541578noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9173190184626869134.post-51928115668300886802009-10-22T18:32:00.000-07:002009-10-22T18:32:24.143-07:00

We've got 2 weeks left of breads before we move onto Viennoisserie, also known as laminated dough (ie: Croissants, Danishes, etc...) for 4 full weeks. Before departing our fantastic instructor Frank, we will visit specialty breads, bagels, pretzels and flat breads.   I have become accustomed to waking up before the roosters crow and mixing, scaling and baking bread first thing 5 days a week.  It

Rachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13160614497122541578noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9173190184626869134.post-90485001333564115172009-10-19T20:52:00.000-07:002009-10-19T21:15:28.661-07:00

Just on the other side of the Treasure Island Music Festival, I am still basking in the afterglow.  It was a 2 day festival which effectively sucked the majority of the hipster population from San Francisco and surrounding areas across the bridge and onto tiny Treasure Island, a former naval base.  I recall looking over the lineup last year and contemplating making a pilgrimage to the East Bay

Rachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13160614497122541578noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9173190184626869134.post-14501931023330203552009-10-14T20:47:00.000-07:002009-10-14T21:32:39.822-07:00

After sending out some pics of some fruits of my labors, I quickly received a reply from my friend Judy, a fellow bread lover "OMG, looks like heaven!!! (if heaven were bread)" Ladies and Gentlemen, I beleive the truth has been spoken.  And yes, heaven just so happens to be filled with bread...and booze...lots of booze... Not sure if I'll have time for another blog post this week, as I've been

Rachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13160614497122541578noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9173190184626869134.post-54521292797571212802009-10-11T21:06:00.000-07:002009-10-11T21:11:20.253-07:00

Yowza!  This past Friday marked exactly 4 weeks of gettin' schooled in the art of bread baking.  I am absolutely amazed at how much information I have absorbed and processed in what amounts to approximately 130 hours of mostly hands-on learning over this past month.  The first 3 weeks were nothing but versions of the baguette, so much so that I now find myself silently judging baguettes when I

Rachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13160614497122541578noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9173190184626869134.post-24007968241576109532009-10-04T23:08:00.000-07:002009-10-04T23:18:24.252-07:00

Contrary to popular belief, I have not fallen off the edge of a giant dough mixer, into the behemoth bowl and suffocated in it's glutinous web.  I am in fact alive and well, albeit incredibly busy with school, work and adventures whenever I can fit a few of them in.  This past week and weekend are of no exception. This past Friday marked 3 weeks of SFBI and it's hard to believe I've only been in

Rachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13160614497122541578noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9173190184626869134.post-9831299510747928192009-09-20T21:52:00.001-07:002009-09-21T18:36:51.500-07:00

I'll admit it. In the past, I always thought that size mattered. When confronted with the baskets full of baguettes at the grocery store, I would usually choose the large, soft and fluffy loaf that at the time, seemed like such a better bargain than those almost runt-like, heavy, dense loaves. After being elbow deep in baguettes for the last week, I now realize I was wrong, wrong, wrong.To say

Rachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13160614497122541578noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9173190184626869134.post-36136404048278636472009-09-17T19:15:00.001-07:002009-09-17T20:20:11.326-07:00

Tomorrow, the first week of school will come to a close and this weekend, I will catch up on some much needed rest. I've had some incredibly long days, waking up at 5:45 AM and busy as a bee till whenever it is that I finally get to sleep. I am truly amazed at the sheer amount of information that has been able to make its way into the gray matter encapsulating my brain, considering I've only

Rachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13160614497122541578noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9173190184626869134.post-3930463837360531452009-09-13T19:48:00.000-07:002009-09-14T18:07:15.188-07:00

This morning from 2:13 onwards, I woke up every single hour, paranoid that I had slept through my alarm. I've had past experiences of almost missing a 6AM Saturday flight home because I had set my alarm to 'weekdays only', flat out NOT setting my alarm after repeated attempts to hit the evasive 'save' button and of course, the ever popular and passive act of sleeping through the alarm entirely.

Rachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13160614497122541578noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9173190184626869134.post-45723729640844764402009-09-10T18:18:00.000-07:002009-09-10T20:48:20.748-07:00

Being uprooted and trying to find a new routine out here has really got my mind in 50 places at once. I didn't realize just how scattered I've been until I started to repeatedly lose things. Not just silly, inconsequential things like a hair tie or my flip flops, but life anchoring items like my wallet.The first time I lost my handmade satchel which carries all things related to my identity and

Rachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13160614497122541578noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9173190184626869134.post-35516382967417629812009-09-06T16:42:00.000-07:002009-09-06T17:34:04.319-07:00

Ahh, my first week in the Bay Area has been an interesting one to say the least. Seeing a man giving his boo the beat down on the street corner, searching for an apartment, acquainting myself with the city and it's transit system are just a few highlights of my last 7 days.I moved into a very cool apartment in a very cool neighborhood 4 days ago. The more I walk around and familiarize myself

Rachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13160614497122541578noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9173190184626869134.post-69441675440313320822009-09-02T16:06:00.000-07:002009-09-02T16:37:39.719-07:00

My first real introduction to the Bay Area was just after getting off of the freeway in Oakland, trying to find my friend's house. Due to some percent operator error, I had clearly garbled the directions given to me and had to be directed where to drive on a street by street play over the phone. Just about as soon as we exited the freeway and began making our way through West Oakland, we saw a

Rachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13160614497122541578noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9173190184626869134.post-26808298502546211512009-08-30T21:16:00.000-07:002009-08-30T21:58:03.837-07:00

So, somehow one must get from point A to point B. Best plan of attack when attempting to haul large quantities of personal belongings? Road Trip!My girl Alison volunteered to drive to California with me to keep me as close to this side of the line of sanity as possible for the 730ish mile trek from Salt Lake City to my friend's place in Oakland.Ever prudent adventurers, we kept a highly

Rachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13160614497122541578noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9173190184626869134.post-80969059037640586202009-08-29T09:42:00.000-07:002009-08-29T10:09:52.423-07:00

This blog will be documentation of my insanity filled decision to get the hell out of Dodge, drive to San Francisco and chase my dreams; my dreams of course - to attend pastry school. 24 hours from now, I'll be driving somewhere across the Nevada desert, car packed with the bare essentials, on my way to the Bay Area and no idea what to expect.Since moving out of my condo a week ago, I've been

Rachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13160614497122541578noreply@blogger.com4