2009/03/13

Field Journal Entry #3 – cupcakes

Success! We finally met when we were supposed to and without any delays at all. Therefore, we could start our third session in a positive mood.

This time, Hannah prepared a recipe for approximately two dozens (24) cupcakes. However, she surprised me announcing that we were going to prepare the double of that amount. Therefore, having seen an original recipe, I only had to double each of the measurements in order to achieve the final amount desired. I confirmed my belief that recopies serve to be guides which should be followed but not copied verbatim.

The second new aspect that was introduced in this lesson was consequences of baking on health. We barely used an egg the previous two sessions and now we were using 8 of them. Once I was done cracking them, Hannah ordered me to was my hands thoroughly. Since we were using far more raw eggs, chances of causing a disease called salmonella were higher. If I was careless and would have continued preparing the dough with dirty hands, I could have transferred some of the raw eggs on our utensils later used to prepare buttercream frosting. And the frosting was a part of our cupcakes which did not go through the heat process of baking; therefore it was a part which could have had salmonella. Frankly, I hope that all the dining staff on campus follows the same hygienic procedures.

Overall, everything went smoothly and we were baking as we have been doing it for ages. No major complications occurred. Well, a minor problem arose when we run out of milk and powder sugar supplies intended for frosting. While I was placing already finished dough into the baking form, Hannah went to buy milk. Unfortunately, she was not able to get the powdered sugar. However, it was not a big deal anyway because we still had enough of it to make a half amount of the frosting. And we barely used that too because cakes were pretty sweet without any frosting at all.

We baked one load of cupcakes which I took for my friends. Hannah kept the second half of the dough. I hope she managed to bake as delicious cupcakes as we achieved in the first load. They were light, fluffy, easy to bite and swallow, aromatic, soft and sweet. I distributed them among the whole campus – from Starr, through Battell, to Allen. For once again, I did not receive a single negative feedback.

2009/03/08

Field Journal Entry #2 – muffins

Our second baking lesson had huge initial problems with the time planning again. Due to tight daily plans of both of us, we had to move the original Friday session for an earlier one on Friday, which was then moved for the Sunday morning, which we then rescheduled for the Sunday evening. We realized that an allocation of an adequate time slot is as necessary as a precise punctuality. It is extremely inefficient (and risky at the first place) to start even 10 minutes later if one has only 45 minutes for a baking session. Therefore, we shall plan our organization in better manners the next time.

Since we have already bought ingredients, we did not have any extra pre-session complications. This time, the lesson had totally different concept. Hannah prepared a recipe of Mini Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins for me and I was supposed to follow it. I read all the instructions and asked her to clarify few English terms (e.g. butter, dough,…). My vocabulary thus expanded and I was ready to bake almost on my own.

I followed the directions independently and Hannah did not even always check what I was doing. The responsibility was upon my shoulders yet Hannah was still a proficient supervisor. She was right next to me, allowing me to have enough freedom for individual approach of the recipe, and still providing me any kind of a help that was necessary. For example, I could not find “cake flour” around and so I was wondering what to do. Hannah told me that she was not able to buy such flour in a shop and so we were going to use the all-purpose one. She also assured me that such improvisation in baking is not a big deal because the final flavour would not be affected too much. Similarly, I could not find a “almond extract” among our ingredients and the reason was simple – Hannah has an allergy for them. Lastly to mention, there was one more alternation in the recipe. We did not have a fresh lemon zest available. Therefore we omitted it. However, we still practiced peeling and chopping of a zest on an orange.

Otherwise, we used flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and poppy seeds for a dough base; an egg, sugar, yogurt, butter, lemon juice and a vanilla extract for butter; and powdered sugar, lemon juice and a vanilla extract for a lemon glaze. We mixed the butter with the dough base to get the final dough which was baked in a 400°F hot oven for 14-16 minutes. We spread the lemon glaze once the muffins were done.

Besides the valuable skills of reading a recipe, I learned that “granulated sugar” is always referred to “sugar”, unless otherwise stated (e.g. “brown sugar”, “powdered sugar”). I also noticed that the time efficiency was not satisfactory enough as I was slower than the recipe expected. However, I assume that I will speed up my baking abilities with more experiences.

As far as the Hannah´s point of view is concerned, I believe that she learned how to actively lead a pupil in a passive way. She gave me a recipe and then she was asking me questions, making sure that I understood everything and that I remember the tips from my previous lesson. In particular, it his handy to measure spoons of baking powder/soda above a trash-designated space because of a possible excess which could spoil the dough.

The muffins turned out better than anyone expected. We got 15 muffins for the approximate costs of $25. The muffins were soft, fluffy, juicy and they satisfied at least 9 ladies on the Stewart 5th floor. 😛