Rockstar Bakeshop!

Ahhhh!! What a crazy December and beginning of 2010 I've had....Denver and I have decided to go forth with my grandiose idea of opening a bakery-type institution. Now, granted, I can't quite yet open an actual brick and mortar bakery, but why not open a traveling bakery? Bring the baked goods to the people, so to speak. Thus, Rockstar Bakeshop was born. The plan is to bake out of my kitchen for events like festivals, concerts, art shows, farmer's markets, etc, etc, etc.

I have four items on the menu so far. Of course, there is Seth Philpott Birthday Cake and Bullseye Trigger Strawberry Cupcakes. Seth Philpott Birthday Cake is a tasty buttermilk layer cake filled with dark chocolate ganache and covered with Italian meringue buttercream icing. It was created for our friend and amazing musician Seth Philpott for his birthday and CD release party this past November.

The infamous Bullseye Trigger Strawberry Cupcakes were thought up at a practice session for Dallas' own incredible band Sleeperstar. Drummer Shaun Menary said they would play their song "Bullseye Trigger" (off of EP "To Speak, To Love, To Listen" available at http://www.sleeperstar.com) for us if we brought him strawberry cake. Of course, we were up to the challenge! Bullseye Trigger Strawberry Cupcakes feature real strawberries pureed and mixed into a moist vanilla cake topped with a fluffy Cream Cheese frosting. It's been said they taste like ice cream!

Rockstar Cookies are handmade sugar cookies iced with vanilla icing with the word "ROCK" piped in chocolate royal icing and topped with edible sparkles.

Vanilla Twilight Cupcakes are vanilla cupcakes made with whole milk and premium Madagascar bourbon vanilla topped with an amazing vanilla bean buttercream frosting. The frosting is so addicting that my aunt once ate an entire tub of it in one day. These were inspired by Owl City's song "Vanilla Twilight" off their album Ocean Eyes. I've listened to their cd approximately 6 million times (no joke) so the song has kind of stuck with me.

We have a Facebook page and an email address: rockstarbakeshop@gmail.com (we even have 4 friends already!!)

Next step: find out about health codes, the laws behind baking for profit out of my kitchen and get a business license. Oh, and market research some more recipes! Stay tuned y'all!!

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Happy National Cupcake Day!

Okay, now this is certainly a holiday I can get into! Happy National Cupcake Day, peoples. Now, there is some confusion as to the actual date of National Cupcake Day, is it October, December, August, when? Personally, everyday should be cupcake day!

According to American Food Holidays, today is the ACTUAL National Cupcake Day. However, and this probably is where some people may get confused, National Chocolate Cupcake Day is October 18 and National Vanilla Cupcake Day is November 10.

So, in honor of National Cupcake Day, I probably should make some cupcakes....right? Well, I unfortunately cannot *gasp* bake tonight, I know, I know, the horror.

Instead, for your baking entertainment, watch Andy Samburg and Chris Parnell's ode to Magnolia Bakery's cupcakes and the Chronicles of Narnia on "Lazy Sunday."



Coming up in the next few days: Pain Rapide au Chocolat and Honey-Lemon Whole Wheat Bread (I'm on a bread kick...)

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My First Loaf of Homemade Bread

Two days ago I decided to make bread.



Yes, I know I can buy it at the grocery store. Yes, it's easier that way. However, by making bread, I have accomplished another feat in baking, my house smells like yummy bread and now whenever I run out of bread (or money) I know I can just make it! (Plus my wonderful boyfriend heaped loads of praise on me for making it. That's something that doesn't come with generic store bought bread...)

I've been on a quest to read everything related to baking I can get my hands on from the library (and from Amazon.com- thank you, Nana!) This past weekend I found the awesome book "Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book of Breads." After reading it (and realizing I had all the ingredients already in my kitchen) I decided to try my hand at making bread from scratch. I bake bread at work, but it's bread dough that has already been made and left to rise, so really all I have to do at work is bake it. So this was totally from the beginning. It was either going to be delicious or a disaster- but a fun experience either way.



The very first recipe in the book is called "The First Loaf." I figured this was a pretty appropriate place to start as this actually was my first loaf.

"The First Loaf" (page 18, "Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book of Breads")
5 to 6 cups bread or all-purpose flour, approximately
3 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons salt
1 package dry yeast
1/4 cup nonfat dry milk
2 cups hot water (120-130 degrees)
3 tablespoons shortening (butter, oil or vegetable shortening, I used butter)

This was the first time I got to use the dough hook attachment to my awesome KitchenAid mixer (again- thank you, Nana!). The dough hook had previously been stuck in the back of a kitchen drawer just begging to be used. When you primarily bake cookies and cupcakes, the dough hook is like a forgotten step-child. This was his moment to shine! It was actually quite exciting. I combined all the ingredients and only 2 cups of flour and mixed it with the flat beater and once it was well-combined, I got to substitute in the dough hook. With the dough hook in place, I added flour a little bit at a time until there was a nice lump of what looked like elastic sticky bread dough in the bowl of my mixer.



The recipe called for either all-purpose flour or bread flour, but I used half and half. Why? I figured, why not, I had both. Bread flour has a higher protein amount than all-purpose unbleached flour and is favored by commercial bakers because it can withstand the beatings it takes from machinery, but all-purpose unbleached flour is closer to the flour that French bakers used to make their famous loaves. The difference is that French bread flour gets no chemical treatment whatsoever except for minute additions of ascorbic acid to strengthen the dough. Being in America, where pretty much everything is laden with some sort of chemical, my bread will never be as amazing as original French bread. Maybe if I ever go to France I can smuggle home some flour in my luggage...

Anyways, once the dough was starting to pull away from the sides of the bowl and form a nice little lump around the dough hook, it was time to dump this baby out onto a floured work surface and knead the hell out of it. Now "floured work surface" is really just fancy talk for some flour spilled on my counter top. My kitchen is tiny, not exactly a dream kitchen with enough space to bake in. This whole bread making experience gave me the opportunity to scrub my kitchen counter tops and then promptly get them messy again.

I took the leftover flour and tossed it onto my freshly-scrubbed counter and proceeded to go to town on this dough. I've done ceramics and kneaded clay, so kneading dough was a piece of cake. The key is to make sure you have enough flour so it doesn't stick to your work surface or your hands and use a rhythm- push, fold and turn. Add flour every so often. Push into the dough with both of your hands, pushing away from you, then fold the dough in half and turn it clockwise 90 degrees. Then repeat. And repeat. Again and again. Every once in a while you get to pick up the dough and hold it above your head and slam it down on the counter and punch and pummel it. That was fun. My downstairs neighbors loved it (maybe as much as I love their music at 2am). Then keep pushing, folding and turning until you can push your hand into the dough and hold it there for a minute and when you pull your hand away, the dough doesn't stick to you. That's when you know there's just enough flour in the dough. If it sticks to you, add more flour and keep kneading. If it's hard as a rock, you added too much flour and need to work in some water to balance it back out. You're trying to make a loaf of bread, not a brick.

Why do you have to beat the crap out of the bread? When dough is kneaded, gluten- a plant protein found in flour- forms an elastic network to trap the carbon dioxide produced by the yeast in the dough. Periodically during the kneading process you need to throw the dough around a little bit and punch it because vigorous action gives the dough body and suppleness. Without this, your bread would be hard and chewy and nasty. Again- loaves of bread, not bricks.

After the dough has been properly worked over, spray some non-stick cooking spray in a large bowl, cover it with a damp cloth or oiled plastic wrap and let it sit at room temperature for about an hour. When you come back, the dough will have doubled in size much like when you put a marshmallow Peep in the microwave (try it next Easter, it's fun). At this point, knead the dough for about 10 minutes again and then shape it into a greased loaf pan and let it sit for another 45 minutes. It was at this time I realized that this recipe made TWO loaves of bread (sweet!) and I only own ONE loaf pan (uh-oh!). That's okay, because when you put rising dough in the refrigerator, it slows down the rising process. I baked the first loaf and then baked the second loaf. Bake the loaves for 400 degrees for 10 minutes and then reduce the heat to 350 and bake for an additional 25-30 minutes.



During the "first bake" at 400 degrees, you want to make sure that a crust doesn't form on the bread too quickly. To do this, you need to create steam in your oven. How do you do this? Well, if you have two racks in your oven, place a heavy-duty baking sheet on the bottom rack when you pre-heat the oven. Then, when you put in the loaf pan to bake it, pour a little cold water in the baking sheet and quickly shut the door (this will create steam). If you are like me and have a crappy 1970's apartment-grade oven with only one rack, use a spray bottle with cold water to spray the bottom and sides of the oven and shut the door. Just make sure not to spray the oven light (hot light + cold water = exploding lightbulb).

Why do you have to create steam? By creating steam, it keeps the outside of the loaf moist which helps to not form a crust too early on the bread. If your bread forms a crust too early, gases escaping from the dough can't rise out of the top of the bread, which will cause your loaf of bread to be flat or caved-in. Not good.

After all this work, I had two beautifully perfect loaves of bread, my house smelled yummy and I got free heat from the warm oven. My boyfriend was super-impressed. Would I do it again? Oh, yeah. No more store-bought bread for this household! My next project is to make a loaf of brioche...and use all this fresh bread in our new panini maker...

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My First Official Day As A Baker

My first day as a baker was so much fun. This is going to be awesome (and hopefully the best idea I've ever had). I started my two-day Baker's training, which is overnight training at another bakery. The guy that trained me was very nice. It's a pretty straightforward job. I think the title should be "Re-heater" instead of "Baker", perhaps, but hey, beggars can't be choosers, right? The title of Baker is going on my resume, that's all that matters!



I got to make savory souffles, danishes, pastries, cinnamon rolls, sourdough bread, asiago cheese baugettes, you name it. It was really cool. I got to decorate freshly baked gingerbread men. I got to score and bake loaves of bread and prepare muffins. Basically everything comes in frozen, like the cookies, scones and muffins and sheets of puff pastry dough and then I thaw them, prepare them and then bake them (and sometimes top with glaze or icing or sugar). The bread dough comes in from the central bakery daily and we have to score the bread and form the foccacia and ciabatta loaves. It really was a lot of fun. It certainly did not seem like I was at work for 9 hours in the middle of the night. I am totally looking forward to this job.



Plus, I got to bring a bunch of stuff home! Denver and I got to try pumpkin muffins, chocolate pastries, cheese pastries, cherry pastries, coffee cake, asiago baugettes, artichoke and spinach souffles, turkey sausage and asiago cheese souffles....it was awesome. I think this job will suit me just fine!

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I'm A Baker Now!

Hello there, out there in blog-reading land. I've created this blog to document my foray into baking. I've been interested in baking for some time now and eventually want to open my own bakery. Today I started my first job in the food industry- a bakery/cafe hired me as their day baker. This blog will be a combination of all of my baking experiments, my entries into local baking and sugar arts competitions, my homework assignments at pastry/baking school and my entries into the most awesome online cupcake challenge- IronCupcake:Earth.

Join me in this yummy baking experience!

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