Choklit Blog #55: Epic Accounts of Candy-Making, Week 1

August 24, 2010.

  As you probably know, in order to be good at a certain skill, you have to study its history and know exactly how it started and developed to it’s current state.  That’s why I studied hieroglyphics for three years before I started writing.

  NOT.

  I’ve heard horror stories about this.  I could never quite imagine it, but I have now experienced it.  Welcome to candies class.

  The “this” I’m talking about is just day one of HOS 181, candies and confectionaries.  It consisted of a four-hour lecture and a one-hour demo.  I’m pretty sure this is the first time in my life that I’ve been in a class where we took five breaks.

  After lecture, once we were all in a less-than-peachy mood, Chef Gronert decided to start off the semester by pitting us against each other in a brutal competition.  We were given a short test and told that the three students with the highest scores would earn two extra points on their final grade in the class.  When you can take a test on the first day of class, I think there is a serious problem.

     One interesting thing we learned is that before the invention of chocolate bars, cocoa beans were used to make a savory drink.  The drink, which was considered a delicacy, was made kind of like coffee... but with chili peppers, cinnamon and cloves.  Then cornmeal was added to absorb the layer of fat that floated on top of the drink.  

  The fact that people used to like that makes me wonder if chocolate actually tastes good.  In five hundred years, will everyone be saying “Ew, I can’t believe people really used to tolerate such a horribly disgusting and repulsive excuse for food!”  I don’t know if I can survive a whole semester in a class that makes me doubt one of the few certainties in life.

Choklit Blog #54: The Baked Chronicles: Volume 10

August 3-5, 2010.

  At the beginning of this week, a sad truth hit my brain harder than my coffee cake hit the floor that one time.

  It’s my last week at Baked!

  It’s hard to believe I’ve only been here for ten weeks.  My coworkers have practically become like family-- in fact, they claim to be my mother, grandmother, aunt, and brother.  I probably shouldn’t believe them.

  I guess they thought it would be fun to torture me on my last day, so of course I ended up making cinnamon buns after I was promised that I would never make them again.  Important lesson #27: Don’t trust people who falsely claim to be your relatives.

  Other than that it wasn’t a very busy week.  I didn’t do anything new or learn anything really important other than Santa is always watching me.  I was pelted with sprinkles, hearts, nuts, and paper towels and I had buttercream, ganache, cake batter, and who knows what else smeared all over my arms at random times throughout my last days here.  But those are normal parts of working at Baked.

  This has been one of the best experiences of my so far very short life, and I’m going to miss it a lot.  I doubt I’ll ever again have such a great time burning, bruising, and cutting myself in a hot kitchen while working my muscles until I can’t move them anymore when I’m covered in food, partially because I’m not the cleanest worker and partially because of my coworkers.  I’ll especially miss being called “Sassafras the Deserter”, “Stupid Face”, and all the other wonderful nicknames I was given.

  In case you were wondering, I’m being 100% serious and in no way sarcastic.  Baked is awesome.  I miss it already.

Choklit Blog #53: The Baked Chronicles: Volume 9

July 27-30, 2010.

  I had forgotten how fun it isn’t to work with puff pastry.  I had to use it this week to make turnovers.  Once it had been out of the freezer for about 5 minutes, it became close to impossible to work with.  Important lesson #23: When you’re forced to work with puff pastry, don’t do it directly next to the hot oven.

  I think I can honestly say I’ve learned from week seven’s lack of communication.  I tried this cool new thing called paying attention when people talk.  It worked really well, especially when my supervisor had to go take care of some other important business and leave all her cupcakes and cake layers for me to finish.  They were all at different stages of baking or mixing, which she explained to me quickly before leaving, and I finished all of them without ruining anything!  Important lesson #24: Instructions are easier to remember when you actually listen to them.

  This week I was reminded of my second day here at Baked, because once again I had to make coconut macaroons.  This time I didn’t put coconut flakes in them, and I made sure to pack them into the scoop as tightly as I possibly could.  Unfortunately, our macaroons don’t like to stick together, so they still didn’t turn out great.  Important lesson #25: Coconut macaroons are more trouble than they’re worth.

  I tried being slightly creative this week for the first time, but I have no idea if that was a good idea or not.  I normally put white chocolate, pistachios, and dried cherries in the biscotti, but I was starting to get sick of that.  I decided to put some different stuff in them, but then I ended up leaving before they were done baking, so I never got to taste them.  I’ll always wonder if those biscotti turned out okay.  Important lesson #26: Don’t be creative near the end of your shift.