"Special"

So today we had a short lecture (yay!) and got straight to demo-ing cookies, yummy!!!  :)  So straight after the demos we got started in our groups and I was in the "Special" group today.  We got to make two chocolate dream tortes again (same as yesterday) because we are trying to stock the freezer with them since they are one of the desserts served at both lunch and dinner.  I was really wanting to try my hand at glazing it (you have to pour it all on in one try and smooth it out with two swipes, so it sounds hard but I want to try!), but we just made two more cakes instead, so that was okay too.  We also had to make the sourdough bread, the baguettes, and the butter braid for tomorrow (when we are in the bread group), so Natalie and I made the two tortes and Hannah started on the sourdough and Michelle started on the baguettes.  Once we had the tortes in the oven, Natalie and I started on the butter braid.  Room temp butter is best for us to work with, but sometimes we don't have a chance to let it warm up on its own, so we nuked our butter in the microwave and accidentally nuked it a tad too much, so we had to mix it a lot longer than normal to get all the butter incorporated.  We fiiiiinally got the dough made and let it rest for 90 minutes.  

We took the resting time to start on our cookies since we were supposed to make 3 kinds by the end of the night to get them checked off.  We started on our shortbread cookies since they had to chill in the fridge before they could be cut.  I made shortbread cookies with cranberries in them.  I need to work a little on rolling them into a slightly better circle (we roll them using a sheet pan to push them in the circle inside of parchment paper - hard to explain without seeing it), but otherwise it was okay.  So I put those in the fridge and the butter braid was still resting, so I started on my biscotti.  I made almond biscotti (the other choice was hazelnut), because I love the smell of toasted almonds!  That was actually easier to make than I had thought.  So I got started on scaling out the ingredients for the biscotti and had to stop to start rolling out the dough to braid.  

Well, Natalie and I decided to make a 5 strand braid (we have diagrams and instructions for 2, 4, 5, 6, and a star shaped braid), which was what Chef Hall had demoed in class last week, buuuuut the instructions on it are a little confusing to follow (even Chef Hall had trouble when he did the demo) and so Natalie and I got a little frustrated trying to braid it.  Chef Hammer gave us the okay to just braid it as we wanted to as long as it braided together and so Natalie and I tried to half follow the instructions and made the rest up as we went along.  You could tell we got the hang of it to the end, because one side of our braid looks... weird, while the other has a nice weave going on.   :)  We'll work on it for the next time!  So we just has to braid the bread and then wrap it for us to bake off tomorrow, so we jumped back into making our biscotti.  

Biscotti means twice baked, so I got my biscotti "log" into the oven with a light egg wash on top of it and started on my toll house cookies.  Yes, they are actually called toll house and are named after the inn where the recipe originated from, the Toll House Inn that is in Whitman, Massachusetts for anyone wondering.  See, I learn all kinds of things in my schooling, not just baking!  So the toll house cookies are as you are probably think, just chocolate chip cookies, and they were the last one for me to mix.  I only had a short time before I had to start cleaning, but I got it mixed, in the oven, and onto the cooling rack just as we started cleaning, so it was perfect.  I still needed to cut and bake the second time my biscotti and cut and bake my shortbread, but I was just going to stay after class for 10 mins and finish it up, because we all have to stop and clean as a class so we all can try to get out at the same time each night.  

Unfortunately, as cleaning was going on, my tray of toll house cookies got knocked on the ground before I got them checked off by Chef Hall, but it was okay.  Since I was already going to stay after, I had extra batter (we only had to bake off 12 of them from a half batch, which made 2.5 dozen) and just baked another dozen.  I also got my biscotti baked for the second round, and my short bread cookies baked as well and got all 3 items checked off, so yay!  I didn't want to wait til tomorrow to finish them, because we will have to make all the breads for the restaurant, make up the baskets for them, AND make 3 more new cookies, so I just wanted to get todays cookies out of the way!  Plus I still need to get checked off on my whipped cream rosettes and my numbers and initials with chocolate filigree (no time to do either today), so I have plenty to work on still this week!  

Well, it is late, I didn't get home until 10pm today since I stayed later, so I am off to bed!  And tomorrow my excess cookies go to the ladies at the gym and front desk.  I promise to make more to send to others who've asked for my "mistakes".  :)  Luckily I haven't had any horrible mistakes yet.  Oh, and I think I got a picture of the cookies on my camera - it has a little battery juice left it in, so I will try to get the pizza and cookie shots up soon!