Kristin's Cravings

Lately I’ve been reminiscing about my time during baking classes at the French Culinary institute in Manhattan, NYC (Now known as International Culinary Center (ICC)). I took 1 semester long class over a 12 week period every Saturday from 8am to 3pm. I learned more in those 12 weeks about baking then I could have imagined from tricks like:

• Lemon juice prohibits apples from turning brown when you chop them
• Best way to have room temperature eggs is to submerge them in warm water for 5 minutes rather than leave them out for hours

To key facts such as:

• Gluten: Flour in contact with water – The more you work the dough the more gluten is released. When you overwork pastry it becomes bread because you’re releasing too much gluten into the dough.
• One of the biggest differences in the types of flour is the amount of protein. Bread Flour has the most protein, then All-Purpose and Cake Flour has the least amount.
• Emulsify – Combining 2 liquids that don’t combine easily – When you add an egg 1 at a time into the recipe like we did in the New York Crumb Cake
• The greater the fat content in butter, the better the butter is (Go figure!). In the class we use butter with 82% fat

Over the past year I have been more into cooking than baking, especially in preparation for my wedding in October, but lately I have re-found my passion for pastries, cakes, cookies and the like. Looking back over some of the photos and recipes from my Pastry Techniques book made me nostalgic towards a kitchen covered in flour, sugar and fondant

I’ve been ambitious lately in my thoughts for my next creation… Especially coming close to fall (I know, I know… I’m not ready for summer to be over yet either!) it is my favorite time to of year for pumpkin cupcakes and apple pies!

Get ready, Kristin’s Cravings is back at it!

Enjoy!

Tags: Baking School, Butter, French Culinary Institute, gluten, International Culinary Center, Passion