Thursday, December 20, 2007

Bakery I, II and Cake Decorating Courses by Tesda

Six months ago a friend asked me to enroll in a Tesda sponsored baking class with her. Her family had a bakery and they wanted to add cakes on their list of goodies available. I dutifully tagged along with her, depleting my wallet in the process in what proved to be a rather uneducating experience. But it was fun.

I didn't say it was educating because it wasn't really. We were given a list of ingredients and tools to bring - they only provide the classroom and oven - then the procedure was listed off in the board and we simply follow it. No discussion of the scientific part of baking whatsoever.

Even the instructor sometimes forget to list one particular ingredients or it was listed in the wrong quantity. They were also trying to save on the gas so we have to bake everything in one go, those that finished early will have to let their batter stew awhile until the instructor was ready to preheat the oven. The result; I had to go home one too many times bearing cakes with burnt edges, or one that didn't fully rise or one that had rose beautifully but fell once taken off the oven.

The only redeeming part of the whole ordeal was the fun part - eating! Three cakes recipe per week in fact. Well actually there's also breads, cookies and pies in there too but we mostly bake cakes. Three months in and I started buying new clothes because my old one were becoming slightly constricted around my middle. Losing weight will definitely be in my New Year's resolution!

Monday, December 10, 2007

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies


Oatmeal, as it happens, is one of my favorite thing and Oatmeal Chantilly Bars is my ultimate oatmeal recipe. But I figured it'll never hurt to try another oatmeal recipe and maybe find another worthy of the the title.

Well they turned out really good, just as advertised - slightly crispy on the outside, soft on the inside. However me and my Chantilly bars have a long journey ahead of us :)

Recipe is over at EatMeDelicious. I made two batches, the first one I baked for 15 minutes, which turned out crunchy and the second batch stayed at the oven for 10 minutes and come out perfect.

The next day the crunchy lot had soften slightly, just enough that they tasted just as good the latter batch on the first day. Again, perfect!

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies