Day 7

Today was...frustrating.  Chef checked the macaroons, brownies and oatmeal raisin cookies I made yesterday and as I suspected, the brownies and macaroons passed with flying colors but I have to redo the oatmeal raisin cookies.  She said that the taste and portioning were good but they spread too much on the pan which could be the result of ingredient misporportioning or the dough being too warm.  I am pretty sure it's the latter so I should just have to make them again and it should be fine.

Tonight we made scones and lemon pound cake and, unfortunately, I'm redoing both of them.  The scones were good but I forgot a couple of minor steps and they just didn't come out as well as they could have.  Chef said she would sign off on it, but I would prefer to do it right.  I'm not sure what went wrong with the pound cake.  It collapsed in on itself and the texture was slightly off.  I'm going to have to stay late on the nights I don't work to scale the ingredients and make up these 3 items.  Never a failure, always a lesson, right? Ugh.

I put the scones in the oven and realized I'd forgotten to roll them out more so that the dough would form a pocket around the filling and brush the tops with cream and sugar....way to go.

They were ugly but tasty.  I made dark chocolate, cherry and almond.  I will try again when I have a chance.  Scones are something I'd like to get good at. :-)

The lemon pound cake stuck to the pans (greased them but forgot to flour) and did not rise as much as it should have.  The flavor was pretty good but the texture was not as smooth and dense as it should be.

The brownies from yesterday...this recipe is not the best but they came out well within those parameters.  We have been issued a challenge for a better brownie recipe.  If anyone knows a basic brownie recipe that's out of this world, let me know!

While it's very frustrating to feel like I'm falling behind and needing to redo this stuff, at the same time, it will make me a better baker in the long run.  It's definitely teaching me about the interaction of ingredients and conditions.

THE AWESOME SOCKS CORNER 
(get it? Awesome socks?  Awesome sauce? ...Ok, well, I though it was funny)

Adam wore his "Shark Attack" socks today, they were great!

LAND SHARK!