The first baking order in my life - locked and loaded!
It's a beautiful journey, kind of new root system of me is growing in this place. Compared with those commercial bakeries in the surrounding, mostly with pretty standardized German recipes and done by automation equipment, doing things from scratch offers a lot of different flavors (and fun).
Pastry cream (or custard) - I tried the method of infusing vanilla and coffee beans into the milk while heating it, and it's definitely a wow! I didn't expect both the aroma and taste can be so much strengthened.
I also tried different molds - a traditional tart pan and a tart ring. The advantage of using tart rings, imo, is to skip the blind baking step. The tart shell looks pretty neat and modern.
Red Wine-Poached Pear Frangipane Tart
Chocolate tart - A chocolate tart shell filled with pastry cream infused with vanilla and coffee beans, chocolate ganache, and caramelized pecans.
Of course, the very charming Port and Fig Rolls - I love it, so I ordered another bottle of Port wine, haha.
Isn't it amazing? Suddenly, a gardener turns into a baker. Different from cakes, bread needs a little bit more scheduling so the yeast can do its job with ease. There is one dough fermented in the fridge for about 36 hours and waiting to be baked. Besides, another two doughs just started their fermentation last night.
This one, maple and pecan rye bread need also 36-38 hours slow fermentation at 5C environment, too.
