Would You Buy Food From a Place Called The Bite-Sized Bakery?

Warning: These are the rantings of a Food Scientist.

Watching the Food Network and I realize I know a lot of the things they're talking about now. Just today, the Barefoot Contessa mentioned a couple things I had learned about recently.
Blanching is a cooking process where you boil the food (usually a vegetable) and then plunge it into ice cold water after. This preserves the nutrients for freezing and gives the food a great color! Also, beware of over-mixing mashed potatoes, because agitating the starches too much makes them react and makes the consistency of your potatoes paste-y.

I'm really enjoying my Food Science classes. My lab is fascinating! I'm learning science-y things but I get to make food while doing it! We've had labs about sugar and how different types of sugar affect consistency, cookie textures, hard crack times and so on. I've made fondant, taffy, peanut brittle, and caramel. All of these are either amorphous or crystalline types of candy and rely heavily on cook time and temperature.

Hard Crack

Peanut Brittle

Taffy

I've made ice cream, custard, and sherbet and understand the difference between the three. The ice cream machine was really cool as well. We had to add salt to the ice to lower the freezing point.

Chocolate Sherbet

Frozen Custard

-- Sorry, I'm a little excited so I'm going to keep listing things I've done in my lab. --

We've learned about fruit and vegetable processing. Little known fact, bananas are one of the few fruits that still ripen after they are picked. You can stop this ripening process by placing them in the fridge. The peel will go brown, but the banana will still be good. Oh! Get this! One of the labs we tried a bunch of random fruit and vegetables I've never even heard of.

Sunchoke (Jerusalem Artichoke)

Buddha's Hand

Kohlra

Star Fruit

Endive, Radicchio, Leek, Tarot, Rutabaga, Kohlrabi, Bok Choi, Parsnips, Sunchoke, Star Fruit, Kumquat, Buddha's Hand, Passion Fruit.

Parsnips

Leek

FOOD IS SO COOL. I've canned some vegetables, made some jelly from scratch and preserved it in a jar, and used starch to make cherry pie filling. Starch is so cool guys. It's in so many foods and helps with gelation. That's what happens when things form a gel.

And today, TODAY, I made tofu. That's uber cool because I've never even seen tofu. I'm sheltered. That, and I tried 20 different types of cheese. My favorite's Gouda. :)

Brie. Freaking delicious when melted on crackers.

Cambozola Black Label. Creamy. Tastes awful.

Gjetost - The lovechild of cheese and caramel flavor.

Gouda. One of my favorites.

Gruyere Cheese. Tastes like campfire.

Also, today I made some Nutella cupcakes. Just a day in the life.

Here's the recipe in case you wanted it.

Nutella Cupcakes

-this recipe will make around 24 cupcakes

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

• 3/4 cups unsweetened cocoa powder

• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda

• 3/4 teaspoon salt

• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil

• 3/4 cup buttermilk

• 3/4 cup warm water

• 2 eggs

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 

Procedure:

Preheat oven to 350F/170C. Using a stand mixer, combine all dry ingredients (flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt) and mix. Turn mixer to low and add eggs, vanilla, oil, water and buttermilk. Mix until combined. Line muffin/cupcake pan with liners and fill cups 2/3 full. Bake for 20 minutes. Allow to cool completely before frosting. 

Nutella Buttercream

Ingredients:

• 1 cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature

• 2 cups icing sugar

• 3/4 cup Nutella

• 3-4 Tablespoons heavy cream or milk

• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Procedure:

In bowl of a stand mixer, cream butter until light and fluffy. Add icing sugar and combine. Add vanilla, Nutella and cream one tablespoon at a time until desired consistency is reached.

(I only used one tablespoon of milk and I whipped my frosting until it was light and fluffy.) Drizzle with Nutella.

Heck yeah Cupcake Tower

 The End.