HEC:Pikelets

Pikelets

Ingredients

1 c Plain Flour

1 t Baking Powder

1/4 t Salt

1 Egg

1/4 c Sugar

3/4 c Milk

How to make pikelets is basically similar to making pancakes, first, we had do the Mise En Place before proceeding to the next step. We had to then make the batter, the egg and the sugar were beaten in a seperate bowl, we continued to beat it until the mixture was pale and thick meaning it should be sort of white coloured. In another seperate bowl we mixed and sifted the dry ingredients then we added a little bit of milk in it, we then poured the wet and the dry ingredients together on a bigger bowl and mixed it. But we made sure we don't over mix it otherwise the batter would be too tough and not soft when bitten into it.

Now we cook the pikelets, first we preheat the pan to medium heat to melt the butter on the pan to prevent it from sticking. We used a parchment paper to spread the butter for being safer and not to burn ourselves, then the batter was then dropped using a spoon. We had to use all the batter and made sure it had to be the same size which was difficult since we had problems throughout. We first did the first drop for testing, it turned out well so we knew it was the right temperature for us to start dropping the rest of the batter one after another. We had to change the temperature down a little to prevent it from getting burnt.

After cooking and using up all the batter, we then evaluated it. The taste of the pikelets were a little too sweet but the batter was just soft, not too chewy and the saltiness was perfect. The colours were pleasing and quite appealing, it was a great experience and i would love to make them again within the future.

Making Chocolate Chip Cookies!

CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

Ingredients

Recipe:

• 100g Butter
•  ½ cup Chelsea White Sugar
•  ½ cup Chelsea Soft Brown Sugar
• 1 egg
• 1tsp Vanilla Essence
• 1  ½ cup Flour 
• Pinch of salt
•  ½ tsp Baking Powder
•  ½ cups Chocolate Chips

Method:

Melt butter and add both sugars and cream these together. Beat in the eggs and vanilla then mix in the dry ingredients. Roll into medium-sized balls, making sure the mixture is not too wet! Put on a well-greased baking tray. They shouldn't spread too much so flatten slightly. Bake at 180° for 8-10 minutes. 

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Last week for HEC practical lesson we had to make chocolate chip cookies, it was a fun practical so as long as we follow the methods we were done with a great finishing product. Here's how we did it, we did the Mis en Place so we know we have all ingredients on the table and ready to start the next process.

Next, we were given butter so we melted it so we can make the dough soft and not too wet or too dry. We added flour, brown sugar, white sugar, salt and baking powder in one big bowl to work in. In a separate bowl, we added the wet ingredients which were an egg and vanilla essence.

We mixed it with a wooden spoon until it looked creamy, soft. The wet mixture was quite thick but was okay to work with so we added it to the dry ingredients. Forgot to mention that we had to preheat the oven to 180° for around 10 minutes and then adjust it to fanbake for about 7-8 minutes.

Once it was baked we took it out of the oven and the end product turned out very well, the colour was golden brown and the texture was soft on the inside and not too chewy itself. The sweetness was a bit too high for my taste since I don't like too much sweetness. Although the product was good but I would like to improve more and learn how to make them better.

What is Bacteria?

What is Bacteria?

Bacteria are microscopic living organisms, they can be found everywhere. They can be
dangerous which they can cause infection. It is a large group which have cell walls but lack
organelles and a shaped nucleus.

What do Bacteria need to survive?

Like all living things, bacteria need food, water and a proper environment to live and grow.
By controlling nutrients, water, time, temperature, air, acidity and salt you can eliminate or
reduce the rate for bacteria growing.

Give 3 examples of how we avoid spreading bacteria?

• Sanitary Kitchen
• Cover your face if sneezing, coughing or blowing their nose
• Clean Hygiene

What does the term cross-contamination mean and what is it’s effect on you?

The illness or disease from one person to another which is known as cross-contamination.
This is often used specifically to refer to the transfer of the bacteria from one object or person
to another especially carrying it into food.

Colour Coded Cutting Boards:

Personal Hygiene

Today I will be explaining some things about personal hygiene and how to keep yourself safe including others while cooking. Personal Hygiene is important for us to teach us to stay healthy and preventing any disease while cooking, I was told to make something that includes the "Personal Hygiene" words and then explain the reasons why it is important and how we prevent bad things from happening while cooking so here is a wordart I made that's all related to our Personal Hygiene...

Personal Hygiene WordArt:

So first off the first key things for my group in cooking which we are going to work on together are that we make sure we clean our hands all the time and remind them unless the forget and other things to keep our hygiene safe. So during and after cooking or practicals, make sure you clean your tables so you're able to work on a clean surface. Before touching any ingredients wash your hands so you don't spread germs or get anyone sick with those germs, also you must have different coloured cutting boards for specific food as shown below on the picture.

COLOUR CODED BOARDS:

The reason why we don't use the same boards is so that we don't mix for example "RAW FISH" with "VEGETABLES" or else the vegetables will start smelling like fish, it also helps you reduce the risk of cross-contamination which is transferring bacteria from one object or food to another which can often cause harm to our health and make us sick or even getting an infection. 

Another thing to keep in mind is not to use the same towel over and over again so collect new towels because some towels may have germs in them if used for a week or so, it's better to wash it and use it later after dried up because if you use that same towel your basically spreading more germs from other people and we don't want that. So these were the basics and if you found this helpful leave a comment and hope you enjoyed or learned something from this post. Stay safe and have a great day😄👍...

Cupcakes

Before lockdown, I didn't get my blog finished about cupcakes so today this blog post will be about our baking on the cupcake, me and my group finished the cupcake but we did the icing the day after and decorated it. Firstly my group and I started making the cake, it took some effort to get the cakes right and finish the day off, we added all the ingredients and followed the recipe step by step. Once we finished our cake the day after we started our icing decorations.

We had to first take out our cakes and put it on the table. We then got to choose different flavours to add to our icing, my team chose to do strawberry flavour so we went with it and started decorating it. It didn't take too long to finish the decorations but in the end, the results were ok.

My team and I were exhausted from all the pressure and the work but we were relieved it was finished and we enjoyed that practical. I shared my share of cupcakes and my family enjoyed it so I was happy if they were and that was it. I hope you enjoyed my post and have a great day.

Ginger Gems

Yesterday for our practical we made Ginger gems, it was a pretty hard task and our team got all over the place but we managed to handle it. It was a slow process but we moved as fast as we can to get the Ginger Gem in the oven and getting it ready to bake. First, we had to turn on the oven to fan bake 200 degrees. Then we did the "Mise en place" which means setting all your ingredients on the table ready to cook or bake.

Ginger Gems      (Serves 12)

Ingredients:

150 g Butter

1/2 cup Sugar

2 tsp Ground Ginger

1/2 tsp Ground cinnamon

2 Tbsp Golden syrup

1 Egg

2 cups Standard flour

1/2 tsp Baking powder

1 tsp Baking soda

1/2 cup Milk

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 200 degC. Place gem iron in oven to heat.
2. Crem 100g of butter with sugar, ginger and cinnamon.
3. Beat in golden syrup and egg, adding a tablespoon or two of flour to prevent curdling.
4. Sift flour and baking powder
5. Dissolve baking soda in the milk. Mix flour into butter mixture alternately with the milk.
6. Remove gem iron from the oven and put it on a wooden board.
7. Add half of teaspoon of remaining butter to each mould or hollow. It will sizzle.
8. Fill moulds with batter. Bake for about 15 minutes, until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.
9. Cool slightly then remove gems to cool on a wire rack.

Making Scones

Scones

Ingredients

3 c Plain Flour

6 t Baking Powder (level)

¼ t Salt

75g Cold Butter

1 to 1 ½ c Milk

Last week we made scones, to make the scone we first had to was
"Mise en place" which means getting all the ingredients together and being
ready to make, cook or bake. Our team members worked good together &
everyone got involved in making the scones, we did have a few issues in the
way but we worked together to fix it or we got a little help from another team member.

We sifted the Flour, salt and baking powder so we did not have any lumps
in our ingredients, we then had to add the grated cheese into a big bowl
which had the sifted ingredients in it. We then added milk in the
middle, we used a knife to get all the flour, salt, cheese & baking powder into
the middle and repeat that for a few times.

For later we had to save some milk for other things for the process
of making scones, so then we took all the dough from the bowl
and shaped it in a rectangular shape. Later we then cut 8 pieces of dough
and brushed it with the leftover milk on top of it, we placed the baking paper on
an oven tray to place our dough.

The oven was on fan bake 180 degrees at the start of the practical
to speed the process of the dough forming into a scone. It took a
few minutes until we took it out, as soon we took it out of the oven
I was surprised how it turned out. It was perfect and it had the soft
texture in it and it was not too bland since we added cheese to give
it that cheesy texture. Not too chewy but soft enough to eat.

I and my team were all relieved for the outcome and we were happy
for our first practical, we all contributed to getting the scones to form
perfectly and thanks to one or two people that helped us with the
problems we encountered on the way. Next time my team should
contribute and focus on the work we are supposed to do, listen more
carefully and get the job done.

I really enjoyed doing this first practical and I can't wait for the following
weeks doing more practicals.

Here is the photo of our finished product: