the one pastry course i took in school is not helping!

hello all..

So i am the sous chef at a very large hotel in madison wi. and our pastry chef quit.
long story short we do not want to hire a new one because of the economy blah blah.. So i am taking over, and i really have little to no expierence in the baking department.

We have a large bakery in the hotel, and i need to come up with new ideas for our bread and pastrys, as well as a continental buffet.

also establish par/ and order sheets, reduce unused inventory, come up with a ton of muffin recipes..etc. etc. etc.

I guess i am wondering if some of you could give me some ideas for the continental buffet, and some good distributors of baking supplys... and maybe some good muffin recipes and probably a hundred other little questions i will have soon.

Thanks and wish me luck :beer:

Dusty

When my daughter and son were in elementary/middle school the parent council was responsible for hosting a staff breakfast every year and seeing as I am a cook I was voluntold to plan it. I have the files still so I'll take a look through them and post some muffin recipes here. Have you thought about bread pudding? That went over really well at the staff breakfasts and it's really easy to make and you can add whatever fruits to it you have on hand. We made it when I worked at the cafe and we didn't add sugar to it, so that we had at least one sugar free item on the menu for diabetics and it sold like hotcakes.

I guess i am wondering if some of you could give me some ideas for the continental buffet, and some good distributors of baking supplys... and maybe some good muffin recipes and probably a hundred other little questions i will have soon.

Thanks and wish me luck

Dusty

Your best bet is go to the web on your computer, it has a vast source of recipes and ideas.

thanks

yea i have been looking through alot of recipes on the net.
i just figured on a forum like this, with all these pro pastry chefs, there would be some really amazing recipes that some of the members can share.
instead of the basic crap i find on say epicurious or werever,
thanks again
dusty

I have had this recipe since highschool and it's always been very popular.

I forget the name of it but I call them caramel biscuit rolls

you make a basic tea biscuit mix and sweeten it with a little white sugar (for a dozen I use about 1/4 cup) then you mix it and roll it out flat on floured waxed paper. (I like waxed paper for the easy cleanup factor plus it's accepted in our city's compost program) Mix some brown sugar, cinnamon and butter to a consistency a little thicker than peanut butter and spread it over the biscuit base. Roll the entire thing up jelly roll style and cut into slices with a knife. Place the slices into paper lined muffin tins (trust me you NEED the paper.. cleanup from non papered tins is a bugger) and bake at 350F until they are done. I like to sprinke them with a little cinnamon sugar (50/50 cinnamon and sugar mix) as soon as I take them out. They are delicious!!!

I have another recipe for Caramel Oatmeal Pecan rolls that is good too. I will have to find it as it's not on my computer and type it in for you.

Pecan Caramel Oatmeal Rolls

I found this on the internet years and years ago so I'm not sure where to credit. My husband made me a cookbook one year for Christmas with a bunch of recipes I'd downloaded and this was included in it. It reminds me alot of sticky buns and pecan and caramel are my two favorites!


Pecan Caramel Oatmeal Rolls

1 cup boiling water
1/2 cup margarine
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp salt
2 pkgs dry yeast
1 cup warm water
2 eggs beaten
4 cups white flour
1 1/2 cups dry oatmeal (not the quick cook kind)

In a large bowl combine boiling water, margarine, sugar and salt. Cool to lukewarm. Dissolve yeast in warm water and add to mixture. Add beaten eggs and mix well. In a small bowl stir together flour and oats. Add oat mixture gradually to the liquid mixture and mix well. You may need to add more flour to prevent the dough from sticking. Knead dough until smooth. Place in an oiled bowl, cover and let rise until doubled in size. Punch down down and form into desired shape. Let rie until doubled.

While the dough is rising make the caramel sauce...

Caramel Sauce

1/2 cup margarine
2/3 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
2 tbsp corn starch
1 tsp water
1 cup whole pecans

In a medium pan heat all sauce ingredients except for pecans. Bring to a boil stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and pour into a greased 13x9x2 baking pan. Place pecans evenly on top of sauce.

To finish

When the dough is ready shape into equal sized rolls and place them ontop of the pecans in the pan.

Bake at 350F for 20-25 minutes until rolls are golden brown.

This recipe makes 1 1/2 sozen rolls

Here's my basic muffin recipe from Rebecca Rather of Rather Sweet Bakery in Texas. It's wonderfully moist and is just as good on the second day. Sub in any fruit. I sometimes use crushed and drained pineapple with some coconut and coconut milk for a pina colada muffin mandarin oranges, blueberries, raspberries, cherries....really anything works well.

Essense of Orange Muffins
(master recipe)

1c milk
1/2 c freshly squeezed orange juice
1/2c sour cream
2 large eggs
1 c melted butter (I use canola oil)
3 1/2c ap flour
1c sugar
1 1/2tbsp bkg powder
1/2t salt
zest of 1 orange

(leave out the oj and zest accordingly- just up the liquid to compensate)


Mix wet, mix dry, FOLD to combine. Do not over mix.
350* Makes 8 large muffins

Can be topped with glaze, but I don't.

Another good one

Whole Lemon Muffins
1 med lemon cut into pieces with the center membrane and seeds removed
1 c walnuts or pecans
1 c butter (oil)
1 1/2c sugar
3 large eggs
2 t vanilla
2 3/4c flour
1 t bkg soda
1 Tbsp bkg powder
1 t salt
1 2/3c plain whole milk yogurt- I use sour cream as I never have plain yog

process lemon for 1 minute- scrape into bowl. Add nuts to processor and pulse 10-12 times. Combine lemon and nuts.

Cream butter, sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs then vanilla. Combine dry then add to creamed mixture 1/3 at a time alternnately with yogurt. (I do the mix wet/mix dry/combine thing) Stir in the lemon mixture. Bake @350* for 30-35 minutes. These are great with a glaze.

Actually, more often than not, I'll use the master recipe and add in the lemon nut mixture.

Good luck!

These sound good... may I use these?

It's fine with me as long as it's fine with Rather Sweet Bakery:lips:

They are really good muffin recipes! And I'm serious, they're just as good the second day.

Keep us posted about how the job goes/

awesome.

these are great recipe idea's thanks a ton. i just wrothe them out and will give them a try tomorrow.

as for the job..5:30 am is a little early for me considering i was working noon until almost midnight...lol

now i am in at 5:30am and leave about 1pm..and come back at 5pm and stay until after the dinner rush... I LOVE THIS INDUSTRY!

i will let you all know about how some of these recipe's turn out.

thanks again
dusty

Dusty, Here's another quick tip. I'm the first one in in the morning, buy I'm not a baker, so I have to make things work for me. I have the dry muffin mix all made up for about 10X the original recipe. In the recipe I gave you, the sugar is in with the dry, so there's no creaming or dirtying of the mixer at some unGodly hour of the morning! It's easy to come in, measure out the required amount of dry mix, throw together the wet, and combine the two. Takes about 5 minutes.

Another good idea is to make scones dough ahead and portion and shape it on sheet pans I use a 5oz scoop for consistency and flatten them a little. Bake from frozen when you get the oven preheated. Saves a ton of time in the morning! I sell my scones frozen and unbaked to coffee shops- they get them stacked in boxes and take out only what they want to bake off.

I also keep the dry scone mix made up in buckets. Someone will then measure out the butter, chop it, and process it with the flour mixture. The mixture is then stored in the fridge or freezer in bags (we call them scone bags) until we're ready to add the wet ingredients, which in our case is soured milk and fruit. Easy!

genius!

THAT IS A GENIUS IDEA!!! :bounce:
it will save me a ton of time.

thank you
dusty

Glad I could help! I'm always on here asking for help so it's good to be able to give back.

Heya Dusty:

Quick breads are great for continental too, and you can do just about anything flavor wise to lower your unused inventory. also, use up your supply of almonds/walnuts/chips in them.

Brownies and blondies! one hotel pan and you can cut them up for bite size and stretch the food cost.

I am pretty sure you don't have time to maintain a mother, so out of house breads for toast is your best bet, and you won't kill anyone.

pies are easier than every one thinks if you need an extra for your service. have someone roll out pate sucree and fill aluminum pie pans, cover and freeze. pull out when you need something quick quick. blind bake for 10 mins. fill with any canned fruits if you need to get rid of them cooked with a little water sugar and cornstarch. use unpeeled apples and call it rustic!

let me know if you need anything. right now, I am an unemployed rock star in orange county, ca. :lol: