But then last week I started to think about returning to school, and what a great time it would be to start a weekly (or maybe every couple of weeks) column on what I have learned as I go through school.  Sorry, for those of you who don’t know, Monday I started school to become a Pastry Chef. By the time I graduate school, in about 16 months I will (hopefully) have a diploma in Baking & Pastry Arts Mgt, and will have some time under my belt as an Apprentice Baker and be on my way to become a Pastry Chef/Patisserie.

I am going back to school after spending several years (about 10) working within the Interactive Marketing industry.  In between marketing gigs, I would work at various restaurants, pubs and catering companies as a waiter/bartender. This is something I still plan to do this throughout my time in school.  So why am I leaving the wonderful world of marketing, well that’s a longer story.  During my time in the industry I worked at 7 different companies, as well spent 2 years getting my marketing degree.  I left each company for various reasons, whether I was laid off, found a better job or what usually happened suffered from several cases of foot-in-mouth disease and got myself fired.   See I sort of feel into marketing, it was something that I did moderately well, but not really something that I had a true passion for.  Don’t get me wrong, I am proud of the work I did, I just didn’t know if I could do that for the rest of my life.

After a while it just seemed that baking was the right option, to both to me and my friends.  A very good friend Andree said, “Baking is perfect for you, you don’t have to be around a lot of people, you get to be creative and you like to stay up late”.  I would tend to agree with her.

So I hope you enjoy this blog, I will try and write as often as I can.  But most of all I  hope I have an amazing time over the next year and a bit.

Now why is my first recipe in Ambrosia, going to be Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies, you may ask?  Well, why the not.  Who doesn’t like the Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies?  Now normally when I make Oatmeal Cookies, I usually add raisins.  But a certain someone (who shall remain nameless) told me that he didn’t like raisins, he felt they were evil and he would prefer if I didn’t bake anything for him with raisins in it.  And since there is a better chance that he will be eating most of the cookies in this batch, I went with chocolate chips instead.

Lets talk about supplies.  First usually do all of my dry goods/baking purchases at one of the most amazing stores in the world, The Bulk Barn.  I truly love this store, and can spends hours going up and down its magnificent lanes (OK that might be a slight exaggeration, but you get my drift).  Usually I shop for my wet ingredients (milk, eggs, butter) at my local supermarket.

Now a couple words of advice though for those who plan to shop at Bulk Barn,  for the first time.

• If you have children, I would advice that you not take them with you, unless you have very good control or one of those kiddie-leash things that were really popular in the 90s.
• Bring a list and buy what you need from it first, then look around.  If you are like me you will end up buying every that you first lay your eyes on, and before you know it your basket weights  50 lbs and it kicks in that you still have to walk home.
• If you are on a budget I would suggest you add an additional 15% for any overages you might make.  This will help for when you decide to go down the candy isle and end up scooping up 5 lbs of gummi worms or wine gums.  I, myself have only spent less then $20 there once and that was because I only had $15 in my account at the time.

OK, back to the cookies.  The basis for this recipe orginally came from my Betty Crocker cookbook, that my mum gave me when I first moved out on my own. I have changed the recipe in a few ways, to add my own tastes.

• The first change was to use 1 cup (2 sticks) of butter instead of 1/2 cup of butter and a 1/2 of shortening.
• I use Spelt Oats, instead of regular oat.  These are much better for you, and they basically taste the same and look only slightly bigger then a regular oat.  Granted once they are mixed with all that sugar and butter and baked, they are probably not that good for you, but hey every little bit helps.
• I like to add 1/2 cup of sweetened shredded coconut,
• I use the jumbo chocolate chips instead of regular chocolate chips, I personally feel that regular size chocolate chips are just way to small
• And finally I add 1/4 tsp of Cayenne Pepper.  You might think this is strange, but this is something that I regualarly do.  I love adding spices that are regularly used in savory dishes to desserts and other baking.  If you don’t like then don’t use it, but this is something I do in all of my recipes.

Cheers, Chris

Oatmeal-Chocolate Cookies

2/3 cup granulated sugar

2/3 cup packed brown sugar

1 cup (2 sticks) of room temperature butter

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 large eggs

3 cups Spelt oats

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup of chopped walnuts

1/2 cup of sweetened shredded coconut

1 cup of jumbo chocolate chips

Heat oven to 375

Add all ingrediates except oats, flour, nuts, coconut and chocolate in mixer bowl, and mix at low-medium speed.  On a KitchenAid that would be about 3 or 4.  Do this until well mixed, it really only took a couple of minutes.

Stir in remaining ingrediates and mix well

Now I do not use rounded tablespoons that are dropped onto the cookie sheet, first because I could never get the tablespoons to appear rounded, so I just use a cheap ice-cream scoop that I picked up at a dollar store.  It will make a good sized cookie, but you will probably only want to place 8 scoops per batch.

Bake for 6 minutes, then turn the cookie sheet 180 degree and bake for another 6 minutes.  Let them rest on the sheet for a couple of minutes before taking them off the sheet and then place them on a wire rack to cool completely.

Try and make to many of these and have them for dinner.

Not the actual Ambrosia, but pretty close

So I just took possession of my new Kitchenaid Heavy Duty 5 Qt Stand-mixer.  The name I have chosen for her is Ambrosia, the food of the gods.  Well I did not only name her for that,  I have also always been a fan of the oh-so-tacky Southern dessert, Ambrosia Salad.  Now if you do not happen to know what Ambrosia Salad is then look to the bottom of the post and you will find a recipe for this creamy-yet-tart dessert that is good with just about anything.

Now the purpose of this blog is chronicle my baking adventures with Ambrosia (Yes you might call it a rip-off the new movie, Julie and Julia, but hey imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Plus fuck-you if you can’t take a joke).

I hope to someday open my own bakery/gourmet food store, and hopefully this is a great first step in the process.  I will be trying various recipes I find in books and online, and then put my own spin on them. I will tell you how they turned out and give you the reactions of my friends and family.  I’d would also love it if you out there in the online world would try them out as well and get back to me about how they  worked out.

Now lets get technical, other then Ambrosia, I really don’t have any high-tech baking equipement.  Before my kitchenaid, I owned (and still do) the ever reliable hand-mixer, what I have always called a Magi-mix. But lets get real, you can’t make bread with a hand-mixer, I have tried it before and all you do is kill the motor.  My oven is not high-tech at all, it’s actually pretty old and is an apartment sized oven.  Which sucks considering I can not put standard sized baking sheets or pans in it, without be able to close the door or having the pans tilt to one side.  My fridge is small and old as well.  So it’s is not like I am working with a state of the art equipement. But as long as you have good quality ingrediates and alot of patience then you don’t need a super-kitchen.

Hope you enjoy this blog, and I’ll try and update it as much as possible.

Cheers Chris

Chris’s Ambrosia Salad

1 8 oz can of Crushed Pineapple – drained of juice

1 8 oz can of Pineapple Bite-sized – drained of juice

1 4 oz can of Mandarin Oranges

1 500 g container of Sour Cream

1 250 g bag of Minature Marshmellows

1 200 g bag of sweetened shredded coconut

In large bowl add both types of pineapple and mandarin oranges along with the sour cream.  Mix well together, and then place in refridgerator for at least an hour.

Take out of refridgerator and add marshmellows and coconut.  Stir well.  It is ready to serve.

I like to add either Kashi GoLean Crunch or granola on top, to add a cruchy aspect to this already creamy-tangy-sweet goodness.

**Note:  Now I know some of you out there, might know Ambrosia Salad, with Fruit Cocktail instead of the pineapple/mandarin orange combo, but I have never really been a fan of fruit cocktail (actually that’s not true, it’s just that I haven’t had it in a while and I just don’t like the grapes or the cherries in it), but please feel free to try it anyway you wish**