It has been three months since my first trial cooking class with ABC and I have since done 6 cake classes and 8 bread classes. The classes have been a great distraction for me. It is great to connect with people who just like bake like me.
I welcome the opportunity to talk about food with people who really like food. It is hard to find such people in the club where I exercise everyday. A lot of my friends like to eat, but very few love cooking and baking at the level I do.
It is hard to talk about which yeast is the best for which kind of bread with my colleagues, friends and students because honestly, who cares! (I do). At ABC, people here care.
Someone once asked me what are my hobbies, and she was about to say I have none. On the contrary. I have so many hobbies. Being in the kitchen is one. This is where I take my mind off all the board room stuff and focus on the simple task of waiting for my bread to prove. Or thinking about how to pipe my cake so it looks cute enough for consumption.
I don’t intend to publish ABC’s recipes. It won’t be fair to them, as it is their IPR. However, I will be publishing my own recipes, which are often hacks from their recipes. Although I already know most of the recipes, I have gotten a lot of ideas from ABC cooking studio. I hope these hacks are useful to those who love to cook and hopefully they save you time.
Most of all, if I can motivate you to go to the kitchen, I would have achieved my goals.
Here’s one recipe I love, which was hacked from a trial lesson. It was called Manhattan breadway at ABC. A clam chowder with tomato paste with a bread that reminds me of calzones. The recipe is great, but a little too safe for me. So I have modified it to be a bit more quirky and with some character. Made it like 4 times and love it so much.
Manhattan Clam Chowder with Bacon Bread
Equipment
- Convection Oven
- Mei Wok
Ingredients
Bacon Bread
- 240 g Bread flour
- 80 g Whole meal
- 11 g Instant yeast
- 2 tbsp Sugar
- 200 ml Water at 40C
- 1/2 tsp Salt
- 25 g Olive oil
Bread Filings
- 4 pieces Bacon sliced very thinly
- 1/2 piece Big Onion Finely diced
- 80 g Pizza Cheese (mozzarella + cheddar) Shredded
- 40 g Sundried tomatoes Sliced thinly
- 2 tbsp Flour
- A pinch Pepper
Manhattan Clam Chowder
- 1/2 piece Big Onion finely diced
- 1 tsp Garlic broken down with mortar and pestle
- 2 pieces Bacon Finely diced
- 4 medium Potatoes Diced 1 cm cubes
- 1 tbsp Cooking oil
- 200 g Frozen clam meat
- 10 pieces Clams with shells (optional)
- 1 can Diced tomatoes (about 8 oz)
- 1 tsp Italian herbs
- 1 tsp Stock cube
- 2 cups water
- A pinch Freshly ground black pepper
- Some Finely chopped parsley
Instructions
Bacon Bread
- Add water to half the bread and wholemeal flour, sugar, yeast and sugar in a bowl. Mix until smooth. (about 3 minutes by hand)
- Add the remaining flours, salt and olive oil. Mix well.
- Scrap the dough from the bowl onto the table. Knead without adding flour.
- When kneading, do not break the gluten, aim to stretch it. Here's the method. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7jBrDWJOdsBe gentle and it should take 10 minutes.
- You know the dough is done when it is elastic and smooth and passes the window pane test. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLnyrvDRzGw
- Shape the dough into a ball and seal the bottom so that air can be trapped.
- 1st fermentation: 40C temperature or hot water in the oven: 25 minutes The dough is ready when you pierce it with a finger and the indentation stays.
- Degas and divide the dough into 4 (about 65g each), and then roll them into balls, seal the bottom and cover on the bench for 10 minutes bench time.
Filings
- Mix the onions, bacon, sundried tomatoes, flour, cheese and pepper until mixed.
- Divide into 4 portions.
Shaping the bread
- Roll each piece into a 20cm x 15cm rectangle.
- Place one portion of the filings and place it in the middle of the rollout dough.
- Fold 1/3 from the topo, then 1/3 from the bottom and seal.
- Place the dough seam side down and top the bread with some wholemeal flour.
- 2nd Fermentation: cover the bread and ferment for another 15 minutes.
- Bake at 210C for 16 minutes.
- Cut into 2 or 3 and serve.
Manhattan Clam Chowder
- Heat up the mei wok (https://www.meirecipes.com/product/mei-wok/) and then add oil.
- Once oil is warm, add onions, garlic.
- Add everything else, except the parsley.
- Cook until the clams in the shells are opened and cooked, about 15 minutes.
- Season with salt and pepper.
- Serve and garnish with parsley.
