Chang Thung Cooking Class 15/9

Due to the high demand to repeat this class I had in Chang Thung 3 months ago* times flies!, I'm doing it again!
Please do come and support !
To those who tried my Ceasar Salad, Carbonara or Tiramisu.
I'm sure you know how good it taste!

What is Flour

HAVE YOU EVER been to the Bakery Section of Supermarket and
Wonder why are there so many diferent types of Flour?
Please continue reading this post unless you want to be like them above. *Confuse between Flour & Drugs

Flour is made from Wheat
- it's the 3rd Most-Produced cereal after Maize & Rice
- Grind into Powder = Flour
- The type of Flour depends on which part & amount of the Wheat used

Flour is categorized according to it's Gluten level
- Gluten is the thing that make your bread Chewy
- Your cake is soft because they are less Gluten where else the opposite goes to Bread
- Due to lots of marketing effort, the same type of flour are given lots of different name *Just like me, people call me , yiming,  ming, yimz, mingz, eddie, tan, handsome, uncle, blah ,blah...................

Cake/Soft/Superfine/Low Protein Flour

- Low in Gluten
- Very smooth, fine texture
- Suitable for Cakes
Usually Chlorine is added to
1) Make it Snow White * Aka Bleach
2) Make your cake Lighter
3) After effect = slightly Sourish Taste when eaten

Pastry Flour

- Low in Gluten , Slight abit more than Cake Flour
- It's Creamy White in Color unlike Cake Flour *Not Bleached
- Suitable for Cookies, Scones, Muffin

Bread/Strong/High Protein Flour
- Strong in Gluten
- Potassium Bromate usually added to make it your bread more Elastic & Chewy aka Nicer to eat
- Suitable for Bread

All Purpose/ Rose Flour
- Often seen in Supermarket
- It's Similar to Pastry Flour
- It's all purpose so it can be used for Cakes, Biscuits, Breads
- Professional Baker prefer to use Specific Flour for Specific Products

Self-Raising Flour
= Pastry Flour + Baking Powder 
- Only use it when the recipe calls for Self-Raising Flour *Whenever a Recipe calls for Self-Raising Flour, I would just conclude the recipe is bad & move on to a better recipe.

- It's Not Practical because different recipes require different level of Baking Powder 
- You could buy the Flour & Baking Powder separately & adjust quantity yourself according to recipe

Wholemeal Flour
= Wheat Bran Flakes + Flour

- Usually used in Bread
- Produce more flavourful but Denser Bread
- Good for Constipation 

I have not covered Rye Flour, Pao Flour, Whole Wheat Flour, & lots more,
but I hope this is enough to clear the confusion in your mind.
Always use a Scissors to cut Open your packet of Flour if Not....

Coffee Kopi!

Have you ever wonder why Starbucks are so popular? Old Town White Coffee popping out everywhere? Nescafe heavily bombarding advertisement about "Dolce Gusto"?
It's simple, because Coffee makes the World Go Round

Don't you notice after drinking a cup of Coffee, you would feel so much more alive, creative, happy, confident?
I know I do.
So let me share with you some general knowledge about Coffee

Coffee Bean = Coffee Cherry picked -> Fermented -> Roasted -> Packaged

2 Most Common Type of Coffee Bean
1) Arabica
- More Premium
2) Robusta
- Less Premium
Depending on the Blend of Coffee, some Companies mix both together.

Brewed Coffee
- What you get from Starbucks/ higher end place.
- Or you can brew at home yourself

Instant Coffee
- Prepared by Freeze Drying or Spray Drying
- Convenient to use but way lack of flavour

Decaffeinated Coffee
- Prepared by Dissolving in Solvent 7-8 times to remove the caffeine
- Lots of flavor lost in the process
- Contain about 2-.5mg per cup compare to the standard brew of 60-180mg

So what makes a cup of COFFEE good?
1) Professional AKA Cuppers
- Would say the aroma because Coffee has the most Complex flavour of all Food
- they judge by tasting just PURE BLACK COFFEE , NO Sugar, NO Milk.
- So it taste Bitter but they judge on the acidity, body, aftertaste, aroma

2) Ordinary Human like me
- Would say as long it's sweet and milky to balance the bitterness.
- As long as you don't give me expired or not well kept coffee.
- I believe most Malaysian to do the same thing too!

Coffee Entrepreneur understood this fact, that as long as they can produce
Ok-Ok quality Coffee + Milk + Sugar = SUCCESS!

For example, NESCAFE 3in1 are so Well Known- They Don't Use Milk in their Coffee.
- They use Creamer/ CoffeeMate instead
- But do you know NESCAFE COFFEEMATE/ CREAMER are made out of VEGETABLE FAT/ OIL? *Not only NESCAFE, but I would say all 3in1 Coffee are made out of VEGETABLE FAT.

Before you pour that packet of 3in1 Coffee, take 30s to look for the ingredient list.
- Is there "Creamer" or "Non Dairy Creamer" in it? *Yes it's made out of Vegetable Fat
- Is there "Milk Powder" in it? *No

 So does this apply to White Coffee too?
Is White Coffee really White?
Coming soon!