Yesterday I attended the first baking class of my life at Phoon Huat. I signed up for the class held at the Clementi branch. The lesson takes 3 hours (7-10pm) with 2 recipes at only $55. That’s a really good deal because other baking classes cost so much more.
We made 2 items yesterday: Pumpkin Seed Bread and Strawberry Cake with pineapple and puff pastry topping.
This is our working station. There were 8 students for this particular lesson.
This is Chef Philip who is in charge of the class. He is quite humorous and friendly. I hoped I didn’t give him heart attack for being such a noob in baking and kept asking dumb questions.
After he went through the ingredients and baking directions, we were paired up and started mixing the ingredients. My partner and I worked together to measure the flour, honey, yeast, pumpkin seeds, puree etc. Once done, we set it on the mixer.
I wonder how long it would take if I were to mix the ingredients by hand when I try baking it again at home.
Once the mixing was done, the dough was cut into 4 portions and set aside to rest. It would expand to at least 1.5 times the original size.
Once ready, Chef Philip demonstrated to us on how to roll the dough into a loaf. I must say it really require skill to do that. I compared my loaf and Chef Philip’s, I think my would sell for 10 cents and his could sell for at least $5.
SK is such a noob…
Initially I didn’t know that I had to dust my hands with flour before handling the dough, so I got it all stuck to my hands. Chef Philip taught us how to dust the table top and our hands before working on the dough. My classmates added too much flour and Chef Philip commented that Hungry Ghost Festival just started so we didn’t need to “powder” till so white. LOL!
Those are my 2 loaves. Yes, they are ugly… I know that…
Next we had to put the loaves into the “resting chamber”. SK had forgotten the name of that machine, so it shall be known as the “resting chamber”. The purpose is to rest the loaves in a warm and moist environment.
After resting, we had to brush egg mixture on the loaves.
Next, cut the loaves and sprinkle more pumpkin seeds over it for decoration purposes. Once done, they were placed into the oven for baking.
Ta-dah~! My 2 pretty loaves! They didn’t look too bad after baking! =)
I really like the bread a lot. It’s slightly crispy on the surface and super moist inside! Pakcik ate so much when I brought them back.
The bread is still very moist when I eat it just now. Thumbs up!
No oil or butter was used for the baking so this can be considered as a very healthy bread.
The second item that we baked is the Strawberry Yogurt cake with pineapple and puff pastry topping.
Firstly, we had the defrost puff pastry sheet. Lightly brushed with water and sprinkled with sugar. Lightly marked the sheet and put it into the oven.
That was the big oven for baking the puff pastry.
It puffed so much after baking!
After cutting the puff pastry. SK wasn’t that gentle was it crumbled into bits.
I checked with Chef Philip, he said that we could cut the puff pastry sheets before baking so it wouldn’t crumble.
While waiting for the puff pastry, we prepared the strawberry yogurt mixture.
Once well blended, the yogurt mixture is ready.
Due to time constraint, the sponge cake was pre-prepared for us.
The base layer is the sponge cake. We poured in half the yogurt mixture, then sprinkle the pineapple cubes over. Next, add in the next layer of sponge cake. Lastly, pour the remaining yogurt mixture over.
Once done, the cake was placed into the freezer to set.
Meanwhile, we prepared the cream for decoration. This was the part when SK did something really stupid. I put the metal piece outside the plastic instead of inside. Once Chef Philip saw it, he asked how am I going to squeeze the cream out without the metal piece falling off.
=___=” SK was really not thinking…
Luckily, SK was quite good at the cream decoration. =)
This is the inside of the cake. Not very pretty but not too bad either. =)
After adding the puff pastry, the cake is ready to be served! It’s a yummy yogurt cake!
I like the baking lesson at Phoon Huat and I am looking forward to registering for the next class!
My Daily Moo 
I love it i wanna learn
Hi SiQi (hope I got your name correct)
Your Pumpkin Seed Bread looks great. Can you share the recipe?
Just attended the baking class by the same chef. He handed us copies of the recipes and rattles through them. He then asked all of us to start baking by referring to the printout!!!! No demo. Goodness, I can do that at home, why do I pay to attend a class to learn how to make cream puffs this way??!! On top of that, we were all make to wash all utensils, baking trays etc throughout the class!!!! This will be my first and last with Phoon Huat baking class.
Hi J.M,
Sorry that you didn’t enjoy the class. When I took the classes, the chef went through the steps (not a full demo), and he was actively going around to correct our mistakes, and demo on how to get the things right, etc. So I was able to learn the recipes well.
As for the washing, I have been to several cooking and baking classes in different places, and what I understand is that we all have to clean and wash our utensils and stuff. So I was quite prepared to do so when I was at Phoon Huat.
I am sure Phoon Huat would be open to suggestions, so maybe a feedback on how the classes can be improved would be helpful~
=)