Freeze Bake Eat Workshop at 19 Culinary

At 19 Culinary Studio is a new cooking school located on 19, Jln Dungun, Damansara Heights.... hence their name. I recently attended one of their Freeze Bake Eat Workshop on a Sunday afternoon while hubby and the kids check out the dinosaurs at the National Science Center nearby. 

Cost is RM20 for the workshop and each participant received a goody bag of frozen bread and pastries worth RM10. The workshop was conducted by Han, the resident cake decorator. Helen and Angelin who are the owners of the culinary studio were also on hand to assist and promote their cooking classes (of course!).

Helen started off by introducing the various frozen breads and pastries they have in stock. These frozen foods are fully imported from Switzerland - all freshly baked and quick freezed to retain the flavours with no additional preservatives. Ideal for busy moms to whip up a gourmet breakfast or tea in a jiffy. Great for unexpected guests. Just remove from freezer, thaw, bake and eat.

The range of breads and pastries available is quite extensive. Photo above shows three types of danish pastries : apple strudel, pineapple danish and hazelnut swirl. All breads and pastries need to be thawed for about half an hour to one hour before baking. Pre-heating of the oven is also necessary at 180 degrees. The pastries are all in dough form. To ensure it's tasty and crunchy, place it inside a steam oven to bake. If you have a conventional oven, spray some water on top of the breads and pastries and also place a tray of water in the oven to steam bake.

As for the loaves of bread, they are 75% baked. Same procedure applies, pop them in the oven for 12-15 minutes and ta-daaaaaaaa the fresh aroma of gourmet breads will fill your entire kitchen! 

Yummy and delicious bread rolls, croissants and chocolate pastries. The breads are all crusty on the outside but soft on the inside. All participants got to taste the various breads and pastries. Another tip that was shared during the workshop is the use of apricot glaze on the danishes for a shiny and more appetizing look but then, it's just another layer of sugar and most people will do without it.

At the end of the workshop, I bought RM25 worth of bread and pastries to try out at home. The loaves of bread are quite big so I was told that I could just thaw the bread, cut the amount that I need, then re-freeze the balance. How convenient. Each loaf of bread costs RM8 or RM9 depending on the type. Each bread roll/pastry/danish/croissant costs approx RM1 each. These are usually sold in a variety pack of 4 or a pack of 5. If purchased from gourmet bakeries, the price is about RM10 for the bread and RM1.50-RM2.00 for the pastries. If you are interested to attend the workshop, there are a few more scheduled throughout March and April. Just go to their website and check out their class schedule. You can find them on facebook as well. Members and Kuali readers pay RM20 while non-members pay RM30. I booked my workshop online at their website and quoted 'Kuali reader' to enjoy the lower price. Payment can be done via M2U or cheques.