The US Cranberry Bakery Seminar & Workshop 2010

Since my last attendance of the cheese tasting, I'm glad that Kenneth Wee of Total Agri Marketing still remembers me and put me on the invite list amongst the chefs, bakers, celebrity chefs etc. I'm so honoured actually! Since it was a work day, nobody else could come along except for FBB. This seminar cum workshop was held at Berjaya University College of Hospitality.

Total Agri Marketing is promoting cranberries in Malaysia on behalf of the Cranberry Marketing Committee USA. Thanks to them, it's quite easy to get frozen or dried cranberries and juice on our supermarket shelves these days. All these while I only know the answer for urinary tract infection is to drink lots of cranberries juice but now, I know cranberries hold more than that.



Cranberries contain no fat, no cholesterol, and very little sodium. Whole cranberries are a good source of dietary fiber, and all cranberry products contain flavonoids and polyphenolics, natural compounds that offer a wide range of potential health benefits. Since we can't get fresh cranberries, the closest would be the frozen kind but I'm not sure if they're sweetened like their dried counterparts. We were told fresh cranberries can be very very tart.

Kenneth introduced 2 officials from the committee and they each gave a short speech on cranberries and all.



Next, we were introduced to Chef Tim Healea who is the principal baker and owner of Little T American Baker. His bakery specialises on handcrafted breads, Viennese-style pastries and rustic desserts.



Without wasting time, Chef Tim demonstrated 8 out of the 10 recipes provided to us all within 3 hours plus! To help those who are sitting at the back, there's even a screen zooming into what Chef Tim is doing upfront. How thoughtful!



As he goes along, Chef Tim impart some tips here and there for each of the recipes. I noticed a lot of the participants were so hardworking taking notes! Mid way, there was a short coffee break where we were served pre-made goodies from the recipes of Chef Tim demo. There were the Baked Doughnuts and Almond Rolls which are made from the same dough base. Then there is the Crumb Brioche, Cream Scone, Apple Turnover, Apple Wholewheat Muffin, Gibassier, Sweet Cream Tart (my fave out of the lot) and Financier. All of these have cranberries in them!





Chef Tim continued on after the break and by the end of it, he have all these goodies all done out! Amazing that they all looked good as some demo I've been to produces messy products :p




Apple Turnover


Baked US Cranberry Doughnut


Cream Scones


Crumb Brioche


Sweet Cream Tart


Almond Roll

Hmm the recipes for the above goodies are not available on the website but they do have other recipes. I would love to try some of these recipes but only when I have the time :( First on my list would be the Sweet Cream Tart, it's quite simple and soooo tasty!



Thanks to Kenneth and staff at Total Agri Marketing, Cranberry Marketing Committee, Berjaya University College of Hospitality and most importantly Chef Healea for the great afternoon.

BTW, do check out FBB's creative post!

Another pic of Chef Tim ;-) with the completed Apple Turnover. Just can't get enough of his smiles :p