RE-Learning Sweet Treats in Heny Sison School

Excited I was when I arrived at Heny Sison's Culinary School one Saturday morning. The place was cozy and squeky clean. It wasn't what I was expecting from a big time celebrity chef Heny. The 'kitchen classroom' has an unexpected homey feel to it and one will see that they have every utensil and every equipment that we'll ever need. From pans, baking racks, wire whisks, electric stand mixers to top-of-the-line ovens, cookie sheets, silicone mats and mixing bowls. They even had a collection of copper pots! I thought it was so cool. Just being in their kitchen made me smile. I was always fond of looking into different utensils/tools and would dream someday to have my very own 'Martha Stewart' kitchen.

A snapshot of the kitchen

Our instructor was Chef Patricia Loanzon. She first started the class by discussing the fundamentals of baking. By the way, the class was Bakeshop 101 for the Oven Phobic Workshop which was a 1-day class from 9am to 3pm. The lecture lasted for an hour and she covered also the basic science on how the different ingredients react to each other. I really appreciated the lecture since I was able to understand more about what I'm putting in what I'm baking.

Chef Loanzon doing a demo in front of the class

Although I already knew the basics of baking from learning it in T.H.E. when I was in elementary and highschool, I still enjoyed the class. We started with the hardest recipe in line which was Lola's Butter Cake. We were taught how to fold the batter correctly so that the air incorporated in the batter won't get deflated. The cake turned out to be soft and the air was equally distributed in the cake. Too bad i didn't get the chance to take a picture of a slice.

Lola's Butter Cake fresh from the oven

One of the easiest recipe in the class was the Chocolate Banana Cake. This banana cake is dotted with raisins inside. One tip we got is that we can preserve raisins by soaking it in rum and it will make the raisins plumpier!

Chocolate Banana Cake

I loved the caramel bar in Max's but recently, its quality and taste weren't what it used to be. So I was excited to hear that we were making caramel bars! The secret ingredient? Condensed milk! We put condensed milk in the batter and drizzled condensed milk and cashew nuts before baking.

Caramel Bar still in the baking pan

The next treat we made is also my favorite! It's the After Eight Brownies. It's a regular oh-so-good brownies but we added a dash of mint oil that turned transformed the taste up a notch. I loved Hershey's cookies and mint chocolate and Starbucks' Christmas Peppermint mocha frappe so this recipe was a real treat!

After Eight Brownies

Next is the Best Chocolate Chip Cookie. The cookie was chewy and not too sweet since we put in glucose and molasses in the batter. It was fun scooping the cookie batter using an ice cream scooper. My groupmates even joked that I can be a sorbetero.

Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

Snickerdoodles, a cute name for a cookie. I first thought that snickerdoodles had snickers chocolate bar in them but it's like a soft sugar cookie that's coated in sugar and cinnamon powder. Yum! It's my first time to eat it and I was the one who also made it. Cool!

Stacks of Snickerdoodles on a red silicone sheet

I was so surprised by how much goodies we got to take home.

Group shot of the baked goodies

Here's a picture of my groupmates. We were actually 4 in the group but she left early. And as a bonus, we also got to meet Chef Heny. She was so nice and soft-spoken. Her staff was also friendly, accomodating, and fast workers. My experience in Chef Heny's school was excellent. I would give it 5 out of 5 stars!

Malou, me and Loida