The Baking Loft - Liu Sha Bao

I love eating Liu Sha Bao (who doesn't right) and so, I did not hesitant to sign up for this Liu Sha Bao hands on lesson by The Baking Loft.

It was my first time to The Baking Loft and I thought its located at The Central. Do note that they are actually located at this building besides The Central, and besides Swissotel too.

The Baking Loft Classroom

The Baking Loft Classroom

I love the concept of this 'classroom'. It looks more like a cosy, one room apartment. Students can sit at the sofa of the living area while waiting for the class to commence.

The Baking Loft seems like a new start up as the person in charge (or probably the owner) and the teacher looks abit lost, preparing the class past 1pm (the supposedly start time). By 1pm, they were still asking where were ingredients placed and busy preparing for the class. The class started around 15 mins late, and yup, Liu Sha Bao baking time START!

Egg yolks

I believe it is not nice to reveal their recipe due to copyright issue, especially people is starting up a business (and we know it isn't easy). Also, I paid for the recipe so its like lending your classmates to copy your homework for submission. Hope people don't find me gei gao. /please But for own recipe (after I am really good at mastering and coming up with my own), I may share :) Don't know when will that day comes /wahaha but it will surely come if I keep practicing I believe. So, I will share the tips that the teacher said rather than the recipe. haha. And the purpose of this blog is actually to keep a record for myself as well as to share the 'classroom' experiences with different baking studios.

Anyway, for egg yolks, its best to use the red salted egg yolks. (Can be found at market)

Frozen Egg yolks

Freeze the salted egg yolks after it is mixed with other ingredients such as condensed milk, vanilla extract, butter, corn flour, coconut milk, icing sugar and yellow colouring for that nice orangey look. Take out the frozen egg yolks mixture, scoop it into small little balls and place the fillings into your bao dough and seal the fillings. When the Bao is cooked and cut into half, your salted egg yolk will then ooze out like this:

Liu Sha Bao

The teacher of cause taught us the bao making procedure too and it was rather tedious. >< As it involves yeast, it is best to prepare the dough one day in advance if you are thinking of serving your guests the next day.

During the lesson, students are worried because there is no stick pad to label our work throughout. Many times, we have to monitor where is our own bao placed, where is our own salted eggs and dough placed. It was quite messy as some try to identify their work and some are of cause worried their work is mistakenly taken by others. I am sure everyone wants to bring their own work and present it to their own loved ones. Hence, the labeling of work by each individual is really important. However, they seemed new and lost in identifying our work for us.

I baked this

The owner, Samantha (I guessed) gave out boxes and stickers that wrote (I baked this!) for us to take picture and to take home our work. Its an extra effort I would say! She looked touched when the class ended and sincerely asked us for our feedback. She looked really sincere and determined in improving the class, so despite all the hiccups, I believed their next lessons (with different teachers) will be better. The teacher, Pauline, seems a bit unorganized in her presentation but according to her own blog, she was apparently a very experienced baker. It could be she is new to the baking studio and I guess teaching and baking are still two very different professions.

Verdict of the Bao : 

The Bao dough is rather dense and hard, but the salted egg yolk taste fine :) I believe there is better Liu Sha Bao recipe out there, so ya, will definitely go for more lessons and try out myself in search for my ideal liu sha bao. 

Anyway, I saw this drawing at the studio, and I totally love it!

Nice drawing!

Its really an impressive drawing when you see it for yourself. It is very detailed. The artist painted the fur stroke by stroke, and the pig looks so fluffy to touch!! I cannot resist taking picture of it. The owner, Samantha told me she bid this drawing on Ebay for around 3K. It is a work by an Indonesian artist. I hope someone could tell me whats the name of this artist!! I will be very interested to know! She told me she bought Coplu painting few years ago at around 3K too. And Coplu painting could easily cost more than 10k now. Seems like a good investment! haha :D If only I have a big living room to put this painting! (not even asking for Mr J approval :P because he will be convinced /wahaha)

The Baking Loft

www.thebakingloft.com

/bye