Hello all! I came back with a story about Baker J at Wicked Cafe. Did you miss him? This time, the story is not about his mistake but about the challenge he had been making! It seems that I can say that I have told you too much about the infinite mistakes Baker J made developing our Bulgogi Bake menu by now.
But unlike the original version, his new sequel project had been going somewhat smoothly and quickly! Since we came up with Bulgogi Bake, we intended to expand selections for our guests who cannot eat beef for various dietary or religious reasons. We are considering many options, and a vegetable-based one is one of them!
This Vegetable Bake project began a long time ago. However, the initiative became afloat as the project manager had her issues, and nobody updated the team with the new recipe. Of course, it’s not like the team could wait indefinitely. After a careful and hard (considering his reliability) consideration, the Boss decided to give the job to Baker J.
This time, however, was different for Baker J. As soon as he got the job, he told me he felt much responsibility to take from taking this consequential role from the previous project manager. This time, it seemed he was trying to do well with improved communication skills and reports.
Our previous version was almost complete, using mushrooms and other ingredients to make the flavour. But for this time, Baker J decided to start from scratch. He tried to make the recipe as simple as possible so that even he (with limited baking skills) could easily supply the needs.
I overheard what was going on. I asked Baker J to take some photos when he was to make the vegetable version. He shared the recipe as well! So, please allow me to introduce what is the version we have at the moment.
We usually have at least 100 servings of pizza dough made in advance. However, when Baker J tested out the recipe for the first time, none was there. In his first attempt, he just made the fillings to see how they worked and put them on wraps to test them by grilling them. And—it was successful! For the first time, he made sure that he reported the ingredients with photos, asked questions on time, made the samples well and informed other teammates about them correctly.
Baker J began with the pizza dough to enhance his last success on the next attempt. Let me share how he made it!
First, J started by baking fries. Crispy fries are one of the crucial ingredients of this vegetable version! He followed the instructions from the package for the fries.
Next, on an empty bowl, he made the filling. The recipe for the filling is simple: it is a 1:1:1 ratio of fries, canned corn, and our signature Artichoke Mix. It was the same recipe Baker J used for the wrap version.
Next is to make the pizza dough. The ingredients are simple. For this one, J was trying to make four pieces of Vegetable Bake. Hence, he made a smaller version of the pizza dough with the following:
600g Bread Flour
15g Fresh Yeast
9g Salt
360g Cold Water
30g Extra Virgin Olive Oil
4g Sugar.
Once he mixed all the ingredients well in a small mixer (and Extra Virgin Olive Oil becomes less truthful to its name—haha!), Baker J brought the finished dough straight to our sheeting machine.
This part is the tricky one. What you want to get in the end is a flat dough with a 2mm thickness and wide enough to cover 25 cm-length fillings. The trick is to dust it very well so that no holes appear from the dough sticking to itself. It would be a good idea to sprinkle the work area with flour–to avoid the same issue.
Once you have the flattened dough on the work table, the next step is to roll it with this unique-looking roller. I will be honest—I am not sure what is the name of that thing, so please let me know with your comments if you know the name of that tool!
Afterwards, Baker J put a cup of fillings for each piece of Vegetable Bake. This dough sheet would produce four Bakes, so he put four cups.
Spreading out the filling needs some attention. It is because it has to represent the size of the finished product. Because there is no proofing procedure, the dough does not expand much in the oven! We wanted the Bake to be 25cm long, so Baker J made them so.
We then cover the filling with dough. Since the pizza dough can be sticky, one should be careful when handling it.
Then comes another tool—the pizza cutter! Baker J used it to cut the dough into four Vegetable Bakes and folded them into a stick shape we wanted.
We then bake the Bakes without waiting for them to proof and expand (in fact, we avoided it to prevent the same mistakes Baker J made last time!) in a 428°F oven for 15 minutes.
After the initial baking, Baker J pulled the Vegetable Bakes out of the oven to garnish it. For the Bulgogi Bakes, we top them with cheese mix and oregano. For the Vegetable version, we dressed this one with tomato sauce to simulate the taste of a pizza. Then you bake it for extra 7 minutes–and they are done!
There are still points to fix for this recipe, but I think most things are to stay. The ingredients are simple. I think this recipe can be successful with its rich cheesy flavour, sweetness from the corn and overall savoury taste! Baker J is working hard to create a popular menu for everyone, and I am happy that he is seeing some progress. Please stay tuned for the updates as an actual menu as well!