Baking Bread

So far, my first baking class is great. Its a TON of information to learn, but its all so cool. After today (Day 3) things are going to pick up a bit but thus far we have come in with some things prepped and we all work on lean dough (into baguettes and cut rolls), ciabatta, multigrain, and honey wheat bread. Today my group will make hamburger rolls but then we will move stations tomorrow.

Baguettes

Pre-shaping before bench rest






Final shaping before final fermentation. Baguettes must be 21 inches long.


Scored and ready for the oven


Some examples for the bread evaluation with things to note-one is "dog bone shape", some scoring issues, shorter than 21 inches. For day one, overall, not too bad for our class.


Inside view-you want the irregular holes, yellow white color


Ciabatta

Day One-not hand mixed

Lining them up on the couche




On the loader ready for the oven


Partially baked, starting to get color and showing oven spring


Final product


Inside view


Day Two-hand mixed



Note the difference between the two...this one was softer inside but still had the crisp crust.


Other Fun Stuff

Folding dough


Pre-shaping rounds that later were shaped in batards (footballish shape)


One of the last tasks of the day is to scale out our ingredients for the next day.


For dinner last night, Cuisines of the Mediterannean was in Morocco. As we switch classes every 3 weeks, so do culinary students and the menus go in similar fashion.

I had the lentils and caramalized onions in a pita...well I took some of the lentils, threw them on a salad.


Side dishes of yummy stuff





I'm definitely excited to get back to class today. Its so thrilling to be learning about all these things finally, getting my hands in dough...today we get to start mixing our own stuff. The first thing my team has to do today is mix up our sponge for our dough. Time to get the day rolling!