The ovens are full

Indeed the ovens are full and yielding lots of good, fresh bread! Above are baguettes baking in a rotating rack oven, which produces very even baking as it rotates the product as it bakes. We use these in baking most of our breads.

Two weeks ago I started the 6 week doughs segment of the baking and pastry program. In this class we work in six groups, each of which is assigned one of six production items. The six types of bread each use a different method of bread making and shown clockwise in photo above they are baguettes, ballons (soft rolls), pain au levain (like sourdough), danish, focaccia and butter braids. Each day of our first week of class we learned one or two of these six different methods. We also had to learn to work in a much more fast paced environment than we experienced in our cakes course and to manage and juggle time.

In the second week of doughs, along with making one production item each day, we were assigned a special project to complete. These special projects were one time recipes that help reinforce the six basic methods we use to make the six production items. The first project was Honey Whole Wheat bread (shown above) and we formed it in loaves. We also make Pain au Lait, which looked the same as Honey Whole Wheat, but was a white bread. They both made great toast and the Pain au Lait made awesome french toast this weekend

Another of the projects was Soft Pretzels, which were fun to make, but not my favorite as they were too chewy, likely a result of over-working the dough.

We also made bagels, which was really exciting because although I love bagels I have never made them before. I now know how to make my own and they are so much better than those doughy versions they sell at Einstein/Noah's!

Lastly, we made Maple Oat Rolls, which were a slightly sweet dinner roll. I didn't get a picture of them, and I am finding that the pace of the class is allowing a lot fewer opportunities for photo taking and observing. The pace of the class is very intense and much different from the cakes course. I like having the opportunity to make the same item several times, as we do with the production items because I felt that the biggest downfall to the cakes course was that we made everything once and were not able to learn from mistakes by doing it correctly the next time. I am feeling a bit over loaded on bread!