Today was intense. The morning felt pretty good and it seemed like we had everything under wraps and then it all sort of exploded at around 10:30 when we got back from break. I think it's probably because the morning consisted of prepping dough and waiting for it to rise, and 10:30 onwards was shaping, proofing, and getting things out to the restaurant/cafeteria/doing a billion things at once. There were three of us today (out of five) which meant that we had to split things up to keep everything moving efficiently. Everything was definitely a group effort. I couldn't even tell you the order in which we made things today...
"Bee Stings" - We used the brioche dough that was prepared yesterday to make these. They were rolled out to the [approximate] size of a cake ring and then placed inside while they were rising. Then we made the mixture for the top, which was a combination of sugar, cream, honey, and sliced almonds. Possibly some other things as well. We brought this mixture to a boil on the stove and it had to be at 112 degrees before we removed it from the heat. Instead of using candy thermometers, Jean-Luc showed us how to tell the correct temperature by consistency. So, if we could see the bottom of the pot when we brought our spatulas towards us through the mixture, the consistency was right. The mixture thickened dramatically as it was heated. Once removed from the heat, the almonds were folded in and we spread this mixture in a thin even layer on top of the brioche circles. Then we set these aside to rise. Once they had risen, they went in the oven for about 25 minutes. They looked delicious. Tomorrow I think we are going to slice them and fill them with pastry cream. Yum.
Focaccia - This was the same as the focaccia we made last week, which is a favourite of the class. A few pieces may have mysteriously gone "missing" when we were slicing them to take to the cafeteria. Once the dough was made and had doubled in size, it was rolled out to the size of a small baking tray and brushed with olive oil and herbs. Then it went in the proofer. Once sufficiently proofed, we used our fingers to make depressions in rows in the dough and then we brushed the oil again, just so there were no pools of olive oil on the dough. This went in the convection oven at 350 for about 10 minutes, then we flipped it over and brushed the other side with the olive oil and herb mixture and then put it back in the oven for another 10 minutes. We sent the first loaf of focaccia to the restaurant (only a few minutes late!) and the "rest" to the cafeteria.
Southwestern Cornbread (aka jalapeno cheddar rolls) - We have made these so many times, but I kind of love them. I also enjoy the repetition, because it lets you feel like you're actually getting the hang of something, which is nice. So, this dough is a sponge (rather than straight dough) method, which just means some of the ingredients are mixed together first including the yeast so it has a chance to ferment before adding the rest of the ingredients. So, we made our sponge and set it aside, allowing it to double in size. Once that was done, we got the rest of the ingredients together and made the actual dough. A sponge method means that the resulting dough is ready to use right after you've mixed it, so you don't have to set it aside again to rise. We rolled out the dough to a square the size of our rolling pin and sprinkled the cheese and jalapenos (no seeds this time) on top as per usual, and then instead of the regular giant rolls, we cut the square in half horizontally, resulting in 32 smaller rolls instead of 16 big ones. After they were cut, they went in the proofer. Then, they were egg-washed and placed in the convection oven at 350 for about 10 minutes. I probably could've taken a picture, but we were trying to get them done in time for the restaurant and they basically looked the same as the other ones we made, except smaller.
Sourdough - Making the sourdough was a straight dough method and one of the ingredients was a portion of the sour that we made yesterday. (It was gross-looking though.) When we were mixing our sourdough, Jean-Luc came by and checked the consistency and said that it was good. This was great for a couple of reasons, first because positive feedback is great in general but also because the measurements for liquid (usually water) in the second round of the bread section are kind of off on purpose. We have to know by consistency when to add more water so that the dough isn't too tough. Once the dough had doubled in size, we cut it into 400 gram pieces and shaped it into balls. These were then placed in the proofer. Once they were ready, we used our baker's blade to slice three slits in the dough and then baked them at 400 in the deck oven, with steam. This is one of the only recipes from today that I have photographic evidence of. So, here a bunch of pictures.
Challah - The challah was one of the last things we did and the process was essentially the same as last time. The dough takes a long time to build elasticity because it has a high fat / egg content, so it mixes on the second speed for a pretty long time compared to some of the other doughs. Once it was done and had doubled in size, we cut the dough into 150 gram pieces and rolled these into long equal pieces that were slightly thicker in the centre than at the ends. These were then braided together. After we were done, we put these in the proofer. We unfortunately forgot to egg wash them when we removed them from the proofer and put them in the oven, so that was really sad. We also put them in the convection oven instead of the deck oven, which was also sad. They were salvageable though, because Jean-Luc still told us to send them out to the cafeteria. So, even without the egg wash, they still looked good. That's saying something, right? (They did look good. Just a little less shiny.)
Stollen - We are going to make stollen tomorrow, which is a Christmas bread that Jean-Luc demonstrated one morning. In order to make it tomorrow, we had to make the dough today. The recipe was a little overwhelming because there were about a thousand (read: exaggeration) ingredients we had to put together, including a lot of spices and a lot of random things like candied orange peel and chopped glazed cherries. The dough was a straight dough method and once it was ready, the final ingredients were added (walnuts, hazelnuts, cherries, orange peel, and raisins soaked in brandy, which I forgot initially but then remembered once the dough had already been wrapped and put away) and mixed in. I am not a big fan of fruit and nuts in bread (or cake or ice cream), so the dough didn't look particularly appetizing, but it at least looked right.
[More] Brioche - The actual final thing we made today was more brioche dough, which we will use for Streusel tomorrow. I honestly thought streusel and streudel were the same thing, so tomorrow is going to be enlightening. I had very little to do with the actual making of the brioche dough, which I am totally okay with since I did the exact same thing at the end of yesterday's class.
I think by the end of the class Jean-Luc could tell we were all exhausted and also that we felt really bad about not egg-washing our challah (we did). He said that this section is sort of about getting us all used to doing a bunch of things at once and that it could have been only making a couple of breads in a day, but then we wouldn't really get a sense of what the Real World was actually like. He did say that we were doing a good job though. And in the morning he even said that we were "ahead of the game" so yay for encouragement and positive feedback and also bread.
---
Today's Recipes
I don't even know right now. I am in the middle of a sneezing fit, so I'll have to update this later.
No comments:
Post a Comment