Bread .......any kind

I make loafs often… Kalamata olive and rosemary or just straight bread



I also make a killer fruit cake that tastes great!

 

Another Challah, did a 4 braid

Didn't fit the plate I usually use to take pics on

 

You been fibbing us.

Looks delicious.

 

Fibbing how

 

Mr I never baked before. Uh huh.

 

Oh that part was 100% true, ask my wife!

Though I'll be completely honest; I'm in my 3rd week of my culinary/baking class.

It's a 10-month long gig and I'll be lying if I said it wasn't difficult. Not having ever baked to going full-speed in the kitchen with short time windows forces you to learn stuff real fast.

We make 2-3 doughs a day for some days and bake off the next day, we lecture, there's also reading, history of, and anything related to that module. Straight dough mixing, modified, intensive, proofing...under and over, fermentation, scaling, everything.

The module I'm in currently is called Yeast Breads hence all the recent bread.

On top of not knowing the most basic stuff (but learning it right away), I also have issues remembering stuff as I suffer from traumatic brain injury. I'm genuinely surprised how well (and good tasting) everything is coming out.

If you asked me 3 weeks ago to soften the butter, knead the dough, or do a straight dough mix, I'd have to look up whatever that meant before doing anything.

 

Well shit man you are doing DAMN good. I'm giving you an A+ right now.

I would like to take such a class!

 

And to give you an idea of how little time we really have, and why I'm surprised I'm keeping up, here's today's schedule of what we did -

7am start, gather ingredients l

720am break

745am chef removed my challah from the fridge, and anyone else's stuff

I rolled it a bit to degas as I didn't want to fold and reroll it all again

8am -1030am we made the English Muffin dough sponge, threw it in the proofer, made the main dough, mixed it all, then into the proofer

Made the sponge for the Donut dough, then made the main dough

Pulled English muffin dough, started making Bagel Dough

While Bagel dough is getting mixed waiting for window pane, folded and degassed the English muffin dough and let it bench

Bagel dough gets thrown in to proof while English muffin dough gets scaled and shaped, then cater wrapped for retarding

Then the Bagel dough gets pulled and folded and degassed and cater wrapped for retarding

English muffins are already scaled and shaped and cater wrapped on baking pan so they get finished tomorrow with everything else

In between these things, dishes at your station get washed between each 'production' as well as I had to make a quick egg wash and bake my Challah

At 1030am we take a lunch until 11am, then from 11am to 12pm we wash remaining dishes, sweep, mop, throw out trash, sanitize everything etc like a restaurant.

 

Thanks!

It's tough mainly cause I can't remember something I don't even know, then forced to learn at a fast pace doesn't help retaining it.

Doing this for my family though and the VA pays for it. I'm a disabled veteran and decided last year, no more work so I'm retired.

 

Sounds like WORK!!!

 

Reminds me of putting myself through college

 

And today it got made, starting with doughnuts in the deep fryer



English muffins which go on a flat top before being baked



And bagels which are boiled then baked



Bagels absolutely suck; mine overproofed before boiling but ended up getting degassed as they got stuck to the parchment. Then during boil, they shrunk even more.

 

Look on the bright side…




they got a hole in the middle.

 

First attempt at scoring sour bread which sucked because the dough stuck to the wick basket



Second one didn't, so it looks promising



Baked sourdough as well as some ciabatta and french bread (not shown)

 

Just picked up Maurizio's The Perfect Loaf and haven't baked in a while, so I'm very excited to have an excuse to bake again

 

Panetonne

Since I absolutely hate raisins in any type of pastry, I opted to chop up some apricots instead



This was my ugliest one so I ate it; was still delicious

 

Apricots

 

I still don't know what I'm doing though

 

The pace is so fast that I'm following the recipe, running back and forth while doing my "mise en place"

For most doughs, we mix the yeast in the water (or milk, when applicable) after it's temped to allow some fermentation.

Portion out all other ingredients then make said dough. Sometimes it calls for kneading by hand, others to mix before window pane, others to add salt and/or butter separately (always soften your butter) and whatever else the recipe calls for.

Then while that mixes, you're onto "mise en place" for your next dough so that once the mixed dough is done, it goes into the proofer so you can mix the next one.

At the end of the day, it was all just a blur.