Bread Day Breeds Brain Confusion

My head is all jumbled with all the new terms, techniques and tools that the second module of pastry school, the bread and pastry dough module, threw at our class today. We had a new chef, a man chef who is a little sassy, very cocky, and who seems to like our us just fine. He talks too fast and gives definitions that are way too intense but he is enjoyable and helpful and he doesn't yell. Apparently we don't have him for the whole module though, he is just filling in for a few days until we get yet another chef. We will see. I honestly cannot even remember everything that we did today but I will try and sum it up.

We started by making a semolina dough. It was a pretty easy dough to make and I will probably try to make it at home one day and share the recipe with y'all but I have to check and see what changes would need to be made to make it at home first. At school we have little baskets to proof our bread in and we also have an actual bread proofing box. The box kind of looks like a fridge but it has tons of shelving and is warm and humid. Putting the bread in there sort of speeds up the rising process and made it possible for us to have raw ingredients turned into actual baked bread within a couple of hours. The bread was quite dense and would probably make for a nice French toast or grilled cheese but it is a touch bland for munching on though I'm sure Collin Murray will enjoy it when he tries it. Throughout the bread rising and proofing process, we learned about baker's percentages which are super confusing, made sourdough starter that I have to feed tonight before I go to sleep, and we also made a sponge dough (which I think means a starter that ferments prior to being used...but don't quote me on that) that we will use tomorrow. The nice thing was that there were a lot less dishes but it was also a bit of a whirlwind.

Tomorrow I believe that we are making French bread and working with the sponge dough too. I am sure there will be more discussion of gluten and yeast and flour and of our sourdough starters and I will be sure to share them with y'all. Until then, enjoy the bread pictures!


View one of the boule


We made two loaf shapes, a batton (a longer loaf) and a boule (pronouned like fool with a "b" and a round-shaped loaf). This is the batton which we topped with seasame seeds. It know it's a weird photo but since my partner and I spilt the loaf, it was really the only photo that looked halfway ok.


View Two