Summertime…

July 10th, 2008, by Francesca

and the living is easy… or at least easier than last term. In spite of having two classes instead of one (last term I didn't have to take any academics) and in spite of those classes being on two campuses, having no convenient parking available at either location, no A/C in our old car while temperatures are in the nineties and hundreds, me driving in the middle of the day, etc.… in spite of all that, I am enjoying my first week in Baking more than I had expected.

Today's production

And the math class doesn't seem too bad either. Granted, it's early days so I may have to review my assessment, but things are looking good and our fridge and freezer are overflowing with baked goodies.

Challah

This term is all about baking bread and this is a summary of my first week in Baking & Pastries 1.

  • Monday: made French bread dough (overnight fermentation)
  • Tuesday:
    • baked baguettes + épi with the French bread dough
    • Made whole wheat dinner rolls
  • Wednesday:
    • Made Pan de mie and Challah
    • Made brioche dough (overnight fermentation)
    • Made yogurt starter for sourdough bread next week
  • Thursday:
    • Baked brioches à tête and Nanterre loaf from brioche dough
    • Made Amish style soft pretzels
    • Made bagels
    • Made pizza dough for tomorrow
  • Friday:
    • Will bake pizza
    • Will make focaccia
    • Will make whole wheat pita

Baguette and épi

There's no more room in the freezer and we are having breakfast for dinner. Tonight we had a rather strange dinner with pretzels, bagels and brioches, followed by Ben's latest sorbet creation. We started with lemon-vodka sorbet last week and now we are having lemon/lime sorbet with tequila, à la margarita. Hey, we like Mexican food and it's informing our experiments. If you spot typos in this post, blame it on the tequila. :)

Pain de mie

Did I mention that the whole household is enjoying this baking adventure? Tuesday night Pipie was sitting on the kitchen counter with his face covered in flour. He had gotten to the bag with the baguettes – sprinkled with a dry wash of pastry flour – but I was too tired to run for the camera.

6 Responses to “Summertime…”

  1. Steven Kesler Says:
    MMmm... Pizza dough. I started making my own pizza dough and have a couple dough balls ready for homemade pizza napoletana.
  2. Maud Says:
    Oh, how professional your baking looks! It's like eye candy!
  3. Lydia Says:
    How fun! I've really taken to baking in the last couple of years; it would be great to learn it at a professional level, but then I wouldn't want to go through what you've gone through so far. Too bad you didn't get that pic of that rascal Pipie!
  4. Grace Says:
    Boo. I love mischievious pics of Pipie.
  5. Theresa Says:
    Loving bread as I do, think I gained five pounds just looking at the picturesl
  6. MaryjoO Says:
    wow -- that is a LOT! I can't wait to get settle and do more. Bagels -- I have a recipe from a friend but haven't tried it yet as he uses a bread machine to knead, then proofs and broils and then boils ... does that make sense? I'm sure it will once I try it. Any recommendations on flours would be nice, too! I'm a King Arthur groupie because I have to order this stuff from the US, but I'm sure there are cheaper local things, and remember, I'll be in CA! What kind of yeast are you using, also? I've been buying the KArthur instant proofing or whatever it's call yeast, but in the past have just bought the Fleishmann's brand from the supermarket. (you can see I'm catching up with blog postings....)

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