Adriana Goes to Culinary School: Yummy Breads!

Second week of Breads is complete!

The week started of with our first practical exam for this class. The week seamed to go by so slowly, not sure why. I think Spring Break through me off- it's been hard for me to get back into my studying routine.

So, here is what we did this week and the photos!

Monday: 4.11.11

Today was our Practical. Our Practical was on Baguettes and Decorative Bread. Silly me, I thought Decorative Bread meant êpis, which is a form of baguette that is cut to look like the shape of leaves. Instead, our teacher told us to make milk bread, I think it was, to shape for our decorative breads portion of our practical. No worries though, I ended up getting 95 points out of 100 on the practical. I was really happy with my score.

Here are my photos of my practical!

These are my baguettes. The one on the right is shaped into an êpi.

Here is my decorative bread made with the milk bread. I did some simple braids and I did some knots. I think that the rolls proofed for too long because the knots were knot defined- they melted together.

Tuesday: 4.12.11

Today we started our Sourdough starter which we will be using to make sourdough bread later in the term.

We also made our sponge for our herb focaccia. We made it a day before because it needed to ferment over night in order to use it the next day for our herb focaccia.

We also made pretzels! Yum! I worked with a new partner this day, I worked with Buck. Here are our pretzels!

I decided to make my pretzels plain (no salt) because I wanted to "dress them up" when I got them home. So, I melted some butter and sprinkled cinnamon and sugar on top. They were so tasty!

Wednesday: 4.13.11

Today we finished our Herb Focaccia. We topped it with rosemary and sea salt. It didn't come out very well. I think it needed to proof a little longer because it ended up not raising enough in the oven. My classmate Cindy suggested that I should make croutons out of it so I think I am going to do that this weekend and maybe put them on top of a caesar salad.

We also made a whole wheat soaker and Pat Fermente for our whole wheat bread to makeup the next day.

We had some extra time so we made desserts to freeze for an even that is taking place next weekend for the Ronald McDonald Charity Organization. I worked with my classmate, Sarah, and we made cinnamon brownies. Other classmates made pound cake.

Thursday: 4.14.11

Today we finished our whole wheat bread. Buck and I made two loaves of it. When it was time to put them in the oven I wasn't sure if we were required to score them so I scored one and left the other one alone. The one that was scored came out really nice. The one that wasn't scored raised unevenly.

This is the one that was scored.

Here is the one that wasn't scored.

It's essential to score the loaves so that it has a place for the steam to escape. Buck took home the score loaf since he would be eating it more- I didn't really like the taste of it.

Here is a photo of the loaf sliced.

We also made Santa Fe Chile Cheese rolls. They sound a lot better than they actually were. Maggie suggested that they probably needed more salt. The dough wasn't very flavorful even though there were spices in it. We rolled them up like cinnamon rolls and filled them with chopped chiles and shredded cheddar cheese. Here they go. The time written on the parchment paper is a reminder for us to know when we put the dough into the proof box.

Friday: 4.15.11

Somehow the syllabus for our class got messed up and we had the same assignment for Friday and Monday. When Chef Jen realized the mistake she told us that we could just practice any bread of our choice. Maggie and I worked together and we made Baguette dough. The entire class also made Yellow Cupcakes for the Ronal McDonald Charity Organization.

I didn't take a photo of my baguette. I shaped the rest of my baguette dough into a turtle and a heart. Maggie made a girl with hair and a bunny rabbit. Here they are before going into the oven (after proofing).