Friday, April 30, 2010

04/29-30/10 - Class - Breads Week 3

Lots of bread this week. The was we do our breads was rearranged a little so that we'd have enough time to get everything done correctly, after last week's issues. On Thursday we fully baked two breads, prepared two breads through shaping and proofed overnight, and then just prepared the ingredients for three more breads to fully prepare on Friday.

On Thursday we made two breads. The first was country bread. It is the same as last week, only this time we made it in a different shape. This time it was a fleur shape. We'll be making it several more times to try various shapes, since it is a simple recipe.
The second bread that we made was Fougasse, a flatbread from Provence. It was kinda interesting. It was made with rosemary and olive oil so it's slightly reminiscent of focaccia. After fermenting, it is rolled into a fairly large rectangle and then cut into various shapes. It is classically cut like a sheaf of wheat with one cut down the center then more on either side. I made mine a little more unique.

On Friday we baked a lot of breads, six total with the new class layout. The first bread that we baked was 100% whole grain bread. This was the bread that we prepared last week but ran out of time to bake and so froze. I'm not sure how the freezing affected the final dough, but I liked it (though I don't think it was all that popular overall, since people don't want something even moderately healthy). It was rather dense though so perhaps the freezing affected proofing and rise.
The second bread was prepared on Thursday up to proofing and then retarded overnight in the refrigerator. This was a sesame semolina bread. I think it turned out really nicely, it looked very good. The only thing is that the chef forgot about the sesame seeds so it's really just a semolina bread, but that's fine with me, I don't really like sesame seeds.
The second dough that we retarded overnight was a sourdough whole wheat bread. It's kinda similar to what I usually make at home, but it's 50/50 flour like how I first started making it as opposed to 100%. Unfortunately this one didn't turn out the best. It got overproofed and so when we transferred it to bake, we tried to deflate it a little. It rose okay but was pretty small and dense, nothing too great. Probably okay for toast or something.
The first of the breads that we completely made on Friday was called Francese. It is like an Italian style of a French baguette. Instead of shaping it like a baguette, instead it is spread into a rectangle and cut into strip and then baked like a baguette. It makes it a little more rough and rustic looking. They had to be baked in the conventional oven due to time so there was no steam, hence the pale color.
Next was a Rustic Filone. This was pretty simple, I can't recall what really makes it unique at all. It used both a poolish and a levain, I guess that is what is special about it, though I do not know how using both would affect the bread. It baked very nicely though, it was pretty light and came out very well.
Finally we made a New York Rye, pretty basic rye bread. I personally am not a huge fan of rye bread but this came out really well. It had a great rye aroma. What surprised me is how light and soft it felt, since I tend to associate rye with being a fairly dense bread like whole wheat. It came out really nicely though.

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