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Breads & Rolls – 1st full week

Lord am I tired. 

Monday and Tuesday our class ran long by about 30 minutes.  This does not sound so bad until you consider class is from 7pm to 9:50pm and my drive home is 20 minutes.  I am a little exhausted.

Night 1 –  We started with our 'sour' sponge for baguettes.  I say 'sour' because we added half an onion to make a mock-sourdough.  We also revisited two Fun-bake standards, White Pan Bread and Honey Wheat Bread.  We also made straight dough baguettes.  My team, which consists of two ladies from my Saturday Fun-Bake class and one fellow I have not met before but is quite nice, was able to split up the recipes and power through them with little difficulty.  We were, in fact, one of the first groups to finish.

Other teams, however, were not so cohesive.  One team in particular decided the best way to get the bread done was to have the entire group work on each recipe one at a time.  That took them a far longer to get the bread in the proof box, and their loafs went into the ovens with only a partial proof. 

Another issue is the ovens.  Only one or our two large rack ovens and one of the two convection ovens work.  This makes it difficult to bake all the bread.  You really can't bake a pullman loaf of white bread with baguettes that require steam, but there is not enough space in the convection to fit 12 pullman pans. 

Night 2 – Things got a bit wacky.  First, the mixers decided not stop working because a fuse blew.  Then, one of the groups decided that they needed to work where our team was working, and we were forced to move to the larger bake shop table that was crowded with other peoples equipment.  Also, people were dumping flour, yeast and water on my tools and bag, and they borrowed my scale with out asking if it was ok.  (It would have been if they had asked.  I am not a selfish bitch.)  Finally, some of the groups from night 1 still need work on timing and organization.

Needless to say, I was not a happy camper last night.  I am wondering if every week will be this way. Will I ever sleep on a Monday or Tuesday again?

Despite all this, I know this class will be really good for me.  There is so much I have to learn, and this class will offer me the chance to ask someone for advice who has baked for a living.  Added to that, we bake so much in three hours that I am getting a good picture of what a real running bakery is like.  I need all the preparation I can get!

I have pictures to post, and this time I mean it!!  I will have my darling upload them for me because it is still a mystery to me how it works.  Someday I will learn, but not now.

Author: Kelly

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