Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Day 2: Bread

French Baguette

I was very much looking forward to my second day of school. Maybe even more than my first day. I was ready to really jump into the lesson and not worry about having a camera crew following my every move. Day 2 was our first day of yeast breads. I grew up making a lot of bread with my mother. She will tell you the story of when I was very young, my grandmother asked me what the first step to making bread was, and I replied, "you wash you hands". So naturally my fist step last night after putting my apron and student cap on, was to wash my hands. And good thing too, once you see how I was instructed to mix the dough. No electronics were used in the production of the bread last night.

Yeast breads have always been a challenge to me. The require a lot of patience.... but the reward is great. We had several recipes to choose from. I took on the French bread and the Baguettes. We also made pizza dough so we would have some dinner to eat while we worked through the bread making process. Last night's class was rather laid back due to the hurry up and wait nature of making bread. Our instructor informed us that there are not likely to be many classes like this going forward, so we took advantage of it and enjoyed some food and wine while working with our bread.

The breads turned out beautiful and delicious. I left class with my arms full of warm, yeasty scented loaves of bread. I made a stop on my way home, and when getting back into my car, I was greated with the heavenly smell of the fresh baked bread. Probably the best my car has ever smelled. I'm going out today to get some brie and maybe some ham, and I'll be all set for lunch.

Tonight is the 3 hour seminar class. We are covering knife skills. Lets hope no one looses a finger. Then it's back to work at Sur La Table for the weekend and maybe practicing some of the recipes I learned this week before returning to school again next Monday. Have I mentioned I'm really enjoying myself?

Here are the photos from last night:

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