Last I left you, strangers were eating my tarts at Starbucks. Since then, I had a relatively uneventful week of exams (I guess that’s good for exams, right?) that included making ice cream/ice cream cake, tarts, sugar candies, and plated desserts. I messed up one of my recipes and had to remake it, but thankfully this set of exams was significantly less hectic and stressful than our first set (which included making both a sugar and chocolate showpiece), so I had plenty of time to remake it and turn in a much better product. Phew!
This week we switched kitchens for the first time since July and are no longer in the basement dungeon of K1! The school has 3 main instructing kitchens – K1, K2, and K3. Now that we’re in K2 upstairs, we have beautiful bright windows, tons of space, and an important differentiating factor: wooden table tops perfect for doughs and breads.
We started the week making toast bread (bread you use for toast, I guess?) This bread was deliciousssssss! Just fluffy, white, soft bread. My favorite. Apparently my partner and I didn’t butter the mold well enough because it came out prettyyyy busted up (see right). Still tasted good though!
We also learned to make brioche in 2 different forms, whole wheat bread, lemon pound cake (LOVED it), croissants, beignets, French bread, beer bread, Farmer’s bread (rye/wheat bread with walnuts), and danishes with pastry cream and apricots. Although not exactly French in nature, we also made blueberry muffins and waffles because since they’re so popular, businesses sometimes offer these options as well.
I didn’t get a picture of the beignets, but they reminded me a lot of soufganiot from Channukah, except they weren’t filled with anything. Just rolled in cinnamon/sugar. They’re really best eaten fresh out of the oil, so I just had a taste in class and didn’t even attempt to take the rest home to get a picture.
It’s impossible to stop eating this bread. I took one bite of the Farmer’s bread, and honestly half the loaf was gone before I knew it! I’m also not usually the biggest fan of croissants because of all the butter (biiiig no for me). I’m not sure if I’m just becoming more accustomed to the taste of butter or I’m actually starting to enjoy it, but these croissants were the most flakey, warm, delicious croissants I’ve ever had.
There is SO much to learn about making breads from the different types of yeast and flour, to how the ingredients interact with each other, to proofing techniques, to new machinery, to rolling and shaping the dough, and so much more. Chef Jonathan lives and breathes bread, and learning from him has been awesome! More breads to come next week!
With a Side of Butter 