Rolls (Whole Wheat and Hard Rolls)
Today was the first day of Breads class! I have been waiting for this day since I figured out that I wanted to be a Bread Baker. We started out with introductions, and I found out that my Chef Instructor had a pizza place for years, and that he loves pizza dough (of course), and baguettes. He lived for several years over in Europe, and fell in love with the breads culture over there. Unfortunately, he said, many Americans just want Wonder Bread, so the culture surrounding breads is different here than in Europe and other places. I had known this from seeing the difference for myself on my recent visit to Australia, but it was interesting to hear someone say the same thing.
We then had a good talk about the stages of bread baking. Chef told us a story about how he spent a year and a half reading bread books and trying to figure out why his breads didn't end up like they were supposed to, when he realized it was because he was cutting into them when they were still warm. This is why the cooling process is an integral part of the steps of bread baking. I've read this on my own as well on online bread forums, but many people say they can't resist and love eating a warm piece of freshly baked bread. This is something I struggle with in my home baking, as my wife is pestering me to cut the bread from the moment that it's taken out of the oven!
The class made different kinds of rolls today, and I made the whole wheat dinner rolls. They were the first in the proofer, thus having the correct amount of time proofing, which in turn made the end product the best in the class. (Our class time is 5 hours, but it's difficult to get the right amount of proofing done in that time!)
They were also delicious. And I don't say that often about whole wheat anything. So suffice it to say that I'm more than a little excited about this semester, and making breads!
We then had a good talk about the stages of bread baking. Chef told us a story about how he spent a year and a half reading bread books and trying to figure out why his breads didn't end up like they were supposed to, when he realized it was because he was cutting into them when they were still warm. This is why the cooling process is an integral part of the steps of bread baking. I've read this on my own as well on online bread forums, but many people say they can't resist and love eating a warm piece of freshly baked bread. This is something I struggle with in my home baking, as my wife is pestering me to cut the bread from the moment that it's taken out of the oven!
The class made different kinds of rolls today, and I made the whole wheat dinner rolls. They were the first in the proofer, thus having the correct amount of time proofing, which in turn made the end product the best in the class. (Our class time is 5 hours, but it's difficult to get the right amount of proofing done in that time!)
They were also delicious. And I don't say that often about whole wheat anything. So suffice it to say that I'm more than a little excited about this semester, and making breads!