BAKING AND PASTRY TECHNIQUES

April 10, 2013

It was a crazy hectic stressful yet exciting day in class today.  We were assigned teams first thing after getting in.  I am part of Team #1.  The Chef indicates each team will be assigned a week where we are the sous chefs in the kitchen. The sous chefs will be responsible for making sure the ovens are on, the  shelves and refrigerators are organized, and coordinate and direct clean up in the kitchen.  This is a difficult task as we have never worked in this particular kitchen with this equipment and we will be directing our peers. Of course then she says we are starting with Team #1 this week. 

We are making french bread and white pan bread.  So we get into the kitchen and after getting our aprons and hats on my team sets up the proof box and getting the ovens started and temps adjusted. These ovens take about an hour to heat up so we had to make sure this was done first. After this task was complete, we started scaling for the french bread (lean dough), dividing up so each person takes an ingredient. Once all the ingredients were scaled accurately, I am excited that we are starting the mixing procedure and actually making something.  Unfortunately this is short lived as the Chef comes by 2 minutes later and says our dough is not right.  This is so deflating and I feel nervous that we have possibly screwed up on our first baking task as she is patiently trying to salvage our dough by mixing more water in to it.  



After several tense minutes of watching and discussing issues that could have happened to the mix, the Chef has done all she can do and the dough looks horrible, the water was too hot when originally added to the mix. She indicates that we can use it as is or make a new batch.  We opted for the new batch. 



While waiting for the second batch of lean dough to mix, we move on to scaling the white pan bread (rich dough).  I have scaled out the butter and am putting my knife down and somehow nick one of my fingers ever so slightly. The knives are very sharp so I am now bleeding and have to ask the Chef to bandage me up.  I have to double glove it the rest of the class. Not the best start so far, LOL.

The white pan bread formula (all recipes are referred to formulas because baking is a science) goes as planned and we now have both doughs fermenting in the proof box. At this point, I ask the Chef if we are good to start moving the mixers out into the hall (all the movable equipment has to be removed from the kitchen to scrub the floor thoroughly).  She indicates that it was a good time. Now the kitchen is completely chaotic as everyone is running around and talking to each other.  I attempt to talk over everyone to direct them to start moving equipment out and about 15 seconds in the Chef interrupts by loudly yelling for everyone to be quiet and listen up because I have been trying to unsuccessfully direct the class. She then asks that I use by outdoor voice.
I am now completely embarrassed as all eyes are on me and the room is totally silent as I direct everyone to move equipment out the door. Ah, one of my finer moments in life. 

While our dough was fermenting, the Chef shows us the remaining steps to completed our dough production before baking, punching, portioning, rounding, shaping and proofing. We complete the rest of the tasks without incident.  With the extra dough we made rolls.  The chef showed us how to use the dough cutting machine for rolls and make two different shapes (a standard roll shape and a knot).    



The knot was easy but the standard shape requires locking your hands together at the base of your index fingers so your thumbs cross over one another and using the index through the ring fingers in an arch applying just the right pressure to roll the dough. Everyone struggled with this and as you can see the shapes need some work. We added cheese and onion topping to some before baking. Others received melted butter or butter, garlic, parsley topping out of the oven.  

After the breads came out of the oven, we set up the window display and wrapped up our breads to take home.  The breads taste wonderful.