ARTISAN BREADS AND VIENNOISERIE

July 11, 2013

This week we started Artisan Breads and Viennoiserie (baked goods made from a yeast-leavened dough in a manner similar to bread).  In class we went over the function of flour, the different grades of flour, aging and bleaching of flours and proper storage.   

In the kitchen we began by making a yeast sourdough starter which we call our sourdough babies and each team named them. My team named our sourdough baby "Gru". The sourdough starter was made of:

10 oz. of unbleached patent flour
 2 oz. of whole wheat flour
 8 oz. of lukewarm water

It was mixed together in a bowl for about 5 minutes with our hands then we wrapped it up in a container with plastic wrap.  It will take about a week to grow. We are required to feed the baby every day by adding equal parts unbleached flour and water. The container that the starter is stored in must be cleaned each time the baby is fed. As the baby grows, some days we will be removing some of the mixture and other days just adding to the mix. We will use this sourdough starter in breads we make next week.

We also made Cuban Bread, Italian Bread, and French Baguettes.