And bread week concludes

Several of my classmates had glazed eyes this afternoon, and many of us felt we were approaching diabetic coma levels of sugar from the carbs by mid afternoon. We covered a LOT of ground this week, and made a lot of different types of bread as you can see from the bread buffet assembled today to showcase samples of each….. We covered variations of basic breads, Artisan breads, ancient grains, low gluten, fruit breads, flatbreads, croissants and Danish and all forms of laminated dough; sourdough both sweet and savoury and with loose and stiff levain. We did variations of white, brown, and multigrain bread….

Thank you to all the cows that provided the plentiful butter we went through on brioche, croissant and Danish days…..

We baked lovely pizza dough today that was in the works since yesterday, and had that for lunch – then went back into class and were offered samples of flatbread, the gorgeous Danish pastries you will see on the buffet, and baked sourdough, multigrain sourdough, curry buns, and pretzels. All interspersed with salty info on marketing, profit margins, and options for bakery production.

One could have induced diabetes just watching Michel, our main teacher, decorate – after piping chocolate cream into a rich Danish pastry ring, he will decorate with chocolate ganache, chopped pecans, and then snow sugar on half to make it look zippy… it wasn’t enough to bake a double Danish ring with pastry cream, it was filled with diplomat cream, topped with raspberries or blueberries, and then sprinkled with pistachios and powdered sugar… The finished results are divine, but not fare one could sample often without consequences. All three of our teachers are slim and fit, and one reason is that they dance around the kitchen at full speed all day – one day this week we watched in amazement as Michel managed 10 different timers simultaneously, all measuring different stages of different breads (bench resting, proofing, baking, or mixing). Truly impressive, and skills imported from being an executive chef of a large bakery where time management determines production quantities and revenue.

Coming home with me today were curry buns, sourdough bread, and multigrain sourdough. Definitely going for a hike tomorrow to work some of this week’s sampling off! Sunday I am moving to my final accomodation so can finally unpack and put my bicycle together.