So that's it, I've now finished my two week placement!

I had the best time, & I've learnt so much, I'm still trying to take it all in =) 

The last week ran to the same schedule as last week; lots of weighing out, mixing, scaling, shaping, scoring & baking!  We even experimented with some ciabattas & baguettes as well; it was nice to try my hand at baguettes again, & nice to know I can still remember how to shape them!  My baguette scoring could still do with some work, but it's getting better =)

The nights seemed to run more smoothly this week; Dom did a lot of the weighing out the day before, so we were able to get started on the mixing & baking earlier.  I went out on deliveries with Dom on Tuesday too.  It was nice to get out in the fresh air after a long night baking, & it was great to see some of the restaurants the Bakehouse supply =)

Dom commented that I'd improved over the two weeks, particularly in my shaping, which was lovely to hear.  I could certainly see the difference in my shaping of the dough, & by the end of the week my scoring had come on leaps & bounds as well.

I was totally in charge of the sourdough bakes Wednesday & Thursday night; everything from setting out the breads on the baking sheets, scoring the tops, loading the ovens, monitoring the bakes & then finally unloading the loaves.  By the end of the week, my Pain de Campagne's looked almost as good as Dom's, & he even remarked on how well the sourdoughs had come out =)

I found it easier this week to get into my crazy sleeping pattern, although I found I wasn't as tired as early as I was last week, which made getting enough sleep a little more tricky.  But I think I managed it well enough.  I've been just as achey, & got a couple more burns the first two nights, but they weren't as bad as my first burn!  My hands have been worse this week though; incredibly sore & dry, but tonnes of hand cream has helped enormously!

I've had the best time on placement, it's been such a great experience & I do feel like I've improved a lot.  It's been a great insight into how a bakery actually works, & how much work is involved in getting the breads out in time for the shop to open.

It hasn't put me off either!  I still love baking; there's no better feeling than seeing all the bread out on the racks, ready to be bought & devoured.  It makes all the hard work, the sleeplessness, the physical aches & pains totally worth it =D

Now I'm looking forward to nice break, with some festive baking thrown in of course, before heading back to School in January.

The posts will be fewer over until I get back to School, but I will let you know how the festive baking goes!  In the meantime, have a very Merry Christmas! =D

So I've now finished the first week of my placement, & what a week it's been!

Thursday & Friday followed much the same pattern as the previous two nights; mixing the sourdoughs, shaping the yeasted breads & baking off the sourdoughs from the night before, as well as baking off the pastries etc.  Saturday was another story...

There was no mixing to be done, so I foolishly assumed it would be an easier night; how wrong I was!

While we didn't need to do any mixing, there was a huge amount of bread to be baked, far more than the other nights I'd worked.  Dominic was away as well, so I was working with Sheila, who originally set up the bakery four years ago.  Sheila doesn't do much of the baking these days, but remains the director of the company.

So while I'd begun to feel like I'd gotten the hang of things working with Dom, it felt like it was my first night all over again working with Sheila, simply because they work in different ways.  It really is true that every baker has their own way of shaping the dough, so I was learning new techniques, which threw me off slightly...

I also felt the night didn't run quite as smoothly as it should have; we lost a couple of loaves which over-proved past the point of saving, which was a shame, & it was a much later finish than either of us expected.

But, we got there in the end, & even finished a last minute order for 50 mince pies in record time!  I also had the opportunity to serve in the shop, which was daunting, but fun =)  I think it might take me a little time to get to grips with the till, but all the customers were lovely, & as most are regulars, they were very forgiving of poor inexperienced me! 

I eventually finished about 12.30, so just a short 11 1/2 shift to end the week =)  It really has been amazing; lots of physically & mentally hard work, & I ache now, particularly in my hands & back, but it's been such a great experience.  To have the opportunity to work in an established bakery is fantastic; getting to handle large batches of dough, & being able to scale & shape the whole lot, rather than just a few pieces here & there has proved so useful.  I feel like I've learnt a lot so far, & I hope I'll learn still more next week.

It's the first time the School have sent the students off to placement just before Christmas; in previous years I think they've waited till the end of term two.  I hope it will prove to have been a good idea; I certainly think it has been =)

I've spent this weekend catching up on some much needed sleep, & generally taking it easy.  Tomorrow will see me trying to get back into my bakers sleeping pattern, but I don't think it'll be too hard; I'm still shattered now!

Well, it's Wednesday afternoon.  4.27pm to be exact.  In just 30 minutes, I'll be heading off to bed to catch a few hours kip, before I get up at 11.00pm, so I can get to Shrewsbury ready to start work at 1.30am.

That's right folks; its placement week!

I'm working my placement at the Shrewsbury Bakehouse; a great little bakery, just a short train ride from my house.  I've done two shifts so far, starting at 1.30am & finishing up around 10.30am.

So far the hardest part has been trying to adjust to a new sleeping pattern.  It's so odd going to bed when most people are just finishing work, & even odder getting up when folks are thinking about going to bed!  Thankfully, its dark by 4.30pm here, so it hasn't been too weird; I think it would have been harder trying to get to sleep in the daylight.

I've been working my shifts with Dominic, who now owns the Bakehouse & has for the last 12 months.  He's been great to work with; really helpful & willing to teach, which is what these two weeks are all about.  I know I'm only on day two, but already I can see the difference in my shaping & cutting.  It's not perfect, not yet, but it's getting there =)

In my first shift, I was helping to weigh out the ingredients for the sourdough breads, scaling & shaping the sourdoughs made the night before, scoring the breads before baking, setting out the breads on the shelves & taste testing the brownies, to make sure they were still lovely & chocolaty (they were!) =D

Last night, or this morning, however you look at it, I was in charge of weighing out all the ingredients, mixing the doughs, & setting out the first bake, including the scoring, loading & unloading of the oven!  My scoring wasn't perfect, but it wasn't awful either =)

I did make one mistake; weighing out 5kg of wholemeal flour rather than white flour, but it was 2.00am, so I think I can be forgiven! 

It's hard work, physically & mentally.  I ache today, not too badly, but enough to have made a long hot bath a necessity!  My feet ache, my arms & hands are sore, & it's been quite a struggle not to fall asleep on the train home, but I'm thoroughly enjoying my placement so far.

The last two days have flown by, & I'm sure the rest of the week will as well.  Hopefully I'll carry on improving & I'll get used to the hours, but for now, I'm going to make myself a lovely herbal tea, & think about heading off to bed =)

Night all!

This week was our last of term one, before we all head out on our placements, but the baking was as full on as ever!

Monday saw us making Mexican pastries, Bath buns & Maple & Pecan loaves.  The Mexican pastries were similar to a Brioche; a sweet enriched dough, shaped in a little bun.  They were slightly sweeter than Brioche, & were topped with a sweet paste, which we coloured & shaped using a shell/conche mould.

Mexican parties, ready for baking!

Two of the pastries were topped with a chocolate based topping, others were left plain & topped with sugar nibs instead.

Next up were the Maple & Pecan loaves, & they really were gorgeous!  The maple syrup wasn't too overpowering, just a slight hint of sweetness.  We added sesame seeds to the mix, to boost the nuttiness & it really worked.  Pecans also happen to be one of my favourite nuts, so I adored this bread!

Lovely Nutty Loaves =)

The Bath buns were next; epically fruity, sugary little buns, they went down a treat as well!

Usually, at the end of the day, there are a few loaves & sweet buns left over for the staff to take home with them... There were no Bath buns left!  We had them still warm from the oven, & they really were amazing!

Tuesday we had a French baking masterclass from two guys from Moul Bie.  We used their flours to make baguettes, & a variety of other loaves. 

It was great to have more practise at moulding & cutting, & to work with French flour, but the gents from Moul Bie did kinda hog all the mixing!

Wednesday was our last day of baking, & we made Cornish Saffron Loaves, Stottie Cakes, Turkish Pide & Challah breads.

The saffron loaves were actually really nice; I wasn't sure at first as I'm not a massive fan of saffron, but the bread was lovely, sweet & fruity =)

Ready for Baking

Almost all gone!

The Stottie breads were really tasty as well, I'd heard of them before, but never tried one.  The loaves are a traditional oven bottom baked bread, & are usually flipped over halfway through baking, giving them a flattened appearance.

They were really tasty too, very light & fluffy!

The Turkish Pide breads were lovely as well; they're a flat bread with a lovely soft dough =)

They were brushed with egg wash, then topped with sesame seeds & poppy seeds & scored with a pizza cutter (to help prevent them bubbling up too much in the oven).

The Challah breads are a traditional Jewish plaited loaf, enriched with honey, eggs & butter, & they were huge!

My plait, ready for proving

They rose so much in the oven, & were a dark golden brown colour.  They're similar again to a Brioche in texture; less sweet, but very tasty!

Thursday, me & my fellow Dairy students headed off to the Good Food Show at the NEC, Birmingham, to see the World Cheese Awards, & generally have a foodie day!

The World Cheese Awards were huge! I've never seen so much cheese in one place before; all kinds of cheeses, in all shapes, sizes & flavours, from all over the world.  There were even a couple of cheeses from my home county of Shropshire; Belton Cheese Ltd's Creamy Lancashire won a gold! =D

We spent the rest of the day wandering round, looking at the stalls, & stocking up on free samples!  My favourite stall of the day was Demijohn, the liquid Deli.  They had the most wonderful drink (which will remain unspecified, because it's a Christmas gift for someone I know, & they read this blog!)

I also treated myself to a lovely raw milk goats cheese; a little pricey at £10.00, but I think it'll be a great way to introduce my family to the wonders of raw milk cheeses =)

Today is our last free study Friday, & while a few people have already gone back home to prepare for their placements, a lot of us are heading back in to School today for an epic Christmas lunch.  It's been a lovely week, a great way to end the term & it's even been a little emotional (I think it might get a bit more emotional at lunch!)

I'll post again before I start my placement, but for now, I'm going to finish my packing & head out for a last coffee with the girls before our lovely lunch =)

We finished School early today, which means I have time to tell you all about last week, before heading out for some tasty beer! =D

Last week was quite a busy week; the Welbeck Farm Shop Christmas Fair was just a few days away, & we needed to get baking, so we'd have treats to sell.  We settled for gingerbread & shortbread, as both keep well & both are tasty Christmas treats.

The class split into two groups; one tackled the gingerbread, the other the shortbread.  I was on the shortbread team, & I have never seen so much shortbread in all my life!  We made plain shortbread, which was cut into bauble, snowflake, star and shortbread boy (well, we couldn't call them 'gingerbread men' could we?) shapes.  We also made chocolate shortbread, which was cut into reindeer shapes  =)

Chocolate Shortbread Reindeer ready for baking

The team in charge of the gingerbread made the classic gingerbread men, as well as stars, candy canes, snowflakes and Christmas tree shapes =)

Gingerbread Stars, freshly dipped in chocolate

Shortbread Stars, with decoration

Gingerbread Candy Canes, with royal icing decoration

Gingerbread Christmas Tree decorations

So that was our Monday & Tuesday! All very hectic, but really rather fun =)

Wednesday we had an epic early start (circa 5.40am) for a trip down to Mono Bakery Equipment in Swansea.  They showed us round the factory where all the equipment is made, which was really interesting.  They also showed us a few of their ovens, spiral mixers, pastry dispensers, & the oven you'll find in most supermarkets, which was technologically very impressive, but from a food perspective, very depressing =(

The only human intervention in the creation of the bread, using those machines, is to put all the ingredients (including big bags of scary additives, improvers & preservatives) in the mixing bowl & press the big green 'start' button.  Less than an hour later, the fully developed dough emerges from the machine, all ready for baking... Very sad times indeed...

The saddest thing is, until you've tasted real, actual, hand-made, beautiful bread, you'd think the stuff from the supermarkets was alright.  I certainly used to.  Now I know I won't go near another supermarket loaf again!

But onto happier subjects, like Thursdays baking!  We made some lovely savoury goods, including beef & ale pies, Cornish pasties, pork pies & sausage rolls.

All my lovely baked meaty goods

We used hot water crust & savoury shortcrust pastry, both of which were fun to work with.  It was a really great day, a lovely end to a busy week.  All we had to do now was get ready for the Christmas Fair!

Originally we were supposed to be assessed on this fair, but collectively we decided that one week really wasn't enough time for us to create our products, complete market research, write reports etc; it was just too much work with not enough notice.  But, we were still keen to sell at the market, to get some experience at it  =)

I was on the Sunday team, & we turned up bright & early, fearing the worst for our stall after epic heavy rain & wind the previous night.  Sadly, the gazebo didn't survive, & we were relocated to just inside the farm shop doors.  We weren't really sure whether this was a good thing or not, but eventually we got our strategy right, & by the time the fair closed, we'd made just over £400!  Taking costings into account, that left us with £320 odd, all of which will go to Maire Curie Cancer Care =)

Sara on the stall, ready for a full day's trading!

That just about covers last week, so I'm almost up to date! (Hurrah!) 

Tomorrow I should be able to start up on this week, let you know what we've been doing in this, our final week before we head off on our placements =)

I really must apologise, I have been a very bad blogger recently, but I do have some genuine reasons, which I will set out below =)

Firstly, myself & my fellow students went off to Lille, France for a week, & while there was Internet available & I took my laptop, the slightly dodgy electrics in the hotel blew our adaptors two days in =/

Secondly, the week after getting back from France was full of epic report & essay writing.  I had a crazy yeast report to get in, then the major assignment for the first term; an 1,500 word comparison of roller & stone ground milling.

Finally, we've had the Welbeck Farm Shop Christmas Market to prepare for & attend.  Plus, my lovely boyfriend came to visit, so all in all I've been a very busy bunny.

So clearly I have a lot to catch up on, & I'm not going to attempt to do it all in one go!  Tonight I'm just going to cover France =)

We set off bright & early on Monday morning, & by evening we had crossed the border & were checking into the hotel.  We had a staggered morning on Tuesday; because of Mark's (our bus driver) working constraints, he couldn't take us all to Lesaffe training centre.  Instead, two of us (me & Tory) went in first thing with Wayne, David & Sarah, & the others caught various taxis.

Once we were all at the training centre & had had our breakfasts of pain au chocolates & coffee, we were ready to begin!  As you might expect, we made a lot of baguettes!

We experimented with different types of baguette dough, from a #no time' dough, ready in a few hours, to overnight fermentations with & without improvers, & a couple of sourdoughs.

It was really great to have more experience with moulding & cutting baguettes; they're such a tricky bread to get right, it was satisfying to get to make lots in one day, & to see them getting better & better  =)

Across the three days we also made Pain au Levains, Pain du Campagne's, Ciabatta's, Pandoro, Panetonne & Croissants!

Pain du Campagne dough moulded into a variety of shapes

Ciabattas!

Pandoro Mushrooms =)

Chocolate Chip Panettone dough

Croissants

I thoroughly enjoyed our time at Lesaffe; everyone was so friendly & helpful, even the staff who weren't there specifically to help us found time to offer tips & advice =)

We had some fairly interesting evenings too!  Joe bought his lion onesie to France, & by the time we left on Friday morning, everyone (bar Wayne) had worn it!  Loren wore it the whole way back to School on the minibus!  We got some interesting looks from passing cars, especially with Evil Wayne staring out of the window!

Wayne, & his long lost twin, Evil Wayne (can you guess who's who?)

In some ways I think the trip was as rewarding & fun as it was because I'm with so many awesome people on this course.  Everyone gets along so well, & it's amazing how close we've all gotten in such a short space of time =)

Amongst my (none baking related) highlights of the trip are: 

• The lion onesie
• Interesting French-English translations of menus
• Excellent cheap fizzy wine
• The 'Mexican' drawing game...
• Static-hair balloon attacks

Next time, I'll be covering last week & the epic preparation for the Christmas market!  I can't promise it'll be done tomorrow because we're off to the launch of Welbeck Brewery's Christmas beer, Santa Baby, but you never know =D

Oh my, it's been quite a busy week, so I must apologise for not updating sooner, I am a bad blogger... =(

The week started off calmly enough; we conducted the last of our bread experiments, this time looking at the effects of levels of sugar, with both a standard yeast & an osmotolerant yeast, & vinegar in dough =)

Suffice to say, vinegar makes dough very sticky & almost impossible to handle!  Excess sugar tends to leave you with extremely caramelised crusts & vinegar just leaves the loaf looking rather sad...

We also set down some sourdoughs using packet cultures; not quite in keeping with artisan ideals, but still... =)

Tuesday the sourdoughs were ready to use, and we were each able to make up any sort of bread we fancied, so long as it used the sourdoughs somewhere.  I chose to make up some cottage loaves; I hadn't had chance to do a cottage loaf yet, but the shaping looked like fun & everyone raved about previous cottage loaves that had been made.

I made a standard cottage loaf using a sourdough culture, & two smaller loaves with fig & walnut =)

They came out looking pretty good, & were really rather tasty too!

Tuesday night was, quite frankly, horrendous.

The accommodation at Creswell is great, on the surface... But the longer we've been here, more & more problems have arisen... Epic bathroom leaks, boilers which are temperamental to say the least, to smoke alarms which go off for no apparent reason.  And the smoke alarms were the problem Tuesday...

They were supposed ti have been fixed during the day, but they went off again at 8pm, then 9pm, then 12pm, then every 20 minutes after, all night long, meaning neither Loren or I got any sleep, at all!  So Wednesday at School was interesting to say the least!

Feeling rather emotional, I managed to solider on through, & tried my hand at baguettes again =)  We worked up two batches, one with a traditional poolish & not so traditional sourdough base, the second with a pure sourdough base.  The first batch moved as expected & we ended up with some, well, not appalling baguettes!

They look like such a simple bread, but the moulding & cutting is quite tricky to get the hang of... o.0

We also looked at beer barm breads, made using a yeast culture from the Welbeck Brewery, just across the yard from the School =)

(I don;t have any pictures unfortunately; in my sleep deprived state I completely forgot to pick up my camera!)

Thankfully by the time we got home, the dodgy smoke alarms had been removed & new ones installed, so I actually got some sleep!! =D

Thursday arrived & I was feeling really rather chipper =D

We had flour confectionery today, & the class was taught by Emmanuel, who usually runs all the short courses at the School.  On the menu today were double cream scones, fruited scone wedges, raspberry buns, soda breads, then a whole load of hot plate goods; crumpets, pikelets & scotch pancakes =D

The soda breads came out looking & tasting fab...

The scones however, were another matter...

They look good don't they?  They tasted pretty good too, the first couple of bites at least, then you were hit by this awful chemically aftertaste!  It was such a shame, so many lovely looking scones, & none of them were edible!

We couldn't quite figure it out at first; we decided it was definitely a problem with the baking powder, but was it the quantity, or had it gone off somehow?

We persevered, & made up the raspberry buns, which also came out looking awesome =D

Admittedly the picture above is of them prior to baking, but you get the idea =)

Sadly though, they suffered from the same unusual & unpleasant taste... So Emmanuel suggested making them up again, but with a much reduced percentage of baking powder,  The second time round, they tasted delicious!  Success!

After that we moved onto the hot plate goods.  Crumpets & pikelets are made from the same mix; if they're made free form, like a pancake, then they're a pikelet, if they're made in a ring, they're a crumpet =)

The crumpets were really fun to make, & actually quite tasty =)  (I'm not generally a fan of crumpets, but these were way better then anything you could buy in a supermarket!)

Friday was a free study day, but a few of us did make it into School for research & a tasty lunch.  There we found Emmanuel, conducting experiments of the scones to determine if it was the quantity of baking powder, or the powder itself causing the problem.

My fellow students & I conducted the taste test, all in the name of science of course, & turns out the quantity is just fine.  The problem was with that particular batch of baking powder!  Very odd really, considering it was in date & we'd used it before with no issues, but apparently these things happen sometimes...

Friday night I had my second shift in the Welbeck Bakehouse.  We started at 6pm, & I was set to work laying out the croissants, tea cakes, chelsea buns & pain au raisins ready for baking.  Then I scaled & mixed up a batch of mince pie mix, before scaling & mixing up a batch of sweet pastry, making up some marzipan, helping to shape various loaves, & brushing the freshly baked foccacias with olive oil!

I had a really fun night, lots of hard work again, & it was great to do different things.  I think a part of me would have liked to do more scaling & shaping of dough, but most of that went to Tory, my companion for the evening.  It was Tory's first shift in the Bakehouse, so it makes sense that she'd get more time on scaling etc  =)

We finished up at 2.15am, with a warm almond croissant & olive bread each to take home, so despite some shaky beginnings, it's been a pretty good week =)

We're off to France on Monday, & I'll be taking my laptop, but I'm not sure yet how often I'll get to update.  I do promise to do my best though =D  There may even be a picture of me in a beret!

Apologies for the late update, but it's been a long, busy week!

Tuesday was another day of experimenting, this time with levels of hydration in bread.  We made a control loaf with 66% hydration, then one with 45% hydration, 55% hydration, 85% hydration & one with 100% hydration.

The 45% hydration dough was so difficult to work!  It had no flexibility or elasticity & wouldn't mould at all.  The 55% hydration was better, but still tricky to work.  The 85% hydration was a soft, wet dough, but it moulded fairly well & would hold its shape.  The 100% hydration was more like a cake batter than anything else!  It had no strength at all & we had to pour it into the tin!

Once all the loaves were baked & cooled, we sliced & compared them, just like we did with Monday's loaves =)

It was easier to see the differences in the loaves this time, as the water content alters the structure of the loaf, as the picture below shows =D

Wednesday was sort of a freestyle day, so we took the opportunity to experiment with patisserie!

I decided to make some Sable pastry, as we didn't have the ingredients to make it in the last patisserie session.  Normally, Sable pastry is piped into small biscuits, but I also wanted to perfect my creme patissiere, so I made some tartlets out of it instead!

I used the brioche a tete tins to mould the pastry, & they actually came out really well!  Before I moulded & baked the tartlets, I made up the creme patissiere so it would have time to cool & thicken in the fridge before being piped.

When we've made creme pat in class before, it hasn't quite worked properly; the first time we used gluten free flour, which really didn't help!  Other times I think we were just too cautious, & didn't cook it for long enough.

This time though, it worked a treat! =D

The tartlet cases came out really well too; below is a picture of the cases filled with creme pat, ready for decoration!

I love how striking they are, with the pale yellow creme pat & the rich chocolate pastry =D

I was really quite please with how they came out, they look so pretty! =D  (They're pretty tasty too!)

Thursday we were back in the Dairy, at long last!  There was some sort of hiccup in the scheduling, so we actually haven't had a minor session since the first week!

It really was great to be back in the Dairy, to actually get to make some cheese & see the process work properly.  The cheeses we made in the first week weren't quite as they should have been; the milk overtook us & we ended up with a firmer cheese than we should have...

This time though, we were ahead of the milk all the way!  We heated it to 30oC, added our started cultures & the rennet, then left it to do it's thing while we went & learnt about the history of cheese.

They don't really know where cheese first originated, but they suspect it may have been ancient Mesopotamia, back when they used animal stomachs to transport & contain water & other liquids.  The theory is that an ancient Mesopotamian went off on his horse for some epic long journey with a stomach full of milk (yum), & by the time he got to his destination, he had a stomach full of cheese! (yum yum)  But who knows =)

Once the milk had formed curds, we sliced them into cubes, then ladled them into our moulds.  This was a really relaxing zen-like process; you don't rush as you have to be quite gentle with the curds =)

Then, we left them to drain & settle.  They weren't quite firm enough for us to turn before the end of the day, but they were looking great & should be ready in a couple of weeks =)

Now I'm looking forward to a lazy weekend & a loooooooong lie in tomorrow, course I might just have to make some honeycomb ready for the bonfire Monday night!  =D

Today was a fairly. not boring, but less exciting day, certainly compared to the previous weeks.

We started the first of a series of experiments, which will look more closely at the roles of salt, water & yeast content in the baking process.  Today; salt =)

Working in pairs, we made a control loaf, with a fairly standard 2% salt content, a salt free loaf, a loaf with 0.5% salt content, one with 1.3% salt content (which complies with the Food Standards Agencies current guidelines) and a loaf with 4% salt content.

Sara & I were very methodical in our baking; we timed our control loaves entire progress; the amount of time we spent mixing the ingredients, the time spent on each knead, how long for total bulk fermentation & the length of time in the prover. 

While this may seem a little overboard, we figured it made sense.  The point of the experiment was to examine the effect of different percentages of salt content, so the salt needed to be the only variable.  We ensured that each of our loaves followed the same process, in the same time frames =)

I didn't take any pictures of the mixing/fermentation process; all the doughs looked more or less the same, so I thought it might be a bit boring!

Once all the loaves were baked & cooled, we weighed them, measured the height, examined the colour, texture, aroma, everything!

All our loaves.  From left to right: Control, no salt, 0.5% salt, 1.3% salt & 4% salt =)

Appearance wise, there weren't too many differences.  Some were taller (the 0.5% salt), some were much shorter (the 4% salt). 

However, once we cut into them & started our taste test, the differences became quite apparent!  The no salt loaf was awful!  So bland & tasteless, it was a very watery, almost papery flavour, if you can call it that...

The 4% salt wasn't too bad really,  it had a very salty aftertaste, but not unpalatable.  Perhaps a touch too salty for me really.

I preferred the control loaf out of the bunch, with 2% salt.  It had plenty of flavour, a good crust & a soft texture inside =)

Tomorrow, we're looking at water content; one of the loaves will have a 100% water content, so that could be very interesting! 

Another day of Patisserie, and we were looking at choux pastry, flan pastry & Viennese dough =)

I've never made choux pastry before, so I was quite keen to have a go, & actually it's quite easy.   The pastry, once made, has a lovely sheen to it, & is quite tasty!  Then, it was simply a case of piping it out to the desired shape.

We made petite eclairs, & enormous choux buns!  Honestly, I was expecting buns the size of your standard profiteroles; instead, we had these!

We allowed the choux pastries to cool, while we made up the creme patissiere & our flan pastry.  The creme pat wasn't too tricky to make up, especially as we used proper flour, rather then the gluten free stuff we mistakenly used last week!

The flan pastry was extremely short, & very tricky to roll out, but eventually we managed it.  We were making fruit flans, so once the pastry cases had cooled, we filled them with the creme pat, & topped them with lovely fresh fruits =)

There was no set design here, we were given free reign to decorate however we saw fit, with whatever fruits we liked.  I used sliced peach, strawberries, blueberries, & a solitary blackberry =)

We then whipped up some cream & filled the choux pastry, then topped them with fondant icing; we had a choice of coffee or chocolate.  As I'm not a fan of coffee flavoured things, I went for chocolate =D

We also tackled Viennese pastry, which was so tough to pipe out!  I'm think it may have needed to be a little softer really; either that or I just don;t have the strength in my hands to do it!  But eventually we did have a reasonable selection of shapes & sizes!  (I didn't manage to get a picture of those I'm afraid, I got distracted!)

But, I did get a picture of our display tray, showcasing the results of a days labour =)

You can just about see the finished Viennese biscuits on the tray, they looked quite good once they'd been dipped in chocolate & sandwiched with whipped cream =D

Sadly, whilst the fruit flan did make it home in one piece, I had a slight disaster when trying to get it into a container to keep in the fridge!  So now I have a slightly messy, but still tasty, fruit flan! =D

We had our second freestyle day today; anything we liked so long as it was based on a non-wheat or gluten free dough!

I chose to use the Pugliese & Oatmeal doughs as my bases; I paired the Oatmeal with Fig & Goats Cheese, & the Pugliese with Chilli, Lemon & Corriander =)

We made the Biga & Sponge up yesterday, so we were all ready to go!

The Oatmeal was very well behaved, proving in the estimated times & taking to the inclusions really well.  It was ready to scale & pre-shape right in the middle of lunch though, so not all perfect!

I think I might just have gotten the hang of this scaling thing; I was looking to scale each piece at 100g, & managed to get it to within a few grams of that each time! =D

The Oatmeal rolls rose & batched together really well; they looked great! =D
They went into the oven, & 11 (ish) minutes later, they emerged!

  

They're so light & fluffy!  The Fig works beautifully, but I must admit I couldn't really taste the Goats Cheese; I think next time I need to either increase the percentage of cheese, or use a stronger flavoured variety...

The Pugliese was such a wet dough!  Turns out after we made the Pugliese on Monday,  Wayne adjusted the recipe & dramitcally reduced the water content, but neither me or Sara (who I shared the Pugliese base dough with) heard him say so, so we used the full amount of water!

The dough was still just about workable, but it needed a fold every 20 minutes to get some strength into it, which is quite extreme considering the Oatmeal needed just one fold after an hour!  

Five folds later, the dough was ready for dividing & shaping; I chose to make two baguette shaped loaves rather than round loaves or rolls.

They came out of the oven looking really quite good =)

They were so fragrant, & the taste was awesome!  The lemon is the first thing that hits you, a lovely zesty fruityness & the chilli is just spicy enough =)  I think I might tone down the corriander next time though, it's just a tad too strong...

But all in all a very successful day! =D

I'm really enjoying the freestyle days; it's great to be able to experiment & test what I've learnt over these last few weeks.  Everythings starting to make sense; I'm begining to understand how to tell when the dough's ready to come out of the mixer, & when it's fully proved, so thats quite reassuring =)

It is tiring though; the bike ride home today was so tough!  My legs are killing me & my feet ache, but I know it'll all be worth it in the end! =D

Phew!  It's been a busy couple of days in the Bakery, with lots of loaves needing an overnight prove before being baked, hence the late update =)

This week we've been looking at non-wheat & gluten free baking.  Yesterday we made Oatmeal Loaves & a Russian Rye bread.

The doughs were mixed in the usual manner, although the Rye wasn't as tricky to handle as previous batches, it was a firmer dough, but we still just popped each portion into the tins without much shaping!

Our group made batched loaves out of the Oatmeal dough, while the other team made standard tin loaves.

And they came out a treat!  I much prefer the batched loaves appearance to the tins, which are lovely, but theres something really nice about the way these came out =)

The Russian Rye didn't look too shabby either.

 

We also made up some Chestnut Levains, Pugliese & Spelt Bread which needed to be retarded overnight in the fridges, ready for baking today!

The Spelt Bread was formed into 12 small rounds, which were retarded 3 to a basket, so when they were turned out, they had batched together.  Once they were cooked they looked a little like a catipillar, but great anyway!

The Pugliese was the favourite of the day; it's made with potatos & has a texture much like a crumpet (or pikelet).

Yestersay we also created starters for Cornmeal & Chilli Loaves, Semolina & Sesame Loaves, Buckwheat & Bramley Apple Bread, & a Barley & Linseed Loaf.

We had a slight disaster with the Barley & Linseed Loaves... The recipe called for the seeds & salt to be soaked together, which we did, but then we mis-read the rest & added the salt again to the dough... =/

We didn't spot the mistake until AFTER we'd divided the dough into the tins & sprinkled extra seeds on top, but oh well!  We were still able to rectify our mistake by popping the dough back into the mixer & adding more flour etc.

They came out looking alright, but needless to say they weren't our favourite loaves!

We made up the dough for the other three breads, but time ran out & the doughs were slower to prove than we'd have liked, so we'll have to bake them off tomorrow.  The other group however, managed to have their Buckwheat & Bramley Apple ready to bake before the end of the day, & they came out looking a treat!

Hopefully ours will look just as good tomorrow =)

They'll be baked off first thing, then we have the rest of the day to freestyle some loaves of our own devising, all within the non-wheat & gluten free range of course =)

I've already made up the songe & biga for my loaves, as they need to ferment overnight, but I'm keeping the rest of the recipes a secret!  You'll have to check back to see if the day's a success or not ;)