Last night, Sara & I volunteered for a night shift at the Welbeck Bakehouse.  They're located in the same building as the School, & students are encouraged to work there on occasion, to get a feel for the life we've all signed up for.

Sara & I were the first students to actually undertake a shift there, & what an introduction!

The Bakehouse have been especially busy this weekend; they've attended the Newark Game & Country Show, so they've had additional breads to bake alongside the usual orders.

Sara & I turned up just before 6.00pm, a bit nervous but excited to get stuck in =)

Matt & Simon were the only two working, so there was plenty for us to do.  First off, we set about greasing loaf tins & baking trays, then traying up the pastries ready to be baked later that evening.  There were croissants, both plain & almond, pain au chocolates, pain au raisins, Chelsea buns & tea cakes!

Then I helped Simon to scale out the ingredients for the focaccia & ciabatta doughs, while Matt showed Sara how to use the laminating machine, for pressing out the croissant pastry.  I also refreshed the rye sourdough, adding more flour & water to the mix.

Matt showed both of us how to stoke the wood fired ovens, & we were each able to have a go throughout the evening.  We also helped out scaling the doughs; shaping & moulding each piece ready for the final shaping & baking.

The evening flew by at first, before we knew it midnight came & went, & there was still plenty to do to keep us busy; cleaning down the work surfaces & the fridges, weighing out & mixing seeds, scaling & moulding seemingly endless batches of dough!

We were treated to a fresh baked onion focaccia between the four of us, still warm & crisp from the wood fired oven - the perfect pick-me-up when it's 3.00am & you're starting to flag!

There was such a huge variety of breads baked; ciabatta rolls & loaves, olive breads, five different sorts of focaccia, poppy-seeded loaves, the Welbeck loaf, apple breads, tin loaves, three different sorts of sourdoughs, too many to remember!

The pastries were the last things to be baked in the deck ovens, as they require a lower temperature than the breads.  While they were baking, we rolled out the laminated pastry & shaped new batches of Chelsea buns, pain au raisins & plain & almond croissants.  Each batch was then trayed up, wrapped & frozen, ready to bake tonight.

The last task of the night was to shape & mould the sourdoughs, so they would have time to rest & prove before being baked later tonight.  After that, we cleaned down the tables, selected a couple of pastries each & then headed off home. 

It was a later night than either of us had anticipated.  When we were asked if we'd like to volunteer, we were told we could expect to finish around 3.00am; in the end it was 5.10am before we were done!

So now I'm absolutely shattered, my feet ache, my arms ache & I'm still not convinced I've gotten all the flour out of my hair, but it was a great evening.  It was hard, but rewarding work, & I'd definitely do it again.  My lovely nan, Hazel, worked in a bakery when she was a young lady; I wonder if my shift last night was anything like those she would have done =)

I feel like I've learnt a lot in one (almost) 12 hour shift, but if you asked me what I'm not sure I could tell you!  I'm sure once I've had a decent nights sleep & gotten back in the bakery, it will all come to light =)

I'll tell you one thing though, I'm not looking forward to the bike ride tomorrow - it's going to be so hard! Oh well, it'll all be worth it in the end! =D

(Apologies for the lack of pictures in this post - I didn't think to take my camera, but honestly, I don't think I'd have had time to use it anyway!)