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
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