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