The deadline for our Business Plans is fast approaching, & if I'm honest I think we've all been panicking slightly! I know I have... =/
So, last Wednesday, we wandered down to the Cotswolds to FWP Matthews, to see the 2008 Bakery World Champion, Christophe Derbesee. It was a long journey, so naturally we had an early start. Luckily, there were fresh pastries on the minibus to ease the pain! =D
Once there, we watched as Christophe shaped a variety of breads. The doughs had all been made the day before & retarded overnight, so we didn't see any actual mixing, but it was interesting to watch the shaping.
This was quite an interesting shape; Christophe used a rolling pin to pin out three sides of a ball of dough, then folded them up over the sides, before forming a dip in the centre & placing a separate ball of dough on top!
This was something similar, except dough at either end of a batard was pinned out, then folded back over the batard at an angle.
These were a soft, brioche-style dough, flavoured with tomato paste.
And this was really cool! It was a vienoisserie pastry, pinned out & spread with creme patisserie, then rolled up much in the same way as a Chelsea bun or pain au raisin. Then, Christophe made a series of slices most of the way through the roll, before slicing that whole chunk off, & spreading the slices out in a fan!
I must admit, I'm not *entirely* sure what the other doughs were, as Christophe didn't speak much English!
But the bread looked great anyway! And it was certainly tasty with the cheeses, pates & olives they laid out for lunch =)
The tomato-brioche bread was lovely, really soft & flavoursome =)
And these were epically tasty! Very moreish =D
After lunch we had a tour round the mill, which was fun. It's very similar to the other mills we've been round, although our tour guide this time was more interesting, actually showing us samples of the flour at each stage of the milling process. We even saw the flour being packed & wrapped ready for shipping =)
Thursday was our last Flour Confectionery lesson! How quickly has that gone?!
We were looking at tray bakes; brownies, flapjacks and the like, as well as a few unusual ones, like Norwegian apple cake slices, & toscarners.
I chose to make the Norwegian apple cake, toscarner & flapjacks =)
The Norwegian apple cake was lovely! The bottom of the tin was lined with sliced apple, then topped with sponge mix, & finally sprinkled with a mixture of sugar & cinnamon - Delicious!
I went for a chocolate flapjack, rather than the traditional plain with fruit =)
The toscaner was quite interesting; a sponge base topped with a mix of melted cream, butter & sugar, & flaked almonds. This was baked again, then once cool, it was sliced & dipped in melted dark chocolate!
This week we're looking at viennoiserie products - croissants, danishes, pain au chocolate etc, as well as a range of brioches.
So far it's been wonderful! =D
But, I think I've gone on long enough for today, I'll let you know how it's going tomorrow =)
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