Well hello!

Today was the first day of our last Term!  Just 12 more weeks to go, then we're off on our own... But we won't dwell on that just yet  =)

We were eased back into things today with a series of test bakes; the group split into pairs, each of whom picked a different element or ingredient to experiment with.  Along with the usual suspects of salt, molasses & fats, we could also choose to play around with malt flours & extracts, dough softeners, dough improver's & powdered sourdough cultures.

Now, while the last three really aren't the sort of thing any of us want to be using in our future baking careers (after all, we're learning how to be artisan bakers), it was an fairly interesting prospect, to see if any of these so called improver's actually did improve or alter the dough significantly.

Rose & I chose to look at malt flours.  We made one loaf with Rich Cream malt flour, & another using Red Malt flour.  Neither of these did much to affect the volume or structure of the loaves, but that was expected.  The Rich Cream malt flour, a paler, creamier flour, did result in a darker crust, but that's down to it's diastatic properties; the resulting enzyme activity released more sugars into the dough, hence the darker crust.  The Red Malt flour has no diastatic properties at all, so no additional enzyme activity.

Another group looked at powdered sourdough vs the Schools actual sourdough culture.  There was a difference to the crumb colour; it was darker in the powdered culture loaf, probably down to the darker colour of the ingredient itself.  But when compared to an actual sourdough bread, it just didn't have that depth of flavour or aroma you'd expect...

Sara, the lady leading today's class, made the point that if you had a bakery & wanted to make sourdough loaves, but didn't have staff with the required knowledge, or the space or time to nurture an actual sourdough, then the powdered cultures could be a suitable alternative.  I disagree.

A sourdough culture doesn't take up all that much room, you just need a storage container large enough to hold it, & that doesn't have to be that large.  Equally, they don't take that much time to nurture.  Ten minutes or so to refresh at the end of the shift, or build to the level you need for the next days baking, not that much.  But then, what if you have a disaster?  What if you're culture is left out in unsuitable conditions, or refreshed with the wrong flour?  Or contaminated in some other way? 

Well, the sensible baker (& I've heard of a few who do this) would have a backup of that sourdough culture kept somewhere safe, just in case  =)

And as for bakers without the correct knowledge, it doesn't take all that long to educate someone who's willing to learn.  I can't really see that being an issue in an artisan bakery; if it is, maybe you have the wrong people working for you?  But this is just my opinion, & it could still be coloured by youthful (well, sort of...) enthusiasm for the craft.  No doubt once I am in the position of owning & running my own bakery I'll really see the reality, but I highly doubt any circumstances would persuade me to use dough improver's, or powdered sourdough cultures in my baking...

Anyway, rant over! 

Today we also found out the dates, times & recipes for our final assessments, for both Bakery & Flour Confectionery.  Flour Confectionery is up first, & while we only have four products to make in an 8 hour time frame, those four products do include choux pastry, meringues & our own petit four recipes.

Now, we haven't done any work on petit fours, or any really small scale stuff like that.  Each petit four must be a maximum of 40g in weight, & we need to have two varieties, & I must admit I'm at a bit of a loss... I'm sure I'll come up with something, but it's still a little daunting...

I think we have some free style time in the next few weeks, so that should give us the time to practise, & get it all right, now I just need to decide what I want to make!

Oh, & I apologise for the lack of pictures, but in my haste this morning I forgot to pack my camera  =/

Tomorrow I'll have my camera, & good thing too!  We're doing pizzas & flat breads!  =D