The beginning of a new section...ARTISAN BREADS
With the completion of the laminated dough final, the next section begins. And it was a section that I had been anticipating for a very long time. It was the artisan bread section! Finally I would receive formal instruction on something I've been self-teaching myself (with many wonderful resources like TFL of course) for years.
We made baguette dough, poolish, and a 40% whole wheat dough in the course of 5 hours. The baguette dough would undergo retarded yeast fermentation in the refrigerator for 2 days, but the whole wheat dough we ended up baking off.
It was definitely a great experience to work on bread. I had finally gotten used to working in a professional kitchen, I had just gotten used to working well with the other student bakers, and with bread, everything all came together. We formed a round loaf and round, knotted, and braided rolls.
Comments
You'll have to let us know the most important advantages that formal instruction provides. You'll be a good person to describe this since you started out like many of us who are self taught and do our own research through trial and error.
Summer
Right off the bat, I'd say its really beneficial to have a chef instructor answer your questions and provide an example of a well made product. I shower my instructors with questions about everything from mise en place to decoration of the product after it comes out of the oven. That's all stuff I'd have to work out on my own.
Its also all stuff that you'd learn in industry if you were able to find a capable and willing mentor, but that's extremely rare nowadays.
On the other hand, being self taught myself I think I have the ability to conceptualize what is happening in my loaf and trouble shooting it, rather then just asking the chef.
I'm most interested in reading your reflections on adapting from making just a few loaves, to production baking.
Congratulations on your success!
I think its mostly about preparation, learning how useful freezing products before they're needed, and getting used to working with a crowd of people all fighting to use the same equipment.
We home bakers bake for fun, within a given time. As such we have certain luxuries like time and no pressure.
On the other hand professional bakers bake within a time restraint so they stagger their prep periods and production periods according to demand. You might spend an entire 8 hour shift just making croissant dough and doing nothing with it but putting it in the freezer for some other shift down the line.
Or at least thats what I've learned so far. Working in a professional kitchen has taught me about team work and multi-tasking.
Hi Gabriel!
Where are you studying? (Note: I am confident this information is public and my failure to know involves a mental lapse on my part...!
Thanks!
Jay
i probably said it. It doesn't really matter tho.
I am currently attending the Professional Culinary Institute in Campbell, California. We're pretty new, we've only been around for 4 years or so.
Your braads are beautiful. I have toyed with taking a baking course for much the same reasons. The problem becomes I simply don't have much interest in breads other than sourdoughs.
Good Luck! And Great Baking!
Jay
I think sourdough is the most challenging bread dough I've yet had to deal with.
There's always a technique or school of thought yet to learn about and apply.
After that, its just a matter of memory and creativity to apply the techniques to different products and come out with something new. If not for that, there is no reason for me to pursue this profession!
But I will say I didn't have much interest in products that weren't bread either, until I tried them. Cake baking for example, requires much more dexterity and care then bread.