Baking the Grade

Friday we made sourdough bread and a Brioche.  Making bread in the classic French style takes time, patience and expertise.  Our chefs know what the dough needs to look like, how it should react to the touch and that certain conditions will affect the bread.  Me, as beginner, I just don't know.  Using live yeast is also something you must learn to work with in bread making.  I say this because I made what looked like great sourdough bread. (on the right) It was horrible tasting and way under cooked.  The Brioche came out much better, but since I haven't had a lot of Brioche I'm not sure if it came out as good as I think it did.  We were short a chef yesterday, and mine really didn't get a good critique.  Plus, it was about 100 degrees in the baking lab.  Not a good condition for making anything.

The first week in Baking and Pastry has been completed.  I don't believe I could do 7 months of this.  However, next week we will be making croissants and pastries.  I still might learn to like baking.

French baking term of the day:
Epi (ep pee)> French word for wheat, referring to a bread shape that resembles a sheaf of wheat.