This week was (ignoring the ominous presence of chocolate on day 1) the best so far. That is without a doubt because we got to make bread. Every semester I'm always fervently looking forward to the few scarce lessons on breadmaking, because I love bread - both making and eating it. I love the smell, the starters, the kneading, the proving, and just simply squatting by the oven and watching them transform into these beautiful loaves.
Ok, so the week started off with chocolate, which wasn't really too good..I've developed a little dislike for both making and eating chocolate ever since I took up this course..still ok with dark but totally put off with milk and white..but we have to complete the task since it is part of our lesson.
Chef did one with a chocolate rose in demo, which was really pretty. I did my decorative piece by spreading some colour and white chocolate on a crumpled piece of silicon paper and curling it up like a fiery wave. I also got Lucile, my French classmate to teach me some French so that I could write "avec tout mon amoun" on my box, which means "with all my love". I should have made my decorative piece smaller so that the outline of the box would be more visible..occured to me only after I made the piece, so I did not try to push my luck and trim it for fear of breaking the entire piece (as I had only made one).
Ok, so the week started off with chocolate, which wasn't really too good..I've developed a little dislike for both making and eating chocolate ever since I took up this course..still ok with dark but totally put off with milk and white..but we have to complete the task since it is part of our lesson.
Chef did one with a chocolate rose in demo, which was really pretty. I did my decorative piece by spreading some colour and white chocolate on a crumpled piece of silicon paper and curling it up like a fiery wave. I also got Lucile, my French classmate to teach me some French so that I could write "avec tout mon amoun" on my box, which means "with all my love". I should have made my decorative piece smaller so that the outline of the box would be more visible..occured to me only after I made the piece, so I did not try to push my luck and trim it for fear of breaking the entire piece (as I had only made one).
On day 2 we made panettone, a sweet Christmas yeast bread which originated from Milan, Italy, and left it to ferment slowly overnight.
Ditto for the biga starter which we made a day ahead for our ciabatta lesson. And we made Bienenstich aka Bee Sting, which is a German sweet bread sandwiched with mousseline cream and topped with a crunchy almond and honey crust. A myth goes that it was called bee sting because when the baker made the bread, a bee got attracted to the honey topping, flew over and stung him. This bread is quite nice..it is rather moist and soft, and not overly sweet (but don't be fooled it has alot of calories from the buttercream filling).
Day 2 ended exceptionally well as Chef Joseph is one awesome chef and he made some amazing sourdough bread with olive oil and vinegar during class for us to munch on at the end of the lesson. It was super yummy with a crusty exterior and a nice, soft crumb inside.
Day 3 was a wierd day of sorts, because we had to go to a new kitchen due to ongoing renovations. It was 2 floors down out usual haunt, tucked away in a small dark corner, with really dim lighting to complete it all. We baked our panettone, deep fried our churros and baked 'em lovely ciabattas, making a tarte flambe with the leftover ciabatta dough (the tart's basically a dough baked with creme fraiche and sweated bacon plus onions).
Traditionally, the making of ciabatta (Italian slipper bread) is a long process so that the bread can develop a good flavour as well as better/ lighter crumb structure.
Anyways, within the short period of class time that we had, we still managed to produce some of this awesome bread. I love how there is a rather special technique to handling and shaping this bread..the key is to be patient and gentle..no kneading on this one!
Anyways, within the short period of class time that we had, we still managed to produce some of this awesome bread. I love how there is a rather special technique to handling and shaping this bread..the key is to be patient and gentle..no kneading on this one!
Anyways, by far the best part of today was tasting the wonderful german stollen. Though it was only for demonstration purposes, we got to try the bread and it was just awesome, especially with the homemade marzipan inside..yum yum..
