Intro to Baking Recap: Week 4

It's Week 4 at Intro to Baking!

Now for the fun stuff--Yeast Breads. We talked about the basics of yeast bread production, various fermentation methods, and washes for the bread. Washes are coatings of eggs, milk, and/or water & starch mixture applied to the bread (or any baked goods) before baking. It's what gives butter rolls their glossy golden crust.

Our project for the day: French Bread, Jumbo Cinnamon Buns, Jalapeno Cheddar Corn Muffins, and Zucchini Bread.

The French Bread and Cinnamon Buns had to be started right away, due to their fermentation time. Technically the first fermentation should be about 1 hour, then proofing (last fermentation before baking) another hour. But due to the time constraints, the instructor told us to let the dough rest for 20 ~ 30 minutes (called bench rest) after kneading, then punch it down, shape it, then proof it--for a total of 1 1/2 hours fermentation.

Two people in my group got started on the Cinnamon buns while I and another person got started on the French Bread. The instruction said to combine the yeast, the flour, and the warm water all together, but I decided to rehydrate the yeast in warm water first, letting it stand for 5 minutes before mixing everything together. Mixed it for a while, but the dough was still sticky. But I figured that, because it's a soft bread (i.e. soft on the inside, crispy on the outside), I shouldn't add too much flour. I kneaded it for, oh maybe 5 minutes in the mixer, then let it rest for 25 minutes. The dough was divided in half, shaped into loaves, and proofed.

In the meantime, we made Jalapeno Muffins and the Zucchini Bread...

Jalapeno Cheddar Corn Muffins--we left out the seeds of the jalapenos (that's where all the capsaicin is) and just used the flesh. Turned out very well, not too spicy, cheesy, tender and good cornmeal flavor.

Our Zucchini Bread also turned out very well. Crispy crust, warm spice, and tender.

Then it was time to bake the yeast breads... the loaves looked awfully flat. Did I overproof them? Well, there really wasn't a whole lot I can do about it at this point. I did an egg wash on one loaf and sprayed the other one with water for the crispy crust effect, and put them in the oven while I crossed my fingers. The other people in my group also put the Cinnamon Buns in the oven.

After about 30 minutes....

Our French Bread. Ick. The one on the left was the water spray, the one on the right was the egg wash. Don't know what happened here, but the egg wash mottled the surface of the bread. It had a good flavor though, but the texture was too dense.

All of our stuff. The Cinnamon Bun is shown far left on the plate. It was soft, but the dry yeast wasn't dissolved all the way--there were specks of them still left in the dough.

Then back at home, here is the cross-section of the bread. This texture would've been good for a regular white bread, but notice that the amount and the size of air pockets aren't quite enough for it to be considered a French bread (for comparison, just Google Image "French Bread").

Don't know if it was because I rehydrated the yeast instead of mixing everything together all at once. Or maybe it needed more flour. Or maybe it needed more kneading. Either way, so far, I've decided that baking has a way of humbling us all. Before, I thought I was a pretty good baker; but taking this class made me realize that I still have a long, long way to go.