Artisan Breads Week 2

Sorry about the late update....

This quarter is gonna be pretty intense, even with just two classes. There are reports to write, recipe cards to make, notes that need to be typed, plus my own at-home practicing/baking...

But anyway, here's the recap of Week 2 in Artisan Breads.

Day 1 is the preparation day for Day 2. We prepare the sourdough starters, old dough, and biga (an Italian pre-fermented dough) on Day 1, let it ferment overnight, then use it on Day 2. Day 1 generally involves making breads using the straight dough method.

Before we got started, Chef announced that he wanted everyone to make pizza for dinner tonight.

....Eh?? I thought.

He wanted us to practice making and tossing pizza dough--and I had to agree that, indeed, every baker ought to know how to toss a pizza dough.

One group volunteered to make a huge batch for the entire class. Upon finishing, Chef demonstrated the tossing...

Try to use the knuckles to stretch and toss them. Using the fingertips can poke holes through the dough and cause it to tear.

Chef spreading the tomato sauce on the dough. The pizza is built on the peel (the huge paddle thing), so it can be slid directly onto the oven floor. Unlike regular ovens, the deck ovens that we use do not have racks. They have solid floor (deck) on which food is placed directly to cook. Ours have stone floors that allows the same results as baking in stone hearth brick ovens--where the true artisan breads have been produced for centuries.

Sliced mozzarella being placed on the pizza. Now for the topping...

Each group got to choose their own topping. Since my entire group consists of veggie fans, we topped ours with eggplants, onions and fresh basil. Very refreshing and delicious! The deck floor definitely produced a thicker, crisper crust on the bottom--and has that distinctive, hearth-baked taste.

Now for our actual breads....

Whole wheat, Potato-Cheddar bread, and Onion Ring Loaves. The whole wheat turned out tasty, but a little dense. Potato-Cheddar baked very nicely, a little dense but great texture and flavor--but the shaping wasn't done properly and got all lopsided. The Onion Ring Loaves turned out perfect, very pretty, nice color, and great flavor.

On Day 2, we used the Sourdough Starter, the Old Dough, and the Biga to make San Francisco Sourdough Bread, Onion Walnut Bread, the Italian lean dough bread and French Country Loaf.

We were scrambling for time--baking four different kinds of breads in 5 hours is no small task. I didn't get the picture of our Italian bread; it was still in the oven. But we managed to get it out before the class ended, so that's good...

Our S.F. Sourdough turned out, again, a little dense and not much sourdough flavor either. But the sourdough starter need be kept alive and matured for a long time to develop its true flavor. Our lean dough and French country loaves turned out with great texture, but again, dense. Only our Onion Walnut loaf turned out beautifully, with nice, crispy crust and lots of flavor from the onion and nuts. Trust me, if the Chef instructor says, "Mmmmmm!!!!" upon the first bite, then it's a good bread. We sauteed the onions and toasted the nuts before incorporating them into the dough. Doing so sweetens and enhances their flavor, and removes that gross, astringent aftertaste from the raw nuts.

For our bread dish on Day 2, we made what I thought was called panzanella, a "bread salad" from Italy that uses toasted breads. We made croutons out of our focaccia, and tossed together tomatoes, romaine lettuce, diced mozzarella, and olives. Drizzled with olive oil and raspberry vinaigrette, and finished with salt and pepper--Chef loved it, saying it was very flavorful, delicious and good use of leftover bread. But he also explained that this isn't panzanella. Actual panzanella uses toasted bread chunks or slices in place of the lettuce. The breads are then topped with vegetables and dressing. So it's more like a mound of crostinis/bread chunks and vegetables, sans the leaves. Oops, I should've researched that a lot more :( But the flavor was great, and Chef actually finished the entire dish (which is rare). Must've been a refreshing change from all the breads he has to sample.

Sadly, Chef announced that he's moving to Houston to take up a position as an executive pastry chef at a prestigious hotel...so this was his last day. He was a great instructor...we'll all miss him.