No Monkeying Around.

Yesterday was a great day. As we have become more efficient in the Breads bakeshop and extended our class time, Chef Adams has added more dough to the schedule. Bialys, Bagels, Pretzels, Fougasse, Challah, etc. From these additional breads have come new stations in the shop, meaning less people are on the original doughs that have been mixed from day one, which supply each restaurant with bread: lean bread, multigrain, wheat, ciabatta, etc. Yesterday, there were three people assigned to lean dough (with at least six starting out on the first day on this team). If you remember, lean dough is responsible for baguettes and cut rolls, along with loading the oven, running the oven, and ultimately baking the bread on the hearth stone. This is a tough team to have to work. One of the people assigned was absent, and with four people assigned to whole wheat (which it is crazy that more people were assigned to this team than lean), Chef Adams thought it necessary to move one person from wheat to lean. Who was the lucky winner? ME. Even with the craziness, I felt completely in my element and managed to end the day unscathed.

The new dough of the day yesterday was Babka, a sweet dough filled with chocolate and pecans (not pronounced PEE-CANS, you weird Northerners, and I mean that in the nicest way :)), then braided. This dough is then placed in a loaf pan and baked. I cannot even describe this bread to you. I mean, just look at it (and this does not do it justice):
Dinner: Vegetable Jambalaya.

While we were cleaning, a girl from another bakeshop passed out in the hallway. All I heard Chef Adams say was "is she breathing?" It was scary. Yes, we make bread and sugary treats, etc., but we also stand on our feet for hours and hours at a time. Water (and flour) is your friend.

While I was supposed to be on the Whole Wheat team yesterday, today was my first day actually being on the team. When mixing whole wheat, an autolyse method is used. Basically, the dough is allowed to mix without the salt, and when a homogeneous mixture is made, the dough is allowed to rest for 15-45 minutes, before adding the salt. This shortens the mixing time, strengthens the extensibility of the gluten, and allows the flour to absorb more water.

Four people, which is what we had today, is too many people on the Wheat team. While Ashley and Yoon mixed the dough, Christie and I melted butter, made cinnamon sugar, and set mise en place (culinary/ French term for "everything in it's place") for Monkey Bread. Two ounce pieces of sweet dough cut in half. Drenched in melted butter. Placed directly in cinnamon sugar. Twenty two ounces per loaf pan. Heaven on earth. Unfortunately, as a class, we did not complete an evaluation on this bread at the end of the day, as usual with new doughs. These twenty loaves are for Grand Buffet tomorrow. I better be able to try this...

Dinner: Pescata from Cuisines of the Americas (Mexico).

After braiding Challah after dinner, Chef Adams talked to us about the happenings for Grand Buffet tomorrow. Every three weeks, there is an AOS (Associate's) graduation here at the CIA. Every Thursday (once a block) of graduation week, there is a grand buffet in Farq Hall, with tables and tables of amazing food from most of the kitchens on campus. Our class is responsible for the bread table in the back, and from hearing her talk, it is an extensive and impressive table, where we showcase the breads we have learned to make over the past three weeks. Chef Adams, think about it, does this every three weeks... craziness.

In honor of Nate's birthday, we went to Coldstone (a far cry from Marble Slab, but it suffices) for ice cream. I know what you must be thinking. I did not want to make him a cake, because I do not know how to bake a cake to meet CIA culinary standards. And, buying a cake is almost against everything I believe in as a baker. We watched Just Desserts while I finished my PB&C shake.

Look forward to Grand Buffet pictures tomorrow!

FLOUR POWER

Hay Reh

*Happy 24th Birthday, Nathaniel James Herrera-Oshaben (could your name be any longer? Oh wait, it can with your Spanish first name I cannot pronounce...)! No chair breaking this birthday, but you did have ice cream and your present is coming!