Friday, December 27, 2013
Let's give this a try: I would like my entire class from this winter term to blog on three events that reflect back on a day in the life of you as a student in BPA 1045. Feel free to discuss anything that will enhance the educational experience as well as what might have improved your experience within the classroom. Please keep this professional and courteous to all current and future users. Thanks in advance and I look forward to all of you sharing your professional opinions.
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ReplyDeleteToday was day 7 and my group made baguettes, bagels, challah, and scones. I was surprised at how well the baguettes turned out today due to the fact that we over mixed our dough. I do great with my shaping, but it's the scoring that messes me up because I don't make my lines long enough. The challah seemed a lot easier to braid today because I was more familiar with the motions and the feeling of dough instead of ropes.
ReplyDeleteThe key is to practice the scoring on the white board before you get to the baguette.
DeleteOn Day 6 we got to make Challah bread for the first time. I was nervous going into the braiding because I had practiced on the ropes and they did not come out like they were supposed to. When it got to working with the dough I messed up in the middle part of the 6 braid. Once I finished it I could instantly see where it looked a little off compared to the rest. Chef came over to help me with the 2 braids and after that I don't think I'll ever forget how to that pattern goes. I just have to practice the 6 braid pattern for the practical.
ReplyDeleteDay 7 was filled with preparation for the practical. I got another run through with baguettes and I feel pretty comfortable with that process, but I know I have to really pay attention on how I cut them. We got to do challah bread one final time and my braiding was far better than the day before. I was able to redeem myself with the 6 braid and it came out really good. I do say the steps out loud to myself, but that's okay as long as it comes out right!
ReplyDeleteI'll start by saying how mildly disappointed I am in the fact that we don't do any manual kneading in this class. I understand why we don't (its totally time consuming and requires a lot of endurance), its one of the few things I'm good at (I took ceramics in high school and I've got the ram's head form down!) The first time we did Challah, on day 6, I though the only thing I'd need to worry about was the braiding, but lo-and-behold, I was horrible at forming the ropes. Again, I thought my ceramics experience would help me out, but I wasn't aware of how different challah dough and clay really are (which should have been obvious), and it turns out that just because I can make coils that doesn't mean I'll be rolling out perfect challah without a little practice. Day 7's challah turned out much better and I'm pretty confident that my practical challah will be A material.
ReplyDeleteNice comparison between the clay and the dough, by the way you can always volunteer to mix a dough by hand :)
DeleteDay five was a really interesting day! We started off with focaccia, this bread is actually really fun to make but, kind of stressful because it is always in the back of your mind as its proofing. The final result was a success, our biggest issue being that the cheese on top was not caramelized enough. We also made challah for the first time, the dough was prepared the day before so all we had to focus on was braiding, proofing and baking. Braiding the challah requires so much concentration! The complicated six strand braid reminds me of making friendship bracelets at summer camp! We also made pain de mille or “Pullman bread” this is an enriched white bread baked in a loaf pan with a cover, resulting in a perfectly rectangular loaf of bread. Overall, it was a great day!
ReplyDeleteThursday was our last day of class before our final, and it makes me nervous because I feel like I need more practice. For the day, the whole class had a choice as to whether they wanted to practice making focaccia one more time or baguettes, and our group chose focaccia because the first time we made it, we struggled a little bit. We also made challah one more time, and scones. It was fun to make the scones because we decided to get creative and add chocolate, cinnamon, and vanilla extract to the original recipe. And they turned out really nicely with great layers and an even color! But besides getting at least a little bit more practice with making focaccia, and challah, I’m still nervous for the practical. There’s going to be a lot of stuff that needs to be done and taken care of, so I’m just nervous that I’ll get very overwhelmed if I don’t have a plan set in place.
ReplyDeleteDon't be nervous, just try your best and it should feel like every other day so far.
DeleteOn thursday, we made baguettes for the third time and I really think I've got the scoring down, because they had really nice ears. I think the only thing I need to work on is shaping, and that's unfortunate because you can't really shape with anything BUT the baguette dough. I'll just have to use extra caution on the practical.
ReplyDeleteYou can use play dough! Even though it is smaller you can still work on the process of shaping an even log.
DeleteHello again. This will be my last post because that is all that's required. hahaha I'll start off by saying that I have now ended up liking bread. Something awoke in me and said that this is a beautiful craft to know how to do and I am very happy that I have learned it. Day 6 and 7 of class was really great and my group was on fire. We were ahead of the game and even doing extra. We got to make pizza dough and even play dough. Yes, we make play dough in breads class. The only thing we were a little off on was our time management. Some of our projects ran in to each other, so we had to work fast in order to finish them correctly. But in the end it worked out and everything came out pretty successfully. I was pleased with our progress. Oh and Starbucks was nice too. Did I mention Hitz is one of the best? (hehehehe)
ReplyDeleteI knew this was your post… I just saw "Did I mention Hitz is one of the best?" and I thought, 'It has to be you.' You are shameless! But no matter what you do I am still Chef's favorite!! lol
DeleteWell stated.
DeleteHi fellow bread bakers. As I'm reflecting on my last week of bread, I feel great. I think that I did good with this medium. I have never even though of bread as anything more than something I buy when I'm grocery shopping, but I was able to deliver loaf after loaf. Of course, there was some issues and things to improve on, but I want to only focus on my accomplishments. I walked into a room, made preferments and made my own breads time and time again. That is exciting! What I would like to work on is being less heavy-handed. I tend to roll my dough out too long and I want to develop more layers in my biscuits and scones. Thanks to group 2 - I badgered them about their process - I am able to identify much more when I am preparing the biscuits or the scones. Although my dream is not to grind away in a kitchen everyday for the rest of my life, I bask in the fact that I am able to learn this trade. I can't wait to see my level of improvement years from now.
ReplyDeleteThat is perfect, I wish that all entries would be like this one.
DeleteWednesday and Thursday were Day 6 and 7 of this lab. Those two days were a little stressful and a test of my patience. My lab group and I struggled throughout production. There were a few mistakes and errors that caused our products to not reach their peak quality, and Chef was aware of them. My group and I are good students and are intelligent, but organizing our time was a major issue. Personally, time management has always been a weakness for me. Working in a kitchen, that is one of the worst weaknesses to have! So for the final two days of lab, I am going to make a production schedule to keep myself organized and to stay on top of things in lab to make exceptional products. I know in the long run that this will help me in not only Vienoisserie, but also in my career.
ReplyDeleteOn an unrelated note, I went to Seven Stars Bakery yesterday and it was awesome! This bakery is recognized by several food magazines for producing excellent quality breads. Not going to lie, I felt pretty cool identifying the different breads they were selling and knowing how to make them. That's my story! :)
Great! They are a fantastic bakery and it is fun to compare your skill set to what they produce.
DeleteNow that AB is coming to an end, I've been thinking about how this class was done. I like the groups and the teamwork. There have been times where we have checked each other and kept the ship afloat. I like how my team and I have grown together. I think the whole class will agree that communication is very important, especially in this setting. If we don't all talk about who's doing what and when then the bread will be an utter disaster. I have always had a problem working with others because I couldn't trust them to do the job right, but I am actually grateful now. In this kind of setting, I see teamwork as necessary.
ReplyDeleteI could not agree more!
DeleteThursday was day 6, the last day before our final and preparation for our practical. This was the last time we were able to "practice" before the practical. Our group made focaccia, scones, and challah this day. Our process and actual skills have improved but together we haven't been very strong in time management.With multiple projects going on at once it's easy to be distracted and even forget about things. Our final products don't come out bad but I know they could be much better if we try to follow a schedule and stick to it. After last class our group realized that this is our major issue and hopefully we can work together to remedy this during our final two days!
ReplyDeleteThis ability to work as a team will benefit you for the rest of your life.
DeleteThe final is tomorrow and the practical is tuesday. The only thing I'm really worried about is time management. With all the production we have to get done, if everything isn't timed out just right, there will be mass chaos. I feel like with Baguettes, Challah AND Focaccia AND scones/biscuits, its going to be rush, rush, rush and then a big time with nothing to do because all the breads are resting. I'm probably going to take some time monday night and plan out my entire timeline for Tuesday, just to be a little more at ease with this whole thing. The good news is that after tuesday, I'll be completely confident in baking bread at home, which will please my family. It's my goal to fatten my sister up before she ships off to Advanced Individual Training at the end of June and with all these carbs, she doesn't stand a chance!
ReplyDeleteFunny!
DeleteDay 6&7 I feel day 6 and 7 didn't really go as well as other days before. We over-mixed the baguette dough and scaled few things wrong. I think one of the reason is there were a lot of productions have to be done but also there more things to remember than beginning of the class. We made mistakes under the stress and pressure. On the other hand, I feel we got the opportunity to learn and know what should we be carefully to deal with when we have our final practical exam. It's a good experience. Tomorrow will be our written exam and Thursday will be our final practical exam. Somehow, I just really nervous and worried. Probably because of the stress from Day 6 and 7.
ReplyDeleteGood luck to everyone. :)
Don't look at it as being stressful but keeping engaged and working towards a common goal.
DeleteDay 1 of Bread Making was pretty intimidating. I didn't know what to expect from the class or what to expect from chef. After class had begun, I got to see how chef's personality was and how he taught his class. Although day 1 was unnecessarily long due to the introductions and what not, I'm satisfied with all that I've learned in this class.
ReplyDeleteDay 7 of bread went well in some ways but not good in other ways. I felt that my group has made a dramatic time difference when it came to rolling out our dough and braiding for the challah bread because the day before was disappointing. We moved from being the last group to being the first done without any braiding mistakes which was awesome. one thing that when wrong that kind of had a long term effect was that we over mixed our baguette dough. It had a big affect of the overall feel of the dough also. It took very little to nothing to over work the dough even in pre shaping. Lesson learned about really trying to get my ears trained to hear that "popping" sound that it makes when it is done. I am deffinantly a little nervous about day 8 and 9 but i think of we all have that confidence we will be able to do it.
ReplyDeleteI too have confidence in you and your group!
DeleteThis past week of being in breads has made me develop a love hate relationship with bread. The art of making the bread and watching it develop and grow reminds me of an experience with a child. It's amazing how complex the whole process is. We see bread as something that is just consumed on a daily basis and not for the beauty that it possesses; that's the love part. The hate part is the intense labor that is put into the bread making process. The time management, the handling of the dough and being sure not to over work it. It's enough to give someone a heart attack. But in the end, Artisan Bread Making is one class that I will not forget and I've truly learned a lot.
ReplyDeleteLove this entry!
DeleteI can't believe we're already approaching day 8 of this segment. In the beginning, I was iffy about breads because I thought it was doing the same process over and over, just with different ingredients. I didn't really see any creativity in it. That was until I actually learned how to bake bread and became aware of the different ingredients, procedures, and techniques of all varieties of breads. As of now, Artisan Breads has definitely been one of my favorite classes. It may not have all the decorative aspects as needed in a class such as Intro to Cakes, but it teaches you more than you could even imagine. In the past two weeks, I have truly learned the importance of patience in baking and also realized that getting something done fast is not better than getting something done right. It has taught me to really focus on what I'm doing and it gave me a better sense of time management. I can't wait to see what Chef Hitz has planned for Viennoiserie!
ReplyDeleteGreat insight this is exactly what I am looking for.
DeletePractical is around the corner and it's crazy to think that we've already completed two segments. I'm trying to prep myself for practical and I guess what I need to work on is time management and not letting my stress affect my work. My group always works until the very last second, which is good cause we're always busy, but terrible cause we're always falling behind. My biggest fear though is the baguettes. Our groups baguettes were not as appealing as I would have liked them to be. So now that practical is here; I'm freaking out a little. All I can do is put my full concentration on what I'm doing and hope all goes well.
ReplyDeleteDon't fear the baguette just respect them and do the best that you can while keeping your focus sharp.
DeleteI didn’t really know what I was getting myself into on day one of artisan bread baking class. I though that we would be thrown into the wolves and told to start production with just the knowledge that was gathered from reviewing day ones power point. But Chef Hitz did something different, he presented the information needed in order to understand the delicate science behind bread making in an interesting manor. Before attending my first lab I thought that every chef would go about opening the segment in this manner, but I was surprised when it didn’t happen but I’m glad it did in this class. I’ve made pre ferments before but I never really knew why so I enjoyed learning about what it is and its benefits. Bread making has always been my favorite facet of the baking and pastry world partly because eating it makes my soul happy but mainly because of its beauty. Bread can be so dependent on you and delicate, but then at the end of the day you are left with a sturdy product that truly appreciated the hard work and patience that was put into the fermentation process. My favorite part of the day was when Chef Hitz described bread as a living being, a baby that needs constant monitoring, so we should be nice to it because it dies once we put it into the oven.
ReplyDeleteOn day three when I learned that we were making focaccia bread and I was so excited. This type of bread was always my favorite to make at home because it was very forgiving. I didn’t have to worry about making a make-shift steamer contraption and place it on the bottom rack, and I didn’t have to worry about plopping a delicate proofed loaf onto an overheated cornmeal covered pizza stone. Focaccia bread is like my home base, I feel comfortable and confident making it and I didn’t expect to learn a whole bunch more about it was I surprised. I learned that when I was making it at home I was making everything difficult for myself, and now I know better. Days like this reassure me of my decision to be here.
ReplyDeleteOnce the first week of Artisan Breads was over, I wasn't quite sure what was next. Was it only gonna get harder from here? Or was there a lot more of memorizing and adjusting to the time-consuming recipes. I sooner realized that it was ultimately a little bit of both. I would have also never thought that there was this much of a process just to make a round of baguettes! I did not realize until the first day of class that baguettes would take a huge chuck out of our class time. Although the beginning of the week seemed like a lot, things started to lighten up. Making scones and biscuits were definitely fun but they were a little tricky even though the step by step process seemed simple. I can admit that I was not happy about leaving class late everyday but I guess thats what everything is like in the Food Industry right? Long hours and no breaks is what my life is going to fill with from this day on.
ReplyDeleteDay Seven seemed to be the first day where we making a new product. I liked having this day to become more confident with the skills that I have obtained throughout this segment. The first thing that I noticed improvement on was the Challah. Our dough was a little bit easier to work with and we didn’t fear the elasticity. The rolling process took almost a third of the time that it took us the day before. I was having trouble grasping the concept of the six-strand braid when we were practicing on the ropes, but once I picked up the strands of dough everything clicked and I was able to do it without questioning myself. Even though it was our third day making baguettes, we managed to over mix the dough. It happened so fast but there was a popping noise that happened as soon as the dough mixed its over mixed stage. I’m glad this happened during one of the practice days and not on the practical, now we know what not to do and the signs to look for. I had some extra time while I was waiting for the baguettes to finish proofing so I decided to practice my scoring on the white board. Honestly I thought the idea was ridiculous but I wanted to give it a try. I picked up the marker thinking it would be easy, but it wasn’t so I stood there until I was able to make the lines straight and equal. And don’t you know, I was able to confidently score the baguettes.
ReplyDeleteHeading into the second week of Artisan Breads, I felt a little bit more comfortable in what I was doing. Everything was all still new to me but it was growing as the week went on. When Tuesday began I knew I had to have my braiding skills down! Once my group got into the swing of things and it was time to braid the Challah dough, I was ready. I wasn't too good at evenly making strips, but I had the braiding rotation down! When we made Challah again on day 6 I knew that all I had to work on was my shaping skills. I worked slow but efficient so that I would really get the motions to create a nice even Challah. Doing so, I improved from my last challah the way that I needed. Because of that, I feel like both my group and myself are prepared for the practical to make good production at an efficient pace.
ReplyDeleteToday's day 8 and this segment couldn't have gone any faster. I am anxious to finish off artisan breads and continue on to Viennoiserie but also very scared at the same time. I am hoping today will go by very smooth and my group can work as a team to make great, even production. My only worry, as always, is making baguettes. I think I've finally got the scoring down but making a deep enough cut is what I may struggle on. Anyways, I've realized that I have learned so much from Artisan breads but theres so much more to learn that I hope I can keep up but still remembering all the important fundamental rules with dough. Make sure to never over work it, keeping everything at the proper temperature and keeping your time managed all at the same time. All of this comes with repletion that will improve the more I work on it. After everything is said and done, it's been a great 9 days.We'll see what the next 9 days has to come! Its been real Artisan Breads.
ReplyDeleteDay 2
ReplyDeleteSo It's the second day of class and the first day of actual bread production, i was and still am a little nervous. We had to go in at 6 today, I didn't think that i would be able to do it but surprisingly was able to do it with ease ( can't say the same thing as tomorrow we will see.) I get to the class and Chef wasn't there yet, but after waiting a few minutes there he came from around the corner with a big smile on his face it made you excited to start the day and i appreciated that. The first thing we got to have the fun of making was baguettes i would be lying if i was to say i wasn't nervous but we got through it with some pretty decent baguettes. My group and myself got all of our ingredients scaled and mixed and ready to go. You don't realize how long it takes to make bread until you make it. i personally think i still need to work on forming the dough and scoring the dough, I've got the length down at least i think but probably need to work on the pressure in the rolling. Also the scoring is really going to get something to get use to i just need to remember 1/3rd over lap, fast, and the tip and maybe i'll get it down. My current goal for the class is to master the baguette i think i can do it. (I definitely will be investing in some playdough.) That doesn't change the fact that i'm super excited to make focaccia tomorrow mmmm mmmm yummy. Well, until next time.
Day 4 begins tomorrow and i still have a little bit of nerves. Day 1 i was so nervous for class because i didn't know what i was walking into but after meeting Chef Hitz my nerves calmed down. Day 1 was basically lecture and chef teaching us how to make baguettes and poolish, Day 2 was all on us. We made our poolish in the morning and then started the process of our baguettes. Who knew that making baguettes would be such a huge process. When forming the baguette it was super nerve racking because you just want it to be perfect my first one was no where close to perfect but the second and third one i made wasn't that bad but i'm still in need of a bunch of practice. With that being said i'm looking forward to whats in store for me tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteDay four is tomorrow, I can't believe we're almost halfway through with this lab. It seems like we just started yesterday and I know there is so much more that needs to be covered. Going into class at 6a is not ideal, but it's amazing how much more we can accomplish in that extra hour. Last Thursday my group made baguettes, and while I did better than on day two, I definitely need more practice before I feel that I'll be able to make baguettes that I can be proud of. Tomorrow my group will be making focaccia and I'm going to have to review my day two notes before going into class. Making focaccia seems even more complicated than baguettes, and the demo was almost a week ago! It will be exciting (as well as exhausting) to see how much more we cover in class this week, I can only hope I'll be able to keep up!
ReplyDeleteI have just completed day three of class and its amazing to think about all we've done in just that short amount of time. At the end of class today we talked about what needs to be done for day four and yes it scared me because it sounds like we have a lot going on but with all the baking in class and the journal and blog posts I am more able to completely throw myself into this class. I definitely do take time to relax and nap on occasion but as scary as a nine day class sounds it is also a really good way to completely be able to focus on one thing, in this case breads, and submerge your entire brain in it and soak up all you can. I like that aspect of it. Chef Hitz is a really good Chef, he is quite funny actually but knows how to keep us moving and excited about the day. Today we had to have a little discussion about how sleepy and slow moving we all were. He wasn't too happy but that woke me up and got my butt moving the rest of the day. My advice to future students is to take in as much as you can and appreciate that extra hour of class because its free time with this amazing chef who is willing to teach us everything we want to know. That's why we are here isn't it? I am excited to keep moving on with these next six days and to move on to my next class with chef Hitz. Now I must go study for a quiz tomorrow...
ReplyDeleteToday we finished day 3 of bread baking. It is crazy to think about all the information we have already learned. We are able to do so many hands on things and bake so much bread within the 7 hours that we are there. It isn't very fun to have to wake up and be in class an hour earlier than everyone else but at the end you appreciate it because you are able to learn so much stuff. Before i started this lab I didn't think that i would be able to create the products that i have already made, or learn so much information in such a small period of time. While you are in the labs you are so busy that you may not even realize all the information your brain is actually soaking up. I really appreciate the fact that Chef Hitz is always in such a good mood. It makes the atmosphere within the room so much better. I also really liked the fact that he took the time to help us with cleaning the room the first couple of days that we started in this lab. Overall, the lab is very stressful and you do lose some sleep but in the end its worth it because of all the information you learn and all the bread you get to make..and eat!
ReplyDeleteDay four is over and it's crazy to think that we are almost half way done with the course! It's amazing to realize how much information and hands-on experience you have absorbed within such a short period of time. Trust me, it's possible! Waking up at 5 am for a 7 hour lab is well worth the time and energy, because looking back at the end of the day and getting to see and taste everything you have accomplished within a morning is very rewarding. It's great to have a chef, like Chef Hitz, who knows exactly what to say to get everyone going through the entire lab. His support and knowledge are the foundation for this course. So, fellow bloggers,don't be intimidated by this lab..it is well worth it!
ReplyDeleteIt is so weird that day 4 is already done!! I am enjoying this lab a lootttt more that the previous lab. We are doing real productions, and there is more of a hands on experience. Not to mention the atmosphere is ten times better! We have lots of fun, but we still are all working very hard. Yes, it does stink to wake up at 5 in the morning, but once you're there the day goes by pretty fast. Before you know it, it has been 3 hours and you are almost done with production for the day. One of my teammates told me that Chef Hitz was her favorite Chef by far, and now I truly see it. He is always happy, energetic, and I think quite funny. I am happy he is my chef for the next lab too! He is also very honest, but in a kind way! For example, I am not the best at preshaping the rolls and he helped me through it multiple times! It is pretty neat to learn how to make things we see in our everyday lives, like today! Bagels and pretzels!! It is honestly pretty awesome and producing them is even funner. And the end of the day is always the best when you get to taste test, so get pumped!
ReplyDeleteToday was day 4 of principles of artisan bread production, since it was Monday the day started off slow and sleepy. After having 3 days off then getting up at 5 for a 7 hour lab is not ideal but was so worth it, we get to learn from a talented chef and learn what we all strive to do one day. Today was math day, which I thought, was going to be very difficult due to the fact that Chef Hitz kept bringing it up. When we actually sat down (6 hours of standing later) I was focused and ready to conquer the task, with that mind set it made it easy to understand. Chef Hitz put the math in simple and understanding terms that helped me a lot in understanding and succeeding.
ReplyDeleteToday in class, Chef Hitz gave a us a really good, what I would call, "pep talk." We learned that no matter how we feel, what we did or what we are going to do, we have to be professional get the job done. The must important thing is to make the customer happy. That was just the beginning of class. After that talk we continued about tour day. Today was a busy day so it passed by pretty quickly. The days have gone by so fast this coarse and I'm amazed at how much I am learning so quickly. Chef Hitz is very involved and very supportive and has been throughout the time I have been in the coarse. I am looking forward to the days to come in the coarse and everything we else we are going to learn.
ReplyDeleteToday was day four of artisan breads and it is going really well! Today was the first day that no group made baguettes or ciabbata. Even though we didn't make them today I am feeling more comfortable with the methods of preparation. When I first came to this class I was overwhelmed to say the least because dough seemed to be difficult to make. After four days straight of making dough and allowing time for fermentation to begin I realized that dough isn't as hard as it seems to make. The techniques such as scoring are slightly difficult but will get easier as time goes by. My favorite part of lab so far was making pretzels and seeing the difference one ingredient such as lye could make in the final product. Overall it has been a successful four days and I look forward to another 15!
ReplyDeleteToday was day 5 of principles of artisan bread production and the time is going by so fast! We are over half way done this lab already. Today we started the dough for our braided challah bread which is exciting because I have been practicing my braiding skills with the wooden board Chef Hitz provided for us to practice the technique on our own. I am excited to imply the newly learned skill into production tomorrow! The rest of today’s production was normal working on our techniques making baguettes and biscuits, so we can get an A++ on our final production.
ReplyDeleteToday we finished day 5! We did a lot of production today, it was a very busy day! Me and my group made scones, ciabbata, poolish, wheat bread, and did prepration for challah bread tomorrow! In class we also got to see Chef Hitz do a real demo with braiding! It turned out beautifully, and it also tasted great! I had never tried it before but I really enjoyed the one that had sugar. We also had the Pullman bread from yesterday, which tasted great as well. It was exciting to learn the shaping of the whole wheat bread and was also cool to take home a loaf. Today was definitely more work intensive but it was all worth it. I am excited tomorrow to put a valid attempt in at braiding challah bread and hopefully it turns out good! Biscuits will also be fun to do because it will be our second try and we can try to master the sizing and technique. It is crazy that this lab is half way over but I am excited for the rest of the days!
ReplyDeleteIt was day five today, and boy was there a lot to do. Today I feel helped to show how to manage your time wisely. Since we had so many things that needed to be done today people seemed to try and get them all done at once. My group I feel did a pretty good job at this, admittedly we made our assignments in a different figuration than others, but when it came down to it we all worked together to get stuff done. My group figured we would get the more time consuming and more attention oriented products done first leaving the biscuits for last. Even though our biscuits were the last in the oven, and many people thought we were falling behind i didn't see it that way because we were already done with products they were in turn still working on. I believe that as you work you need to find what works for you and your group and be on top of that don.t worry what other groups are doing. No group is perfect, and we all made some mistakes today, but the way Chef Hitz approaches the groups and the mistakes we make is great. He doesn't make us feel stupid he turns everything into a learning experience, every so often you will hear Chef tell everyone to come over to a table for "a once in a lifetime opportunity" this helps out a lot because in the end your learning from other peoples mistakes hoping not to make the same, and I really appreciate that. One thing I can't stress enough is that you guys need to do your dishes when they pile up in the back, and you keep just throwing things back there it really adds up. So future students just keep that in mind, because when all the dishes are done and things are going as planned it helps decrease the stress of people rummaging around for more dishes when they could just be washed, dried and reused. All in all, today was a good day we made whole wheat bread with seeds, dough for challah, baguettes, biscuits, and biga preferment for tomorrows demo of ciabatta, and I am super excited for tomorrow when we finally get to braid the challah. Once again until next time.
ReplyDeleteIt's amazing to think that we only have 4 more days of this lab left. Day five was hectic to say the least, and I know that in the real world industry what we are doing is tiny in comparison. I appreciated that even though today was a very busy day with multiple productions going on at once, Chef would call us over whenever he noticed a mistake or potential for error. His way of calling it a "once in a lifetime opportunity" and talking to the whole class without placing any blame or judgement on a singular person is really amazing. My roommates tell horror stories of chefs docking points for making mistakes or calling the class names when they don't finish early enough. Knowing that Chef Hitz is promoting such a comfortable learning environment helps take away some of the stress, and allows me to learn from my mistakes, without feeling like a failure. Tomorrow my group will be making baguettes for the second time. We haven't made them since Thursday and I hope that I'll be able to see some improvement in my shaping. Who would have guessed that making baguettes would be so difficult?! Tomorrow is also our first venture into braiding actual challa dough, I can't wait to see how we do. I'm sure we'll all be mumbling numbers so that we don't goof on any of the braids, but I'm excited to see how everything turns out!
ReplyDeleteI can't believe that it's already day five! Today was stressful and it was very hot in the kitchen but we got a lot done in 7 hours. My group made whole wheat bread that was rolled in oats which obviously mixed differently than regular dough. Seeing the difference between each type of dough and how long they take to mix is incredible! I am really looking forward to making the challah dough tomorrow and braiding it since everyone seems to have a difficult time with it. I am also very excited to make baguettes again because today my group made ciabatta. I am sad this lab is almost over but I am very excited for the next bread lab!
ReplyDeleteToday was the end of day six and we made A LOT of things today. Only having three people in my group was stressful to say the least because we all had to worry about so many different project going on at once but only six pairs of hands available to help. Today was also the second time my group made baguettes and for the first time I was actually comfortable with forming and manipulating the dough. Although the final color of the dough was a little bit too light and the scoring marks could have been more uniform I think my group did a fabulous job. I am a little nervous for the practical because we have only made ciabbata and baguettes twice now. Which ultimately means that we would still screw up something by accident. Overall I am super excited for the next three days and the next segment of breads!
ReplyDeleteWe only have three days left in this lab, and today we did a bunch of different things. We did four or five different things, but me and my group did a really good job of splitting up the jobs, and communicating to make sure we kept up with everything. It was a very busy day, especially planing out what to do next because a few items had to ferment and sit before being baked. Today we did braiding with real challah dough! This actually for me was easier than doing it with the braiding boards. The six strand turned out pretty good, but the biggest problem was rounding the dough, making sure thickness was even for all strands. I also have to work on rounding the dough for the baguettes as well. I thought my two braid was good until chef said it was wrong. He was very funny about it and helped me fix it. Every time I went for the strand with the wrong hand he hit my hand, but this actually helped a lot! Our group made a mistake with the baguettes, we loaded them on the board but hadn't set up the board correctly! I honestly don't mind making mistakes and having him point them out though, because then i remember next time and learn from it! Everything we do is a chance to learn and I am excited to see what the next few days bring!
ReplyDeleteI can't believe that today was already dat 7 of our bread lab! The time has flown by! Today seemed to be more of a "relaxed" day compared to the other days so far in this lab. We even got to make cookies which was a nice change from all the bread products that we have been making these past 7 days. The techniques and routines are starting to get easier as the time goes on. When we first started the lab I would never have thought that id feel the least bit comfortable with making breads at all. The major problem I still seem to have is remembering all the steps that go with each bread. Sometimes I tend to mix the steps up within the different breads, but I am getting somewhat better. Today Chef Hitz told us that if we finished cleaning the room in an hour we would all receive a 100% on our quiz! My class was able to complete this challenge, so even though we still took the quiz we all received a 100, which makes the start to my weekend a whole lot nicer!
ReplyDeleteDay 7 has come and gone, and it's so crazy to think that we only have two days left! As everyone has been saying, it sure does fly by! Today was much more "relaxed" than other days, which was a nice change in pace. My group worked well and split up the jobs so we could get everything done in time. Communication and being supportive is key to a happy group! It's insane to think that the next time we are in lab, we will be taking our final practical exam. We have all learned so much from each other, and have been able to establish personal strengths and weaknesses. When someone is confused on a task or just needs a simple question answered, there is always someone there to help you out. Even though it is day 7, and there's just two more days in lab, I am getting better and am finally starting to feel comfortable with making everything. I have never made bread prior to taking this course, so it has taken me many mistakes and questions in order to succeed. Better late than never, I suppose! This weekend will be dedicated to preparing for the practical and watching plenty of Chef Hitz's videos!
ReplyDeleteIt's the final countdown; only two more days until we move on to the next lab segment. I was describing to my mom today everything we've covered in class this week and I can hardly believe how much we've been able to accomplish. Having never made bread before, I know I still need a lot of practice before I'm comfortable with the process, but I feel like in the past couple of days I've greatly improved in production. My group has been a man down multiple times this lab and I'm really proud of us for being able to find a way to time manage so we can get everything done. It hasn't always been easy, but I know in the long run learning under pressure like this will help us learn how to manage high stress situations without losing our heads. I also need more practice in that, but hey, I've only had 7 days of this, it'll get easier eventually. With the practical around the corner I know I'll be working on a little play-dough practice and watching some breadhitz videos to refresh my mind and when Tuesday rolls around I'll give it my best shot, and with a little luck, everything will turn out all right.
ReplyDeleteI can't believe that we are going to be starting our next segment next week. I'm looking forward to what we are going to learn next but I am still in shock about how much I have accomplished in the past 6 days. I have never made bread before so this class has taught me everything I know about it. Todays class was a bit more laid back than the other 5 days, but it was still informative and I have learned something everyday. Im am anticipating the final for this class and have confidence that all will go well!!
ReplyDeleteDay 7 was very busy! We made challah bread, baking powder biscuits, baguettes, and a double batch of Bavarian pretzels. Braiding the challah is getting better hopefully it will be up to par for the practical. Shaping the baguette is still not perfect but I will have to get some play-doh to practice! Today our biscuits were very flakey and delicious. Finally we made a double batch of pretzels and we had to work fast to roll out all of the pretzels so they did not start rising before we rolled them. Overall I have learned a lot this lab and am excited to start our next lab and learn new skills and techniques!
ReplyDeleteDay 7 passed and now we have only two days left of the bread lab. I'll admit it is a little bitter sweet because I will miss the chance of making breads because I really had so much fun doing it, but luckily we will just be moving on the viennoiserie with Chef Hitz as well. On Thursday we got so much done we made baguettes, a double batch of Bavarian pretzels, baking powder biscuits, and challah. I have to say that the challah is probably my favorite thing to make I love the braiding technique, even though it gets a little difficult towards the end. I've gotten a lot more confident with my baguettes but you can never stop practicing your techniques so I will continue to do so. All in All this class has taught me so much and I've had so much fun baking bread. I can't wait to start my next class with Chef Hitz I'm sure it will be just as fun!
ReplyDeleteOn Monday we will be starting our practical. Looking back at our 7 days that have already gone by, I'd say that they went by fairly fast! I have been able to learn so much useful information and I can't wait to be able to go home and make some of the things we've made in class for my family to enjoy! I can't say that breads are my favorite thing to make just because of how time consuming they are and how many steps you have to follow, but I am really happy that I have been able to learn so many new things. I am also happy that we won't have to change chefs this next lab because I really enjoy the way Chef Hitz teaches us during these labs and I am excited for viennoiserie next lab!
ReplyDeleteDay 7 has passed and it really has gone so fast. I am surprised by everything I have learned in this class. I am also so glad about how many time we have been able to practice each thing. This makes me a whole lot less nervous for the practical on Monday. I just hope we remember to add the steam when we put our baguettes in. We made that mistake on day seven but besides that chef said our cuts were good and when we looked on the inside of the bread it was almost perfect. Day 8 and 9 have come so fast and im actually sad this is the end of this class because even though it was a lot of work it was also very fun. Luckily I have the same chef for the next class so it isn't goodby yet!
ReplyDeleteIt is Sunday and tomorrow is the first day of the practical. I must admit that i am nervous for it but i know once i get in there with my team we will be very focused and work together to presence chef with the best products we can. Last week chef gave us a lecture on how sleepy we all were in the morning. At first I was thinking, come on man its 6am, but as he spoke i changed my thinking because chef is giving us an extra free hour of work and we should be grateful for it. We are all here to learn anyways and if a chef is willing to give us an extra hour to learn from them i will gladly wake my butt up and take that hour. I did not really care for my first class and wasn't too excited about this one at first but once i got into it i loved it. Some chefs you just get along with better than others. Either way i will not let liking or not liking my chefs influence my education. They are all just different. This class has been great and I am excited to move on and start Viennoiserie next week!
ReplyDeleteDay four was a force! Starting any class on a Monday is going to be difficult but starting a class at 6 on a Monday is going to be a little more difficult. But with a little encouragement from Chef Hitz you're able to go the whole day without being tired. It’s crazy to think that our second lab is already half way over. The amount of techniques we've learned in this short period of time is crazy! I would have never thought I would have been able to make so many different kinds of breads, and I’m still not done learning! Day five is tomorrow and it’s going to be a brand new experience for me in the kitchen. Even though I’ve already baked some of the things we are making I’m still going to learn something new about them.
ReplyDeleteToday is Sunday the day before we start our practical. This class has gone by so quick it’s unbelievable. I’ve been able to learn so much from this class. Honestly I never thought I would have been able to half the breads in this class which out the help of Chef Hitz and my team mates. Nervous to start the practical tomorrow but I know it will just be like any other day. Let’s wish for the best and hope we all do perfectly fine!
ReplyDeleteDay 7 was probably the day I wasn't nervous for anything except the math. That day was probably the best throughout this lab because I felt as though I did pretty darn good on my Challah. The challah braiding is not as easy as it may seem. You think you have it all to a T but then it comes down to it and its like you have a brain melt down cause you can't remember how to do it even though you just finished doing it, well that's how it was for me but it's because all the stress you put on yourself to make it look perfect! It was a difficult task at first but a breeze towards the end. We also made bagels, biscuits and Focaccia bread. Bagels and biscuits went smoothly the focaccia was also going smoothly until my group realized we had no cheese for it so we had to get grating but besides that day 7 was a breeze.
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ReplyDeleteTomorrow is day 8, I wanna say it's going to be an easy day but it kind of won't because it's the first day of our practical. Not saying it wont be easy cause I don't know what I'm doing but tomorrow is the kind of day where you can't really mess up. But the great thing about it is that we'll be working with our groups so if your like freaking out and thinking you forgot a step or something your group members are there to assure you, you didn't. I can't believe there are to more day until this lab is over, it has gone by so fast but I've learned so much. Good thing about this is that I have Chef Hitz for my next lab he is such a great chef in stead of yelling at you or belittling you for messing up he helps you to get better.
ReplyDeleteTomorrow is day 8 already! I remember the first day and thinking there is no way I am going to be able to survive making breads. Chef Hitz does an amazing job showing you and really helping you learn how to make breads. I was so scared the first day and now i am confident for my first day of my practical tomorrow. My other group members are also awesome because they are good at bread baking and we all help each other get better day by day.
ReplyDeleteReflecting upon day one, I remember being very excited to start the bread labs. I love bread, and I can probably live off of bread for months. I looked forward to baking as much bread as we can eat and then some. Even though I had heard rumours about starting the breads at 6am each morning, I was not deterred nor disheartened. I like the lifestyle of waking up early and getting a headstart to the day. On this first day, our whole class agreed to power through the lectures for both days 1 and 2 as we wanted to jump right into bread the second day. Even though lectures may sound boring and not very delicious, they helped a lot with our knowledge of what we will be working with.
ReplyDeleteToday was day eight the last day before our practical. It’s amazing how quickly this class flew by. During this class I was able to learn so much in such a little amount of time and the amount of bread I ate also was ridiculous! I was lucky enough to have an amazing group and teacher for this lab. I’m not sure if I would have been able to make it through if I didn’t have them! Tomorrow is our last part of our practical and I know everything will go smoothly!
ReplyDeleteDay 5:
ReplyDeleteToday I slept through my first alarm and just barely missed the bus! I’m definitely not going to let this happen again. Even though Chef Hitz and my team members were fine with it as we are technically not required to be in class until 7, I personally felt really bad for leaving my team hanging for the first 30 minutes of the class. The beginning of the day is when the most essential work starts, and the end of the day is when the most manual labour is. Both of these times are really important, and you want to make sure that you are there during these times to help your team if you do not wish to fall behind schedule.
Day 8
ReplyDeleteWe’re almost through the first class with Chef Hitz, and I am not sure whether to be happy or sad. I’m sad because we will be leaving behind all the awesome classic breads like the Baguette and Focaccia, but I’m also very happy that we will be starting Viennoiserie soon. Those breakfast pastries sound so mouthwatering! Chef Hitz keeps telling us that the next class will be much more intense, so there is something to mentally prepare for. Tomorrow is the bulk of our practical production, so I hope everything goes smoothly.
Today was the first day of our practical and I am very happy with the outcome! My group did awesome on our Focaccia and got a good grade. With all the products we had to make our time management was well. One life lesson you take out of this call is time management and when to start a product so it doesn't interfere with another. I cant believe tomorrow is already day 9 and its our last day to do our practical and our final exam. I am excited to make baguettes tomorrow and see how they turn out. This class was so much fun thanks to Chef Hitz!
ReplyDeleteOne practical day down, one to go. Today was overall a successful day. My group made challah dough, focaccia bread, pita bread our polish for tomorrow and I did my biscuits! Everything went pretty smooth today, mizen place, production, clean up, everything! Im looking forward to completing our baguettes tomorrow and starving for an A. After we finish our practical tomorrow we will begin prep for viennoiserie. I can't wait to learn about all types of breakfast pastries in this class. I'm also excited to continue on to the next segment with Chef Hitz. It will make the transition into a more advanced class a bit easier already knowing Chef's expectations. One thing that I realized was really important from this class is time management. Baking multiple products at once is incredibly hectic but with good time management anything can be accomplished. This will definitely carry over to viennoiserie!
ReplyDeleteDay One
ReplyDeleteStarting a new class with a new teacher was a little scary because we had to learn the new ways of our new chef. A lot of methods are different between the two chefs. On our first day of class we started by doing some lecture and then we watch Chef Hitz do a demo on how to make baguettes. Baguettes aren't as easy as i thought they would be. Shaping the dough into long even log is hard to do without practice. Chef says we have to practice with play dough in order to build up our skill with rolling out baguettes.
On this day we made focaccia. We didn't do a good job at making it. When we were piano fingers the focaccia before it were into the proofer. We pressed it too much and knock out the air bubbles out of the dough. And the dough never recovered it's bubbles again. The dough expanded like it would have normally would have but the cell structure wasn't the same as it would have been if we were gentle to it. After baking the focaccia and tasting it. We discovered that the taste of the focaccia wasn't affected by the over piano fingering it. Every time we make a focaccia now we will know not to over piano finger it.
ReplyDeleteI can't believe that tomorrow will be our last day of artisan bread baking. I have loved this class and learning about all the different ways to use three major ingredients to make different breads. Today in class we made baguettes for our final and i believe that we did really well on it. We also made pretzels. We made the dough for our challah bread so that we could braid tomorrow. Tomorrow we will do our focaccia for our final grade and i will do my biscuits for my final grade. I'm sad about this class ending. I have made great relationships and learned many new things.
ReplyDeleteWow, is tomorrow seriously the last day of lab? Crazy how fast these past 9 days have flown by, and tomorrow we will be taking our practical exam and final exam. It's amazing how much information we have learned within such a short period of time. Coming from someone who has never baked bread before, I have learned so much. I would've never imagined myself baking bread and rolling dough by hand. Don't ever question your abilities until you've actually experienced what you can do! I promise anyone who has never baked bread before, that this course is extremely informative and hands-on learning is the best way to learn these skills. You can't find this anywhere else.Good luck to anyone who takes this course. It is definitely a whirl wind!
ReplyDeleteGoing to class on day 1 of Artisan Breads I truly had no idea what to expect.
ReplyDeleteChef started off the day with a lecture but broke it up with a baguette demo and snacks! I thought it was interesting to begin to understand all the steps to a bread baking as well as the ways to ferment and how each ingredient can change the product if it is left out or there is to much put in. While watching the demo I realized all the techniques of shaping the baguette may not be as easy as I though before. My favorite part of the class was actually taking the time to taste the bread. Before this class I had never really eaten a baguette and thought about all the flavors or smells. But when we tasted just the crumb I could detect a slight sour taste that I had never really noticed before. Once the baguette was sliced and buttered I could really only taste the butter but it was an interesting experience that I had never done before.
Today was my first actual day handling and baking bread dough. Now, I've only worked with yeast one other time in my life. Besides that, all other bread has been quick breads and they vary quite a lot. I was beyond nervous because once you mess up, you can't fix it. what's done is done. It's permanent. It's a lot of pressure. I was more nervous than I was on day one of class. From Chef Hitz demo yesterday, there was A LOT of steps and details to remember. Mixing the dough was easy, letting it rest was simple. The time and temperature was critical. Folding wasn't too bad. Dividing wasn't harsh, but pre-shaping... That's when it got crazy. It seemed like my mind was going a thousand miles per hour. The anxiety didn't stop until the baguettes were pulled from the oven. Then I let out a sign of relief. Looking back, I know I definitely worried way too much. Handling the dough was not difficult, you just have to respect it and understand it; much like chocolate. Now, that I have had a test run with a lot of help, I do feel more confident to produce another baguette again.
ReplyDeleteDay 3 of Artisan Bread Baking was eye opening. I didn't think that I would like baking bread this much. I love all of the hands-on work that we do. I also like making several things in one day because at the end of the class when I look at all of the bread we have, its a great feeling knowing that I produced so much by hand. In class, Chef Hits refers to everything as an "experience" and I think Im beginning to understand why. Although each dough is comprised of basically the same ingredients, each bread is different and every time I make something, I walk away having learned different lessons. That is what makes it an experience. Now, I make sure that I never take any experience we have in class for granted. Today we made Kaiser rolls, scones, and bagels. Each of these experiences shaped me into a better bread baker. I now look forward to making baguettes again because I know that those will be a challenge and I cant wait to overcome it.
ReplyDeleteToday I encountered a new lesson. Although we are working in a team, everything your classmates or teammates do affects everyone’s final outcomes. When in the midst of class trying to get everything done I realized that not everyone can multitask and focus on all the craziness of the different products at once. This was obvious when two classes in a row we had to throw out both a product and a full container of ingredients. Until chef took the time to tell us to slow down and check and double check our teammates work I just continued my work regardless of my teammates work. After these multiple mistakes I want to try to slow down and make sure everything we make comes out as well as it can. Since this is practice for the real world I think it is important to learn these habits now rather than having to throw out products in the industry. Hopefully these next 5 days of class we have minimal mistakes.
ReplyDeletePrinciples of Artisan Bread Baking Day 4:
ReplyDeleteDay 1 in BPA 1045 was full of questions. Meeting a new chef, acclimating to a new room, and learning the basics of new craft that I had never been exposed to before. The last 4 days have taught me so much. I think the biggest learning experience for me was the science experiments that we did on day 1. Chef Hitz is like the mad scientist of bread. Rather than just explaining the hydration content (which he knew we wouldn't understand) he showed us in a hands-on example in front of us. That carried over into the dough; and when he asked us on day 3 what the hydration of dough looked like most of us were in the correct range. This is because we remembered what we had seen on day 1. The beer bottle science experiment came full circle today when I came into class. Our poolish hadn't risen at all overnight. I remembered the beer bottle with the correct ingredients rising so high that it spilled over into the balloon on top of the bottle. I realized something was wrong immediately. When rescaling poolish for day 5, I was more careful to follow the method of preparation that Chef Hitz demonstrated. Hopefully our poolish ferments correctly but the mistake that we made was certainly an experience. I am glad that it happened so we were able to learn from it.
Today, Day 4, was definitely a class filled with new experiences and knowledge. Every single tiny mistake can effect the outcome greatly. I understood that saying before, but I saw it today multiple times acted out during production. Not cutting the dough the proper way just to divide and preshape has a huge impact on the final product. Today taught me that regardless of how minor the detail is, it is highly and extremely important to get the minor detail perfect. I am definitely not discouraged though. I need to be completely exact in all 12 steps of bread baking.
ReplyDeleteHalfway finished with BPA 1045 and what a experience it was. An experience in a good way, when I first came into this lab I didn't know anything about breads. I just knew it was something I loved to eat,with butter and jelly. Walking in on day 1, I was confused but also excited. Confused because of all the math and science behind bread making, that one little mistake could mess up your whole end product. Excited because I was learning/trying something I never leaned /did before(trying new things is all part of life.) Look at us,now already day 5, were making Banquettes, Ciabatta, Baking Powder biscuits, Buttermilk scones, Pita bread, Wheat bread, Kaiser rolls, Challah, Pretzels, and Bagels. It is a "once in a life time opportunity" Chef Hitz always said.
ReplyDeleteToday I learned how important it is to scale ingredients correctly. If just one ingredient is wrong then it won't work. While I was mixing the baguette dough today I noticed the dough wasn't coming together and I thought maybe it just needed more time. After 4 min in the automatic mixer the dough was still very loose and runny. Apparently we scaled the water wrong somewhere in the formula. I am not sure if it was in the water in the poolish or the water we added to the dry ingredients before mixing but somewhere we added way to much water.Thankfully we were able to fix it by adding more bread flour, salt and malt powder. Chef always talks about how important it is to scale and how much time is put into bread and until today i didn't realize how serious it is. To make sure this mistake doesn't happen again my group and I decided to check behind each other when scaling. It's so easy to make a mistake especially when everyone is working on a different part of the process. I am just thankful it was today we made the mistake and not practical day.
ReplyDeleteDay 5 is complete, and we are more than half way through Principles of Artisan Bread Baking. Today I learned a lesson that is not in the lecture notes, or in the fundamentals book. I learned that team work is very difficult! Someday, if I reach the goal of owning my own business; I will have to hire employees. Hopefully, people who possess the same work ethic and values as I do; or can at least take instruction. These past 5 days have made me feel like an employer. I say this because I often have others asking me what they should do when they are standing around. I, like most others in this class, do not know much more about bread baking than what the book and Chef Hitz have taught me. The basic lesson that I have learned and put into fruition in this class; is that there is always something to do. Bread baking is very involved! Being a part of a team is complicated even in its rudimentary state. Pulling your weight and working like a “team” is complicated for some. I feel that a word of advice I would give to anyone that will be taking this class (or any lab); is to work like you are getting paid for what you are doing. After all, this is practice for the real world. For some, the grade or the satisfaction of a solid finished product is not enough. If everyone worked equally in groups there would never be tasks left undone. Why miss an experience and let someone else take the reins? Get involved in every product that is made in class and help out your teammates to the best of your ability.
ReplyDeleteStarting this segment I had no idea what I was walking into. On day 1 I was taught so many new things, like that yeast can only ferment in the presence of flour, or that most breads are the same ingredients but in different ratios. The hands-on learning really helped me to visualize the information so it was easier to learn. I've also learned that every step in the bread making process affects the next part and eventually the final product. On day 4, making baguettes I accidentally added too much water to the poolish. I didn't think much of it because it was only about an ounce of extra water. After mixing the dough I found that it was very sticky, too sticky for baguettes but luckily we were able to fix it. In the future I will be sure to add only the amount of water specified in the formula.
ReplyDeleteGoing into breads I wasn't sure what to expect but after 5 days I can honestly say I've learned much more than I imagined. Not just how to make bread, but important lessons like adding just a few extra grams of water can completely change your dough or that you should never put your salt and yeast together when scaling your ingredients. I really appreciate the fact that we have been able to practice making almost each different type of bread several times. In almost every other class each product we made was a one time deal. In my opinion that isn't much of a learning experience. I also greatly appreciate Chefs "once in a lifetime opportunities". For example, after class today I will never forget how to properly set up for scaling and shaping my dough. It's the lessons like this that you can't learn from a textbook that chef has taught me that I feel will make me a better chef.
ReplyDeleteToday, Day 5, was exciting and disappointing all at the same time. We were knocking out doughs, after doughs, after doughs. That's when we, as a team, let go of some important details. We mixed our Focaccia right away and let it ferment. Then a challenge was presented, and we gladly accepted. We had to scale and mix pita bread, whole wheat bread with seeds, and our challah bread. Our best strategy was to divide and conquer. Unfortunately, we lacked paying attention to the smallest detail. We weren't checking up on each other to may sure we were all producing efficiently and successfully. Since we slowly stopped paying attention and just worked, we ended up mis-scaling our Challah bread, and mixed our pita bread in the wrong mixer. Although we were fortunate enough to bounce back and fix these errors, it did slow down our production and scurry our minds. It did make me realize that just because the detail is small, does not mean it is not important. Although I have made this mistake before in a different situation but same setting, the principle is all the same. I am starting to understand bread. I am understanding that it needs the smoothest production possible to create the best possible product.
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ReplyDeleteI was extremely nervous to start this lab. Since this is my first term of labs, I am a lot more inexperienced than everyone else, and so far, in my other labs, I have made some mistakes. Thankfully, most were small and easily fixable. But when dealing with bread, and only four ingredients are ever used, it's very important to get everything right; especially the scaling. I know I am a very heavy handed person and so I am always cautious when measuring out ingredients. That doesn’t mean there isn’t room for errors to occur. Today, my group found out just how true that could be. We must have added too much water to either our poolish or baguette dough formula, because the dough was not coming together as it should have been. We timidly informed Chef, afraid we had severely messed up our day of production, but he was very understanding and thankfully was able to fix our mistake. Expertly, without knowing how exactly we messed up, or what the measurements were, Chef Hitz made the dough come together. It was a very enlightening experience for me because I admired how he knew exactly what to do; he understood the mechanics of the dough. It made me realize that one day, I would like to have the expertise of knowing how to fix bread dough as he did. And from now on, I am going to work that much harder so that I can accomplish my goal.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I wasn’t excited for a Friday lab I have to say that this was my favorite day in class thus far. Today, as a group, we finally accomplished everything as we should. All of our products were made correctly and came out as they should. We also completed everything in a timely manner and were able to help out other groups. It was one of the only days where I left feeling confident in the skills we practiced and not worried about what else we had to do. Hopefully our attention to detail keeps our group worth ethic strong so our last three days in this class go as smoothly as possible.
ReplyDeleteThese past few days have been busy to say the least. Days 4-6 were pretty hectic for all of us. We mixed sooo much dough. Of course, with all of the mixing we did, we made a few mistakes along the way. There was too much flour in our challah dough, I mixed our Pita dough in the wrong mixer, and everyone already knows about our scone incident. However, the mistakes aren't whats important, its what you learn from them. I learned that everybody makes mistakes so you shouldnt get mad when someone messes up because everyone does it sometimes. I also realized that you're not likely to make the same mistakes twice. For example, I pay more attention to ingredient scaling and mixer use now than I ever did before. Although it's heartbreaking to see a product not look as great as it should due to a mistake made earlier in the production, this is why we're in school. We're here to make mistakes and learn so I'm glad that I've made the mistakes that i have because I learned so much from them. Now I feel more prepared for the practical because I know exactly what NOT to do.
ReplyDeleteDay 6 was an interesting day. My group was in charge of making focacia bread, which we had made only once before, but we were also assigned challah and wheat bread, which was completely new to us. Needless to say that the day was kind of a struggle, because we were trying to learn new things and still keep up with production, as well as recover from our mess up the day before when we added too much water to our formula, so we were all very cautious and overly careful with everything. It was a very good day though, my group worked well and efficiently together. We all helped each other out and pitched in to help hold everyone up. By the end of the day I felt as though we were much stronger of a team and we figured out our speed and limits. As for making our production, everything came out perfectly, the focacia was nicely puffed out and for just learning the two other breads, I felt we did a very good job. I was happy with our finished products, and I felt very confident that we could reproduce these products for our practicals.
ReplyDeleteToday, Day 7, went pretty well. Since there is a big snow storm coming, Chef Hitz told us that our shaped and bakes baguettes and shaped challah bread would be our grade for the practical if it turned out there is no school tomorrow( which there isn't!). Even though i was a little nervous to shape because it was going to be our possible practical grade, Chef just assured us that we should do it as if it were a normal day, which helped.
ReplyDeleteMy group has been overall pretty good at time management which is really good. I honestly cannot believe that Wednesday is going to be Day 9 already. I can't lie and say this lab didn't go by fast because it did. Hopefully I did okay in this lab because I felt as though I struggled at times but I at least know how to make bread for my family now.
Day 7, what a day, kind of chaotic because of this snow blizzard warning. No classes tomorrow and Wednesday pending. The only thing is that my practical exam starts tomorrow until Wednesday. At the end of the day, we did finish everything even the quiz we had plan for today. My team and I worked well together, we had a plan and stuck to what we knew had to be done. Yes some confusion between members about water temperature, stretch and fold and oven times but at the end of the day we made a product we were all proud of.
ReplyDeleteLesson of the day: Communication and questioning is key within labs( teams), their are times when you think inside your head should I ask this question? Is this question I am about to ask a stupid question? Today I learned something. Nothing is a stupid question and remember a question you might want to ask, someone too is thinking the some thing. "If you don't know something, ask, if you don't want to ask in front of the whole class, what can you do? Email me" -Chef Hitz .
Day 7 was personally a very sluggish and crazy day. I, first of all, was in really bad condition having to come to school with a strange allergy infection on my eye(???) and a big headache along with it, so it was hard for me to keep up with the pace of the work we had to do in a matter of six hours. Also with the sudden news of the cancellation of classes tomorrow, we had to make practical baguettes which threw everyone off into a nervous melt down (well, I did at least). I think this was a good experience for all of us (dare I say it) since we'll all have to face working through thick and thin in the baking and pastry industry, so having so many things thrown at my face trained me to become more flexible and wise about my time management and organization. Funny part is, today was perhaps most similar to a regular day in Viennoiserie, so I wish this group of wonderful people well and may the force be with ya'll. Anyways, today was a chaotic day for everyone but at least our products in turn came out great! Despite the fact that we made pullman breads for the first time, we did a good job with the shaping and the baking process; The challah shaping for (perhaps) Wendesday (although it took an unessessary amount of time) turned out well; the scones we made were perfect; our bagels came out pretty; and the practical baguettes, I think, turned out better than expected. My scoring DEFINITELY got better! Rewatching the demo videos were well worth my time, and I'm glad that I took more than enough videos of it since it helped me with my journal also.
ReplyDeleteDay 1: I've been looking forward to taking this lab for a while because I've heard only good things about Chef Hitz so I was interested to see how true their statements are about him, which they are. Chef is very fun and has a personality and attitude that makes others look forward to going to class, he also has interesting ways to help us learn about subjects For example, he had a few empty bottles filled with different yeast mixtures and balloons to show how much CO2 is given off from each mixture. In another experiment, Chef had a few people use their dry hands to test the hydration levels of dough to show us how water amounts can affect how sticky a dough can be. The more water that is used, the more sticky and hard to work with it is, which is why we have to dip our hands in water so we can move and manipulate the dough the way we need to.
ReplyDeleteAfterwords, we started learning about the proper way to mix, shape, and score one of the staples of a bakery; the baguette, and were also spilt into our five groups of three or four people.
Then we had lecture, which I couldn't hear what Chef was saying during the lecture very well and I was also seated in the back of the room so I couldn't see the powerpoint that was in the front of the room. Luckily, Chef only went over what is already provided on the ULearn website for our class, so I reviewed them when I went back to my room.
Day 1 was an exciting day. First of all, I was back in HAC-13 with my first chef! and secondly, I was finally going to make real bread! Wanting to be a baker in the future, I was very very excited for this class. Although I was strangely sleepy that day, I got to learn about the extraction rate that the wheat goes though to make flour and also about different preferment and how beneficial they are for bakers. Back in Korea, I did not work with preferment at all. We just used bread enhancers instead to give bread a longer shelf life and better mouth feel, but I've never heard of poolish, biga, or sponge before until this class. I'm glad that I got to learn about them since I know that they'll come in handy in the future.
ReplyDeleteDay 6 was good. We made whole wheat bread, focaccia, and challah and they all turned out pretty well. I loved making the challah out of all of the things we made in this class perhaps because I love the braided design on the bread and also their sweet and rich flavor. Although learning the braiding sequence was tricky at first, the outcome was lovely!! Now that I know the 2 to 5, 6 to 3, 5 to 2, and 1 to 4 pattern, I'm sure that it'll be little to no mishaps anymore if I'm ever making challah again. Other than that, the whole wheat breads came out well (except for that one load that was placed in the pan the wrong way) and I also loved it's nutty and sweet taste fro the seeds and the whole wheat flour. The oats on top also contributed to the nutty taste but I've also noticed that it gave the loaf a more rustic appeal to it, making it look pleasing and healthful. I learned that utilizing simple ingredients as toppings was a good thing to know. Lastly, the focaccia came out good, too. The bread itself wasn't too soggy with oil, and the toppings were amazing! Now that I know how easy it is to make these flat breads, I'm sure I could alter it into a more sweeter focaccia since I have a big sweet tooth.
ReplyDeleteDay 3 : Today's production is split up among the five groups, groups 2 and 4 (I am in group 4) will be making kaiser rolls and bagels, and the other three groups will make pretzels and pain de mie. We had to boil water with some honey and place the bagels in the water mixture for a few seconds, then cooled them and dipped them into toppings, we used cheese, poppy seeds, sesame seeds, and plain with a bit of salt, before we baked them.
ReplyDeleteAlthough we didn't get to make pretzels and pain de mie this time, we did get to watch the demonstrations for it, which is important for when we do the pretzels since we need to be careful handling the lye mixture for the pretzels and removing the pain de mie from its molds. The pain de mie looked beautiful, with its straight edges and color, I'm looking forward to having some for breakfast the next day.
After production and sanitation, we had another lecture, this time on the math portion that we need to learn for the exam. We need to learn how to convert grams, ounces, and pounds, and to know the baker's percentages like that flour is always 100% and to find the other ingredients percentages. We need to divide the amount to the amount of flour used. Luckily, we are allowed to use calculators for this portion of our exam, so as long as we remember that there are 28.35g in an ounce and 16 ounces in a pound, we should be alright for the maths part in the final.
It was day 7 today and instead of preparing for our practical in the next few days we were forced to be graded on some of our products today due to the snow. I felt unprepared for today, and not to mention under the weather. Having a foggy head I feel as though I made a lot of little mistakes I probably wouldn't normally have, like doing conversions wrong or not using the fortuna machine properly. Luckily we have our teammates to cross check our math with and Chef Hitz to explain to us how the machines work. Overall I thought my final product today didn't show how I was feeling. Today really taught me that I can work well under some pressure and although I may move a bit slow because of my cold I can still present good product.
ReplyDeleteDay 7 : Today's schedule has been changed from what was originally planned thanks to the snow storm approaching. Instead of having our practical mis ne place on day 8 and the actual practical and final exam on day 9 we had to do our baguettes and challah today.Production went alright, and I'm happy with how my baguettes and challah turned out. I was worried that my scoring on my baguettes wasn't good enough or that I messed up my braiding but both ended up how I wanted it. The only thing that I'm unsure of is whether I did well on today's quiz, since our quizzes are always at the end of the day, making my memory of last night's studying almost useless because I'm too tired out from production and my recall abilities and concentration don't work very well when I'm tired. Other than that, everything was fine, I just hope that we can still have class on day 9. If not then we'll have to move on to our next rotation of labs and may have to make up our lab time later. It should all work out in the end though.
ReplyDeleteDay 7 of Artisan Bread Baking was pretty pleasant for me. I'm not the biggest fan of surprises so when I found out that we would be producing practical breads due to class cancellation, I panicked a bit, however, I can't say that I didn't feel prepared. Although Artisan Breads is only my third lab, I have taught myself to believe in what I would call "the improvement process". When I think about the first praline that I ever dipped in Chocolates in comparison to the last one that I dipped, I can see the improvement. The last cake that I iced in Intro to Cakes looks amazing in comparison to the first one that I iced on my own. 9 days is such a short amount of time but I've learned to trust the improvement process. Freaking out and panicking doesn't help, but if I believe in myself and believe that I will get better every single time I do something, then by practical day, everything works out. With all that being said, I confidently shaped and scored my baguettes because I trusted that they would at least be better than my last baguettes. Once all of the baking was done, I was very satisfied with the results I got. My baguettes were beautiful. The scoring was almost perfect. Now, I no longer freak out over practicals because I know that I can only try my best. Have a happy Snow Day!
ReplyDeleteI was not particularly excited to be having a Friday class. Although it was a bit hectic, i felt it was a very productive day and possibly one of my favorite days in class. I learned that communication with your partner is key to having a successful day. Even though one of our partners was sick and there were only 2 of us, we were able to work together and finish everything expected of us. I appreciated that Chef took the time to help my group when we needed an extra hand or lent us someone from another group. Although it was difficult at first, I ended up really enjoying braiding the challah. I also really enjoyed making the focaccia. It's a nice change to be making some savory products as opposed to the sweet treats we are used to.
ReplyDeleteDay 7 was a particularly challenging day in class. Because of the snow we lost a day of our practical and had to make some adjustments. I appreciated the fact that Chef let us make the decisions about our practical as a group. I struggled a little bit more braiding the challah this time around-the dough was much stickier this time around but I appreciate that Chef understands our final products might not come out proper because of our missed day. I enjoy the fact that we have some creative freedom when it comes to baking our scones. Today my group made cinnamon raisin scones and after practicing for several days, our scones finally came out evenly sized with good layers! Even thought we are down to one day to finish the practical, I have confidence that it will be a successful day.
ReplyDeleteWhat was supposed to be Day 8 and 9 are now snow days! I'm curious to see how this will effect our practical and finals, and even our next set of labs! For now I can reflect on what I've learned thus far from breads class. The most important thing I've learned is that during a class with a lot of production such as breads it is important to have communication with your group! Something always needs to be timed or checked so it is important that every team member is on the same page. The smallest mistake can have a huge effect on the final product so it is good to have others around to rely on for help and be a double checker.
ReplyDeleteSo day 7 ended up being a lot more stressful than I could have imagined it to be when I first entered our kitchen in the morning. Due to weather conditions, Chef had decided to change our practicals from day 8 to that day, and we all definitely felt the pressure. Though we had practiced a few times, my group was still struggling with the small minute details of bread baking, for example, putting the proper slices on our baguettes, and braiding our challah dough. My group and I worked fast and efficiently together regardless though, and our final products (our baked baguettes and scones and bagels, and our to-be-frozen challah) came out looking really good. And despite the small flaws each of our products had, I knew we were all very proud of our work. Now, pending blizzarding weather, I am not sure when we will be able to finish our practicals and the class for that matter, so I guess we will just have to wing it and see. Either way, I very much enjoyed being a part of this lab, and working with those in my group; it certainly was a privilege to have done so.
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ReplyDeleteDay 8, already wow I'm guessing people are right when you're having fun time flies by fast. The principle of Artisan Bread Baking was a great class. Their were days walking into class mad or something on my mind and by the end of the day I was smiling and laughing like nothing bothered me. I learned many things throughout my time in BPA1045, I learned scales are never wrong, team work and communication are key, the biggest thing I learned was if you have your mind set on something and focus, everything will flow into place. Chef Hitz interacts with his students and if he could clone himself 1000 times just to help everyone I think he would. Through the human errors made within the 9 days I have learned from them. In a weird way I am kind of happy they happened because that's the best way to learn something. Is to mess up a few times and know how this mistake could effect your end product
ReplyDeleteSnow day today and another day of classes cancelled tomorrow. Normally, I am excited for snow days but this week it meant losing a day of lab time which is so precious. For anyone that will be taking a class with chef Hitz; you may have heard that he likes to begin his class early. Some would say 7am is early enough. Although he doesn't force us to be there, I would advise you not to fight it and wake up an hour earlier, it's really worth it! Throughout the course of this lab, I learned how quickly labs can go by and I feel that 9 days isn’t enough. This is my second set of labs and I feel that this lab flew by quicker than any other. Even though we gained class time by coming in earlier, I wish it was longer. Before class with chef Hitz, I did not think having to get to class at 6am sounded like a good thing. Now I feel that with how much we pay to go to Johnson and Wales, extra class time that chef Hitz grants us for free is a grand gesture.
ReplyDeleteDay 3: I wasn't expecting to start off a new week with such an odd series of mistakes. As they say, though, it's all experience in the end! Stepping away from bagels that were in the honey solution boiling away, I found that upon my return, they had shriveled up! Apparently, they had been in the water for two long, similar to what skin would do in the same situation (although it takes more than four minutes for skin to shrivel!) I've seen plenty of How It's Made episodes, and I'm sure I've seen one on bagels, but making them by hand is a much different experience. And certainly more interesting. Now long after the bagels were rescued, and near the end of the day, it came to our attention there had been a mix up with the salt and sugar in our scones! This was a little disappointing, but at least we caught it before the scones were boxed. They tasted like something that, if drenched in caramel, could be labeled salted caramel and sold at Starbucks (and not in a good way).
ReplyDeleteDay 6: Oh boy, was braiding Challah an adventure. I've had worse experiences, but the transition from a braiding board to dough certainly topped a few of them. I spent a good hour the night before puzzled over the concept and not being able to memorize the numbers. In the end, I found my own way to do it, but by the next day, I was back to being baffled and confused. In the end, I found that visual patterns were a lot easier for me to memorize than number patterns. After fixing the grouping of the strands of dough (thanks, Chef!), everything fell into place.
ReplyDeleteDay 7: I have never experienced an absence from a lab, but I'm not certain it would be worse than arriving hours late. Coming into a classroom that's halfway through production is like being on the outside and looking at pure mayhem. It's really weird and I don't like it. I know your health comes first, but it's rough with nine day labs. It's a shame I didn't have time to make baguettes, if not a bit stressful, but I'm sure I'll be able to catch up.
ReplyDeleteIn the last class on day 7 everything went smooth for my team. We made chocolate chip scones with a cinnamon sugar topping. They must have been good because everyone in class ate them all before chef even looked at them. Since the snow was planned to hit the next day, which should have been practical day 8 we had to make our practical baguettes. I lost the seem on one of my baguettes and I realized my mistake right away. I couldn't find the seem anywhere but I positioned it the best I could and prayed I placed it right. When the baguettes were done I checked that one right away and thankfully the seem must have been on bottom because it didn't bust open. I was very happy with how my three baguettes turned out. It was only my second time making them and there was nothing majorly wrong with them.
ReplyDeleteOn day 6 we made wheat bread, focaccia, challlah and bagels. It was my second time making focaccia and bagels. It was my first time making wheat bread and it was fairly simple, we didn't run into any problems with it. The Challah was where most of my time went to. It was not the actual braiding that took awhile but the rolling out each piece of dough. It is a lot harder then it looks because each strand needs to be evenly rolled or the final product would not look very good. The problem with the dough is how quickly it dried out and how it kept shrinking. The main problem is trying to fight over the spray bottle so you are able to keep the dough moist. Once all the dough is rolled out everything else is pretty much a breeze. I feel like the hardest part about braiding is starting it off the right way and then really focusing to not forget what step your on.
ReplyDeleteDay 1 in Viennoiserie... Was not as horrible as I thought it was going to be. Luckily, our class just finished Artisan Breads so we're already in the hang of things. Today, we were showed how to use the sheeter and got a slight feel for it. It's not complicated or anything, you just have to stay focused. We also made some Pumpkin Muffins. They aren't hard to produce at all, you just have to accomplish making them as clean as possible. Key word; clean. Mise en place today was a little messy and a little all over the place, but I did learn how Chef Hitz expects mise en place to look, how the set-up of production should look, and also all the little tricks to make production as smooth as possible. I feel completely confident to produce muffins, it's all the laminated doughs I am extremely nervous for. I realized today that producing laminated doughs happen in three intervals; first is mixing. Mixing has at least 10 to 12 steps. Then laminating. Laminating isn't too many steps, but you must perfect the few steps there are to produce a decent baked good. Lastly, there is shaping and baking the product. If the first two intervals aren't done precisely, shaping the dough is not going to go smoothly at all. I never understand just how many steps there are in solely producing one laminated product. I am definitely excited to start the chaos. I am going to do my best to maintain my sanity when the ball gets rolling.
ReplyDeleteDay 4 of Viennoiserie... what didn't go wrong? The major thing we messed up as a group, was rolling out the croissant dough. We switched the orientation of the dough, and rolled it out the wrong way. We weren't able to produce croissants from the dough because the dough would seize while proofing, making the croissant and inch wide and about a foot long. Since there is no such thing as wasting dough in Viennoiserie, we decided to make chocolate croissants as best as we could with the current circumstance. We were extremely carefully each step of the way. Even though, screwing up and making a mistake really sucks and brings the confidence down, it was an experience that I definitely needed. In the field, mistakes happen and you have to be willing to take them as they come and make something out of it. Thinking on your toes. It is entirely unrealistic that you would throw out almost three days worth of production, and a couple hundred dollars worth of product. Although, we were supposed to produce croissants, we ended up making pretty beautiful chocolate croissants. I know that not every time you will be able to make a comeback from your mistake, but luckily we were able to.
ReplyDeleteDay 7 of Viennoiserie, day 1 of practical... I was extremely confident when I walked into class at 6 a.m., but quickly by 7:40 all my confidence was shattered. Turns out we didn't make enough Danish dough on Day 6. We were supposed to make one Danish dough formula per 2 people not per 4 people. In the mist of us preparing our practical Brioche dough and getting ready for our croissant/Danish process, we had to pause to make another Danish dough and butter block to be later laminated in class. I'm pretty sure I didn't breathe the whole entire time we nailed out this Danish dough. We were one product behind everyone which entirely stressed our whole group out and caused a lot of anxiety. A couple hours later when our muffins came out of the oven, my group and I realized we ended up a whole product ahead of a couple teams which encouraged us. Then after we laminated both Danish doughs and finished the third tri-fold, we were a tri-fold and a product ahead of some groups. It was a great feeling knowing that we dropped the ball completely yesterday, but if you're determined you can definitely achieve a lot more than you think you're capable of. I know most times, you can't fully come back from dropping the ball, but luckily I have an amazing team and we were able to accomplish it all together.
ReplyDeleteSo today was our second day in Viennoiserie and we mixed danish and brioche, as well as muffins. We also shaped our brioche and made brioche petites as well as brioche tarts. The brioche petites are very challenging at first. The dough has to be not too warm and also not too cold. Shaping seems to be difficult at first, but I believe with more practice it will become easier to manage. The hardest part for me was extending the neck long enough so the head could fit through the hole. We also learned how to laminate dough for the first time. This can seem daunting at first but it was really cool learning how to stretch the dough to make those flaky, even layers. I can't wait to see what the final result is tomorrow. When making brioche tarts, my group decided to keep ours unfilled, and go with a Swiss flag design. This may seem easy, but sometimes the easiest things take the most amount of time to perfect. Its important to make the cuts so the dough is divided into thirds and cut deep enough to see the shape.Our muffins came out beautifully. The only thing we have to remember is to cut our pecans for the crunch into smaller pieces. Next time, what we should do is put the oats and the pecans into a food processor and pulsate until they are smaller. My group hustled today, our communication was great and we worked hard to achieve beautiful products.
ReplyDeleteDuring production, there was an error made when scaling out the brioche dough. During mixing, the dough stayed wetter than usual for longer. After mixing for a while longer, the dough finally came together, but it was brought to our attention by Chef Hitz that the dough will eventually be more difficult to work with and will produce a different result from the rest. After mixing, we weighed out the dough to compare to the yield on the formula. There was 100 grams of something missing, most likely the flour. Having someone else double check the scaling next time can avoid problems like this in the future. Our zucchini muffins also came out different than the other group that made them. All of the ingredients for both groups were scaled the same and the same about of batter was placed in each muffin cup. However, the other group's muffins had more height than ours. This is possibly because their batter was mixed longer than ours. Their muffins looked more appealing, however, there might be some tunneling and a tough crumb for the end result. Hopefully we can find a happy medium of how long to mix the batter so the muffins are tender as well as fully risen.
ReplyDeleteBlog Entry- Day 2
ReplyDeleteToday in class we started laminating dough. It is not going to be that hard, since the steps are repetitive and not that much to remember. As long as we keep track of how many times we tri fold the dough it should turn out okay. The most important part about laminating is just keeping track of what you’re doing. A huge part of viennoiserie is time management. I’m realizing that more and more each day. It is very important to make sure the dough is in and out of the fridge/freezer at specific times to make sure nothing is too warm or cold. This also requires a lot of attention. Paying attention to the dough and multi tasking keeps us moving and busy. But we always have to be watching the dough. The move we practice doing multiple things the better we will be at not forgetting about the dough. While laminating I learned how important time management is. This skill is helpful in all aspect of baking and life. Today we made zucchini muffins and brioche dough. Both of our dough’s came out a little wrong. They still are edible and manageable but had minor issues. The muffins came out a little short due to under mixing. Chef Hitz said that our muffin didn’t get as much rise as the other groups muffin. He also said our muffin might be more tender and enjoyable to eat. This teaches us to pay more attention next time, and try and follow the formula even more precisely. When our brioche dough was in the mixer it looked very wet. It kept sticking to the bottom of the mixing bowl. We figured out it was about 100 grams shy of the desired weight. This was probably a scaling error with too little flour. Chef said our dough will be harder to handle tomorrow. We will have to see if we can accomplish making brioche with soft dough. This teaches us to be extra careful when scaling. It also teaches us how to work around mistakes and not let them ruin a product. By weighing the dough after we took it off the mixer it showed that we had less than the desired weight, this is a helpful trick to see if you have messed up. Even though we had a few mess-ups, we learned how to detect them and we will learn how to deal with them tomorrow.
For my first two days in Viennoiserie we went over the course syllabus and the requirements for the homework and over the time we are expected to be in class.Which for the first time is the earliest I've had to come in for a class, 6 AM, but hey it's free edumacation so I'm all for it. Afterwards we made brioche and Danish dough.Which I haven't done before. So the methods were very new to me We combined two groups together for mixing. We proofed the Danish dough at 10:15 and let it proof for 1.5 hours and then put it on a sprayed sheet pan with parchment paper and spread the dough out and put it in the freezer. For the brioche we put it directly in the freezer after mixing for fermentation for 6 hours. We mixed this for one group.
ReplyDeleteOn day 2 we started at 6 o clock with mixing our brioche and Danish dough and let them ferment. We then got our ingredients for our pumpkin muffins. Chef then demoed how to shape brioches and pastry puffs and then demoed how to use the sheeter and laminate our Danish dough. We then used the laminater to do our dough. We then laminated our dough and shaped our brioche. I need to work on shaping my brioche, definitely. This also was a first timer for me. I really enjoy laminating. It's fascinating to make so many layers and when baked they show so beautifully. You just have to be a good driver as Chef would say for the sheeter. Afterwards we proofed them for an hour and worked on our muffins. Egg washing is very important. You can't just slab it on there you have to put it on there like you're painting a picture and not a house and if your're too slow it dries quickly and looks cracked after baked. We then mise en placed for the next days brioche and Danish dough, baked all our products and cleaned. Cleaning was very new to me too. Every Chef I've had has had a different way of cleaning. We mopped, scrubbed, squeegeed, splashed water everywhere, squeegeed again, and wiped with rags.
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ReplyDeleteIt’s day 3, which means there’s about 36 hours left till there’s break, but who is counting? Today we sprinted from the fridges to our workstations, oh I mean laminated dough. What I took away from the day is that temperature control is critical to create the perfect lamination. Consistency between the butter and dough is necessary to properly create as many layers as you can! What I really got out of today was how important lamination is. It’s a three-day process that can create a good net profit if done properly. So it is important to not rush the production because one careless mistake can ruin all the work completed in the past three days. Waste when laminating should be minimal since you are literally throwing out money. Not good! In that sense, it helps to reinforce the integrital meaning food has.
ReplyDeleteToday went pretty smoothly with everything. We were done with production and cleaning by 11:45 which means we worked quickly and efficiently. My group made brioche for the 3rd time and got some feedback on our results. We are good with consistency but we make the heads of our bread too large. There is a good neck formed, but now we need to work on making the head to body ratio a 1:3. Our breads also came out a little differently because they had to be left in the proof box for too long. There was not enough oven space to get them baking on time. This is poor time management and communication that tomorrow we will be more aware of. Our croissants came out with good color and shape. Our layers were open and noticeable through the sides. I feel comfortable with what we have been making so far and I'm ready to move onto something new tomorrow which is sweet dough.
ReplyDeleteToday in class my group made croissants for the first time. They are a little finicky throughout the process so it is important to pay attention to little details. When cutting the dough you need exact measurements and to score the dough across the top and bottom to get correct markings. This part was not hard but it does help to practice this and become more comfortable with it. Rolling is not that hard either. My group had a fairly easy time with it. When we baked our crust had a nice caramelized color and overall came out very well. Another group that made them opened the oven before they had risen completely. This causes the croissants to not get the full lift that they should have. I looked at their croissants after baking and they were a little shorter than my groups. It is interesting to see how the dough reacts to certain climates and how sensitive they can be. As long as you are always thinking about croissants and remember what to do next they will turn out fine. We also made chocolate hazelnut brioche tarts, they came out very well Chef said. I notice that to have a product turn out 100% they really need attention. Every step needs to be followed exactly the way chef says. It is a good skill to learn to have to reproduce something Chef makes. He teaches us to be careful in our egg washing because all the mistakes show after baking. It is definitely a class where care matters. As long as you apply all your effort and are careful all products should turn out!
ReplyDeleteFor day 3 and 4 we came in and got right on mixing brioche and Danish dough again. We then gathered ingredients for the next day’s brioche and Danish dough and then gathered ingredients for berry muffins. At 7 chef demoed how to shape croissants and danishes. Man what a load of information. We then went to laminate our dough and do this also today we shaped croissants. We had troubles in the end with either choosing it to look appealing or to taste better. It really comes down to what you want it to be. We made our berry muffins and had problems with putting them all too close together which would make them “like two people sunbathing next too eachother” not all completely cooked on the sides. During spare time we measured for our banana muffins for the next day. Chef also demoed the filling for our danishes.
ReplyDeleteDay 4 we made both our doughs again and then scaled out for the next day. We then worked on our brioche and then processed our lamination for day 5 and laminated our Danish dough and then finally made our banana muffins. This time because of all the oats it bake the top too well and we didn't put a pan over top of them to protect them from too much heat so they ended up a little more dark. We need to also pay more attention on the perfect color for our brioches and other products.
Day 5 of viennoiserie.. There is a reason JWU shouldn't hold labs on Friday..talk about chaotic! I think anything that could've gone wrong..did. Laminated our danish dough to make croissants but the dough was too soft..oh vey! consistency is everything people!! butter and dough have to be the same in order to achieve an (almost) perfect prouduct.Because our croissants were too warm, we had to hustle and try to roll every triangle into a well developed croissant. Hold on though, we forgot to trim the top and bottom of our laminated dough. So, we didn't expose the layers that we had in our dough. We also didn't stretch enough so our croissants didn't have enough rolls as you'd like to see (perfect would be 7 rolls, we had 5). Also, forgot to egg wash before we put the croissants in the proof box, also- something was wrong with the proof box so our croissants were under temped the entire time which led to big gaps between our layers after we baked them. The moral of this story is work fast but work smart! You make mistakes but you learn from them. Brioche shaping as a whole was much better today although I still need practice. The toughest part for me is getting the head only 1/3 the size of the remaining dough. We also made zucchini muffins today. They came out great but I was a little heavy handed with the oats on top..my bad!!! Overall, I believe there should be no labs on Fridays since it's clearly bad luck for all parties involved. Chef Hitz was super helpful though, and like I said, now I am aware and will correct the mistakes I have made in the past.
ReplyDeleteToday we had many mess ups. Our dough was too soft so my group had to work quickly with shaping. The proof box was messing up and we didn’t think to check the temperature which in the end our croissants tasted good but they didn’t look the part if you were to cut it open. I got to make sweet dough with old dough incorporated as well.
ReplyDeleteDay 6 we got to play with sweet dough. We made sweet dough for tomorrow then we laminated our dough from Friday and made cinnamon rolls, sticky buns, hazelnut twists and snails. I found out little goes a long way. Don’t put too much hazelnut filling on your twist or it will look like crap.
So Day 7..wow. We were pumping out so many products that it was making my head spin. Stollen, croissants, sour cream coffee cake, cinnamon rolls, hazelnut snails, pecan sticky buns, russian twists and rose glazed doughnuts. Today was the first day that I felt out of control with production. My group was pretty good at keeping track of times but it was a busy day. My biggest struggle is memorizing every single products proof time, bake time, bake temperature, steam or no steam, topping, glazing ..and the list goes on. I like how busy we are in class, but it can be frustrating when you're trying to get a million things done in a short frame of time. We messed up on our hazelnut snails- they needed a longer proof time and it resulted in a snail that was too tall (may have needed a harder compression before the oven too). Our final proof of our laminated dough went really well except by the time we cut it the dough was starting to get warm and therefore we were forced to work faster than usual in order to get it in the proof box. I believe because of this, our crescents were not as good as they should have been. Also, we need to remember to alternate sheet pans in the oven. It would be great if the convection ovens baked all racks at the same temperature and time but it does not. Therefore, if we have sheetpans in the middle of the oven, those need to stay in while the rest of the sheetpans that are golden brown, come out. Also, our glaze wasn't on point today on the hazelnut snails. I contribute this to being stretched for time and not being patient with the product. This is the only downfall to this class. You have so many products you are trying to get done that sometimes you can forget the love you need to put into a product. Tomorrow is phase 1 of the practical... Brioche, lamination, sweet dough and a muffin will be mixed/sheeted/baked. Help us Jesus
ReplyDeleteSince my first blog didn't post, I'm doing another. Today was day 7, so I feel like my group has comprehended how to make things for the practical well. The only mistake we made today was that we could put less filling in the cinnamon buns. It causes the rolls to widen and look less like spirals. Other than that, I feel ready. I'm confident in the skills I've attained over the past 7 classes and I'm ready to be assessed. Tomorrow will be stressful because 8 groups need to laminate. This means communications needs to be strong or else everything will be a mess with taking out the butter blocks and bringing the dough out of the freezer on time. Hopefully everyone will write their order on the board so everyone can be aware. There is a lot to make for the practical but it's helpful that it's over 3 days. This gives us a lot of time to make our product as perfect as we can get it. As long as everyone works as a team, everything should go smoothly.
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ReplyDeleteDay 2: One rumor I had previously heard about having class with Chef Hitz was that class starts at 6am. I can now say that this rumor is true. While you will not be penalized for getting to class at the scheduled time (7am), it can cause for a huge set back for not only yourself, but also your other group members. I was surprised to see that when I got to class at 5:55am, there was already a handful of students there and working efficiently. Even though it is only the second day, this showed me that our class is going to be committed to showing up on time every day. I am really looking forward to gaining an extra hour of class time, especially since the lab is only 9 days! Today in class we made baguettes and biscuits. With all the groups working on different time schedules for different things I found it got a little bit confusing to keep track of the times for all the products. This is something that I think my group and I should go over before we start production every day so everyone is aware of the plan for the day and hopefully it will go a little bit smoother than it did today. When shaping the baguettes, mine were coming out especially long. One was even too long to bake as a baguette so Chef Hitz turned it into a spiral 'S' shape. This was a good learning experience for me because it showed that you can do many different things with one piece of dough, and even if it doesn't come out the way you were expecting, you can still turn it into something beautiful. I am looking forward to the next seven days of Artisan Breads and cannot wait to see what it has in store for me.
ReplyDeleteToday was day 3 and probably one of my worst production days. It was a really good learning experience. First, I measured out the water for the pain de mie incorrectly and did not have enough water. We began mixing the dough and did not catch our mistake soon enough and had to rescale everything and start over. Next, I was mixing the bagels and like a minute and a half in I stopped because it looked just like the dough I was mixing before. Good thing I stopped because I realized I measured 1000 grams to little of water. Today really helped me learn how you need to watch your dough and understand what it should be doing. I am really glad that we did an experiment on the first day to see what different hydration amounts look like. That really helped me understand the problems I had with my production today. Even though these mistakes were annoying to have to go back and remeasure things, it really helped me learn how to spot and fix mistakes before it is too late.
ReplyDeleteThe first three days of this lab were very different from any other lab I have been in so far. First, even though it can be difficult getting up an hour early to be in class for 6, I found that it really helps speed production along, leaving plenty of time at the end of lab to clean, discuss our products, and (like we did on day 3) watch some videos of bakers and pastry chefs. Cleaning itself is a completely new experience. Chef Hitz seems like he enjoys flooding the room a little too much. But, I think it is nice that he helps us clean the room, as it is not something he has to do. After only 3 days in this lab, I have already learned a lot, and I expect to learn so much more over the next 6 days. I am really looking forward to finishing up the bagels, and practicing my cuts in the baguettes next week. Before this lab, I thought that baking bread would be boring or less creative than pastry, but I am finding that breads can be just as beautiful as sugar sculptures or cakes. This is definitely becoming one of my favorite labs.
ReplyDelete~Michelle Chretien
I really like the new rubrics for the practical over the basic one. The individual rubrics really explain what you have to do to receive each grade. The original rubric does not go into enough detail on how to get all 3 points and I feel like 3 point for a final product is not enough. It seems like the grading would be more fair with each product being worth 30 points so you can easily have one point taken off and not ruining your grade like getting a 2 out of 3. Also, the original rubric does not feel as fair as the new rubrics. For example, I feel like the new rubrics is more fair because it sets standards for each point value where the original is just like if you do all this you get all the points but it never says what you get if you do not meet the standards. Lastly, I love how the rubrics have pictures to show what the rubric says in words. Sometimes I find it hard to follow what people are describing and the pictures make it clear to me what people are asking. I really think that we should use the new rubrics for the practical because to me they make for sense and are easier to follow.
ReplyDeleteSo far we have had three days of class and I absolutely love it! I already knew I liked making breads, but this class has made my excitement grow even further. I love the way Chef Hitz runs class and wish every class were run the same way. Day one was basically a full day of lecture, but he made it very fun and enjoyable. Chef did a few demos and always kept the class alert and involved. We did not even go into production on day one, but I don’t think anyone cared or got bored. Chef Hitz really knows how to keep the class engaged; he can sense when the class is sort of slipping and he needs to change gears, which is something not many teachers understand. Day two was the first day of making baguettes. I had no idea how hard shaping baguettes would be; I realized that I need to work on my scoring. Shaping the baguettes was especially difficult for me because of my wrist. My wrist is injured—I am not exactly sure what is wrong with it, but when I move it a certain way and put pressure on it, it is very painful. That being said, shaping baguettes is basically all wrist work, so I was in a lot of pain while shaping. Because of this, I might try to shape using my left hand next time to prevent furthering my injury. After going home day two, Maxine and I realized that we forgot to take out our preferment from the fridge before we left. Thankfully, Chef took them all out for us, but I am now going to leave my keys on top of it next time as Chef suggested. Day three was fun. We began making pretzels for next week, and we made focaccia and biscuits. My group was down a person because Patrick was sick, but then a shadow student came and we got to teach him a few things, which was cool. I have already learned so much in these three days and I can’t wait to learn even more about breads! This is one of my favorite classes so far and we aren’t even halfway through!
ReplyDeleteIn our day 1 experiment on yeast we simply had 3 glass bottles and filled them each with a different “paste”. The first bottle contained just water + yeast, the second bottle flour + yeast + water and the third bottle was flour + yeast + water + salt. Then, after we mixed the ingredients together we formed the pastes and pour each into its own separate bottle and put a balloon on top closing the air way. We then just let the bottle sit for a few hours. Most people would believe that the bottle that contains the flour + yeast + water + salt would create the biggest balloon, but in the end but they would be wrong. The bottle with flour + yeast + water would actually create the largest. This is because while both bottles contain flour and water the salt that was added would slow down the “pastes” fermentation time. Also, by the end of the experiment you would notice the bottle with only water and yeast did not change or fill the balloon at all. This is caused because in order for yeast to activate and work it must have food, this food is provided through the flour in the other two bottles. Another important factor in bread baking is the amount of water the dough contains and needs. With the experiment we did with adding 50% water all the way to 100% water there was a drastic difference. Low hydration doughs favor acedic bacteria and will cause dry and denser products (white and tight). Examples of low hydration doughs are bagels, which contain around 50-60% water. On the other hand, high hydration doughs favor lactic bacteria and the higher the hydration, the quicker the fermentation time will be. Poolish is an example of dough with 100% water, high hydration doughs have a creamier appearance and are difficult to shape. When making doughs it is better to have too little water than to have too much, you can always easily add more if needed.
ReplyDeleteAfter 4 days of bread lab, this class is proving to be different than I expected. I imagined it being not very enjoyable and very difficult. Making bread is not easy, but Chef Hitz somehow finds a way to make very early morning enjoyable. We are only half way through the lab, and I have already learned so much about bread baking and have had a lot of fun doing it. Day three was a tough day of production for me and my team. We learned how important it is to communicate, especially when working with yeast. We didn't communicate who was scaling what and ended up having to remake our pain de mie, because it was scaled inaccurately. The hydration experiment we conducted on day one was very useful in understanding on how we messed up. While mixing the dough, my group and I immediately realized that something wasn't right. The dough was very dry and looked closer to 40 or 30% hydrated rather than 50-70% hydrated like it should have been. On day four of class, we made sure that we all talked to one another before we began production. This provided for a more organized day of production and also better final products. Chef Hitz stresses that we need to stay organized and work quickly, because yeast doesn't wait around for anyone. My group and I also had to make sure we communicated when we needed to make stretches and folds or put in or take out poolishes from the refrigerator. We forgot to take our poolish out of the refrigerator last week, so this week we took Chef's advice and put a set of keys on top of the poolish container to help us remember. In just four days of bread lab, I feel as if I already have learned and improved in the kitchen and am excited to see what else we will be learning the rest of the week.
ReplyDeleteOn day 3 of lab, I had a "once in a lifetime experience," as Chef Hitz would call it. We had gotten to the step of dividing our pain de mie and I carefully marked the mass of dough into 5 pieces. I then cut the dough in order to begin the final shaping. After dividing the dough, I ended up with 5 very long rectangles, which I then proceeded to fold into squares. I quickly learned that you should never do this. The more you fold the dough, the tougher it gets. Once the dough is very tough, it makes it very difficult to roll out into the desired shapes for the pullman pans. Also, the side that was folded will be a lot harder to roll out than the side that was not, making it almost impossible to roll an even piece of dough. In addition to never folding pain de mie dough, I also learned that you should try to divide dough into as close to a square shape as possible. Since I cut the dough into a very long rectangle, I only had to roll the dough width-wise. You should always roll a dough both ways so it has even toughness all the way around. I lost the opportunity to roll mine both ways when I divided the dough into rectangles. Because of my poor dividing, my group members and I struggled a little to shape our pain de mies. I now know for every other time that I divide dough, I will be very cautious of what shapes I am cutting and try to divide it into squares. I will also handle the dough less, avoiding making unnecessary folds.
ReplyDeleteOkay… So I realized I was posting in the wrong spot. Day 2: Starting Artisan Breads I was honestly really nervous that having Viennoiserie first would effect how we learned in this class but I was wrong. Having such a fast paced class like viennoiserie first has made this class tremendously better. Learning the material for a second time like gluten, types of flour, and mixing methods have really made the information engrained in my head. Today production went well but I did learn that we need to better judge time because when we said that our dough would be ready to go in the oven at 9:30 we did not account for the shaping, final shaping, and scoring. I will definitely get better on my scoring tomorrow I just need to practice and relax more.
ReplyDeleteAlso posted this one in the wrong spot. Day 3 of Artisan Breads was interesting to say the least. My group is pretty good at organizing everything and getting things done in an efficient manner. I wanted to make sure I go the chance to do the rubbing method on the scones so I put on gloves and got to work. I was so focused on making sure I did not over mix and that our final product would have great layers that I completely forgot the raisins. That's not what the "customer" ordered and I felt like an idiot. I think I had the idea that we were still doing biscuits like the day before. On the bright side the layers came out perfectly and they weren't over mixed at all. I learned my lesson and next time I'll remember the raisins.
ReplyDeleteDay 4: Lets just say you could tell it was a Monday. Parts of the day you could really tell that there was tension between different groups and their members. Now saying this we all still got everything that we needed done today and in great time. Today my group made pain de mie and mine looked great I think all the baguette rolling came in great practice for this. The last thing is at the end of the day to be able to leave we had to be able to do certain math problems which not going to lie they kind of stumped me a bit, but now I think I sort of get the concept of it all. Over all for me anyways, today was a pretty good day.
ReplyDeleteToday was day 4 of our artisan breads lab. Coming into this lab I did not know much about making breads other what I have learned in Viennoiserie. I came to find that making breads is very fun except for the part of waiting for the dough to ferment and proof. I have always had a love for eating bread but I never knew that I would love making it too. Taking the this class, only after 4 days, makes me realize that if I practice making breads I could really be good at it and maybe even open my own bread shop.
ReplyDeleteToday we made bagels in class. Bagels are my absolute favorite. Some of us students in class are from New Jersey and have had true delicious New Jersey bagels, while others haven't! We had a theory that the water in Jersey is what makes the bagels better but who's knows. So what did I do... I brought water from Jersey here to school. I will update you when we test this theory to see if its true.
Today day 4, was a bit hard. Well not hard, but lazy. It was a Monday and my brain was still on weekend hours. I was definitely slow today, witch I think it slowed my team down. There was some lack of communications with my teammate as well. Over productions was SLOW.. we made Pita, bagels, and pretzels.
ReplyDeleteOur Day 5 production today was similar to the first 4. My group made the poolish for baguettes, mixed our challah dough, mixed and baked focaccia and scones, then scaled for tomorrow's production. I am really looking forward to shaping the challah tomorrow. I practiced braiding with Chef's boards, and I definitely think that being able to have hands-on practice helped me understand the movements involved in shaping this bread. I also like that Chef gives us time to come together as a class and taste and discuss all our products. I have always enjoyed eating bread, but now I think I will have a better understanding of and appreciation for it.
ReplyDeleteDay 5: The day started out being a bit confusing to me. Sometimes I find it hard to know exactly what my group is supposed to be doing because in my previous labs it was always written down on the board. At the start our group believed that we only had to mix and produce Foccacia and Whole Wheat Bread. This was not the case. After mixing Foccacia right away, we realized that we could't possibly mix the whole wheat bread because we needed to make the preferment which needed to chill over night. We got the preferment mixed and the rest of the recipe scaled out, and then found out we were making biscuits, so that became our next task. After the biscuits were done we realized we missed another key part of production for the day, the challah. We mixed the challah dough, however it was at 98°F so we had to make some adjustments during the bulk fermentation, like letting it chill on the stainless countertop. Todays production made me realize that myself and my group need to come together before production and organize a list for the day, or else every day will be like today. It is not efficient to not know what you need to do next. Today we also had issues with the proof box. When making the Foccacia we put it in for 10 minutes before we had to take it out and do one of the two pushes on the dough. It was after the dough had been in for 10 minutes that we realized the proof box was not on the correct setting and had actually made the dough colder, doing the opposite of what you want when proofing. This set us back in production time as we had to adjust the settings.Today was a learning experience overall because it made me more aware of how our production can be affected by small mistakes and not being organized.
ReplyDeleteToday was day four and in class we made baguettes, savory scones, and a whole wheat loaf. I really enjoyed making the whole wheat loaf because it was something different than what we have been doing in class. I like the idea of being able to use whole wheat flour because I enjoy healthy foods. We then made savory scones with bacon, caramelized onions, asiago cheese and a pecan on top. I was assigned to make the bacon. This was really hard for me because I do not like raw meat. I think that it is gross and I really do not like touching or going near raw meat. I was very proud of myself for being able to touch the bacon and not cry a little about it. Another problem that we faced in class was that our scone dough was overly hydrated. This could have been a scaling issue with the amount of flour or the amount of liquid. Luckily our scones still came out with fairly decent layers and a nice golden color. Finally in class we made baguettes. I had never expected that making baguettes would be so hard. Rolling them was difficult because we did not hold back 50 grams of the water which made the dough overly hydrated. The dough was very pliable and sticky which made having it keep shape and not be oddly shaped. We were able to get the baguettes into somewhat of a baguette shape in length, but the ends were not very pointy. Another problem that was faced was cutting the slits into them. I did not expect it to be so hard to cut straight lines on a piece of dough until today. I struggled a lot with holding the blade in the proper form and having my lines not go to the edge of the baguette causing there to be too big of a seam. Overall in class today there were some struggles but we as a group were able to overcome them and see what we need to fix for us to do better tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteOn day 2 of the class, day 1 of making baguettes I was taking a groups baguettes out of the oven, and when I pulled them out, I was turning to bring them across the room. but at the time, the room was a maze because everyone was moving things to clean. so I was struggling to find my way and dropped three baguettes. I placed the ones on the board down on a table and picked up the ones that fell. I picked up the left over baguettes to bring them to the back. and guess what, I dropped two more. I hear chef yell back to me "you make any to the back?!" and I was instantly freaked out. but the way chef said it made it funny and it wasn't as awkward as I thought it would be.
ReplyDeleteBY ARNEL not erin lumia
Day 5 was interesting. Faster production, witch was a good thing. My group and I made baguettes, savory scones, and mixed the challah dugh. I feel like my teammates and I are very strong, bur lack in communicating. Today we left the baguette dough fermenting a half an hour more. Honestly it was one mistake no biggy, but it could have been prevented if we talked things out and be more organized with our things. Overall our baguettes turned out beautiful as well as our scones.
ReplyDeleteYesterday, on day 5, was a handful to say. Dough after dough we mixed and things just didn't seem to go right. Our group has the skill to make great products but we don't see that we need to work as a group. Some of our doughs got mixed up and one ended up proofing for an extra half hour. It was a bit overwhelming when we decided not to work on doughs together but rather divvy up the production tasks and rely on one person so do a certain dough instead of all of the group being accountable. Needless to say, a lot of tension built up in the group that shouldn't have been there. I think things will be better off if we work as a group and communicate with each other. Despite our minor setbacks, our finnished product of baugettes, savory scones, chillah, and whole wheat rolls came out looking and tasting even better than we thought they would.
ReplyDeleteComing into this lab, I heard so many horror stories of crazy bread chefs and how awful this class could be..instead..I was enrolled in Chef Hitz's class. On day 1, I thought to my self...I hope we don't lecture like this everyday! We lectured the whole entire class! I had all I could do to keep my eyes open! I also heard in this class that all you make is the same dough over and over again. True as that may be, Chef makes it enjoyable. He makes learning about breads fun an exciting! One thing I did have to sacrafice and learn to live without with during this segment...is sleep. Waking up at 5:20AM every morning just so I can actually be awake for class. Wasn't looking forward to that. As day 2 rolled up, I realized that...there was no more lecture! Not the boring kind on the computer anyways. On day 2, we did experiments with balloons and bottles and different yeast mixtures so we can see the best environment yeast can have to grow and ferment! We also began the long journey of conquering...the baguette. Well..we will see how that goes...
ReplyDeleteDay 6 seemed to be my favorite day so far and I definitely learned a lot. I really appreciated how chef started the class by giving us a full list of what we had to make today, what we had to mise en place for tomorrow, and what we had to make for tomorrow. As organized as I am it kills me not to have a production schedule every day. My group learned this on day five when we realized half way through class that we were expected to make challah dough which we weren't planning for. Today when we had the list things went much smoother and we were able to split up the work and get it all done. We had many "once in a lifetime opportunities" as chef would call them. It finally got drilled in my head that all of the liquids have to be the same proper temperature or the dough could be too warm. Our challah was 102! Our water was a perfect 70 degrees but the honey and eggs were who knows what temperature. I also did pretty well with braiding the challah. I was so worried that I would not get it because I find it so hard to do on the board but once my hands touched the dough I was able to pick it up easily. In other news we actually added fruit to the scones today!
ReplyDeleteDay 6: Well lets just say that today was an interesting one. My team started off finding out that are poolish fermented to quickly and ended up sinking and we think the cause of that is we might of added to much yeast. Second thing has to be one of the worst by far for any baker we had a shortage and non of the ovens were working so we had to transfer sheet trays of breads to a whole other lab down the hall. lastly we tried mixing are challah and guess what we forgot, the water we for the water out of all things, anyways we ended up fixing the problem and everything ended up being just fine.
ReplyDeleteDay 6 had a lot going on but everything worked itself into place. In the beginning of the day Chef gave us a list of everything we had to accomplish which made our group well organized until the dividing of 3 doughs was happening all at the same time. It was a little stressful but the most we have done at once in this class. Once we did the first shaping on our baguette dough we had to move right into dividing our whole wheat dough. Then shaping challah, back to baguettes and whole wheat dough etc. All this was happening towards the middle of the day and once we had finally gotten all our doughs in the oven and or the proof box, all the other students had already started to clean the room when we realized that we hadn't mixed our challah dough yet for day 7.... Once we had gotten to this point I felt like my group was just rushing to be able to get it done. We learned yesterday that rushing or taking the easy way out does not work with dough, it has to be treated like a child and be cared for. Our poolish for todays baguettes, we think, was over yeasted. This is due to a scaling problem. Therefore for the rest of the class I am going to focus on not rushing to get things done because we definitely do have more than enough time during the day to finish each product successfully.
ReplyDeleteToday in class was our first day working with Challah dough. Rolling this dough into the logs was incredibly hard and I struggled with it a lot. I never realized how hard it was to make six consistent looking dough strands. After I rolled out six somewhat equal looking strands I started my braid, which did not turn out how it was supposed to. I had to undo it a few times before I got the hang of it. I struggled with remembering which step I had just finished so I would confuse myself on which one came next and my braid would get twisted up. I now know for next time that I have to concentrate on which step comes next and pay more attention to my braid. I also learned that when I am rolling out dough strands my one hand rolls more than my other hand. So when I roll dough strands out from now on I need to work my left hand more with the dough because it just rests there and doesn’t actually do anything except make the strand flat. In class today we faced a huge problem when the ovens shut off. We had to work around this for over almost 30 minutes. This was difficult because it was in the prime time of baking our products and we were all frantic over what we could do with our products. Luckily there were classrooms with ovens that were available for us to use. We were able to get our focaccia in the oven and baked to a great, golden color. Overall today’s class was slightly chaotic, but very productive.
ReplyDeleteAfter 6 days in breads, I have finally understood how communication and your attitude affects how you work and how your product turns out. Day five and six were basically the test days to my hypothesis of if your attitude affects your product. On day 5, my group did not have that drive to be positive from the beginning. The first thing that made us frustrated seemed to bring the rest of the day down. Once you loose that positive attitude, products begin to suffer and do not turn out as good as they could be. Day 6 was a much better day attitude wise and it truly reflected in our products. Also this class had taught me how important it is to communicate with all members of a group. At the beginning of the segment, I felt as though our group was very scattered and no one really knew what each other was doing. It does take time to work well with others but I learned you have to talk and make a plan and make sure everyone is understanding of everyone else. Along with learning all about bread, I feel like I learned a lot of real life skills that will be really helpful especially when I go and work out in industry. I really love learning about how to make breads. Viennsorie had made me not really like yeast that much but this class changed my opinion. Now the thought of maybe wanting to work with bread and be a baker rather than just a pastry chef has entered into my head.
ReplyDeleteDay four was fun. We were able to make pita bread, which was cool. I found it very fascinating how we simply rolled out the dough and then it puffed into a pocket in the oven; I don’t really understand why it does that and would love to learn more about it. Today we also made pretzels. The pretzels were difficult to shape and I need to work on rolling dough into log shapes. This experience was cool because we got to see the difference between pretzels made with lye and those without lye; I learned how lye gives the pretzel all its flavor and color. When I was trying to put the goggles on to dip the pretzels in lye I broke them, which was the one problem I ran into today, but we were able to get new ones. Day five my group made baguettes and it did not turn out well. We really need to work on our shaping as well as our cutting. We are making them one more time before we have the practical so hopefully next time will be better!
ReplyDeleteI could say that today was an "ok" day. I struggled braiding my challah dough. It got to the point where chef had to come and finish it for me LOL. (awkward) I decided to take the bored home and practice, but I still seem to have a bit of a struggle with it. I pray the lord tomorrow is different. My group and I got to make cheesy bread witch was incredibly good. Our scones had a beautiful golden color and also nice layers. I was not to happy about our focaccia bread. It wasn't nice and fluffy like groups 2 and also one of our breads got really dark in color.
ReplyDeleteDay six was a little chaotic. There was a lot to do, but we got it all done. It was the first day of making Challah, which was challenging. I still need to work on shaping the logs, although, the braiding was not too difficult. My group also made Focaccia today. Just as we are about ready to put it in the oven, something happens to all the ovens and they lose power! Because of this we had to use an oven in another room and we just had to make sure to remember to check on it. Eventually the problem was fixed and we brought them back to our ovens. Day seven we were much more organized. We made Challah again and it was much easier than last time. The only problem we had was that the oven temperature was set too high and the Challah ended up getting ruined. My group also made baguettes again and they came out so much better than last time; I was really happy with how they came out. We got to make cheesy rolls with whole-wheat flour and einkorn flour. This was cool because I got to learn about a new type of flour that I had never heard of before. Monday we start practical; I feel comfortable with what we have to do for the practical. Because this class has a lot of repetition every day, I am confident with everything we have to make for the practical. I really like how the class is taught and how we practice things more than once before we are graded on it.
ReplyDeleteToday (Day 6) we made another round of focaccia, challah, biscuits, and pretzels. I'm glad we got another chance to make these before the practical. I did a much better job rolling my logs for challah and pretzels, but I still need to work on creating an even taper. Today we also got a "once in a lifetime experience" of what can happen when you don't check the oven temperatures before you load products. I definitely learned from that, and will do my best to always check before I start baking. Today also felt like a Thursday lab. It kinda felt as though people were anxious to leave for the week (I know I was). But, we still pulled everything off and even managed to pre-scale for our practical on Monday.
ReplyDeleteDay 6 was a busy day of production but with good communication and keeping organized my group was able to finish everything on time. This was the first day of working and shaping challah bread and while Chef makes it look super easy it was actually very difficult. I struggled with rolling out the dough into 6 consistent log shapes. Chef recommended getting play dough and that should help with training my hands how to properly roll out the dough and how much pressure you need, I am defiantly infesting in some play dough this weekend. When I finally rolled out the dough strands I started my braid, I have practiced the braiding sequence during class on the boards and had the hang of the pattern. However, I had to make sure to pay extra attention not to mess up the sequence and to lay the braids close enough so you could not see the dough underneath. With the 2-strand braid being the “easier” braid, I struggled more with this one. When I first tried to braid I ended up twisting the dough instead of creating the braid. Chef then came and taught Miranda and I the proper way to braid which is to have the right hand always go under and left hand always grabbing the dough strand on top. One huge problem the whole class ran into today was that our ovens turned off and without ovens we could not bake our products. My group ended up bringing our focaccia over to another kitchen and baking it there. Luckily we got the power back and were able to finish off our breads and get them all to a nice golden bake.
ReplyDeleteeach day making baguettes, I cant get the cut of the slices right. but thankfully chef is patient and understanding of my struggle and keeps helping me. listening to him explain how to hold the blade really makes it easier, and having him guide my hand helps get the flow too. chefs little demo on the razor blade and the water bowl really brought to my attention the right way to hold the blade, so hopefully for practical ill be fine!
ReplyDeleteArnel Ray.
Class yesterday had a lot of ups and downs. It started out really well with my group mixing all of our doughs on time and they all turned out well. When it came to rolling out our baguettes it was going really well. It was much easier to shape them today than it has been on any of the other days. I am finally starting to understand how to roll out consistent logs and when to start tapering off the ends. The only hard part with baguettes that I still have is doing the slits on top. I understand that it is supposed to represent a straight line but getting the blade to go deep enough and be even on all the slits is still really hard for me. Overall I feel a lot more comfortable with making baguettes than I did the first time. We then made challah, I am getting better at rolling out the logs and I finally can braid properly without having to think about it too much. One of the downs of the day had to do with my challah. The large challah braids got put into an oven that was 70° too hot and completely burned my entire group’s challah. Unfortunately we then had to throw away all of them because they were not edible. This was annoying to me because I really care about my products that I make in class and I did not want that to represent how I work and what I make in class. In general yesterday was just a struggle of a day, but I was happy with how the rest of my products came out and thought that they all looked good.
ReplyDeletein the middle of class, Thursday, I realized my stomach ache was more then an ache. I found myself leaving to bathroom 3 times getting sick and missed how to braid 6 strand challah. I didn't realize what I missed until the day we had to actually braid the bread. but I was so surprised with how well I picked up the braiding and how good my braids actually came out, for missing the lessons. not only was I happy with that, I was roud of myself for sticking around in class after how god awful I felt. it only made me a stronger person and more prepared for te industry, thanks to chef for convincing me to stay.
ReplyDeleteArnie
Something I found hard about baking breads is that there are many breads made in class and they all look very similar and it is easy to get confused about the method of preparation for each. For example the doughs look very similar but they all have different fermentation times and it is difficult to remember. A way to not be so confused is by taking good notes and by even taking a lot of pictures during demo. A way to take good notes is by making a chart in your notebook and listing all the doughs made and writing down the fermentation time and method of preparation and by writing down the oven temperature and the time baked.
ReplyDeleteWhen I heard that we could come to class to 6 am I thought no one was going to do it because it was so early and so on the first day I arrived at 6:15 and once I got there everyone was there and I was very confused on what was happening. I felt like I had missed 2 hours of the class but I only missed 15 minutes and so for the rest of the days of the segment I started coming at 6 which meant getting up at 5:30. Having to get up at 5:30 made me not able to function during the beginning of the lab and I was unable to focus on anything so this was very difficult for me. What helped was when I started taking naps during the day after lab and then going to bed at 9pm but I wasn't able to get any work done or see any of my friends when I did that but I was able to focus a little more in labs. And the only thing that will help is if I keep training myself to go to bed early and wake up early because I am really not good at being awake during early hours of the morning.
ReplyDeleteOver the past 7 days of labs we have learned to mix and bake so many different delicious types of breads. Two of my favorite things we made were the pretzels and bagels. It was crazy to see the difference between a pretzel dipped in lye and a pretzel with out, who knew a hazardous chemical could do that! Being from New Jersey I am also excited to see the difference between the bagels made with Jersey water and the bagels made with Providence water. We can finally determine if the water is to blame for the difference, due to the fact we mixed exactly for the same amount of time and had the water the same temperature. Water is a huge part of making bread and it not only controls the temperature of the dough but it can affect the dough drastically. For example when we made baguettes the first time we did not hold back the 50 grams of water, which made it difficult to shape. When we made them again and held back the 50 grams of water the dough was much easier to shape and make the scores on top, creating a better end product. Practice really does make perfect while baking, and while I have a lot of practicing to do before I get perfect breads, I did notice improvements just from the first time to the second time we made products. A perfect example for this is my group’s focaccia, the first time we over worked the dough and the second time we fixed our mistakes and created beautiful focaccia bread. Another good example is the challah bread, shaping and braiding the dough for the second time was much easier and my braids came out better the second day. On day 7 however some of our class’s challah was burnt, including my groups. The ovens were set at over 400 degrees when it needed to be at 340 degrees. We had to throw away all the burnt challahs because they were charred on top and raw in the middle making the breads unacceptable. A simple mistake like that happening often in a bakery can run them out of business. It is important to check the oven temperatures before putting in a product and it only takes a few seconds to double check to make sure the temperature is correct.
ReplyDeleteThursday was our last normal day until our practical! I have to say it went off without a hitch! We were also down a teammate. Noelle had to miss our class to play some softball! On the plus side, we got a fill in from the shadow program! We had a lot of fun together making our doughs and baguettes. I think she had a lot of fun making the breads with us. We taught her how to shape baguettes and learned how to shape pretzels. Getting the final practice with working with baguettes really helped me understand how we were going to be graded for the practical and made me more aware of the changed I would need to make or what I would need to improve on.
ReplyDeleteThursday was day 6 and our last day before practical and final. on this day we made a few production items and we also prepared for are practical on Monday. Being able to do so I feel will be huge help in the long run. Also practical day should go great seeing that I feel chef prepared us amazingly for everything that needs to be made.
ReplyDeleteAfter 6 days of bread lab, I am able to see obvious improvements in me and my teammates in the kitchen. We struggled the first couple days of lab to communicate and become comfortable with production; however, by day six things began running a lot smoother. We made challah, focaccia, and biscuits on day 6. Our biscuits were still oval-shaped, but they were much flakier and had great color this time. My group and I were very excited to make challah for the first time. We had been practicing our braids all week on Chef Hitz's braiding boards, but we were eager to see how they would look on actual bread. We quickly learned that we were working too slow with the dough. It is important to not let the challah get too warm or overworked. We took our time rolling out strands to make sure they were just right, but the longer we took, the harder and harder it got to work with the dough. Next time, I will try to be quick and efficient when rolling out my strands for challah dough so it does not get tough and overworked. Our focaccia did not rise as well as I had hoped. It was very flat and the plain focaccia got a little over baked. My group and I will have to work hard on the practical to make sure we mix the dough properly and are very gentle with it so it rises properly. Since I had to miss a day of lab, I am very nervous for the practical tomorrow. I will have to work extra hard with my group members to make sure everything runs smoothly and our production comes out the best it has all lab.
ReplyDeleteDay 6 we started to talk about challah bread and i mist admit I got confused by the whole braiding thing. No matter what i did i couldn't get the pattern down when braiding. The whole time I thought that you counted the spaces between the strands when the strands are what is numbered and get switched. Once I took home the braiding board I really got a hold on how to braid and it became easier. The more i practiced the more I got a hang of it.
ReplyDeleteLast week we made Challah bread which is a bread that is braided and the group I was in missed the demo because we had to work on something else and when we got a separate demo it was very short and I was distracted so I decided to take one of the boards home to practice over the weekend. When I tried to practice I couldn't understand it so I just stopped and waited for class when we made the Challah and at first I didn't understand how to do it but watching other people helped me and I the bread turned out a lot better than I thought it was going to. For the two strand braid I just kind of went for it without looking at notes and only going based off of what chef did during demo and I ended up doing the braid perfectly and I was so proud that I could do something so well by memory and it made me have more faith in myself.
ReplyDeleteI have to say now that we are close to the end of this lab me and my teammates have been working together much better in getting products done on time and getting them done well. Today was day 8, which was the first part of the practical. We made baguettes and our biscuits/ scones. Day 9 we will be finishing our challah and focaccia bread. Overall over the coarse of this whole lab I do have to say that what we make is very repetitive but in the end it helps with how the products come out on practical day.
ReplyDeleteAlong with practical products we had to finish up bagels and pretzels today. Going bake to the Jersey water theory the bagels looked the same as the bagels without the “jersey water” although they were not boiled yet. I have a feeling they will be the same though. When talking to Caroline it makes sense that a “jersey bagel” can only be complete when actually made in NJ with Jersey water and Jersey air! It may seem ridiculous but could really be true as some foods in other countries are different when attempted to be made here in America.
so I guess none of my posts actually sent so i had to rewrite them
ReplyDeleteDay 4
Missing day 3 put me pretty far behind. Luckily my teammates were nice enough to record the demos for me to help keep me caught up. For our baguettes, we forgot to hold back the 50 grams of water. This made shaping and scoring them much more difficult. They didn't turn out as well as I would have hoped, but they weren't horrible. We also made savory scones, with bacon, caramelized onions, and cheese. They were delicious, but when mixing the dough, it was overly hydrated. This was probably a scaling issue, but once they were finished baking the scones turned out nicely. They still had some layers and good coloring. We also made the whole wheat loaf which I really enjoyed. I think it's important, especially in our profession, to be able to create products that are even somewhat healthier for people. I don't think whole grain/healthy alternatives in baked goods is a trend or a fad, so it's a good thing that we are learning how to make these kinds of products now. I feel like it will definitely benefit me in the future.
Day 6
ReplyDeleteDay 6 was a busy day for our group, but we effectively communicated and finished everything with time to spare. The most challenging part of today was shaping the challah bread. Rolling out the dough into even logs with nice tapers at the end was extremely difficult the first time through, despite how easy chef makes it seem. The logs were uneven and messy looking, but I still had to braid them. Even though I missed the first demo on braiding, I felt confident in my abilities to braid the bread, and the final product showed this. Although it was a little uneven because of my inability to roll consistent logs, the braiding sequence was on point. Hopefully tomorrow the logs will turn out better to the final product will look more appealing. There was also a problem with the ovens; right as we were about to put our focaccia in, we lost power! It was a quick fix though to go down to another kitchen and use the oven they weren't to finish baking them.
Day 7
ReplyDeleteToday went very well for my group and I. First, our baguettes turned out very well. We remembered to hold back the 50 grams of water in the dough this time, which made all of the difference. Shaping them went very smoothly with no problems at all. Scoring them was also much easier. These were definitely the best baguettes my team and I have made thus far. I am very proud of the work we did. We also made cheesy rolls using whole wheat flour and einkorn, which once again gave us the opportunity to make products with a healthier appeal. You could definitely taste the difference between the einkorn and the whole wheat, but neither of them were bad. The one negative of today is that somebody put our challah in an oven that was set to 410 instead of 340. Nobody in our group was aware that our challah was in the oven. This was disappointing to me and the rest of my group because we take pride in or work and know that we have the knowledge and capability to make products the correct way. It sucks to see products we worked very hard on be thrown away due to the careless mistake of someone else. Despite the extreme over-baking, our challah was still braided very nicely. After today, I can say my group is definitely ready for the practical. We communicate very well and have made great products throughout the class. I am confident in our abilities and feel like we will get a very good grad on Monday and Tuesday.
I have been struggling with getting the strands for my challah bread to a good length, width, and proportion. I have been using play-doh to act as dough and it is really similar but rips easier. It has been helping me alot and i am improving more and more each time that I do it but it is still extremely frustrating. I am making them even on both sides better abd better each time and my tapering has really improved.
ReplyDeleteToday was Day 8 and day 1 of our practical. I feel that today went okay but could have gone much smoother. We started the day off on a rough note, we had to wait to start our baguettes because another group went before us and we had to wait about a half hour before we could do ours so that the ovens wouldnt be a problem later in the day even though we ended up putting them in at close to the same time as group 4. While waiting my group could not decide what we should start mixing and what can wait and it took us a while to agree. As much as i hate making production schedules I feel that this practical was one class that would benefit by having one. We spent a lot of time on trying to figure out what to do next and I wish that we talked about it before today and figured out what we had time to do while other products were proofing. We ended up getting everything done with plenty of time left but I hope that tomorrow is a much smoother day.
ReplyDeleteDay 8: Today was the first day of the practical and I would say it could have gone better. My team and I made baguettes and individually we either made biscuits or cranberry orange scones. Along with this we also made Pita and and prepped for tomorrow. I was impressed with how my baguettes came out and would say they were the best ones so far. We had no issues with the baguettes, however, we mixed ours first and group 3 mixed 30 minutes after us so we would have enough time in between baking times but group 3 ended up right behind us when we were baking. Our estimated baking time was right so I am not sure what went wrong but in the end it worked out. I was assigned biscuits for the practical. I knew my group, and a lot of other groups, had previously had difficulty with making the tops of the biscuits round, so that was my main focus. I was really pleased with how the tops of my biscuits came out, however the layers in the biscuits needed improvement. Overall, I really enjoyed this class, though it was stressful at times. There is definitely some tension between the class so I am interested to see if things continue this way or get better for our next two segments.
ReplyDeleteWhat is really frustration is that I wrote a whole paragraph and it force closed.. Anyways Today was my first Day of class and Chef Hitz seems like he can make the class a little more interesting than other chefs. To be quiet honest I was not entirely excited about making breads, but seeing how fun it can possible be(if you try and pay attention) was what opened my eyes. For everyone wondering or contemplating, just go to class at 6. It will honestly be so beneficial to you. in the end youre only helping yourself out. I feel like Chef will keep me on top of my A game just because he has such a passion for breads and it transfers back on to us ( the students). I really can not wait to start making baguettes tomorrow. It is even more excited to work with a great team and an enthusiastic Chef. There is nothing better than a 70 year old chef and some bread. ... May the yeast be ever in your favor...
ReplyDeleteWho would've known that 4 ingredients combined over a 3 hour period was one of the most stressful things ever. Coming into breads class I had some experience in high school with bread making/baking so I was confident enough to know the basics. The first day, Chef Hitz clearly explained everything. He let us know just how stressful it can be, but after taking good notes and paying attention to detail bread baking can be easy...and he was right. After our first day of production on day 2, I felt nervous but also pretty good about our baguettes. They came out pretty good, but we learned about what wasn't right and how we could make it better for the next round. On day 3 we made our baguettes again and they came out awesome! I'm really happy with our group and I think coming in at 6 is one of the best decisions we made so far. Every day I find a new appreciation for breads and this class helps build my patience and time management skills. I can't wait to see what the next few days bring!
ReplyDeleteToday is Day four, and waking up and 5 in the morning to get to class at 6 might have been the smartest decision I've made. Although you might be tired and crank, it is all worth it in the end. Long story short, Chef Hitz knows what he is talking about. I started off the day feeling extremely confused. My group had to make polish and I knew how to scale ingredients but for some reason I didn't know where to put them. Because of this confusion I let one of my group members take the lead, and he scaled the flour right into the cambro which I immediately knew it was wrong because Chef Hitz gave us a look. if you scale your ingredients into a square container it will be harder to properly mix opposed to scaling your ingredients into a round bowl. I felt like today was a good day and that I was getting the hang of things and actually enjoying our productions. I just need to make sure I know what im doing at all times so I can get things done quickly and efficiently . I have to make sure im always on top of things and so should you !
ReplyDeleteDay 5 was intense because there was so much production today. Trying to multi task in class is kind of chaotic. We probably had 3 or 4 doughs to worry about today. We had to make ciabatta, Paine de Mai, whole wheat bread, and biscuits. We had three timers going at once because there are different time frames that you need to do a stretch and fold or rest the dough. Sometimes it was very confusing, but I liked how this kept us going. Do not stop or you get off track. I remember I was making an egg wash today and I put the eggs in a square container. Then chef told the class to come over and told me to try to whisk the eggs. I did a little bit but chef said there were egg snots still present. I told chef I put it in a Cambro because he is always saying "Less dishes" But then he said that eggs are an exception. Now I know that eggs should always be whisked is a round container then put into the Cambro.
ReplyDeleteToday is day 5, and it was a stressful day due to may reasons. It was really hard not having a production schedule because thing were going off at the same time and trying to get everything scaled, cut, and shaped was hard but it worked out in the end even thought I feel that my groups produces suffered a little due to the bad time management. When chef said that if you don't have a schedule that everything was going to go wring and it did but it al worked out in the end.It as a good eye opener that time management in this class is key.
ReplyDeleteOkay... so honestly.. I thought today was a pretty good day. My group and I got a lot done today and I can say when I got home I was super tired, not like the other days. But going back to yesterday, when I said (to myself most likely) to always listen to Chef! because this guy knows what he is talking about. I mean if he tells you to do something a certain way or to even do homework, you should listen. if not, youre only pushing yourself to failure and setting everyone else back. Our homework was to make a production schedule and although it might have ben annoying to do it really helped in the long run, it got the ball rolling. Communication between your group member is always good to have. if you have everyone doing the same thing, youre not going to get much done. so having a plan and everything planned out for the day was a huge plus in the end. Moral of the story is: Always do what you are told, ask questions and come to class ready to make some bread because if you tell yourself you don't want to make bread then it is not going to happen or you will mess something up. Fermentation doesn't wait for anybody!!
ReplyDeleteToday was the 5th day of class and this was the first time that I started to feel a little overwhelmed. Our group didn't have a production sheet like group 1 or group 5 had. So we were not really organized and we had a lot of things going on at once. At one point, I didn't know what was happening, I kind of blanked out. While group 1 and group 5 were smooth sailing, we hit some bumps along the way. I don't want to go through that again, so next time chef tell us to do a production sheet, our group will make one. It helps be more organized and it also give you a time frame of when things are happening.
ReplyDeleteDay 5:
ReplyDeleteI'm impressed with how much chef Hitz has taught us in just a few days. I'm starting to see how significantly a production schedule can benefit a team's time management. Today my team struggled several times because we didn't plan accordingly. It's harder having a group of three people because there's so much more to balance on each member. It's harder because there's more for everyone to accomplish. Although, I feel it also gives me a better hands on experience. Working with less people means you potentially have to dedicate more time and effort into your work. You need to communicate, manage time well, put in effort, and pay attention to get through this class. There's a lot more that goes into bread making than just adding the proper ingredients. Small mistakes in handeling the dough such as storing, scoring, or mixing improperly can seriously impact the final product. I'm seeing what improvements we can make to work better as a team.
Today is day 6 and production went a little bit smoother then yesterday. Today, we had a production sheet to help us stay organized, or so we thought. Our group came in early so we could have an early start, but we were the lasts ones baking. We started off good, we got our dough mixing, but we didn't know that chef had a demo for us so that kind of threw us off schedule. By the time chef was done, everyone rushing to get their dough's onto the mixers, so we had to wait. By that time, we were already really behind. We had people helping us but that wasn't enough. Since we were rushing a little bit, our products got affected by that.
ReplyDeleteDay 6 in Bread class was pretty good. My group was down one member so it was a team of two today, and I was kind of freaking out in my head. I was like "There is so much to do today, how are we going to finish all the production?" My team member and I just worked around this and when chef said don't make the Pita bread, I felt better. We Made scones, Challah, and baguettes. Baguettes were the main priority because they took the longest. We decided to make apple cinnamon scones because making just cranberry is boring, considering we made that kind the past two times. The Challah was interesting because I was practicing the 6 braid on the braiding board and I just couldn't get it. It was just so confusing so when it came to the bread I called chef over and he was like just go. I was nervous because I didn't want to mess up. But in the end, I was successful. Just as it was cleaning time and all the dry ingredients buckets were out in the hall, my teammate was like we need to make the poolish. I was standing there like a deer in headlights because the tables were all clean and sanitized, plus the flour and dry ingredients were in the hallway. I just continued cleaning and she took care of it. In the end, I took a lot of bread home, like always, for family weekend.
ReplyDeleteSo today was day 6, and I thought that it was a lot easier than yesterday because my group had our production sheet and it helped us stay on track with everything. When chef says to do something listen because it will help in the long run.My group did have a small scaling problem with the scones but we plan to fix that.There was definitely a difference from what happened yesterday and how production was today.Making production sheets will become your life if you plan on making it through any class that has to do with yeast what so ever.
ReplyDeleteDay 6:
ReplyDeleteToday went a lot smoother than yesterday. I came to class 45 minutes early and my group had made a production schedule. Getting a head start is really beneficial and can help keep you on track if you run into any problems.