arlo's blog

Oh jeez, where'd my holidays go?

Oh wait, waking up at 11 p.m. for work at midnight till noon! What a rush! I loved it!

As amazing as it was for my first holiday as the one of the main mixers at Zingerman's for the holidays, kinda glad I clock in at 2 a.m. now though! Unforunately, being a production area, cell phones are highly discouraged so snapping pictures isn't really a possibility. But I'll fill everyone in by saying, I mixed all through the holidays, baked some nice loaves, spent many many days in a blur of work, come home to sleep till my alarm went off at night, repeat. Laundry was neglected, so was shopping for food, and if I had a pet, I don't know what happened to it! (Did I have a pet?)

When Christmas day and Thanksgiving day came, all I did was sleep. Glorious! I don't know, but no matter how much sleep you get, waking up at 11 at night is still really hard, haha!

But I was making some amazing bread, and that's what matters. In fact, the day before Thanksgiving, I took part in making over 20,000 pieces for the day shift alone! Insane to think I was working with that much dough!

Now things have calmed down a bit and I am switching between being the main mixer, baking challah, french and starting on the rye ovens soon. We also have had Tino from the Dresdner Stollen backerei staying with us to teach a few classes this coming week at our school, and enjoy some American baking. This morning Tino and I were mixing together with Wurzelbrot, Dinkelbrot, Kartoffelbrot and one other spiced and delicious dough as well. Tino is pretty awesome to work with and in a matter of a few hours I learned quite a bit from him.

His bakery and a bit of profile can be seen here; Dresdner Stollen.

Whats in store for my baking in 2013? Well, I just received my third baking related tattoo yesterday with a partial-quote from Hamelman on it, so cross that off the list.  Just gotta finish a bit more of my arm to have a sleeve of baking related tattoos! Oh, jeez, I'm marked. In it for life.

Perhaps travel to another bakery this summer for a week internship (maybe Dresdner?), I should be putting in a few hours a week doing pastries at Zingermans as well as bread baking, and also working the night shift as well as the day shift too. Essentially try and learn everything Zingermans has to offer me. All of these ideas have been conveyed to those that need to hear them, and actions are slowing being made to make it all work. Nice n' busy.

Oh, and make my Pain de Urban loaf even better with skills I've picked up from all the bakeries I've worked at now over the years. And to think, I turned 25 in December and still have a whole life-time of baking ahead me. Makes my heart flutter a bit.

Take care!

Arlo

If you're wondering, my other bread tats are a baguette that says fresh daily on the inside of my whole bicep, and then a play on the band 'Black Flag' with four chocolate eclairs lined up like their logo, and the words 'Baked Goods' aligned accordingly.

Classy right? Hahaha....

Holy crap! What a year so far!

So did I go to Madison to be a pastry chef? Or did I stay in Michigan and start bread baking at one the nations best bakeries?

...

Well, I ended up staying in Michigan and striking out on my own for the first time in a very long time! With support of my once-fiance, and her still standing by myside in a sense, I made the move realitively easily and haven't looked back on it yet. So if you are reading this dear, thanks again for always listening to me and still being so kind of a person to me! Hope our birds are well!

-

What am I doing at Zingermans? Well, I am doing the 3:45 a.m. mixing, and french baking currently. Along with scaling, shaping and blah blah blah. But my primary focus is the 2nd shift mixing at 3:45 a.m. and the french at the moment. 3:45 a.m.? Yea, it is like sleeping in for me :) But there really isn't a second of down time at all- on any given day. Which I have come to enjoy truthfully. My 8+ hours are filled with dough. It keeps my mind off everything else in life. There is constant practice of shaping, scoring, baking, mixing and scaling. I am certainly thankful to have this position.

So here is some pics of some baguettes I mixed, scaled, pre-shaped, shaped, scored and baked!

Enjoy!

 Pay no mind to the recycling bag or messy counter top...

Take care!

Arlo

This isn't a bread picture blog and I apologize. It is more of a catch-up blog for those who have wondered where I have been and what I have been doing in my baking career. No, I am not conceeded, I just remember one or two people asking what I have been up too while I pop in-n-out of TFL on occasions.

It has been quite some time since my last post, and I have plenty of reasons for it too. A seperation between my fiance of five years and I in late Decemeber, opening a new bakery at beginning of the year in Lansing, finishing college in two weeks(!) and now picking between moving to Madison, Wi to work as a pastry chef for the University, or to bake bread at Zingerman's in Ann Arbor.

Of course I face the pain of leaving my small independent bakery where I have been working for a year, and as of three months ago, six days a week work schedule -- the downside of being the only bread baker!! I have learned lots for sure and it has helped me work on my skills even more so in the three years I have been baking for a living. But I must move on... just like when I left Great Harvest after spending two years there.

Lots of choices and going on's in my life for sure. So that is a little window into my life lately. A lot of bumps in my road and at one point I felt like I was at the bottom of the barrel with the seperation in all. When you are scratching the bottom though, the only way from there is up, right?

I'll let everyone know my choice of where I am headed when I make it. Which will be very soon.

Advanced warning: For those seeking pictures, turn back now. I was too busy to pull out my phone and take pictures over the course of production. Sorry. Maybe in December though!

As some of you may know, I moved on to a new bakery a little bit more than a half a year ago. My new employment brought along great opportunities, such as being in charge of bread production, recipe development and better hours. I have been enjoying it, though it has given me plenty of ups and downs, but thankfully I made it through my first holiday at the new bakery.

I arrived Tuesday morning a bit before 2:00 a.m., so not much earlier than normal. I had been working through the weekend on and off formulating what I felt I would need to bake for Tuesday and Wednesday, and had it checked over with the owner. This saved some time Tuesday morning allowing me to start the mixing as soon as I arrived. I had on the agenda 250-300 rolls (butter, sour-seeded, multigrain, rye, pumpernickel), around 70 loaves of bread (eight varities), stuffing mix (essential old bread, re-baked, seasoned, ect.), crostini, numerous brioche-cinnamon rolls, and I am sure something else as well. Doesn't seem like too much, but I am the only one who does any of the bread baking, shaping, mixing, ect. And I also needed to be at college by 9:30 a.m. Ha! Challenge accepted. I just turned on my favorite cd and began.

Needless to say, I took up every deck of our Blodgett Oven, used a lot of flour, butter and other goodies and made a nice assortment of products for our small bakery. When my time came to leave, I had everything out of the oven and all products cooling.

Wednesday morning I arrived a bit earlier than Tuesday. I had another 200 rolls to make, about the same quantity of bread, and even more crostini. Also some help making various pies, scones and other assorted pastries  a bit later in the day. Thankfully because of my early arrival, I was able to make the most of my time and used it effectively. I was able to leave around 10:00 a.m. with everything all cleaned up and the products cooling on the racks. I felt accomplished and hoped for a good day!

I stopped by my old bakery to chat with my friends since it is right across the street from my current apartment. They were up a great percentage from last year (not that they were down the past years) and made around 1000 rolls on Monday and Tuesday, plus they worked Sunday. Wednesday was another day for a tremendous amount of rolls as well. It was nice to see everyone and they let me run the oven for a bit, finishing off some rolls and loaves of bread.

I thought about how different my two jobs are from each other when I walked home. One was a large production kitchen were I was a baker among three others, not including the two table helpers for shaping and panning. At the new place I am all alone with my music and my craft. Do I regret the switch? No, I do not think regret is the right word. I enjoy my freedom and responsibilities now, and the thought of growth. But I do miss sharing all those laughs with my co-workers. Such is life though! So it goes.

Now here I am, I didn't sleep-in since I was planning on making some goods for my fiance and I while we relax before she has to work tonight for Black Friday (4th year at Best Buy and watching those crazed shoppers) and before I go back in and start all over again.

Hope you baking goes well today :)

I am in my Columbus, Ohio suite waiting patiently till I can leave to go to the culinary institute to take my American culinary federation pastry test. I have been working on this for pretty much the whole year, maybe starting around Febuary.

I believe I will be testing with six other candidates today, some doing pastries, some doing artistry.

Nervous, slight headache, and a father who has smoked more cigarettes than I could remember, telling me to take it easy.
:)

If I don't succeed today, just gotta save up the money, practice more, and try it again.

-Arlo
From my phone, so bear with me:)

At work I make a 'Pain de campagne' style loaf that features a whole wheat preferment. The outcome is a delicious dough with a flubbery like feeling when it comes off the mixer. It is an all around good loaf of bread for toast, sandwichs, dipping and so on. I have come to enjoy the flavors offered by prefermenting whole grains which is why I decieded to formulate this new recipe featuring a whole grain preferment, but better yet, a whole-rye sour also removing any commercial yeast from the loaf!

Now, I live in the heart of the capital of Michigan...hardly the country. So I felt it wasn't right in calling this loaf a 'country bread'. So I suppose it is my Pain de Urban if you will. The formula for the loaf follows;

Rye Sour -

The night before or depending on how active your rye starter is;

3.4 oz whole rye flour - 24.3%

3.4 oz water (68 degree water for me at the time, my apartment was very hot with the 90+ degree weather outside before I went to bed) - 24.3%

1 tspn of starter

Combine to form a paste lightly sprinkle the top with rye flour. Let ferment until the starter is ready for use. The flour on top should form little islands.

Dough -

All of rye starter

10.57 oz all purpose flour (used KAF) - 75.8%

.25 oz salt (used grey salt) 1.7%

5.1 oz water (once again I used a bit cooler water since even at 4 a.m. my apartment was rather hot) - 36.5%

Combine all the ingredients in your mixer, holding back a little bit of the water. Mix till a shaggy mass forms, at this point turn off the mixer, reach inside and squeeze the shaggy mass. If the center feels a bit dry, add the water and continue mixing for another thirty seconds or so. Turn off the mixer if needed and check again. A bit more water may be needed at this point, but if you take a look at the doughs percentages, this isn't really a 'rustic' loaf, its around 60% hydration. Complete the mix till it cleans the bowl and forms a very low degree of window pane.

At this point though, the loaf should be fairly smooth, but not fully developed. The developing will come later with a stretch and fold on the bench.

This was my dough after mixing, I'd say very presentable!

Allow the dough to ferment for one hour, apply a stretch and fold and return to your proofing bowl/basket/bucket/ect. After two and a half hours, my dough became nicely fermented and was ready for shaping!

Numerous bubbles of all sizes all over the dough and easily doubled in size. The dough felt supple as I removed it gently from the container to begin with shaping.

I shaped the loaf into a boule and placed on linen and covered. An hour before you think the loaf is ready, pre-heat your oven to 450 and prepare whatever new wild steaming method you find to be helpful. For me today, since I was baking one loaf, I used the good old dutch oven.

The final proof lasted around two and a half hours. I then scored the loaf gently and placed under the dutch oven for twenty minutes covered. After twenty minutes, I uncovered the loaf and let it bake for another twenty minutes, then a final five minutes with the oven off.

Crisp, crackley crust, and a nice rye flavor to it.

It went well as a vessle for Dubliner cheese grilled and pressed sandwiches served with a side of some fancy french mustard as my friend and I brewed some more beer this weekend. Our ritual is now becoming beer brewing, discussion of new tattoos, and delicious sandwichs when all is said and done. I am ok with that.

Trust me, I've been baking, but not much in my tiny apartment where if the oven gets turned on, it feels like it for days.

But on and off in the wee early hours of the morning on the days I have off I try to squeeze in a few small bakes that have been used as gifts for those around me. Included in those bakes are;

40% rye with caraway - went to a fellow baker at work.

Vermont Sourdough, though the loaf was longer than anticipated resulting in the ends being a bit smooshed. Family friend felt this one was of the tastiest loaves yet, I on the other hand could not get past the superficial factors of my poorly planned length during shaping.

Here is a shot of the crust crackling shortly after being removed from the oven...

And finally, this loaf I baked today shortly after leaving the bakery in the morning. It's your basic Pain Rustique, a loaf I highly recommend for those who have yet to try it. It will be going to a high school friend I recently reaquantied with after a few years away from him during college. He brought me along to brew a very large batch of Hefeweizen yesterday after last week we met up for tea and discussed what we are becoming involved in. It was quite lovely to catch up, realize how similar our passions are and how great they can taste!

I love the new bakery I am working at. Everyday I get to work by 2-23oish a.m. and bake till 10 a.m. Five days a week, sometimes six. I experiment with new ideas, new shaping methods and have just so much fun. Though after work I walk down the road and attend school for another 8-9 hours. So I am pretty tired out and never really get the chance to bake at home, so lately my blogs have been lacking and all I can do is comment on the wonderful works I have been seeing on TFL lately.

But I had a moment tonight and wanted to share this with everyone. While David is making Miches, and everyone is going crazy over excellent pastrami sandwiches on rye...I was attending to my cravings and crafting the 'wich I fall back upon time after time. Plus, I wanted to see if I could start a trend or something on TFL, similar to the miches and possibly the  semolina loaves we saw last week ; )

Right? I baked off a tiny sandwich loaf at work and brought it home to my fiance who always says she isn't like me when it comes to being able to eat a whole loaf.

I thought this would be the right size then :) It's about 1 3/4 to 2 inches in height, about 1 1/2 inches wide. Baked in an itty bitty loaf pan at work. Cute isn't it.

Up next...

Micro Monte Cristos

After nearly two good years at my local Great Harvest, two weeks ago I packed up, called it good and moved to a new venture down the road. It was hard to leave good friends and a great boss, but after talking to my Chef/Professor at college and my fiance, I decided I had hit the wall, learned everything I could at the bakery and because of that, it was time to move on from my current bakery. In order to grow and develop I needed to start working on other skills and making different loaves daily.

Talk about a change! From making 200-300 loaves a day and even more during the holidays to making about 30 loaves a day and being in charge of the the whole bread department (just me mind you : ). My two weeks at Aggie Mae's has really made me appreciate taking time to work out the kinks, experiment and get in touch with my cake making, frosting and pastry skills!

The Great Harvest I worked at was wonderful, unfortunately I have had my mind set on my ACF Certification tests and working towards becoming a Certified Executive Pastry Chef down the line in a few years. I love bread mind you, I love it more than pastries, but I understand where the money is at in my area and how pastries can really help me out in this career, so I gladly took the position as the head baker and then helper with cakes. I am certainly glad I did shift jobs.

The first week I began baking in a hearth oven, making entirely new pizzas (asked on the spot, "Ok Arlo, what are some new pizzas you are going to put out this week?") Talk about pressure, but I came through! I made Prosciutto wrapped asparagus with red peppers and Parmesan pizzas. Blue cheese, pear and walnut pizzas and more. I also worked out a new multi-grain bread recipe which went over well enough today the owner asked me to triple the recipe for the Saturday crowd!

From croissants, to mini fresh fruit tarts, country bread, sourdough seed breads, creme anglaise and more, I have certainly learned a lot this week alone and have worked on some great products.

The only rough side, work starts at 2 am now instead of 3 am.

Such is life though : )

Though I haven't posted about bread in a while, I have my reasons. No, I am still working at the bakery baking bread daily which hasn't made me bread-sick. I still am studying to complete my degree (end of this fall it looks like!) but I make time for the important things in life (like baking!). But what is keeping me away from bread is that I am working towards my American Culinary Federation Certified Pastry Chef title, which I hope to obtain this year. What that means is I have been baking a lot of genoise cakes, cookies and attempting Bavarian cream. Since those are the required pastries to be made for the practical examination.

Today, after getting off my shift I went ahead and made some molded Bavarian cream which is actually still in the fridge due to other time restrictions and appointments, but also went ahead and changed my game plan when it came to my cookies. I decided against my original molasses and oatmeal raisin cookies and went for the more familiar. Although I am still sticking with my two brownie recipes I decided. It's not that my molasses or oatmeal raisin recipe were bad, it's just I thought I should pay homage to the bakery that has taken me in and taught me so much.

I took a look at some of my aforementioned baking knowledge from working at a bakery that promotes whole grains and decided to make a two cookies using 100% whole wheat flour. They are different than what I make at the bakery by a long shot, but they remain true to using entirely whole grains.

The end result was a deliciously chewy whole wheat oatmeal cookie, and whole wheat oatmeal chocolate chip cookie! I made roughly four dozen, two and half went to my fiances work to be shared (they see lots and lots of my pastries from homemade poptarts, cakes to truffles) and the other half will be for her father, who is in the armed forces and is going overseas to the middle east again this month.

I am very pleased with the taste and texture and am glad I went with something I am familiar with. I think it will bring along confidence when it is time to step up to the plate.