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So I am a very busy college student, and like any other student, am in need of some $$$ to have on the side.   While I don't have much time for hobbies, I enjoy baking above all (of course, why else would I be here?!).  I am so glad to say that I have found a part time job at a bakery.  Our university has a dining service, which includes several cafeterias, restaurants, coffee shops as well as catering.  There is a central bakery that provides for these locations.  Here, I have learned so much.

Note to self:  Don't bake bread in your Weber Charcoal Grill when it's 25 degrees outside!

Since picking up those 20#s of semola rimacinata from Laurenzo's, I've been on a semolina baguette tear.  After baking a bunch of baguettes and batards for the Laurenzo's I've had a few more bakes.  Mostly out of want (wont?), or is that desire?  Dunno.  But I've moved the dial a bit.  Instead of my typical 350g - 375g baguettes, I bumped them up to be "gros baguettes" - big boys weighing in 100g heavier each.  So all of these weigh in at about 450g-475g.

2016 Dabrownman’s Blog Index

1/1/2016 - New Year’s Eve Pizza – 2015

1/5/2016 - Westphalian Pumpernickel – 1537

1/8/2016 -  3 Starter Italian Olive Bread with Rosemary and Sun Dried Tomato

  Yesterday I made a classic mistake by not being patient with a loaf of bread that would've been delicious if I had just given it enough time proofing! 

I just realised that I actually hadn't posted a blog about the delivery of the Rofco oven, so I'll post some quick pics here.

The oven was purchased from an auction house in Sydney, it was brand new, tested by an electrician as working, although it did not come with the stone decks. I think that they had probably smashed to bits during transport and the delivery was rejected by whomever had ordered it so it was an insurance second, even though it was brand new.

It has been a while since we took delivery of the Rofco B40 oven but have yet to put it to good use and get a decent loaf for various reasons. Anyway, in this time my partner and I have attended a certificate course at college on commercial bread baking which was quiet enlightening, informative and educational, maybe that experience will make it into another post sometime, it's amazing what you can do with the machinery a commercial baker has to play with including mixers, shaping machines, a prooving room the size of my kitchen and commercial oven decks!!!

Last night, after I formed the loaf for the Sesame Triple Threat and set it aside to proof, I realized it was still early and decided to make another batch of dough. To this one I added 20g of dried minced onion, which results in more of an aroma of onion than an actual flavor.

I didn't get much rise out of the dough overnight, though. I went ahead and divided the dough into 100g rolls anyway, formed each one up and let them proof on the sheet pan. They didn't proof much either.

I'm a big sesame fan, and I've been wondering lately if I can take that farther than the thick sesame crust I have been using on my bread for a while now. I hit upon the idea of adding sesame oil to the dough. As I googled around for some guidance on the subject, I found an example right here on TFL, and that confirmed my hunch about how much sesame oil to add -- about 1 teaspoon.

I baked this loaf fairly strongly, though in hindsight I think the sesame would benefit from just a little less.