SFBI Artisan I workshop: Day 4
SFBI Artisan I, day 4
Yesterday, we looked at the effects of two variables - pâte fermentée and high-gluten flour - on one kind of bread - baguettes. Today, we used pâte fermentée as the constant, and made 5 different breads with it. They were:
1. Pan Bread. An enriched sandwich loaf.
2. Rye Bread: A French-style pan de seigle.
3. Whole Wheat Bread
4. Egg Bread. Very enriched with sugar, eggs and butter and braided.
5. Multi-grain Bread. With a soaker of 3 seeds, rye, whole wheat and AP flour.
Plan for the day
Ripe Pâte Fermentée. (Incidentally, a good illustration of the chaotic pattern of un-organized gluten resulting from a short mix.)
We made multiple loaves of each. We made the pan bread using 3 different shaping methods. We used multiple scoring patterns with the the rye bread and the whole wheat bread. So, we did 7 shapes, 12 scoring patterns, 5 kinds of dough and 20 loaves, in all. I was truly wiped out by the end of the day.
My breads from today (absent the 3 pan loaves). Front to back: Multi-grain, Whole Wheat, Egg Bread and Rye Bread.
One of my Whole Wheat boules
Miyuki squeezed in a couple classroom sessions on different pre-ferments.
As a very special treat for me, Susan Tenney (SusanFNP) came over to SFBI to chat and stuck around helping Miyuki with racking the baked loaves. It was such a pleasure to meet her face to face. She is such a pillar of the home artisan baking world!
At the end of the day, before tasting all the types of breads we baked today, we mixed pre-ferments - pâte fermentée, poolish and sponge - for tomorrow, when we return to baguettes.
The "aha moment" of the day for me was finally really learning how to pre-shape and shape a boule correctly. It's about time, eh? Again, having Miyuki show me once was all it took. Having to then shape 10 boules help consolidate the technique. I learned more in an hour today about this technique then I've learned in the past 3 years. As Leadbelly said, "It's so easy when you know how."
David
Comments
It must have been one heck of a great day! Your loaves are gorgeous and I enjoyed reading your journal about today's baking. Time to get some rest now.
Sylvia
This is so inspiring David! I love how learned 3 years worth of hands on experience in 3 days! yet have the time to post regularly in TFL.
And beautiful Breads you made!
Khalid
Amazing! That whole wheat too is just so round! Love the score! Banneton right? The other WW with square score. Let me guess... free style, dusted and scored or was it also in a form? Glad to know you're getting your money's worth! Must be a great feeling!
Mini
Mini,
Looks more like using either a circular or spiral wire rack as a template.
SteveB
www.breadcetera.com
starting at the top... going around, and around, and around. Interesting way to show expansion if the lines are evenly spaced.
I ordered one. :-)
David
I will have to have one too, David! Hope you'll give a demo when you get home. Where did you order it from...it looks like it could double as a cooling rack.
Sylvia
You ordered one...from SFBI or elsewhere? Looks like fun to use!
Toni
It is a cooling rack - for a cake, I guess.
David
Excellent pictures David! But it's back to baguettes tomorrow eh?
I have been enjoying this blog of yours and thank you once again for sharing!
David,
These breads are gorgeous! I would love to do what you're doing but with MS I don't know if I'd have the stamina for such an intensive session. How many hours a day are you in class? And a biggie for me is heat...how hot is it in your lab and as a person without MS, are you comfortable there all day?
I love your reports and as you can tell by all of our responses, we are very appreciative of your efforts to share this with us.
Cheers,
Toni
You voiced what I was thinking! I don't have MS, but I do have Fibromyalgia, which my doctor at MGH says is now considered to be an autoimmune condition. It keeps me from doing all I'd like to do. I also tend to over estimate my abilities, and then I pay in pain, fatigue and even difficulty with my brain functioning.
Both the heat & the length of time would be challenging for me. A shortened day would be awesome - at any rate, I can't afford it right now anyway.
Lynne
Accommodate!
Hi, Toni.
I have to say, there are periods of demanding physical work, and the lab does get pretty darn warm by afternoon when a lot of baking is happening. However, if you really want to take the workshop, I would not let this stop you.
These are really wonderful people. If you are comfortable with it, I would call SFBI and talk to Michel Suas (the director). He is a warm and caring and highly principled man, in my opinion. I would be surprised and disappointed if they could not make reasonable accommodations to your physical needs.
David
I'm thinking I could off set the heat issue with a cooler season class...I will have to work on this :-)
Thanks for your encouragement.
Cheers,
Toni
Remember, Toni, the Summer is San Francisco's cold, foggy season. The warmest month is October. The hotter it is in Bakersfield, the more likely it is foggy and cool in San Francisco. South San Francisco seems to run about 5ºF warmer than the city, so it's been 59-68ºF during the past week.
David
is just perfection David! It should be an illustration in a baker's book of recipes. Wow!
Larry
Perfect shape, scoring, and oh, those lovely cracks! Actually the entirety of your bake is awesome, David, but then, what else would we expect of you given your track record here?
Your experiences are whetting my appetite again for class time with a pro, especially your comments about shaping.
While we can read, watch videos, study our books, and do lots of baking, it's still done in the isolation of our own kitchens without the benefit of a good mentor.
for the boule, gorgeous!
Betty
They taste good, too.
I am the "baby brother" David referred to a few posts ago. I have the enormous pleasure of enjoying David's bread (though not often enough). I note that the emphasis on TFL seems to be on the making of bread. My emphasis is on the eating of bread. It's cool with me that y'all want to talk about hydration and protein content and the second rising (that's a New Testament thing, right?). But, for me, I'll take the nearly euphoric experience of consuming that much explained baguette with Country Pate, Mendocino Mustard and a slice of cornichon.
I'm thrilled that David has so enjoyed the SFBI course, and shared it with his Community of Boulangers in this blog. I'm even more thrilled that he came by my house with a dozen or so of his baguettes Tuesday. In addition to being featured in our dinner that evening, those baguettes have been: (1) shared with our neighbor, (2) toasted and topped with almond butter and ollalieberry jam, (3) the base of oven-toasted open-faced sandwiches with sliced chicken, Jarlsberg, mustard sauce and vine ripened tomatos, and (4) (gasp!) made into superior croutons with garlic-rosemary infused olive oil.
Each of those was....[searching for the most perfect adjective]...really yummy!!
Thanks, David. When you do the next SFBI course, I'll just take the week off so I can be of more assistance.
Hi baby brother to David -
So that's where those baguettes went: the familial food bank!
OM gosh...you two are really funny...did you get along this well as kids or were you the two in the back seat treating your parents to the "he's on my side" routine???
LOL
Toni
There are other internet forums related to automobiles. ;-)
David
David, it was really a pleasure to meet you. What a wonderful write-up of all five days you have here. I'm so glad you found the week worthwhile, and I hope you'll be back for another class soon!
A note to Toni: The heat in the lab can vary day-to-day, not only with the outside temperature but with how much the ovens are used on a given day. However, the coolest time overall, in my experience, is January-February.
As you know, it's the Artisan II class I most want to take because of the emphasis on sourdough breads. That's about 80% of what I bake. However, reading the description of Artisan III, I seriously doubt I can resist that workshop either.
Thanks for reading my blog. I'm really glad you enjoyed it. It was fun to write, and I think the reflecting on each day's lessons required for the writing helped re-inforce my own learning.
I hope to return for Artisan II in December.
David
Hi David
I echo the other's thanks for sharing so much of your experience at SFBI with us and look forward not only to seeing the influence of your hands on learning in your bread baking but also await with keen anticipation the next round in December.
Regards, Robyn
Thank you so much for the "insider information" with regard to the temperature in the lab. I can handle long hours and I can handle some heat just not together. After following David's adventure log ;-) it sounds as though between breaks and meals there's enough time to cool down if needed.
Again, thank you! and you too, David!!!
Toni
.....for the great close-up of the pate fermentee - it confirms I'm doing it right at home!!!!!!!!!
Great stuff - thanks for sharing!
David,
I signed up for Artisan II in December. Looking forward to it.
Hmerlitti@aol.com
Hi, Baby brother. Do you think David could use a baby sister? I can really, really eat and enjoy a loaf of bread :) Pam
PS David, your breads are perfection.