SFBI Artisan I, Day 4
Wow! Five breads in one day. Anyone thinking about doing this class needs to be prepared for long, busy days! We were on our feet almost all day!
One of the real lessons from this class is prepping and planning. When you are baking four of five (or more) breads it is important to be time efficient. All dry ingredients wer measured the afternoon before and our seed soaker for the multigrain was prepared the day before. This morning we began with the autolyse of the whole wheat flour, then mixed our egg dough, then back to the whole wheat...and so on, weaving back and forth as we mixed and divided and preformed and shaped and preformed and shaped and baked and shaped and so on.
Our mixer schedule was optimized to also avoid cleaninhg - until the final dough which was pan bread (homestyle white bread) which required a careful cleaning of the mixer to make sure all the seeds and rye and wholewheat doughs were removed.
Especially beneficial today was that we used many of the same skills we have been developing for baguettes in new ways - forming the "ropes" of egg dough for braiding, forming the multigrain batards, and learned a few new skills for boules. To be candid, after ten years of making boules I thought I had it down, and I pretty well did, but working with wet doughs all week has really helped me learn to use flour much more sparingly and wisely and my boule forming today was really nice. Also learnes some new techniques for pan breads which I NEVER do but probably will now!
Here is a photo of yesterday's baguettes all bagged up and ready to give to the hotel staff!
Here is today's egg bread braid (the pan loaves are in the image also)
The rye!
The whole wheat...
And the multigrain...
I wish I had a shot of the multigrain crumb, but all the breads had crumb about like you would expect - fairly dense for the whole wheat and rye and a bit more open for the multigrain.
Tomorrow we return to baguettes with preferments.
I am tired!
Jay
Comments
Those are great looking breads, Jay. All of them. I look forward to seeing the baguettes tomorrow.
Syd
I feel like today is sort of a final...A chance to really show what I have learned!
Jay
Impressive baking, Jay! All that hard work that you describe is rewarded by these good-looking loafs!
What thechnique did you use for the boule before, and what is the technique that you learned at SFBI? Can you describe the procedure?
thank you, codruta
Hi Codruta!
My boule forming was pretty good, but...what I learned is faster and surer with less degassing. It starts with "appropriate degassing" depending on the dough (less strong doughs less) followed by four folds. W'hich I did. though I probably didn't degas as much as SFBI does - but I also worked with sourdough and these are instant yeast based so... The change was more in the tensioning of the skin and use of flour. I have historically had too much flour and that has complicated the drag of the dough across the bench. And I wound up "rotating" the dough more than dragging. Note: this is exagerrated slightly to accentuate the learning but... Mac drags the boule a substantial distance across the bench rotating it 90 degrees every eight inches or so to tighten a new direction. About six rotations and he is done. We got lots of balling practice yesterday because the multigrain, whole wheat, and pan breads were all balled. (Te rye was too but... not to the same degree.
To be candid, the difference for me was subtle but I liked the results better with a more aggressive drag. And less flour on the dough and none on the bench.
It is probably worth commenting that it was the anticipation of learning subtle techniques that drove me to enroll in the class. And that has been, in my opinion, well worthwhile.
Hope that helps!
Jay
Great Day, Jay. You get to take all these home? If so, YUM!
I am staying in a motel so I can't use ALL the bread. I held one loaf of rye, one of whole wheat, and two multigrains yesterday to take to my wife on Saturday. And I have kept one loaf a day to have with dinner but...the rest is given away. But I do get great room cleaning!
Thanks!
Jay
I WANT to be tired as you were, just baking those handsome breads all day! Thank you very much for reporting, in spite of your fatigue. If you find my post a bit wet, it's because I'm drooling, looking at your photos. :p
Hello,
I will be doing a weekend SFBI in June. Would any of you be willing to recommend a hotel? There are many nearby, but hard to sort out.
Thanks!
I am sure you will have a great time. If you have your own car it really doesn't make much difference where you stay among the hotels listed in the FAQ. All are close.
I stayed at the Staybridge which is where most of SFBIs students supposedly stay. They gladly take and pick up students on their airport runs. I flew in for my classes and had the Staybridge pick me up - and take me to class and I saved the cost of a rental. The rooms are pretty good for the money, with a kitchen, living room, bedroom and bath. The kitchen comes with dishes and pots and pans and there is an Albertsons almost straight across the street (about 100 yards or so).
Please report back on your experience!
Jay
Many of (most? all?) the hotels in the Oyster Point area of South San Francisco are served by a shuttle that will stop at the SFBI for drop-off and pick-up.
I stayed at the Larkspur Landing for both the SFBI courses, and many more times when just visiting SF. They have suites with kitchens, etc. Nice people. Very reasonable cost.
Have a terrific time! I echo Jay's request that you share your experience.
David
jam packed curriculum!!! You are getting your money's worth of work and new skills.
They say you can't live on bread alone but that doesn't mean we shouldn't try to!!!
Thanks everyone!
I am taking the Whole Grains weekend. I'll take good notes :)