August 31, 2014 - 6:03am
Hello from Rome, Italy (living in UK now)
Hi people!
I'm Alessandro.
Almost one year ago I quitted University to go in France and learn pastry. While doing this I discovered the bread and viennoiserie universe and it has been true love since then. Now I work as an apprentice baker. I've got no experience on bread making, I just do the viennoiserie, and that's why I'm devouring this site.
Every time I got some little free time I end up on this forum reading about sourdoughs etc... I've got so many questions but I'll keep searching for the answers, I bet most of them are already on the site.
Have a nice and sunny day!!
Ps: this was my dry starter, which I'm now trying to make again. I always struggled with his acidity, I have to study more :)
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Check out Mike Avery's site.
http://www.sourdoughhome.com/index.php?content=tips
Thank you Ford!
Good luck with your baking profession.
Thanks! I'm pretty motivated!
From Rome to France to UK to TFL - welcome on this fabulous site! You will definitely find lots of answers to your questions but above all, lots of inspiration. Show us some of your viennoiserie at some point, if you find the time.
Of your starter in the photo?
Greetings Alessandro.
I'm in the UK too. I have a love of Italy and its baking culture. I make panettone with lievito madre very often and I'm all about viennoiserie too.
I know much about how to control the acidty of sourdough. Where abouts in the UK are you? I'm in Surrey.
Michael
Hi Michael I'm in East London. I saw some of your discussions about panettone and pandoro, and I have to say that your products are simply amazing! Is it Surrey far from London? I would happily travel to taste some haha
I'll soon go back in Italy one week just to go to a pastry school. Piergiorgio Giorilli does a 4 day class about Panettone at Iginio Massari's school. I'm really going nuts about it because due to my always changing shifts at work I can't manage a starter properly for the moment and I dream while reading how to cultivate it!
Alessandro
(Abe, the starter was 45% Hydrated)
Thank you Alessandro. I'm about 1 hour south of London, so not far away.
Giorilli and Massari are my baking / pastry heroes. 4 days with Giorilli, you will learn much I'm sure. I am a little jealous. Perhaps you can document the experience and take many pictures. Would love to see that!
I'll definitely try to document the experience!
my rye starter has never seen! Got so excited I had to cool it down putting it back into the fridge. Also at a low hydration, perhaps a bit lower, but for storage. :)
Yes, many answers and then some are hidden around the site. Some Q's can be typed right into the search function.
Mini
I was keeping it in an old T-shirt before, but he got so strong that one day I found "SD spaghettis" !....he literally went through the little holes of the fabric. But now I think I'll try to keep it in water as soon as possible :)
Ale
"SD spaghettis" - I have experience this! Funny when after leaving it overnight I find thin, curly, dried out bits of dough hanging around!
I like to keep my SD in water, I recommend it!
I'm keeping it in water now but every day I find it shapeless, most probably over fermented... hard to find dry dough at the core of it. Now I'm trying to feed it more , with 45% hydration, but I think that soon I'll be told to stop using the bakery's flower for my experiments.
keep sour dough starter in water...yeah! that's a good idea~
thanks for sharing wilson
Jason1876
As chouette22 asked to see a viennoiserie, here is a tasty Croissant from last night :)
I had to do the folding process which usually it's done by my colleague, so I was pretty anxious to know if the croissants would have been pretty or not and I baked this little fellow as a "quality test". Now I feel a bit of relief :)
Ps: I might have to tell in advance that I can't give any recipe or details about the ingredients that we use at the bakery, but don't worry asking me for advices or for my own recipes . By the way I'm still a VERY junior baker, so probably I'll be the one learning from all of you!!
wow~it looks pretty good, whats the inside look like?
its ok not to share your recipe btw haha
1 more thing...um...when u r making croissants, do you stretch the danish pastry? especially the triangle tip part~
Jason1876
I stretch it, but a lot depends on your dough... if you want to give her a bit more strength or not. I personally would prefer to cut my triangles longer and roll them without any stretch that could crash the layers.
Aw shucks! We are a big variety of folks here from beginners to everyone, all ages too! Always fun to learn and compare and have friendly discussions. Never too old to learn a new trick. Don't get intimidated, get inspired! A lot of us are actually envious of bakers who make a living at baking. "Oven envy" perhaps. Bread romantics?
"The more the merrier" from all over the world. It's just marvellous! :)
thanks Mini! I've been reading some of your messages on the forum, you are amazing :)
Welcome to this site.
I am a newbi baker from China as well, there are some really good books that might help you improve a lot about artisan bread baking, such as Tartine Bread, Flour Water Salt Yeast.
As you are learning those basic technique from those books, your skills will be much better and then with the recipes in this site, you will gain a lot~ thats how I roll~