week 5- The greatest gift in life is time - manage it well

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Democracy is a beautiful thing to experience as a student in a kitchen. Today, Team France had the choice from four formulas to pick two to bake.

Our first choice was the golden pound cake (as a muffin). Although choices are good in life, our selection of equipment was a total set back. Let's look at the formula:

12 oz granulated sugar

7 oz butter

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp milk powder

10 oz cake flour

1 tsp baking powder

8 oz eggs

4 oz cold water

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp lemon zest

1/4 rum aroma

add to water (yellow food color)

So here are the ingredients. What mixer would you pick? Well if you selected the handy 5 quart Kitchen Aid mixer that's what I would have picked after reviewing the quantity of ingredients called for in this formula.

However, we chose the Hobart HL200-1STD Planetary Mixer - 20 quart capacity. So yeah, it worked. However, it was extremely time consuming scraping down the mixing bowl while mixing to maintain a proper mix. See picture 3 above.

Next time we will review formula, scale ingredient, then select the proper equipment to ensure a more productive experience.

The pound cake was delicious and was a great learning experience.

Our second choice was to bake the pumpkin cranberry muffin formula as a loaf:

3 cups cake flour

1 tbsp pumpkin spice

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsbp salt

Sift all dry ingredients together.

3 cups sugar

14 oz pumpking pulp

4 eggs

1 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup orange juice

1 cup cranberries or cranberry sauce

The only catch to this formula was we forgot to include the cranberry sauce. So we ended up with lovely pumpkin loaves. If this was a commerical setting it would have been an expensive mistake in cost over run to redo this batch because of ingredient errors, as well as the expense in labor (time) for for us to produce a second batch. Hence the term - time is money.

Upon completion of the above baked goods, chef had us whip up a batch of basic muffin mix.:

1/4 lb butter

1/2 lb sugar

1/4 pt eggs

10 oz cake flour

2 oz bread flour

1/2 oz baking powder

1/2 pt milk

30 oz sour cream

4 oz raisins, crasins, or any dried fruit

or

3 oz chocolate chips

I picked chocolate chips topped with strudal crumbs and raspberry filling. Yum Oh!

On next week's menu: Team France will be working on ciabatta bread and a biga.

Week 4 - The rise and fall of Hamburger buns

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Today, team France worked on a coffee cake and an egg bread that we used for hamburger buns. These are rich breads so thay have more ingredients than lean doughs. Ingredients like eggs, milk and emulsions. Let's take a look at our egg bread formula.

Formula Egg Bread:

1 oz salt

3 oz sugar

1/4 pt eggs

3 oz shortening

1/4 gal cold water

3 3/4 lb bread flour

2 oz yeast

2 1/2 oz milk powder

egg shade- add to water

chill in fridge

Our buns didn't rise that well at all. My educated guess is that the water was the problem. Not enough water and the temperature was wrong. Cold water is clear, warm water is cloudy. Working as a team sometimes you have to go with the flow - we all make mistakes. After thinking about it I remember the water was very cloudy.

Chef demoed a pumpkin brioche that is a breakfast bread. A pastry cream was used as a filling and it was topped with canned cherries. It was glazed with apricot jam. You can use a variety of fruits for toppings, ie., apricots, peaches, small berries. Bake at 380 degrees until golden brown.

Next, we worked on a coffee cake. We all had our own individual cakes to work on. I had excellent success with it, although, I really need to work on my cutting skills. Work smart not hard. Once rolled and filled with rasberry and strudel crumb we panned it and made a round circle or wreath with it. It was then cut on a 45 degree angle with a pair of scissors ( see picture 1 above). This is where I need to work more naturally...it's a process.

I'm still very happy with my end results.

Coffee Cake formula:

1 1/2 lbs bread flour

3/4 oz yeast

3 oz sugar

3 oz butter

1/2 oz salt

1/2 tbsp lemon emulsion

1/2 tbsp Vannilla

1/2 tbsp rum flavor

1/2 butter emulsion

12 oz milk

2 eggs

straight mix - cover x2 in size - scale to desired pieces

I used the buns for a ham sandwich. They were a little tough but edible. I'm looking forward to making them again and again. We shall rise again oh hamburger bun.

On the menu next week is... quick breads.

Week 3 - Surprise - Full steam Ahead

Today we baked delicious dinner rolls and the beloved French bread. So we followed the 12 step process for Lean dough using the straight method - meaning all ingredients mixed together. Then add water after scaling when mixed. As we learned last week, the Maillard reaction is the carmelization of sugar while the bread is baking . This gives it that beautiful brown color that lures us into buying more bread. Since we made a scaling error last week we were very cautious to clearly read, understand and scale our formula correctly.

Success for Team France because we completed the forumla correctly and had beautiful French bread this week. However, during the 8th step, make-up and panning. I didn't roll out the French bread with perfect technique. It was thin in the middle and large on the two ends. So after baking, it looked like a big dog bone. It was delicious, but I must work on my rolling technique.

Side note for you home bakers: commerical ovens release steam while bread is baking to allow the bread not to form a crust too early before it it baked. So at home place a tray of ice cubes in the oven below your bread to mimic this process.

Chef Colley demonstrated a foccacia bread that was simply divine. He has over forty years of experience and made it look simple. I truly believe that if you suround yourself with people who have exceptional skills that you too will challenge yourself to rise to the occasion. We see it in sports everyday. Bravo Chef, I'm going to make this foccacia bread for a volunteer dinner that I'm cooking in the next few weeks so I will keep you posted on how I make out.

We also covered dinner rolls and used a machine called an Oliver that would cut a batch of 36 rolls at one time. So in a large grocery store or restaraunt you could crank out a large volume in a short period.

White Bread & Roll Dough Dough - Formula

Oven Temperture: 370 degrees for roll

Baking time: 12-14 minutes for rolls

20 -25 minutes for loaf

Ingredients:

Bread Flour 2 lbs 6 oz

Milk Powder 3/4 oz if using milk subract half pint from water

Sugar Granulated 3 oz

Salt 3/4 oz

shortening AP 3oz

water 1 pt 5 oz

yeast instant 3/4 oz

Make straight dough

sesame seed or poppy seed to taste

I surprized myself with a talent I didn't know I had. The dinner rolls we made were rolled into a straight line of dough then twisted or braided to form a dinner roll. Surprise! I watched it once and just twisted the bread together. I didn't think too hard and made some pretty nice looking dinner rolls.

Until next week...goodnight and goodbaking.