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Last week ended with a pizza feast and this week is breakfast galore.
Muffins, croissants, and danishes to take home on the same day – and I thought buttery sauces in previous classes were dangerous.
Muffins came out in a shapes and sizes and texture. A well made muffin really deserves much more cred than I’d given it.
Croissants and Danishes are in a whole other category of technical prowess. Termed lamination doughs, one must carefully control the temperature of the ingredients, working butter and dough into 800+ layers, and keeping the rectangular shape of the product all the way up to portioning. I basically sucked. Mine croissants were labeled “American.” Unfortunately, this is no time to be patriotic. When you make a croissant, it better comes out more French than a smartly-clad, expresso-downing chain smoker. Next time. Next time will be better.
How hard is it to bake some muffins?
It’s no piece of cake!
Muffins didn’t finish baking during the allotted class time today, will have to see how they turn out tomorrow.
But seriously, from the way fat & sugar is creamed, to the way eggs are added, to the way dry ingredients are folded in and wet ingredients mixed in. It’s all much more artful than what one might expect. It’s days like this that really made going to school special. Learning cool stuff is great but getting the basics right and drilling on the most mundane fundamentals, now, that’s skool.
3.5 hours of class for baking really isn’t enough. We are a little behind schedule and had to juggle setbacks & stagger a bunch of different things.
First up, after spending 2 days hunting down the special brioche mold, we finally got them baked up to a nice golden brown.
These suckers are so rich despite their innocent cuteness.
What got me really excited though, was the sourdough baguettes.
Shaping breads is an art, one I’m gladly studying. I like sourdoughs and I love the elegant shape of a baguette.
Very promising in the oven.
Beautiful on the cooling rack.
Asking for a closeup.
I might have to embargo non-baguette breads now.
Home work project — sourdough starter.
Simply mix together flour and water and let wild yeast do the work.
Regular feeding of more flour and water nurtures the growth and livelihood of this “heart of sourdough breads.”
The famed Boudin Bakery of San Francisco has been using the same starter since 1849!
Every piece of sourdough you buy from Boudin gives you a taste of Gold Rush. Isn’t that crazy?
Let’s see what high-rise metropolis Boston air has to offer in terms of yeasty goodness.
It worries me a little, however, that Richard and I have both been severely under the weather. 
There might be some party crashers in this starter.
Doesn’t look much to start, we’ll see how the feeding goes over the next few days.
I will do my best to direct Sponge Bob thoughts to my starter.
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