The kneed for more bread

This past month has been busy with bread, so it is:

First up is Pita Bread.  This is nothing like you'd buy in the store.  It's lighter, fresher and tastes great as a sandwich. 

Naan is a traditional indian bread.  I LOVE naan and this is right up there with some of the best that I have had at a families friends restaurant.  yumm  Here we have plain, garlic and onion cilantro. 

French baguette.  I have to love the classics.  This was SO good I think that I ate one all by myself.  I also made a fresh bruschetta to eat it with.  

Bagels, that easy quick morning meal.  I was surprised how much work goes into them.  including 2 times of cooking.  These were amazingly good.  Not to brag, but the best I've had.

Focaccia  I've been eating this for years but never like this.  Lots of herbs inside was an incredible with a sandwich.  

Chibata seems to be the bread of the moment.  I can't go to a restaurant without seeing at least one sandwich on the menu.  This is why... it's amazing!  

Potato Cheddar Bread.   This is my favorite bread.

I'm Kneading Some Bread... Week One

It's a new month and a new module, this month is all about bread.

I have been really excited about this module since I decided to go to school.  I have very fond memories of my Mom in our kitchen making bread from scratch.  She would set it around the fireplace to allow it to rise before baking.  I remember having to tiptoe through the the house so that I wouldn't make it fall.

This month is class we are covering a lot of different types of breads, on average about 2 a day.  so that means that I am bring home about 10 loaves a week.  Anyone want bread?  Give me a call I'll hook you up!!!

So here's week one:


French Bread
The classic that everyone knows

French Bread (Sponge Method)
This break is different in looks, texture and taste.  This process is longer, you use part of the flour, all of the yeast and water and allow them to ferment for several hours prior to mixing and kneading with the rest of the ingredients.  This was SO good I couldn't stop eating it!

Italian
This was delicious with just a little butter.

Vienna
Our chef recommended this for breakfast and he was right.  A nice cup of coffee and a little Vienna bread, had to beat it.

Raisin bread with cinnamon swirl:
This is SO good, I used it for french toast, yummy!

Challah
This is not an easy bread to make and is very traditional, but it liked making it a lot.  Braiding the bread was pretty challenging and fun.  this is a 3 braid, later in the month we'll be making a 6 braid I believe.

Last bread of this week is...

Milk bread
This might be one of my favorites.  It's super moist and there is the slightest about of sugar on top, so just a little sweet.  nothing back I can say about it, and it's rolls too.

One thing that I found very interesting was that the scoring on the bread, while having an actual cooking benefit also helps identity what type of bread that it is.  If you look at both French breads, the italian, vienna, they are all cut different.  Just a random piece of trivia!


Well, there you have the first week review.  More is on the way, look next week for another post about more breads.  I know a few of the types and I am super excited.

A Whole New Box Of Candy

Last week of school for this module, next week we start making bread, but I won't get a head of myself.  yet.

Like I mentioned earlier about the big competitions on TV showing chocolate and sugar sculptures this is art.  We created a chocolate box completely out of chocolate, for the candy that we had already made.  It's amazing how you can sculpt and shape chocolate.

For our box we used both white and dark chocolate.  We created a 7" round box, complete with feet and a bow.

Working with chocolate is VERY temperature sensitive and I really saw that at the end of the last day as I was assembling the box,  I fought with the heat in the kitchen and had to place the box back in the fridge several times as I worked to allow the chocolate to completely set, I am however happy with the final result.


I am aware that I posted a full month of work in a single day... I apologize.  We have started making bread this week.  I will have to be much more diligent since we are making 2 types of bread a day.  

Candy Heaven

So, this brings me to my 3rd week of school and the candy fun begins.  Up until this point, we haven't really made anything that we can eat... but things they are changing.

We started by making  peanut brittle.   I first want to admit that I have a whole new respect for candy, the work and labor that goes into it is amazing.  I think that I must have stirred the peanut brittle for 30 minutes, a great arm workout for sure.  It's cooked to 311 f.  and needs to be handled carefully.

Next up is pecan butter crunch... SO good!

Toffee was tricky and we actually messed up the first batch and had to make a second, we were in class for an extra hour remaking it.

Truffles, YUM!  These are amaretti and delicious.

I am planning on experimenting with other types of truffles at home.  They were really fun to make.


Lastly in this area are molded candy.

Filled with carmel

Filled with mint

I would be remiss to point out that while I expected myself to eat everything in sight, I have not eaten much of what I have made this far.  Most I have either given away or is sitting in my fridge at home.  If you want some, come on over! lol

Sugar Oh My Sugar

Next up we learned about sugar work, I'm sure that you've seen the competitions on TV where they build these big amazing pieces out of sugar or chocolate, if you haven't... I recommend that you do, it's pretty awesome and is art in a VERY pure form.

For this project we used Isomalt, which is a sugar-free sweetner made from sucrose and used in diabetic baking.  It's great to use in pulled sugar work because it does not break down when heated and absorbs very little water.

We learned how to cast, blow, and pull the sugar into different shapes.  for this centerpiece we created a  underwater theme including a fish.

A class photo:

My centerpiece:

This segment of school was one of the main reasons I choose National Culinary, most schools I spoke with do not teach these skills as part of the regular curriculum.  I loved every minute of this process, but you have to have lots of patients because it's VERY easy for your objects to break.  I really look forward to being able to practice these skills some more.  There was more airbrushing involved, have I mentioned that I really want an airbrush now? :-)

Pastillage

First up in class was pastillage.  If you are anything like me, you're thinking what is pastillage.  Well here's the answer:

Pastillage is a sugar-based dough used for decorating and creating decorations for pastry, showpiece work and decorative molded forms. The dough is much like clay or play-dough where you can knead it and roll it out. Pastillage is worked then allowed to dry, setting up to a hard, sugar-based decoration.

For my centerpeice I used my tattoo as an idea.  I used the idea of Lotus and new beginnings.   I enjoyed the project and learned a lot, even how to use an airbrush.

Where to start?  Hmmm.  That's an amazing question, I was asked to begin a blog about my personal adventures in baking and pastry school, so here it is...  

To catch up whoever is reading this, my name is Brian.  After the loss of both of my parents to cancer, I decided to it was time to follow a dream and see where the journey takes me.  I decided to go to school for baking and pastry.  

I quit my job working for a great company in Sacramento, CA, packed my home and moved 500 miles to sunny San Diego, CA.  

Why? San Diego?  Have you been here?  It's amazing.  To answer the most common questions:

1.  3.  The total number of people I knew here

2.  No.  I was not moving for a relationship.

Okay, so now that we have that out of the way,  I started school at National Culinary and Baking School on October 1, 2012.

This blog will be used to follow my progress and share what I'm learning, I hope that you enjoy the adventure with me...