This week we conclude our foray into the wacky world of yeast and bread by a discussing all things Brioche-related. We covered yeast, flour and gluten in detail in previous weeks, so this week we didn’t have a ton of new material to cover, but there are a few things that make brioche unique when compared to other breads. Brioche is the [...]
Posts under ‘Baking’
Week 7, Day 1: Rich Doughs
This week’s class about Rich Doughs was continuation of last week’s class all about Lean Doughs; we revisited a lot of the same techniques that were introduced last week. Yeast and gluten are still our friends so many recipes featured today called for an initial ‘proving’ of the yeast to ensure that it would provide the rising action for our breads. Additionally, [...]
Week 6, Day 1: Lean Doughs
The topic for this week’s Baking Lab was lean doughs. You’ve probably all eaten something made from a lean dough; french breads and sourdough are two very popular applications. A dough is considered to be lean if it has very little or no fat content. For the most part, the doughs that we prepared in [...]
Week 5, Day 1: Danish and Croissants
Today’s class served to introduce some new ideas and concepts to our Monday baking labs. This would be the first day that we’d work with yeast. Over the next few weeks we will be preparing different types of breads, all of which rely on the reproductive activities of this crazy little microorganism as their source of [...]
Week 4, Day 1. Puff Pastry
Puff pastry is a delectable, yet fussy thing to prepare. Preparing a really good puff pastry dough amounts to adhering to and religiously following a few very basic, yet very important techniques. As with pate brisee, the list of ingredients that you’ll need in order to make a basic puff pastry dough is not extensive [...]
The Great Souffle Experiment
Both Chef D and Chef S have repeatedly stressed the importance of practicing the various techniques learned in class when we’re in our home kitchens. In a major departure from the way I have ever thought of ‘homework’, I’ve really been looking forward to having a chance to hone some of these techniques (and also [...]
Week 3, Day 1. Pate Brisee
Pate Brisee is a French term that translates to ‘short paste’. It can also be referred to as ‘broken paste’. You and I and the other folks in the room will know it as your basic pie crust dough. Not to be confused with the American interpretation of pie crust dough, in class we focused on the [...]
Week 2, Day 1. Pate a Choux
For our baking lab on Monday we tackled pate a choux, a versatile, forgiving, and fairly sturdy (yet exceptionally sticky) dough that can be used to make all sorts of things like eclairs, cream puffs, profiteroles, and beignets. Pate a choux in French basically means ‘cabbage paste’. I’m not exactly sure why the French coined [...]
