Baguette's!

May I present to you... our babies! :)

Ummm I don't even know how to explain today, but let me attempt.  Making bread is something I have NEVER done. I always thought it was so cool to see people making pizza dough and thinking, "they are so awesome". For me, bread is bought at a store! Period.  :)  It wasn't anything I thought I could do or even WANTED to do.  In other words,  I have always baked, but it was cakes, pie's, cupcakes and cookies.  So my basic techniques class was cool because I learned the correct methods, etc.  Today, on the other hand,  was like the little kid inside of me grew up! Hello!! I made bread!! Little o' me! I am sooo elated, I can't even begin to tell you how much or why. :) Something SO SIMPLE, made me absolutely ecstatic. I thought it was difficult, I thought you had to have all these certain tools and ovens.  So, WOW!  There you have it.  I learned something new.

Yesterday when the chef was lecturing I got nervous. He was kind of strict. But today, I see him with new eyes. He has pride.  He has also been doing this for 20 years.  Making bread is his skill and I appreciate having him as a Chef that is teaching me the right way to make it.  This is why I came to school. I don't know if I will make bread's in my bakery, but I sure can appreciate the skill and the knowledge.  We do have 42 people in our class. That's nerve wracking. But today I put all of that aside and I focused on what I was doing and the result was phenomenal.

So here we go, making bread.  All breads must go through 12 steps.  Its a hurry up and wait procedure.  Yeast will die if left out too long, so you are constantly getting a procedure done, then waiting... a little more gets done... more waiting. You have to have patience.  I have patience :)

Baguette is made with water, yeast, salt and flour. That's it. The taste that melted in my mouth as a result? DELICIOUS! I couldn't believe it. I totally thought it was going to lack flavor. After all, butter wasn't an ingredient!! Oh Linda, how wrong you were. :)

To begin, you scale out your ingredients and place them in a bowl and mix.  The result is your dough which you then cover in saran wrap and you let your creation sit.  This is the 1st fermentation of 3 that the dough requires:

It will then double in size.  You will then fold and punch the dough, helping to release some of the gas that was created in the mixing process.  Next, scale this dough down to a pound each and roll them into soft balls by pressing the air out with your hands. This particular recipe made 6 dough balls.

Bench them for 15 minutes and and go grab and spray down your pan.  Benching is the second fermentation stage.  You will then take each individual dough and roll it out, squeezing out the air bubbles and creating a dough in the size of a baguette, long and narrow. :) Place them on the pan and let them sit until they double in size on the pan.  This is the 3rd fermentation process.  You will then bake them until golden brown, cool them on a rack and eat those baby's hot with some oil, balsamic vinegar and pepper!! Yuuuummmy!!

In a nutshell, that's how you make bread. Tee Hee... :)

Off I go to eat this with a nice hot cup of Joe. So sorry I didn't get this out sooner. Tomorrow we make White Bread. I can not wait. I truly enjoy going to class and so wish I would have done this a long time ago, but totally grateful for today. :)

I hope to see you back here tomorrow!

Good night to everyone!  As for me, I will be looking up at the moon...