I was not a big fan of bread before, but now that I have tasted baguettes and breads fresh from the production kitchen and pastry practial kitchen ovens, I am hooked. Like I said before, coming to LCB Ottawa has really opened my eyes to all the things I can make at home in my own kitchen, and to the techniques to make them well.
Here are some of the breads I made and brought home to share with my housemates (I had given some of my breads away to the dishwasher, to fellow students, etc.):
The baguettes I made: (Bottom) three plain white baguettes, and (Top) a baguette made from bread flour, a special wine flour, red wine, raisins and pecan.
This is the Wine Bread I made, with diced onions and chopped pecan incorporated into the dough, to give it a somewhat savoury taste. This bread recipe was modified and tested by Chef CP, so I am very glad he chose to share it with us. You can see a lovely purple-grey colour inside the bread; it is from the wine flour and unsalted red wine. According to Chef, wine flour is made from grinding dried grape seeds and dried grape skin, so it is high in antioxidants and iron. The wine flour, in its dry form, is a light purple-brown colour.
This is the Rye Bread I made. I sprinkled some cumin seeds on top of the bread before baking. My mistake here was to overwork the dough slightly, so it was a bit dry and hard. You can tell my mistake from the way the slits did not expand properly (even after proofing for a long time), and from the very tough crust.
This is Nova Scotia Oatmeal Molasses Bread (shaped in two different ways). The molasses, corn meal, and oatmeal give a light brown-orange tinge to the inside of the bread.
The highlight of the lesson, for me anyway, was Chef CP's demo on how to make a Pain Soleil (literally, Sun Bread). First, you cut the dough as shown in the photos below. Then, you twist the "rays of the sun" before baking. It looks interesting, doesn't it? I really want to try making this at home after my Intermediate Pastry final exam.
Chef CP told us you can also incorporate dried fruits into the enriched sweet dough (dough with sugar, eggs and milk) before rolling it out and making the desired shape.
By the way, here's a bread fact we learned today: When the internal temperature of a bread that is baking in an oven is around 185 degrees Fahrenheit or 84 degrees Celsius, then the bread is done (i.e. the dough is cooked). After that, you can leave the bread to bake longer in the oven if you want more colour on the crust.
Of all the breads we made today, I have to say the wine bread was my absolute favourite. The texture was wonderful and the flavour was most unusual (but it was quite subtle).
Now I just have to see if I can source wine flour in Australia, because I definitely want to make wine bread in the future. (I'm sure my friends and relatives are rubbing their hands with glee now.)
-------------
PS. Many thanks to Chef CP for teaching us how to make bread, and for making it an enjoyable learning experience. This was one of the most interesting things I have had the good fortune to learn about.
