I am a frikin baking zombie! 0

Thursday was a great day. Not only was there harmony in the bakery but there was an overall anticipation.

Wed. was test day, much earlier than other stations. But I was at ease,
for the most part - I did get a little careless on my center cuts, but for the
most part the end product was good.

As the day progressed, I scaled liquids for the days formulas, started mixing my first formula, (a coffee cake)that would make (14) 9" pans. I was happy to grab the mixer "collar" [used to convert the 60 quart to a 40 quart] that did not dance & girate violently once the bowl was agitated. There were no obnoxious grinding sounds and the soft rythmic echoes of paddle on bowl were almost soothing. I thought about the 4 a.m wakeups, for I was in the early morning station, and how today that would all cease. It was a good feeling. I had been getting 5 hrs of sleep a night, with a lingering cold {3 weeks}, sinus is agitated, my ears are plugged up so communicating is very interesting. All this stress on my body & taking care of the family, was making me turn into some kind of zombie.

When you have a toddler - rarely do they just go to bed when you want them to. My daughter is no exception. So most nights she has trouble sleeping & wants to climb into bed with us. Well she doesn't lay there light a rug, no she thrashes all over the place in her sleep - It is like being in the ring, her eyes shut, somewhere a bell goes off, she starts throwing punches , elbows fly, then in a martial arts fashion - legs & feet make quick jabs, lethal to anyone near enough for the sparring to make contact. And I am usually victim - no part of my body is immune. Needless to say, I wish she would sleep in her bed.

Walnut croissant & French turn overs 5

Walnut croissant & French turn overs, originally uploaded by Amber*.

Some of the pastry I have been making. Tommorow is my groups last day in the laminated dough station. It is also a test day.

It is amazing how ones confidence can soar, once you get a little bench work in.

I have too many irons in the fire as of late, so my writing is suffering. I had tapped into a good vien there for a spell. Now writers block has bruised me, like one big hematoma, I cannot see past the cosmetic details.

My photography on the other hand has been unearthed. I carry my camera everywhere now. I have over 4,000 photos in my flickr account. Go figure....

Better days ... lauphter in the bakery. 0

Well in my  previous post about lines being drawn, I was quite agitated. These lines between the culinary students and pastry students is quite real. Though ridiculous, I wanted to set light on this.

Day 10 - Continental Divide by Eelke de Blouw

On Thursday I decided to sit at a table in the cafe - I was 1 hour early.

I was drinking my Carmel Frappuccino. Looking at my notes because mid- terms are coming up. Dale comes over and starts talking to me, then sooner or later others come too.

It was kind of weird, because here we are all talking - away from the "table" and the others who didn't come over - they were sitting there, would walk by and not say a word. And Dale would make comments about him or her "hating" him for coming over to my table.

Well as the day progressed the last day of breads, we were tested individually on : formulations, mixing, forming and end products. I made Multi Grain Bread. A half formula of Foccachia.

I am new , But I am becoming more comfortable. I am growing accustomed to the inner workings of the bakery. The production setting is no longer a mystery to me. And I have found myself absorbing everything - just like a sponge.

 I realize this is, indeed, a real passion!

My first competency has come and gone... 0

Why was I so anxious? There is this thing I do when I really care about something. I become very nervous, So nervous you could freeze butter in my brain --- due to the frigid state I go to. My body screams "code red" & "all hands on deck".

I am so busy with the anxiety that I don't concentrate on what is happening around me in real time.

Ok.

- maybe that is a bit exaggerated (I luv the Seinfeld characters).

Well I had my competency. I had only been in class for 8 days, so I was thinking to myself that the whole thing would be interesting. It was.

We are assigned to groups, one of these members is a 2nd year management student. The others are 2nd quarter students and me. We rotate to different positions in the bakery. Mind you this is a real working production/retail bakery.

We all knew there was a test. And The head instructor , which is from Denmark & a 4th generation baker, is testing us.

Well we draw from scraps of paper what we will be tested on. We go to pull our doughs (we've made the day before) from the reach-in retarder. No danish dough! There are 4 croissant & 1 puff pastry dough.

We are not supposed to communicate with each other, only the instructor.

But with the dough missing we shoot perplexed glances at each other. Look in the walk-in retarder, the reach-in freezer....we find the danish dough, rock solid in the walk-in freezer.

I run to his office. HE comes in confirms this. Well now we must work with the croissant dough.

I draw "plain croissants" ,

Carl says:

"you know he's going to ream you if you don't do them perfectly --- croissants are his thing"

I didn't do too bad I just forgot to add flour to the top of the dough while sheeting...so we couldn't use all of the dough, because the flour is a lubricant. IF not used while sheeting, the sheeter will "eat" it. There were holes in places -- and you want croissant dough intact(for the layers)

I did make about 20 croissants. He said they weren't half bad. ( I am thanking god right then, because this was only my second time making them).

HE told me to help Suzie. She was scaling out ingredients for Danish dough with a starter. She had everything except the ice water. I got that. We put the fresh yeast and water, and the pieces of ascorbic acid into the 40qt mixing bowl and I hand whisked it, with a wire whisk. We added the dry ingredients. The Hobart was going at 1st speed. Oops , the mixer looked like cookie dough. Suzie forgot the starter, which had been fermenting in the walk-in retarder over night. We added the started but he mixer was too dry and it wasn't congealing, the first mixture was mixed into the starter in big chunks. There was no way to save the dough.We had to throw it out.

Turns out we all screwed up in some form or another. The Instructor even commented that :

"today when you woke up you guys should have went back to bed"

He was chuckling though.

When it was my turn to go into the office. He commented on my croissants. And they weren't that bad. He also said that right now I am along for the ride, by next quarter I will be in the groove of things.

SO after I walked out of there I realized I would do alright. I am no longer anxious, I just want to do well.