Death By Baguette

Today was out of character, and I like that! We had an agenda of bread; poolish baguettes, walnut bread, tomato bread, and croissants (yes, still). We're bumping along our day, prepearing the tomatoes for our tomatoe bread & mixing up our autolyse for the baguette when all of a sudden the drains in our kitchen start to back up. Something not-so-nice is coming up the drains making small puddles throughout our kitchen. Chef calls the Roto Rooter guy to come & we get a very extended break...after everything bread related gets taken care of. As stated once before, "yeast bread waits for no man" :).

It was some nice bonding time for us students, not that we all bonded together. We've begun splitting into our clicks, which most people thought wouldn't happen as we are only eight people, though clicks tend to develop more so based on personalities rather than the number of people involved. Still, it was nice to sit outside, gab with one another and enjoy a slow moving Monday.

The only item we baked today was our baguettes. We used a different dough than we've been using and as if I wasn't struggling enough with shaping my baguettes with the sourdough starter dough I really struggled with this dough. It was so dense I couldn't get the seams to bind when I rolled it and they opened up in the oven which split my baguettes right down the side & bottom....ahhhhh!!!! And I broke one open to taste it and it was gross...Chef said the whole problem was how I made my dough. Ahhhhhhhhh! Try, try again tomorrow.

We have a written test on everything bread this Friday and then a three day practical exam next week...of course there are going to be baguettes on this exam & I'm getting more and more nervous rather than more confident each day we make them. Not the end of the world, I'm certain, though I wish I could at least figure out what the hell I'm missing here.

No pics today :( Tomorrow we'll finish making the walnut bread and tomato bread, and oh we preped some brioche dough for tomorrow also....yummy yummy!!!