day 32: brioche and sourdough

Today, we baked brioche, which is French for "I wish I had two mouths to eat this." When you stick your face into a bag of brioche, your eyes roll to the back of your head and you go, "Mmmm." You know that guttural moan that you make when you smell BBQ? Same thing. We started the brioche yesterday and I got to use one of those Kitchenaid mixers for the first time. That was a lot of fun! That dough was pure butter. It was pretty hard to work with today, as I could feel my warm hands melting the butter in that dough, making it very sticky. If I could, I would have setup a station inside the walk-in to work the dough into those boules...but I don't think that was an option. Also, maybe gloves would help lessen the heat coming from my hands. Both things to try next time I make this. Chef A said my balls were each nicely formed in the couronne nantaise pan, and that when she pulled them apart, the strands were short because they were nice and tight so they did not meld together. The brioche a tete (the one with the head) was also fun, and funny to make. To get that ball on there, we had to shape the smaller top ball, then spin it on the table to give it a tail. Then, we had to shape the larger bottom ball, and poke a hole through the center to stick the tail through. I thought it was pretty funny when James said, "my hole doesn't want to stay open"...and funnier when I discovered it was in fact pretty hard to keep your hole open very long. Chef True nipped that right in the bud and punched a hole through it like he'd taken it out for dinner and a show. Later on, Patrick was examining his brioche a tete, and said, "My ball is all misshapen," which again launched me into hysterics.

Sourdough, not as humorous a bread, we did in groups. I made the dough for the white, and James made the one for the rye. Then we both shaped our own doughs. The white is just a large boule, which I could have done a better job slashing. I thought it was going to be more brown, but Chef A took it out of the oven herself so I guess that's what we're looking for. The rye we made into a football shape, and I completely forgot the word for that. I liked slashing that one like a leaf...I thought it was very pretty. Chef A also said my loaves were very well formed.  They should be...considering she formed my rye loaf herself. We didn't cut into the sourdoughs to see what was going on inside as they were still pretty hot at the end of class, but I just ate some of the rye and it was delicious. I asked her why my long slash on top looked like it had exploded, and she said that was just the yeast giving one final burst in the oven before they died. We have a vegan in the class, and I wonder if she considers yeast breads okay to eat. I'll ask her on Monday. Also on Monday, I get a second shot at my epi cuts on my French bread for our quiz...I hope they come out nice.