12.28.2009

bread rotation

Second quarter's bread rotation was extremely stressful. The workload was designed for five or six people, and one rotation group had seven. My rotation had FOUR. This might not sound like much of a problem, but it was. Every day it felt like we were worried about time, and rushing to get things done. Work that we trusted to the first-quarter students didn't get done properly and had to be re-done the next morning, costing more time. We had to get to the bakeshop early every day to get the ovens on and the first dough mixed, because otherwise it wouldn't rise in time to use. '

On top of that, I started a new job that week, and my rotation partner moved from one apartment to another. We were an exhausted mess and how we got through those two weeks is beyond me. I did miss one day of that rotation.

So all that is a way of saying that I'm going to post a lot of pictures of bread below, and I'm not sure what all of them are. I barely remembered to take photos at all in the rush to get things out and down to the case.

No idea what this one is:



This is a capuchin roll, named after the monk's caps. We made them for Thanksgiving.



Butternut squash challah, topped with pumpkin seeds, also for Thanksgiving:



Regular challah:



Judging by the irregular shapes, I'm guessing that this is rustic pain au levain, made with the pain ordinaire for lunch service (we used to make rolls for service, but no longer have the duchess that cut the dough for us, and we don't have the time to do it all by hand):



Another one I can't remember for sure, but it might be our three-day levain:



This bread was mis-weighed because we accidentally turned the baker's scale around. Instead of weighing each portion to be 18 ounces, we ended up with each portion being 30 ounces. But, it was delicious.



Naan made using a starter and wheat flour:



Hazelnut-currant bread: