bread rotation

Bread rotation made me rethink my baker ambitions. I probably sound like a huge wuss, but bread rotation is rough. First quarter students do nothing but assist the second quarter students, who are responsible for doing much of the major production. There may be five products to have out by 1:30pm, and this means that often the second quarter students arrive very early. We lowly assistants were responsible for feeding the levain (the mother dough used for the quarter, or sometimes the whole year+), making starters and poolishes and levains for the next day's bread, mise-en-placing whatever ingredients were needed for the next day's bread, putting things into and taking things out of ovens, and sometimes, if we were lucky, shaping dough. Shaping dough could be a pyrrhic victory, though-- these bastards were a pain in my ass:



They are a multi-strand unusual braid where every strand is actually three. The ends are then tucked underneath to form this monkey's knot.

I didn't take many pictures during this rotation because I didn't feel responsible for anything we made, having been mostly a go-fer for the two weeks. (I did take a picture of my bread knot because I was proud of actually completing the forming process.) The pictures below are of two breads made by an advanced student. The one on the left contains coffee. While I was very excited to try this russian bread, I was not impressed with the flavor. Coffee does not belong in bread, I've decided. On the right is a sourdough.