Rolls, breads, and muffins...oh my!

Hot. Sourdough. Fresh from the oven. That was definitely the highlight of the day. Yum! We sampled from two loaves, and then sent the rest off to Chef A's Advanced Dining Room class for them to use at lunch service.

The class is run on a four-day rotation for each segment, and each day each table is responsible for different items. Today, like yesterday, my table had soft rolls, blueberry muffins, and honey wheat bread. Tomorrow, we'll be on French dough and biscuits. It's amazing what the learning curve is like from day to day. I already felt more confident going into class today. I'm still learning my way around, especially as far as what ingredient bins are under what table, and where to find which tools. But skills-wise, I think I'm doing all right.

We got another lesson in rounding and rolling the baguettes, and we all did better with some different wording during the demo process. Then we learned how to stipple (cut/score) the tops of the loaves before they go into the oven. I had to do a whole pan, and finally Chef L. guided my hand in the right motion. It didn't feel any different from what I had been doing, but the results were different so I must have been doing it wrong. That's a skill I'll definitely need to work on.

Our first quiz is tomorrow, on the methodology of mixing and the steps of bread-making. I think I'm on top of that pretty well. I need to get my class notes typed up, and do my journal for yesterday and today. I was so tired last night that I was asleep by 9:15, and didn't wake up until 5:50 this morning. Oops. I still got to class with time to spare, but there I was at 6:55 standing outside the door trying to finish my bananna before the day began.

We're fed by the culinary classes doing hot food prep, and today was yummy. I had French Onion Soup, fried eggplant, carrots and greenbeans, a potato pancake, and beef with a mushroom sauce. Needless to say, I didn't eat the mushrooms. But everything else was good :) Thankfully, I'm sure I'm burning it all off running around the kitchen!