Today I have been feeling extra sick. As I am writing this I am wet from
perspiration, and weak. I knew this morning when I got up that I had to think smartly about the work I did today. I also knew, that I needed to focus my energy in a perfect way so that I do not weaken myself more.
As with each morning, I start out with making white bread, 5kg of flour, 3500 of water, 100g salt, 120+g fresh starter, and 750g of masa madre (starter, sour dough starter)... while this is mixing I already have the croissants out of the refrigerator getting to room temperature and starting to rise and the oven is on. Funny thing about the croissants... two days in a row I forgot to glaze them before I started baking them. This is making me crazy that I keep forgetting this. I also had a small problem with the dough last night, the butter came through the dough two times. I really must find a way to focus more. Eugeni told me to get my dough to 5mm... wow.. i need a perfect temperature for this to happen for sure.. I am not close, I still hover around 8-10. Its ok, it just means in time I will get better and better about this work and one day, call myself capable. :)
As I write, it is close to 7pm.. about 30 minutes ago a lovely woman came in with two people, maybe her children. She is older.. and said to me, "I am a very old lady" so I asked her just how old she is, and she replied 88. She is sharp as can be and funny, and full of energy. She is also a yoga teacher <3. She asked me, "why would you come from New Jersey to a place like this?" I had to laugh and then told her it is a slow transition as I lived in Basel for 6,5 years. Then we had a lovely chat about how much she loves Basel. That was a sweet treat to speak with her and she took my phone number to give me advanced notice for some gluten free bread. This is why I love what we are doing. It brings many smiles to me.
Tomorrow will be a long start to my day, but I do not mind because it is Saturday. This means Sunday is just around the corner... What I have done the last couple of days and I think I will include this in my routine, is go home around 11:30 daily and rest for a few hours and then come back to make pastries for the evening and next day. It really is a fun way to work.
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And some menu changes... I mentioned we are going to try and do a tapas evening on friday and or saturday. I do not know how that will go, but I think as long as we are using bakery ingredients I am ok with it. I am also going to start making empanada's and ensaimadas. The latter I get requests for many times, and I have been asked to provide some more savory items and so the empanadas will work well with this.
As mentioned yesterday, the donuts do not sell so fast so I will cut back to doing them once a week. I will start to make more croissants since so many like this, and even offer them as sandwich options for the day-old croissants.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read these entries.. As promised, I will start including recipes.. so I am going to end with an easy one... a beginners bread
This bread is a lower hydration, but its a good start to bread making.
500g flour
325g water
7 grams dry yeast or 15g fresh yeast
10 grams salt
in a bowl put the flour. Then add the salt on one side and the yeast on the other. If they come in direct contact the salt can damage the yeast and your bread will not rise, but once mixing, it is no longer a problem of course.
if mixing by hand
Use a plastic bowl scraper to continue to mix the ingredients until there is no available water. do not add any flour, no matter how sticky it seems
if mixing in a machine. use the dough hook. Mix on slow for 3-4 minutes and then move to a higher speed and continue to mix - 15 minutes or more if necessary. In the end you want it so the dough is no longer sticking to the sides of the bowl.
by hand..
put the dough on the counter and start kneeding. It will be sticky but do not give in and add flour. After 5-7 minutes of kneeding the dough will start coming together nicely and no more stickyness.
Once its a nice ball, put it in a bowl and cover and let rise until double in size. Usually one hour or so.
At the end of the hour, turn your oven on to 230 if it goes that high, or as high as it will go. At this same time, place a put in the bottom of the oven to get hot too, something you can easily add water to. I usually use a baking pan like a pie dish or something like that. But, do not use glass, as we will be adding water to it.
Now take your dough out of the bowl and lightly dust the counter and then shape your dough by turning the corners. Here is a great video by my friend Jack which shows you exactly what to do.
Once done, let it rest for 20-30 minutes until it starts to rise again. You do not want it to rise too much as you want the oven to do some of this work for you.
Now, get your baking tray ready and put your dough on the tray, with the top facing up. And at this time, take a cup of water and pour it into the hot pot in the bottom of the oven. Now cut a couple of slices in to your bread with a razor blade or serrated knife. This will allow the gas to release while it rises and bakes without having an explosion out the side of the bread in an unpredictable place.
Bake for 25 minutes and then turn the oven down to 190 and bake another 15 or so. You have to just keep checking the bread because every oven is different. Bertinet says this very funny thing .. well, its funny to me.. when you ask him how long to bake something, anything, his answer is always 3 minutes. Its a very good point.
I would love to see photos of your breads.
#doeverythingwithlove
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