To Market, To Market
Ferry Station Market, San Francisco
Saturday was a day off from Baking School so a group of us toured around San Francisco for the day. It was a brilliant day, warm and sunny, with a gentle breeze coming off the bay. Lots of opportunity for sunburns!
We spent several hours touring around the Ferry Station Market. It’s a huge weekly farmers market with more bread, cheese, oil, fruits and other artisan products than I have ever seen gathered in one place. We sampled our way among the stalls and bought enough fresh goat cheese and fruit to accommodate another week’s worth of bread baking.
After the market we walked to the more touristy areas of the city — Fisherman’s Wharf, Ghiardelli Chocolates, China Town, North Beach (twice) and Union Square. I think we walked over 20km in all but when you are in as diverse and exciting a city as San Francisco we wanted to take in as much as we could.
SFBI Day 5: Back to the Baguette
[Sorry, no pics today -- I forgot the camera in my room!]
Today we wrapped up the Artisan 1 course by experimenting with three different baguette formulas, each featuring a different pre-ferment. The preferments are designed to add structure and depth of flavour to the standard baguette formula and, depending on the preferment, adjusting the level of acidity in the dough.
We used an old-dough preferment, called pate fermentee, which we had also used with the various wheat and rye breads yesterday. It didn’t add near as much in the way of flavour, although I expect it will improve the keeping characteristics of the baguette.
We also tried a sponge, which is a firm dough containing a tiny amount of yeast and no salt. While the sponge added to the elasticity of the dough making it easier for my heavy hands to shape, it didn’t add much for flavour.
My favorite pre-ferment was the poolish, which is similar to the sponge (no salt, very small amount of yeast) but has a 100% hydration. This soupy mix was left to ferment overnight and then added to the baguette mix. The result was pure ambrosia — a wide open crumb, crispy crust, creamy colour and the most complex smell and taste of the bunch.
In all, Artisan 1 has improved my baking skill, full stop. I was able to dig into the science of baking breads that I have made at home for years and by digging deeply I have a much better understanding of how to adjust for local flours and local conditions to make a consistently excellent loaf. Heck, we made seven completely different baguettes from the same four ingredients and only manipulating time, temperature and mixing technique! I also learned new mixing methods which will improve breads which are already favorites at home. I can’t wait to make an improved multigrain loaf for our customers in Regina!
It was also extremely inspiring to work with such talented bakers from around the world. While we’re all at different stages of our culinary journey, we shared a passion for bread and baking that kept us together as we struggled with new techniques and new working conditions. I hope we are able to keep in touch as we continue down the road to bread nirvana.
SFBI Day 4: Time for some variety!
What a day! Whereas we’ve been making several subtle changes to our baguette formula for the past three days, today we branched out! Five very different varieties with only one thing in common — each contained a healthy amount of pre-ferment. We used an old dough preferment which is also known as pate fermente.
So what is all that on the table?
a rye loaf made with rye and whole wheat flour.
a whole wheat loaf made with a very high hydration dough. The extra-wet dough made for a very light texture even though it was tricky to handle.
A basic white pan bread but made with three very different shaping techniques.
And my personal favourite, a fantastic multigrain batard, with flax seeds, sunflower seeds and millet that was all soaked overnight. The soaked seeds made for a terrifically complex smell and a great texture. This is my favorite bread so far by a long way. I can’t wait to make it at home!
We also made a braided egg bread but it was still baking off at 5PM so we’ll taste it tomorrow morning.
Tomorrow, we’re back to making baguettes but we’ll be experimenting with different pre-ferment techniques. Then it’s two days off before we’re on to sourdough!
SFBI Day 3: All Flour All The Time
It was Flour Day today, where we learned everything we possibly could about the main ingredient in your bread. Everything from the different types of wheat and their properties to the different type of flours that can be milled and their properties. I’ve been doing a lot of reading on this topic (Maggie Glezer’s book explains it very well) but it sure helped to talk about this with a knowledgeable chef and instructor.
Whereas yesterday we took the same ingredients and varied the mixing technique, today we kept the exact same mixing technique and only varied the flour. Our standard artisan bread flour vs. high gluten flour. The comparison is especially relevant for me because Canadians primarily grow Hard Red Spring Wheat which is used in high gluten flour. So therefore, most Canadian ‘best for bread’ flours have a much higher protein content than American artisan bread. High gluten flour is great for machined bread, but the extra protein provides some challenges for the artisan baker since the dough doesn’t tolerate longer fermentations. This usually results in slightly larger, rounder loaves but with a less complex flavour.
Today, the theory stood up to the practical test. The high gluten flour resulted in a rounder baguette with a chewier crust and smaller “ears” and a flatter taste.
Now I’m off to contact my local miller to better understand the data on his flour and see if I can get locally milled ‘artisan’ flour.
SFBI Day 2: Four Ingredients, Three Different Loaves
Originally uploaded by mdstamps
Another great learning day at the San Francisco Baking Institute. Today we focused on how to manipulate one factor, mixing method, to create three completely different baguettes. The story behind these three baguettes is as interesting as the loaves themselves:
- The first dough was called a ’short mix’ and represents how bread was traditionally made before the heavy machinery was called in the mid-twentieth century. We still used the mixer, but we only mixed long enough to hydrate the flour before moving the dough to tubs for a long bulk fermentation. The dough was approximately 50% developed when it went into the tubs and we properly developed the gluten by folding the dough every 45 minutes. It was great to see how the dough changed over time, but better yet, how to tell when the gluten was sufficiently developed. This gentle mixing method allowed us to use more water and less yeast, which in turn delivers a more complex flavour.
- the third dough we mixed was the ‘intensive mix’, which represents how dough was mixed after the introduction of high speed mixers. The gluten was 100% developed in the mixer and used less water and more yeast. The end result was a dough which was much tighter and easier to handle, which makes it perfect if we were going to use machines to divide and shape the loaves (we used our hands) at the expense of flavour, texture and colour. There’s a place for intensive mixed doughs, but my preference is for looser doughs and longer fermentations to create a better flavour.
- the second dough we mixed was the ‘improved mix’, which represents how artisan bakers pulled back from the intensive mix in order to extract better flavour while still getting the labour saving advantages of the mixer and shorter fermentation times. This was the same mix we used yesterday — 70% gluten development, more water than the intensive mix but less than the short mix, and an amount of yeast between intensive mix and short mix too.
So much for the method — how were the results?
The intensive mix gave a loaf that was much like I make at home when I don’t use a preferment — even, slightly dull colour, a chewy crust and a tight, white crumb. Not bad, but no real depth to the flavour or aroma.
The improved mix loaf was wonderful — a shiny, crisp, crackling crust, light crumb with slightly irregular holes and a nice creamy colour.
The short mix was a delight as well. I got the best ‘ears’ from my slashes, but that was more due to getting the technique right for a change. The loaves had a slightly chewy crust and a creamy crumb with a wide variety of holes. The smell and taste was nicely complex wheaty flavour.
My favourite was the improved mix because of the crust. I just can’t get enough of it! It’s unlike anything I’ve had before; crisp and easy to chew even hours after it was baked. My supper tonight was a baguette with cheese and an apple and it was superb!
On another note: I ended up with 13 baguettes to take home to the hotel tonight. Let me tell you, I’m making friends in the lobby of the Hampton Inn! If any of my Orange Boot customers are feeling deprived, just head down to the Hampton in South San Francisco around 5:30PM and you won’t regret it!
SFBI Day 1: Heaven on Earth!
The first day was fantastic! I’ll post more detail as the week goes on but suffice to say that this is a really special place. We’re learning a ton of theory, our hands on work is being scrutinized in great detail, and the equipment is top notch. I’ve already met some incredibly interesting people, from a hotel chef from Maui to a culinary instructor from Melbourne to an artisan baker from Victoria who’s bakery I know a bit about through our travels.
My first baguettes passed the chef’s close inspection fairly well today. There is lots for me to improve on in the shaping and scoring department but I was glad that there was sufficient goodness in there too.
Oh and in case you still don’t want to be down here too — we get to take all the bread we make home with us! So I passed out four baguettes in the lobby of the hotel when I got back and ate one for supper. It was without a doubt the best baguette I’ve ever had.
I’ve got a few photos from Day 1 on Flickr if you’re interested…
Super Bowl in Stockton
Who’s that old bugger wearing my shirt?
One of my big regrets whenever I come to San Francisco for work is that I don’t get the chance to see my cousin Melodie in Stockton. So Sunday was my chance to make amends. I rented a car, printed out my Google map, sufficiently notified next of kin and, after a quick breakfast, took to the open road.
In fairness, open road is a bit of a misnomer in California, even at 9:00AM on a Sunday morning. The road to Stockton is nothing but US Interstate — four lanes in both directions with bumper to bumper traffic at 70 miles per hour. My first highway, #101, is actually a three lane highway which has been given the odd treatment of expanding to four lanes without having added any pavement. They just tarred over the old lines and put new lines in, so that the outside lanes are right tight against the concrete curb. It was uncomfortably tight.
One particular stretch of highway had me wondering if I was really cut out for this trip at all. It starts with a left turn from the far right lane, the off ramp swooping majestically up and over all eight lanes of Highway 101, before setting car and driver down facing due east. After a half mile or so, I could see the road rising up in front of me, 30 feet or more into the air. Oh, yes, I got to drive OVER the San Francisco Bay! The San Mateo Bridge seems to cover 5 miles with over half the bridge high in the air so ships can go underneath, and half the bridge low along the water. It was quite exhilarating but I suspect Cindy wouldn’t have liked it one bit.
I eventually made it to Stockton and found Melodie’s house without incident. Melodie, her boyfriend Jeff and I had a wonderful lunch at a place down the highway called BJ’s brewhouse (my leftovers will keep me in suppers for most of the week) and then beat a hasty retreat to her house to watch the Super Bowl. What a game! What commercials they have in the USA!! What a way for me to win the Kuhn Bowl with a last minute touchdown!! Oh yeah, the Giants won too.
I was especially blessed to get a chance to visit with Mel’s folks (and my Aunt and Uncle) who as luck would have it were visiting from Michigan. My family is quite small and spread out so we don’t get to see each other very often. I was very sad to leave for the long drive back to my hotel.
Flying to San Francisco to Bake, Bake, Bake!
On Saturday I flew out to San Francisco for three weeks of serious training at the San Francisco Baking Institute (more background available at the Orange Boot site.) It was a good flight overall but I have to admit that these frequent flier points programs sure seem bent on punishing their customers. I booked my flight using Aeroplan points and out of 15 possible flights from Regina to San Francisco on Saturday the only one with a seat available involved a 7 hour layover in Calgary. I made the most of it by calling up my aunt Donna for a spur of the moment lunch. Donna, Jerry and their 12 year old daughter Morgan swept me out of the airport for a long, lingering lunch and a wonderful visit. Thanks for such a wonderful afternoon — I can’t think of a better diversion!
In the end, my time at Calgary International Airport was cut from 7 hours to 3.5, but I still had some interesting times. I helped an older couple find their gate for a flight to Las Vegas (I hope they tip their dealers) and watched a delightful group of seniors collect themselves for the flight to San Francisco. These were seriously old folks, all well into their eighties, and it looked like they regularly traveled together. Whenever another traveling companion arrived they were greeted with a loud Whoop! and shouts of “You made it!” I can’t help but hope that will be Cindy and me one day.
I also met a girl from Austria who is working in San Jose at a hotel as part of a management trainee program. She was recruited by the hotel for this 18 month program right out of college. She had spent a week skiing in Lake Louise with her father who had flown over from Europe. Wow.
My Austrian friend was also reading the German edition of the final Harry Potter book. The book looked much thicker than the English version; perhaps German words are longer. My esteem for this girl, who goes halfway around the world to learn how to work in hotel and jets to Lake Louise for a skiing weekend, fell a wee bit as she told me that she was nearly at the end of the book, she thought it was really exciting, then over the course of our flight put the book down at least a dozen times to do something else. In our family, one doesn’t eat, sleep, wash or notice any other family members until the book is finished. That’s just the way it is.
My Introduction to Daring Bakers: Lemon Meringue Pie
I love pie. Fruit pies are my favorite, but I have a special place in my stomach for lemon meringue pies, especially real pie made from real lemons. So when the Daring Bakers, an internet group of amateur bakers which I recently joined, announced Lemon Meringue Pie as their challenge for January, I was very excited. So excited that I actually missed one of Robyn’s hockey games to make the pie without any time pressures.
Lemon meringue pie consists of three distinct layers — pastry, lemon custard and meringue — and each layer has its unique challenges. Will the crust be too tough? Will it leak? Will the custard set up properly? Will the meringue be firm enough to slice without getting all hard and crumbly?
I had not made a pastry crust in quite a while and it took some time to get my confidence up. It took a couple extra mils of water to get the crust to stick together, but it rolled and shaped well, even if it did puff up a little while baking. My happy pie weights didn’t do a complete job this time. Next time I’ll bake it a little longer with the weights and make the flutes a little higher since the dough shrunk back quite a bit while baking.
The custard was a lot of fun to make. It thickened up quickly and the flavour was spot on. There was a little extra which I kept in a bowl to test how it set up.
The meringue also went really well, I thought. I don’t really know my soft peaks from my firm peaks but it seemed to work find and looked gorgeous before and after baking.
After waiting a loooong 2 1/2 hours for the pie to cool (and Cindy and Robyn to get home from hockey) we dug in. I was stunned that a pie which looked so beautiful had so many problems! Tough crust, runny custard and a meringue that didn’t stay together.
I did a little internet research and have a couple ideas as to what to do next time:
- crust: Use a little more water early so I don’t have to work it so much. Use the pie weights for another 5 minutes or so when baking. I might even go to my traditional pastry crust with shortening for some added flakiness.
- custard: chill the pie prior to slicing so it sets up more.
- meringue: top the pie while the custard is hot so the bottom of the meringue bakes well. Possibly beat the meringue a little stiffer too; I may have only had medium peaks after all.
In the end the pie tasted really good, even if it didn’t look the best. I had enough ingredients to make another pie but life took over and even though my Daring Baker pie was made on January 5 I haven’t had the time for another attempt. Maybe in March.
Thanks to the folks at Daring Bakers for the challenge — I’m looking forward to February already!
Foolin with Flickr
Originally uploaded by mdstamps
I just figured out how to blog about a photo that I uploaded to Flickr. So now you all get to see Cindy and me from this summer on Vancouver Island. Not sure which of the kids took it but it turned out OK.
As the kids get taller the angle on the pictures look better too!