Lean Dough, Day 2

Tuesday we baked off our baguette and whole wheat dough, and then made brioche dough. We were apparently supposed to have a vocab quiz (whoops, missed that announcement), but Chef had a root canal, and so didn’t feel like giving it or talking much.
We learned how to roll baguette dough, which involves pinching the dough underneath while rolling it until it's tight. Like most things with cooking, it's a feeling rather than something that can be really described. But first you have to scale them out to 13 oz - in France it's exactly 11 oz, and the government can apparently shut a business down if they don't do this exactly. At least that's what Chef says. Once you've formed a roll, flatten it out to a rectangle. Then fold over and pinch until you have a log. Hand over hand, roll it out evenly, until it's about 16 inches. Seal it, and move to full sheet baking pan, with seal down. Allow to rise. Once it rises, spray with water, sprinkle with flour, then make five slashes. Baguettes need to be steamed, so once the pan is in the oven, throw in ice and spray into the oven. Cook until golden brown. That is one of mine in the middle - Tennessee's are sandwiching mine. My other one was on Irish's sheet.
Whole wheat: same rolls method as yesterday. That’s the one Tennessee ripped into before I had a chance to take the photo.

Herb Foccacia - our's was delicious. We (Tennessee, Irish and I) made quadruple the recipe because Chef used half of ours to make his demo. It got huge!
It's a really simple recipe (we made 4x this), 10 oz water, 3/4 oz fresh yeast, 14 oz bread flour, 1/2 oz olive oil, and 1/4 oz salt. Straight Dough Method. Once rises, spray 1/2 sheet pan, put down parchment, spray again. Beat down the dough, then roll out to size of pan. Flour well, then fold to transfer, push to fill pan. Pour olive oil over, and spread out. Press into dough with tips of fingers. Lots! Have fun with this step! The oil will pool into the dips. Top with rosemary and a little bit of salt. Proof, then bake. Oops, we accidentally cut into this, which apparently Chef has said we weren't supposed to. I didn't hear him say it, and neither did Tennessee - oh well, that meant I got to take it home to freeze it! I'm kind of running out of room in my freezer since the company who owns my building clearly believes single people don't need fridges that are real sizes...

Brioche
3 oz milk, 1 egg, 1 oz fresh yeast, 2 oz bread flour
4 eggs, 2.5 oz sugar, 1/2 oz salt, 18 oz bread flour
7 oz butter
Sponge Method: scald milk and cool to 95F, whisk in egg and yeast, then mix with hand 2 oz bread flour. Cover, proof
Add remaining ingredients, minus butter. Mix to full gluten development, mount in butter, little pieces at a time or the dough gets greasy.
We're allowing this to rise overnight.

Lessons Learned:
Rolling baguettes into logs is really hard! Chef says it just takes a lot of practice. And Brioche is really really buttery. I felt kind of disgusting throwing it into the mixer, since the room was so hot, it had become really gooey in the monkey bowl and I had to scoop/dig it out.
Damnit. Okay, I had this all set up in word because I had lots of photos, but it didn't copy properly and I have a lot to accomplish this afternoon because we leave for my sister's wedding after class tomorrow... I'll try it again some time next week.
Speaking of, I am back to work tomorrow. It may delay my ability to get posts up at the rate I have been. Sorry!