Day 4 of Viennoiserie The day started off bad but ended up getting better. It started off bad because we lost our pre-scaled ingredients making us start from scratch. I guess today was just not a good day for my group. But on the upside, all of our production was done on time. With only 4 more production days left I think we are doing well having lost days and one of the production days being cut short. Let's see what tomorrow brings.
Day 1 On the first day of our Viennoiserie lab I was nervous. This is the hardest lab which just so happens to be our last lab that is cut short for different reasons. I heard that Chef Hitz makes the groups by the roster, this made me unhappy. In my bread lab groups were formed like that at it was the most stressful lab that I have ever been in. But when I found out we could pick our own groups my frown turned upside down. We have our moments of disagreement but we always come together and help each other. Let's finish this strong.
On Day 6 I believe it was the worst day my group has ever had. Our brioche was over proofed and the shaping needs work. When processing our Danish dough the division was not large enough, they came out flat. The best thing we made today was our Pretzel Croissants and the Russian loaf. Tools kept disappearing, there was a lack or organization and communication because there is tension in our group and one of our dough's were not made for the practical. Hopefully the last few days are better.
Day 5 Today was full of lessons learned. One of the groups in our class had messed up the orientation of their croissant dough on the sheeter. They didn't turn the dough 90 degrees when it was needed, which threw them through a loop. They were still able to make products from the dough, but instead of croissants they ended up making chocolate croissants as part of the danish family. Their danishes were off in size, which made some bigger than others. When they baked them off, they lacked volume and didn't open to show the layers. The end product still tasted good though. Although it wasn't my group that made the mistake, I still learned from it and I will be sure to rotate the dough when needed.
Day 6 Today was a positive day, which is amazing because it's Monday and usually not everyone is with it on Monday's. My group was able to be on top of things today, even sparing time to help out other groups that may have needed help. Communication is key in this class, that's mostly how mistakes happen, not everyone in the group is on the same page. Today we processed our sweet dough for the first time, some groups made mistakes on dividing the dough such as folding the dough in half and then cutting like we do for croissants, but we don't do that for the sweet dough. Luckily that group was able to fix their problem and continue on with production. The Russian bread made from the sweet dough turned out pretty good. Chef pointed out the loaves that he thought looked best; which those people should shape them for the practical tomorrow. It was nice to hear that my product was good enough for shaping on the practical, which made me feel confident in my work. Making the sweet dough products is the one that I've liked so far, but it's probably because we make cinnamon rolls, and the Russian bread is a lot easier to braid than the six strand Challah.
Day 8 Today was a pretty good day. It was the last part of the practical. I think it went pretty well for my group, we finished pretty early. It wasn't until the end of class that we were talking about sweet dough, and how some groups finished a little early with it. Pulling the sweet dough too soon could affect how well the dough is able to be worked with. I did notice our dough was a little funky, but didn't think much of it at the time. After talking about it as a class, I realized it too soon. Our products did turn out pretty good, but it maybe could of been improved a little bit if we left the dough alone. Overall I actually liked this class, I thought I wasn't going to because I've heard it was the hardest freshmen lab. Its hard at first because your thrown a lot of information all at once and expected to memorize it. By day 4 or 5 things really start to click because you do the same products every day. Good luck incoming freshmen.
In today’s lab we had our first go at making brioche. In the demo Chef showed us how to make the brioche step by step making sure that we were clear when having to go back to our own work stations and do it ourselves. Let’s just say in general Chef’s make everything look ten times easier than they actually are but, that comes from experience. Upon returning to our lab bench things did not go as planned, as can be expected for first timers. We started off with the pressing of dough in the Fortuna which was fine until we went to roll the dough into the ball for pre-shaping. Our dough was too cold, so we let it be for an additional 20 mins while we had a small demo. I believe that it was left out a smidgen more than it should had because when we went back to it, it felt super loose and still hard to shape because it didn’t have any “structure” to it. We finally were able to shape the brioche and transfer it to the proof box but, we encountered another problem. Our brioche wasn’t rising a lot nor was it rising as much as others were but, we let it be till it had to be egg washed and baked off. Some of the heads of brioche were sliding around a bit and were slanted to one side but, other than that they came out the correct color and were thoroughly baked. We now know for next time what we could work on in order to create an overall better brioche.
Day 7 This day seemed to go both the fastest and the slowest of all the days. We were the most efficient within our group in getting our production needs done. Throughout the day I felt as though I was half-dead, but I powered through- I was looking forward to taking a nap when I got back to my dorm. It seemed to go especially slow with regards to cleaning the room, mostly because people were not taking care of their own dishes. Since my group had our stuff in order, I took the initiative to make sure all of the dishes got done. I am almost certain that I washed every sheet pan that was in the room as well as several sticky pans and three of the large mixing bowls, as well as myriad other dishes. By the end of the day I felt utterly exhausted, from lack of sleep and from the exertion of scrubbing all of the caramel and other goo off their respective surfaces. Being in class at 6 am, in combination with sleep deprivation and hard work makes for one exhausted body. I took such a long nap after class my roommate thought I was dead. I am not, she finally woke me up after 6 hours of sleeping at 8pm. Thanks Ashleigh. What I learned from today was that it is extremely important to get enough sleep and to make sure that you take care of your responsibilities in the classroom, and if you don't one or a few lucky people will get stuck doing your dishes. On Day 7, I was one of those lucky people.
This day seemed as though we were running around like chickens with our heads cut off, at least in my perspective. In the beginning of this lab I felt like I was swimming in deep water as I had never made any of the products aside from muffins. I wasn't confident yet in what I was making, my brain was not able to catch up with what my hands needed to be doing. A whole lot of information was being spewed at me, which made it difficult to process it as quickly as would have been most helpful. As the class has gone along, the material has gotten increasingly less overwhelming- as you practice making something several times, it gives you the opportunity to apply the information and in turn get to fully understand what said information means in relation to the product you are making. It also gives you the opportunity to improve your knowledge of the method of preparation as well as your skill in your hands of making the products.
Day 8 Today was probably the smoothest in terms of the way production went, I felt the most confident in the method of preparation for the products we made today. There was still a need for some adjustment in certain areas, such as evenness of bake- but those things are pretty easy to correct. On the second part of the practical tomorrow we will have practiced them enough to know a bit better ad to when to bake them a little longer and when to take them out of the oven. With regards to the brioche, I was finally able to create a shape that didn't look quite so disproportional and lopsided. With every repetition of the hand skills I was able to improve and gain confidence in my ability to shape the dough as desired. As you continue to practice something, chances are you are going to improve in making it, which was my experience with the brioche. At first I struggled with getting the head to in proportion to the body- it is still not perfect but they are certainly come a long way.
Day 5 On Day 5 my group and I were prepared to laminate our dough but no one checked on the dough in the fridge to put it in the freezer in the morning. So when we went to pull our dough from the freezer it was not in there. It was still on the fridge and as soft as can be. After we waitied it out almost to the end of the class that day we folded it not squared. In the morning the next day when processing the dough the sides of it were very rounded and that meant we may lose some product because of badly folding it.
Day 7 On day seven we were preparing all of our practical doughs for Tuesday and Wednesday. At the beginning of class we prepared our Danish dough. Only by the end of the class did we notice that there was only one Danish dough in the freezer and we needed two for the practical. This was my mistake because I was distracted and focused on every other product that we were starting to process at the time. With one team mate out sick and one sitting down because of not feeling well, we were left with two of us. This stressed me out because we had to rush and balance all the products we were making.
Day 4 On day 4 of production we were making banana bread muffins. We made a very large mistake when it came to creaming the butter and the sugar together. We creamed them together but without showing chef we continued on to emulsify our eggs and it turns out they were not creamed completely together. Without having the products creamed well enough that meant that our batter was going to have a possibly more dense consistency than it should have.
Blog Entry One: Working with dough is not only an art, but a science. The first lesson learned was not to trust pre-scaled ingredients. They batch might have been double, but only half of the salt was scaled, or the salt was left out completely. Chef checked this when his danish dough was acting odd by tasting it. I have never seen a chef taste raw dough before, and I was fascinated with this method. If the salt had been left out it would not have developed properly. The salt helps to develop the flavor and crust, and it also tightens gluten strands and regulate yeast. So without the salt, the dough would have been too relax and would most likely not hold a shape.
Blog Entry Two: Working quickly does not mean you are always being efficient, a few groups learned that today. While try to keep production moving, a few groups mixed their pumpkin muffin while the brioche was resting... However we overlooked the fact, that mixing caused the chemical leaveners to activate, so we had to quickly finish the muffins before we could return to the brioche products. Thankfully the products still came out beautifully, but from that moment on we thought a bit more before we started mixing.
Blog Entry Three: Chef had told us various times that when doing the final sheet of the danish dough, the belly HAD to be parallel to the belt. We did not question this because Chef knows best, but we did not understand why. During production, Group 2 accidentally forgot a turn causing the belly to be on the short sides. This resulted in very curved sides, and one direction to stronger than the other. This resulted in misshapen final products. The croissants that were made with this dough ended up with short arm, causing them to lose balance and fall to one side, resulting in an ice cream cone shape. I will be sure to triple check that the belly is in the right place from now one.
Day 3: Day three was hectic but it went smooth. When it came time to make croissants and get them ready to proof group 3 forgot to tuck the tail under. so when they bakes the tales popped and the croissants did not look nice. Chef told us several times to make sure the tails were tucked.
Day 7: We began to mix our doughs and it was crazy trying to get to the mixers. Group 3 accidentally mis-scaled their dough and added to much egg yolk. the dough came out very sticky. The group had to redo their dough. Chef told us to be very accurate when scaling. If anything is slightly over or under it can ruin your entire product.
Day 8 (practical day): It was time to make croissants. Everything war running smoothly until a group forgot to egg wash their Croissants before proofing them. After proofing for an hour they realized this and quickly egg washed them and placed them back in the proofer. By doing this the Croissants lost some of their volume and did not rise as much as they should of. Now we know to always check they your products are egg washed.
Blog Entry one: (Day 4)- It was a very stressful day because everyone was running around trying to get everything done that they can get done. Everyone was done with each other and wanted it to end.
Blog Entry two: (Day 6)- When it was time to laminate our Danish dough, we couldn't find it in the fridge. Then a different group came up to us and said that was their dough in our hands and then we said well that is our dough in your hands, and they said they already laminated it. Then a few minutes went by and the chef told us to just to laminate their dough because they laminated ours.
Blog Entry three: (Day 8)- Today was probably the most stressful day out of the whole two weeks that we had labs, today was the stressful one out of them all. There was a lot of tension in the kitchen between group 4 & 5 because of one person. I think everyone was stressed out to the max because it was the day before the final exam on Monday.
Class started off learning about the procedures for incoming freshman. Then chef gave a demo that included making brioche dough and then danish dough. However danish dough was not finished because it is finished through lamination and between the third lamination needs to rest. Unlike brioche dough that the butter is slowly folded in. Chef made a measuring mistake, although he says it was on purpose I think it was on accident. He did this to show us how easy it is to miss a mistake that could potentially ruin an entire recipe which leads to money and labor and throwing away product. All of those things ruined. He was able to easily fix it because he caught it early on. Day 1 was easily the easiest of all days.
Day 3 was supposed to be the hardest day, but i felt like my group and I managed it pretty well. We started off making the regular brioche and danish dough. Our group divided the dough and each did one. We made some mistakes along the way but we were able to fix them, with the help of chef. It seems that chef always knows what to do so asking him for help is always a must, cause you'd rather stop a mistake in its tracks then at the end where you've wasted more time and money. We talk about time and money a lot because it is the most important thing in this industry. We also made zucchini muffins which were a nice break. Im still waiting for this incredibly hard day to come around, by the way everybody talks about it.. I'm not looking forward to it.
On day 1 after having previously spent 9 days working with the same group we were introduced to new students in our class. I believe that this will be a learning process to incorporate new people into a system previously built in he last class. I think that communication, patience, and open mindedness will help in being able to incorporate new people. With this fast production class adjustment is key to being able to finish production on time and precise
This is a long process. There are a lot of steps for each dough and we work on multiple at a time. If you take your time in this class you will not get anything done on time. We have to show up about an hour early and we go as fast as we can and still get out late. Viennoiserie is a long process but the outcome is great.
Going into this class on the first day I was nervous about what to expect because of the stories I had heard from other students. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised and happy to day that it really wasn't that bad. I think that we managed fairly well and made our doughs quickly and efficiently. It really helps to make a plan with your group in advance so everyone knows what to do so you can get stuff done in time.
Being aware of and keeping track of your time is very important in this class. All of the doughs are very time sensitive and time consuming so that is why you need to be alert all the time and keep your timer handy in class. It also happens that very often all of the doughs need to be processed at the same time and that is when you need to have a good game plan with your group so you can get it all done as fast as possible.
In this class you need to keep an eye on a few thing and make sure not to make too many mistakes because even 1 mistake could mess up a product that took 3 days to make. For example labeling doughs that go into the freezer is very important because when laminating the doughs they need to rest in-between folds. And when they rest in the freezer they need to have a label which states how many folds they have and which generation they are so you don't take the wrong one because this step could make or break your finished product.
Think through the process before you start any production, this will help you minimize the mistakes. I forgot to make sure that the liquids were 55 degrees Fahrenheit when I started the sweet dough. While this didn't affect the dough for baking, it did increase the timing for the bulk fermentation. This sets things back and makes you step away from other priorities.
During production, the first 5 days you are making brioche and danish dough. Take this time to actually try every step. Something that happened with my group is that we were so comfortable doing one thing, and got really good at it. Problem was that even though I knew what needed to be done, I had no practice of a certain step and that hindered me for the practical. So just switch it up and have everyone get a chance to try something they haven't done yet.
Bad reputation, bad reputation much like Taylor Swift you are going to get a bad reputation when you burn other people's brioche during the practical. Always double check the ovens. Just because the ovens were set for a certain time it might be different from your own bake. Because the oven is shared among the group, if you ruin your own, you probably ruined everyone else's too and that's the worst feeling. So prior to the bake just double check all the figures are correct.
During day five it was pretty rough. It was just me and my partner Baylei doing everything. Well it was mostly Baylei, I was there physically but mentally not really 100%. I was thinking about practical and how I needed to pass this class. Anything that has to do with dough and yeast doesn’t click at all up here, especially baker percentage no clue whatsoever. I sometimes don’t want to slow the group down by not being all there but it takes me time to fully get the concept of things.
During the day we made the zucchini it was a bad day for us all. For one I know I screwed up the batter the first time by adding the sugars with the dry’s and not the liquid but once chef told me what is this Shnitzel thing you got going on here. He said I had to start all over but once I was ready to add the sugar to the liquids a certain group member grabbed my hand to not put it in. I just left it and I knew I shouldn’t have done that because it slowed us down even more. Which again my fault
I believe this day was a better day than the rest of them. We started off great and was right on track of things. Yes, we did have a minor hiccup or two with me not getting the butter to room temp which took 30 minutes for the creaming to take full effect. At least Savanah tried to help by cranking up the speed to 8. which somewhat helped a bit, even though we were right at the ball today we pretty much did well altogether as group. The three of us working together has been a bit challenging but we have made it this far into the trimester and I hope the next couple of days go smoothly.
day 3 on day three i had a lot of problems personally with production. with my team helping me out we were able to make our products and not fall behind. even though i struggled with the brioche that day i still was able to use the danish dough properly.
Day 3 Day 3 was said to be "The Day of Reckoning" and we would get out late. Even a friend of mine said when he had this class that day 3 was hectic. But it seemed like a normal day of labs to me. I guess that says something about the class as a whole, that we all work effeciently.
Day 6 Day of Reckoning 2: Electric Bogaloo. All day on day 5, Chef kept telling the class that day 6 was going to be the hardest day yet, and all the stuff he said about day 3, but just as on day 3, we all got out on time. I'm starting to question what is a hard day by Chef.
Day 7 This the first day of the practical, but it seemed like the day before but less stressed. Having the confidence of doing it a second time really helped. I'm realizing that all the repetition has slowly ingrained somethings into my brain even though I don't take notes. Hopefully I can remember everything else I have to do for tomorrow.
On day 5 of class every group had to make croissants and danishes out of our premade Danish dough. My collected group was doing very well but group 3 forgot to utilize steam when baking their croissants, which effects the croissants size and aesthetic. It may not sound like much but this will effect the overall sales and profit of the bakery. This was a useful learning experience for myself and the rest of the class.
On day 7 my assignment was to artisanal craft the glaze for the donuts. All the ingredients that went into the pot were brought to a temperature of 140 degrees. When I reached the temperature, I added the bloom gelatin to the hot liquids. Then I was supposed to add the liquids slowly. I apparently didn’t add it slow enough. At the bottom were some chunky powdered sugar balls that didn’t get mixed in. It was okay because chef helped me out with those lumps.
On the second day we got to use the laminator for the first time! I was super excited but super nervous as well. By the end of it, though, it was not as complicated as I thought. It was really super easy to navigate and had simple buttons. I thought it was a cool thing that we got to learn that. We laminated our danishes that day as well and they came out pretty good our first try.
day 6 on this day we started our practical. my group choose to make an extra round of sweet dough for our practical. at first i thought it would just be an extra step but looking back i now know it was the right decision.we received extra feed back and we most likely did better because of it
Day 2 We were allowed to use the laminator for laminating our Danish doughs today and it was so much fun! Granted the next few times I am to use the laminator I almost dropped the dough twice, the hand movements can be confusing sometimes.
Day 3 We can finally finish our croissant doughs! Today we learn how thin to flatten the dough and what sizes pieces to cut the dough into in order to get the croissant shape and we learned how to roll the dough up and make a pretty little croissant. Also on this day we learned to keep the tails down when proofing and baking the croissants because if the tail is up, it won't look like croissant.
Day 4 Today we did Brioche for the third time and it turns out that our oven had steam on when the Brioche is not supposed to be baked with steam. The end result was a melty baked brioche without a prominent neck, but it still tasted good.
Today in class we struggled with creating a correct Brioche a Tete. When the brioche where put into the oven we did not realize that the steam setting was still on. This caused the neck of the brioche to expand which caused the whole brioche to look sloppy and look unclean. I learned from this to always set an oven before the product goes into the oven. Once the product is in the oven I always am rushing to close the oven quickly so the oven does not lose too much heat. Because of this I am more prone to make mistakes, so I should always be setting the oven before loading. I also learned how Brioche should not get steamed or it will lose definition.
Today I learned the importance of cleaning the room in an organized way. Multiple groups washed there tables before we where ready to start mopping the floors. Because of this it took longer to clean the tables more effectively. On top of this there was still sheet pans being placed onto tables. This meant we had to rewash multiple tables. As well as this due to either not squeegeeing the floors well, or people walking through wet areas water was tracked across the room. This showed me the lesson of the importance of creating a plan for cleaning so that everyone can be on the same page and the room can be cleaned quickly and effectively.
Today I learned the importance of proofing viennoiserie for the correct amount of time. When we did croissants different proofing times led to completely different results. Croissants that were underproofed did not fully separate into layers. This led to a less flaky final product. On the opposite end of the spectrum overproofed did not have enough structure to support themselves and collapse.
As we discussed in class on the first day Mise en Place is something that we do every day that separates people of this profession from the regular civilian. Mise en Place is a French term meaning everything in it place, which is a term we use in the industry to refer to many different things but most commonly used to refer to preparing for either making a recipe or getting the essentials need to carry out said recipe. I like to use mise en place in my everyday life, to extent of brushing my teeth, having my clothes laid out the night before, anything that can be done in preparation for a task that I must accomplish. Mise en place does not always have to be preparing physically it can also refer to a mental state. Getting yourself in the game or mid set to accomplish the tasks laid before your is all mise en place. This is a term that we as culinarians use in our everyday life that carries more meaning than just being prepared to make a recipe.
One of the things I noticed about this class was the variety of products that can be made from the same base dough. More or less every day we would mix the same doughs and produce a multitude of products that could either be sweet or savory. Coming from a culinary background I feel that it is important to be able to produce a large amount of profit turning product while also maintaining a reasonable par stock and food cost. Being able to produce so many products from one mother batch helps limit a lot of excess allowing the mixer to be free for other products. At the same time if you screw up the mother batch it would ruin all the products that could be potentially made. I feel that if I owned a bakery, I would definitely use the skills learned in this segment to produce quality items but I believe that I would change a few things in regards to recipe content and fillings. The concept of creating a mother dough and using it for multiple items would be a common theme utilized.
Day 2: October 10 Today was a lot to say the least. I’ve learned in such a short amount of time how each chef I have likes their kitchen run just a little bit different. As a person with anxiety, this crazy atmosphere can stress me out from time to time. Today in class we made brioche in their classic shapes. While this was a difficult task for me, I thought some of mine came out okay. I hope that from day two to day nine I can improve even more. We also laminated dough for the first time today, which I expected to go horribly, but it went okay. Chef Hitz literally placing his hands overtop mine helped me a lot to understand how the machine works since I am a more hands-on learner. Going into this class knowing that this would be my hardest lab this year scared me, and to be honest, it still does. There’s so much to learn in such little time. However, I see this class and honestly all of college as one big learning experience. Today definitely felt very overwhelming for my team. We accidentally left our Danish dough in the freezer, so we had to wait an extra ten minutes for it to thaw a little. Ultimately, we got it done, but it taught us to pay more attention to our Danish dough. I’m excited to see what tomorrow brings.
Day 3: October 10 I thought today in class went a lot better than I exepected it to. It probably had some to do with the fact that we were first to use the laminating machine, so we were able to get that done and worry about other things first. We used our first laminated Danish dough today to make croissants and learning how to shape them was really interesting. Of course, though, the day isn’t complete without someone making a mistake, and today that person was me. Yesterday, I made the special crumb topping with Samantha and I packed it into the container, not even thinking about the fact that it would probably all stick together in the fridge. When taking it out today, it was one big crumb topping block that I had to help team three break apart. This definitely taught me that crumb toppings don’t need to be compacted down, which I didn’t know before taking this class. I think as a group we had a better day than yesterday; we all took turns on the laminating machine and got a chance to do it without chef holding our hands. When I was doing it, I pressed the wrong button, but luckily someone was there to catch the dough before it fell off. I definitely learned my lesson on looking before acting, so I’ll try to not let that happen again. Overall, today was actually a pretty decent day; we did a second batch of brioche, which looked somewhat better than yesterday’s, and chef said our croissants looked pretty good. I’m really looking forward to Monday to see what we learn next.
Day 4: October 14 As a whole today was relatively okay. We are usually a group of five, but we were missing a person today, so there was only four of us, which called for us to adjust compared to how we’ve been working. It was really stressful at the beginning of class because while laminating all four of us were completely unable to answer chef’s questions on how to laminate our danish dough to be cut. Honestly, it was really embarrasing, but it taught us that we should definitely be going over our notes and watching any videos that chef has posted to help us. However, the end of class went really well; we all got good critiques on our swiss brioche and were able to learn how to make our mistakes better when we continue on Wednesday. Chef Hitz truly knows what he’s doing and makes it very easy to learn from our mistakes. He doesn’t make us feel stupid, instead, he asks us questions to make us think about how to fix something, rather than just telling us and making us feel bad. Over the past three days I have learned how to use a lamination machine, how to make brioche, danish, pumpkin bread, etc., and I have really enjoyed this class so far. Viennoiserie has taught me a lot thus far, and I’m really excited and nervous for the practical next Tuesday. Hopefully we all can do well on it.
10 October 2019: Day 3 Today was a bit hectic even getting in at 6 didn’t seem to make everything run smoothly at first. Toward the middle of the day we seemed to get into our groove with only a few hiccups. We had to relearn the steps to laminating the croissant dough as we trimmed it twice and it is only supposed to be trimmed once. One of my partners almost sent the dough to the floor when they sent the sheeter the wrong way. Luckily I was standing at the end of it and picked it up before it fell. Our baking went quite well chef even pulled our croissants to show another group how dark to cook them. So today was an educational day for us to say the least. Chef would surely call it a once in a lifetime opportunity.
15 October 2019: Day 5 Today we had a guest speaker come in and it really messed up our timeline for working because we had to get out of the kitchen two hours earlier than normal. Chef made the decision that we would work on the muffins today to keep things moving. First, we mixed our sweet dough and laminated our Gen 4 danish dough. The laminating seemed to go much smoother this time. Then we did all of the muffins splitting the team in half to work on two at a time. This also allowed us to have one person leave to do dishes, make the glaze and check on the danish dough in the walk-in. I think it worked out well, though if/when we make more muffins we have to make sure to mix the batter a bit after pulling it off the mixer to make sure no ingredients are unincorporated at the bottom. Also we have to mix a little less as on one of our muffins Chef saw some tunneling.
17 October 2019: Day 7 Today was difficult everything seemed to go well this morning, but in the afternoon things started to go wrong. Our sweet dough was completely off and all of our products had to get thrown out we aren’t really sure what went wrong and we are just hoping that the doughs we made for the practical on Monday. On the bright side we have everything ready for Monday and my brioche shaping was good. Our bake was a little dark on some so we are going to change how we load the oven. Also we are going to double check our notes on how to fill both the danishes and brioche tarts as we had a slip-up with the cinnamon sugar. We plan to double check our orientation for our sweet dough when we put it through the sheeter as we turned the dough prematurely today. Some studying for the practical is definitely in order and I think all of my group will be going to bed early on Sunday night.
Day 4 of Viennoiserie
ReplyDeleteThe day started off bad but ended up getting better. It started off bad because we lost our pre-scaled ingredients making us start from scratch. I guess today was just not a good day for my group. But on the upside, all of our production was done on time. With only 4 more production days left I think we are doing well having lost days and one of the production days being cut short. Let's see what tomorrow brings.
Day 1
ReplyDeleteOn the first day of our Viennoiserie lab I was nervous. This is the hardest lab which just so happens to be our last lab that is cut short for different reasons. I heard that Chef Hitz makes the groups by the roster, this made me unhappy. In my bread lab groups were formed like that at it was the most stressful lab that I have ever been in. But when I found out we could pick our own groups my frown turned upside down. We have our moments of disagreement but we always come together and help each other. Let's finish this strong.
On Day 6 I believe it was the worst day my group has ever had. Our brioche was over proofed and the shaping needs work. When processing our Danish dough the division was not large enough, they came out flat. The best thing we made today was our Pretzel Croissants and the Russian loaf. Tools kept disappearing, there was a lack or organization and communication because there is tension in our group and one of our dough's were not made for the practical. Hopefully the last few days are better.
ReplyDeleteDay 5
ReplyDeleteToday was full of lessons learned. One of the groups in our class had messed up the orientation of their croissant dough on the sheeter. They didn't turn the dough 90 degrees when it was needed, which threw them through a loop. They were still able to make products from the dough, but instead of croissants they ended up making chocolate croissants as part of the danish family. Their danishes were off in size, which made some bigger than others. When they baked them off, they lacked volume and didn't open to show the layers. The end product still tasted good though. Although it wasn't my group that made the mistake, I still learned from it and I will be sure to rotate the dough when needed.
Day 6
ReplyDeleteToday was a positive day, which is amazing because it's Monday and usually not everyone is with it on Monday's. My group was able to be on top of things today, even sparing time to help out other groups that may have needed help. Communication is key in this class, that's mostly how mistakes happen, not everyone in the group is on the same page. Today we processed our sweet dough for the first time, some groups made mistakes on dividing the dough such as folding the dough in half and then cutting like we do for croissants, but we don't do that for the sweet dough. Luckily that group was able to fix their problem and continue on with production. The Russian bread made from the sweet dough turned out pretty good. Chef pointed out the loaves that he thought looked best; which those people should shape them for the practical tomorrow. It was nice to hear that my product was good enough for shaping on the practical, which made me feel confident in my work. Making the sweet dough products is the one that I've liked so far, but it's probably because we make cinnamon rolls, and the Russian bread is a lot easier to braid than the six strand Challah.
Day 8
ReplyDeleteToday was a pretty good day. It was the last part of the practical. I think it went pretty well for my group, we finished pretty early. It wasn't until the end of class that we were talking about sweet dough, and how some groups finished a little early with it. Pulling the sweet dough too soon could affect how well the dough is able to be worked with. I did notice our dough was a little funky, but didn't think much of it at the time. After talking about it as a class, I realized it too soon. Our products did turn out pretty good, but it maybe could of been improved a little bit if we left the dough alone. Overall I actually liked this class, I thought I wasn't going to because I've heard it was the hardest freshmen lab. Its hard at first because your thrown a lot of information all at once and expected to memorize it. By day 4 or 5 things really start to click because you do the same products every day. Good luck incoming freshmen.
Day 2 Blog:
ReplyDeleteIn today’s lab we had our first go at making brioche. In the demo Chef showed us how to make the brioche step by step making sure that we were clear when having to go back to our own work stations and do it ourselves. Let’s just say in general Chef’s make everything look ten times easier than they actually are but, that comes from experience. Upon returning to our lab bench things did not go as planned, as can be expected for first timers. We started off with the pressing of dough in the Fortuna which was fine until we went to roll the dough into the ball for pre-shaping. Our dough was too cold, so we let it be for an additional 20 mins while we had a small demo. I believe that it was left out a smidgen more than it should had because when we went back to it, it felt super loose and still hard to shape because it didn’t have any “structure” to it. We finally were able to shape the brioche and transfer it to the proof box but, we encountered another problem. Our brioche wasn’t rising a lot nor was it rising as much as others were but, we let it be till it had to be egg washed and baked off. Some of the heads of brioche were sliding around a bit and were slanted to one side but, other than that they came out the correct color and were thoroughly baked. We now know for next time what we could work on in order to create an overall better brioche.
Day 7
ReplyDeleteThis day seemed to go both the fastest and the slowest of all the days. We were the most efficient within our group in getting our production needs done. Throughout the day I felt as though I was half-dead, but I powered through- I was looking forward to taking a nap when I got back to my dorm. It seemed to go especially slow with regards to cleaning the room, mostly because people were not taking care of their own dishes. Since my group had our stuff in order, I took the initiative to make sure all of the dishes got done. I am almost certain that I washed every sheet pan that was in the room as well as several sticky pans and three of the large mixing bowls, as well as myriad other dishes. By the end of the day I felt utterly exhausted, from lack of sleep and from the exertion of scrubbing all of the caramel and other goo off their respective surfaces. Being in class at 6 am, in combination with sleep deprivation and hard work makes for one exhausted body. I took such a long nap after class my roommate thought I was dead. I am not, she finally woke me up after 6 hours of sleeping at 8pm. Thanks Ashleigh. What I learned from today was that it is extremely important to get enough sleep and to make sure that you take care of your responsibilities in the classroom, and if you don't one or a few lucky people will get stuck doing your dishes. On Day 7, I was one of those lucky people.
This day seemed as though we were running around like chickens with our heads cut off, at least in my perspective. In the beginning of this lab I felt like I was swimming in deep water as I had never made any of the products aside from muffins. I wasn't confident yet in what I was making, my brain was not able to catch up with what my hands needed to be doing. A whole lot of information was being spewed at me, which made it difficult to process it as quickly as would have been most helpful. As the class has gone along, the material has gotten increasingly less overwhelming- as you practice making something several times, it gives you the opportunity to apply the information and in turn get to fully understand what said information means in relation to the product you are making. It also gives you the opportunity to improve your knowledge of the method of preparation as well as your skill in your hands of making the products.
ReplyDeleteThis entry is about day 4!
DeleteDay 8
ReplyDeleteToday was probably the smoothest in terms of the way production went, I felt the most confident in the method of preparation for the products we made today. There was still a need for some adjustment in certain areas, such as evenness of bake- but those things are pretty easy to correct. On the second part of the practical tomorrow we will have practiced them enough to know a bit better ad to when to bake them a little longer and when to take them out of the oven. With regards to the brioche, I was finally able to create a shape that didn't look quite so disproportional and lopsided. With every repetition of the hand skills I was able to improve and gain confidence in my ability to shape the dough as desired. As you continue to practice something, chances are you are going to improve in making it, which was my experience with the brioche. At first I struggled with getting the head to in proportion to the body- it is still not perfect but they are certainly come a long way.
Day 5
ReplyDeleteOn Day 5 my group and I were prepared to laminate our dough but no one checked on the dough in the fridge to put it in the freezer in the morning. So when we went to pull our dough from the freezer it was not in there. It was still on the fridge and as soft as can be. After we waitied it out almost to the end of the class that day we folded it not squared. In the morning the next day when processing the dough the sides of it were very rounded and that meant we may lose some product because of badly folding it.
Day 7
ReplyDeleteOn day seven we were preparing all of our practical doughs for Tuesday and Wednesday. At the beginning of class we prepared our Danish dough. Only by the end of the class did we notice that there was only one Danish dough in the freezer and we needed two for the practical. This was my mistake because I was distracted and focused on every other product that we were starting to process at the time. With one team mate out sick and one sitting down because of not feeling well, we were left with two of us. This stressed me out because we had to rush and balance all the products we were making.
Day 4
ReplyDeleteOn day 4 of production we were making banana bread muffins. We made a very large mistake when it came to creaming the butter and the sugar together. We creamed them together but without showing chef we continued on to emulsify our eggs and it turns out they were not creamed completely together. Without having the products creamed well enough that meant that our batter was going to have a possibly more dense consistency than it should have.
Blog Entry One: Working with dough is not only an art, but a science. The first lesson learned was not to trust pre-scaled ingredients. They batch might have been double, but only half of the salt was scaled, or the salt was left out completely. Chef checked this when his danish dough was acting odd by tasting it. I have never seen a chef taste raw dough before, and I was fascinated with this method. If the salt had been left out it would not have developed properly. The salt helps to develop the flavor and crust, and it also tightens gluten strands and regulate yeast. So without the salt, the dough would have been too relax and would most likely not hold a shape.
ReplyDeleteBlog Entry Two: Working quickly does not mean you are always being efficient, a few groups learned that today. While try to keep production moving, a few groups mixed their pumpkin muffin while the brioche was resting... However we overlooked the fact, that mixing caused the chemical leaveners to activate, so we had to quickly finish the muffins before we could return to the brioche products. Thankfully the products still came out beautifully, but from that moment on we thought a bit more before we started mixing.
ReplyDeleteBlog Entry Three: Chef had told us various times that when doing the final sheet of the danish dough, the belly HAD to be parallel to the belt. We did not question this because Chef knows best, but we did not understand why. During production, Group 2 accidentally forgot a turn causing the belly to be on the short sides. This resulted in very curved sides, and one direction to stronger than the other. This resulted in misshapen final products. The croissants that were made with this dough ended up with short arm, causing them to lose balance and fall to one side, resulting in an ice cream cone shape. I will be sure to triple check that the belly is in the right place from now one.
ReplyDeleteDay 3: Day three was hectic but it went smooth. When it came time to make croissants and get them ready to proof group 3 forgot to tuck the tail under. so when they bakes the tales popped and the croissants did not look nice. Chef told us several times to make sure the tails were tucked.
ReplyDeleteDay 7: We began to mix our doughs and it was crazy trying to get to the mixers. Group 3 accidentally mis-scaled their dough and added to much egg yolk. the dough came out very sticky. The group had to redo their dough. Chef told us to be very accurate when scaling. If anything is slightly over or under it can ruin your entire product.
ReplyDeleteDay 8 (practical day): It was time to make croissants. Everything war running smoothly until a group forgot to egg wash their Croissants before proofing them. After proofing for an hour they realized this and quickly egg washed them and placed them back in the proofer. By doing this the Croissants lost some of their volume and did not rise as much as they should of. Now we know to always check they your products are egg washed.
ReplyDeleteBlog Entry one: (Day 4)- It was a very stressful day because everyone was running around trying to get everything done that they can get done. Everyone was done with each other and wanted it to end.
ReplyDeleteBlog Entry two: (Day 6)- When it was time to laminate our Danish dough, we couldn't find it in the fridge. Then a different group came up to us and said that was their dough in our hands and then we said well that is our dough in your hands, and they said they already laminated it. Then a few minutes went by and the chef told us to just to laminate their dough because they laminated ours.
ReplyDeleteBlog Entry three: (Day 8)- Today was probably the most stressful day out of the whole two weeks that we had labs, today was the stressful one out of them all. There was a lot of tension in the kitchen between group 4 & 5 because of one person. I think everyone was stressed out to the max because it was the day before the final exam on Monday.
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ReplyDeleteBlog Entry 1: Tuesday September 5th
ReplyDeleteClass started off learning about the procedures for incoming freshman. Then chef gave a demo that included making brioche dough and then danish dough. However danish dough was not finished because it is finished through lamination and between the third lamination needs to rest. Unlike brioche dough that the butter is slowly folded in. Chef made a measuring mistake, although he says it was on purpose I think it was on accident. He did this to show us how easy it is to miss a mistake that could potentially ruin an entire recipe which leads to money and labor and throwing away product. All of those things ruined. He was able to easily fix it because he caught it early on. Day 1 was easily the easiest of all days.
Blog Entry 2: Friday September 8th
ReplyDeleteDay 3 was supposed to be the hardest day, but i felt like my group and I managed it pretty well. We started off making the regular brioche and danish dough. Our group divided the dough and each did one. We made some mistakes along the way but we were able to fix them, with the help of chef. It seems that chef always knows what to do so asking him for help is always a must, cause you'd rather stop a mistake in its tracks then at the end where you've wasted more time and money. We talk about time and money a lot because it is the most important thing in this industry. We also made zucchini muffins which were a nice break. Im still waiting for this incredibly hard day to come around, by the way everybody talks about it.. I'm not looking forward to it.
On day 1 after having previously spent 9 days working with the same group we were introduced to new students in our class. I believe that this will be a learning process to incorporate new people into a system previously built in he last class. I think that communication, patience, and open mindedness will help in being able to incorporate new people. With this fast production class adjustment is key to being able to finish production on time and precise
ReplyDeleteThis is a long process. There are a lot of steps for each dough and we work on multiple at a time. If you take your time in this class you will not get anything done on time. We have to show up about an hour early and we go as fast as we can and still get out late. Viennoiserie is a long process but the outcome is great.
ReplyDeleteGoing into this class on the first day I was nervous about what to expect because of the stories I had heard from other students. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised and happy to day that it really wasn't that bad. I think that we managed fairly well and made our doughs quickly and efficiently. It really helps to make a plan with your group in advance so everyone knows what to do so you can get stuff done in time.
ReplyDeleteBeing aware of and keeping track of your time is very important in this class. All of the doughs are very time sensitive and time consuming so that is why you need to be alert all the time and keep your timer handy in class. It also happens that very often all of the doughs need to be processed at the same time and that is when you need to have a good game plan with your group so you can get it all done as fast as possible.
ReplyDeleteIn this class you need to keep an eye on a few thing and make sure not to make too many mistakes because even 1 mistake could mess up a product that took 3 days to make. For example labeling doughs that go into the freezer is very important because when laminating the doughs they need to rest in-between folds. And when they rest in the freezer they need to have a label which states how many folds they have and which generation they are so you don't take the wrong one because this step could make or break your finished product.
ReplyDeleteThink through the process before you start any production, this will help you minimize the mistakes. I forgot to make sure that the liquids were 55 degrees Fahrenheit when I started the sweet dough. While this didn't affect the dough for baking, it did increase the timing for the bulk fermentation. This sets things back and makes you step away from other priorities.
ReplyDeleteDuring production, the first 5 days you are making brioche and danish dough. Take this time to actually try every step. Something that happened with my group is that we were so comfortable doing one thing, and got really good at it. Problem was that even though I knew what needed to be done, I had no practice of a certain step and that hindered me for the practical. So just switch it up and have everyone get a chance to try something they haven't done yet.
ReplyDeleteBad reputation, bad reputation much like Taylor Swift you are going to get a bad reputation when you burn other people's brioche during the practical. Always double check the ovens. Just because the ovens were set for a certain time it might be different from your own bake. Because the oven is shared among the group, if you ruin your own, you probably ruined everyone else's too and that's the worst feeling. So prior to the bake just double check all the figures are correct.
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ReplyDeleteDay 5:
ReplyDeleteDuring day five it was pretty rough. It was just me and my partner Baylei doing everything. Well it was mostly Baylei, I was there physically but mentally not really 100%. I was thinking about practical and how I needed to pass this class. Anything that has to do with dough and yeast doesn’t click at all up here, especially baker percentage no clue whatsoever. I sometimes don’t want to slow the group down by not being all there but it takes me time to fully get the concept of things.
Day 4
ReplyDeleteDuring the day we made the zucchini it was a bad day for us all. For one I know I screwed up the batter the first time by adding the sugars with the dry’s and not the liquid but once chef told me what is this Shnitzel thing you got going on here. He said I had to start all over but once I was ready to add the sugar to the liquids a certain group member grabbed my hand to not put it in. I just left it and I knew I shouldn’t have done that because it slowed us down even more. Which again my fault
Day 7
ReplyDeleteI believe this day was a better day than the rest of them. We started off great and was right on track of things. Yes, we did have a minor hiccup or two with me not getting the butter to room temp which took 30 minutes for the creaming to take full effect. At least Savanah tried to help by cranking up the speed to 8. which somewhat helped a bit, even though we were right at the ball today we pretty much did well altogether as group. The three of us working together has been a bit challenging but we have made it this far into the trimester and I hope the next couple of days go smoothly.
day 3
ReplyDeleteon day three i had a lot of problems personally with production. with my team helping me out we were able to make our products and not fall behind. even though i struggled with the brioche that day i still was able to use the danish dough properly.
Day 3
ReplyDeleteDay 3 was said to be "The Day of Reckoning" and we would get out late. Even a friend of mine said when he had this class that day 3 was hectic. But it seemed like a normal day of labs to me. I guess that says something about the class as a whole, that we all work effeciently.
Day 6
ReplyDeleteDay of Reckoning 2: Electric Bogaloo. All day on day 5, Chef kept telling the class that day 6 was going to be the hardest day yet, and all the stuff he said about day 3, but just as on day 3, we all got out on time. I'm starting to question what is a hard day by Chef.
Day 7
ReplyDeleteThis the first day of the practical, but it seemed like the day before but less stressed. Having the confidence of doing it a second time really helped. I'm realizing that all the repetition has slowly ingrained somethings into my brain even though I don't take notes. Hopefully I can remember everything else I have to do for tomorrow.
On day 5 of class every group had to make croissants and danishes out of our premade Danish dough. My collected group was doing very well but group 3 forgot to utilize steam when baking their croissants, which effects the croissants size and aesthetic. It may not sound like much but this will effect the overall sales and profit of the bakery. This was a useful learning experience for myself and the rest of the class.
ReplyDeleteOn day 7 my assignment was to artisanal craft the glaze for the donuts. All the ingredients that went into the pot were brought to a temperature of 140 degrees. When I reached the temperature, I added the bloom gelatin to the hot liquids. Then I was supposed to add the liquids slowly. I apparently didn’t add it slow enough. At the bottom were some chunky powdered sugar balls that didn’t get mixed in. It was okay because chef helped me out with those lumps.
ReplyDeleteOn the second day we got to use the laminator for the first time! I was super excited but super nervous as well. By the end of it, though, it was not as complicated as I thought. It was really super easy to navigate and had simple buttons. I thought it was a cool thing that we got to learn that. We laminated our danishes that day as well and they came out pretty good our first try.
ReplyDeleteday 6
ReplyDeleteon this day we started our practical. my group choose to make an extra round of sweet dough for our practical. at first i thought it would just be an extra step but looking back i now know it was the right decision.we received extra feed back and we most likely did better because of it
Day 2
ReplyDeleteWe were allowed to use the laminator for laminating our Danish doughs today and it was so much fun! Granted the next few times I am to use the laminator I almost dropped the dough twice, the hand movements can be confusing sometimes.
Day 3
ReplyDeleteWe can finally finish our croissant doughs! Today we learn how thin to flatten the dough and what sizes pieces to cut the dough into in order to get the croissant shape and we learned how to roll the dough up and make a pretty little croissant. Also on this day we learned to keep the tails down when proofing and baking the croissants because if the tail is up, it won't look like croissant.
Day 4
ReplyDeleteToday we did Brioche for the third time and it turns out that our oven had steam on when the Brioche is not supposed to be baked with steam. The end result was a melty baked brioche without a prominent neck, but it still tasted good.
ReplyDeleteToday in class we struggled with creating a correct Brioche a Tete. When the brioche where put into the oven we did not realize that the steam setting was still on. This caused the neck of the brioche to expand which caused the whole brioche to look sloppy and look unclean. I learned from this to always set an oven before the product goes into the oven. Once the product is in the oven I always am rushing to close the oven quickly so the oven does not lose too much heat. Because of this I am more prone to make mistakes, so I should always be setting the oven before loading. I also learned how Brioche should not get steamed or it will lose definition.
Today I learned the importance of cleaning the room in an organized way. Multiple groups washed there tables before we where ready to start mopping the floors. Because of this it took longer to clean the tables more effectively. On top of this there was still sheet pans being placed onto tables. This meant we had to rewash multiple tables. As well as this due to either not squeegeeing the floors well, or people walking through wet areas water was tracked across the room. This showed me the lesson of the importance of creating a plan for cleaning so that everyone can be on the same page and the room can be cleaned quickly and effectively.
ReplyDeleteToday I learned the importance of proofing viennoiserie for the correct amount of time. When we did croissants different proofing times led to completely different results. Croissants that were underproofed did not fully separate into layers. This led to a less flaky final product. On the opposite end of the spectrum overproofed did not have enough structure to support themselves and collapse.
ReplyDeleteAs we discussed in class on the first day Mise en Place is something that we do every day that separates people of this profession from the regular civilian. Mise en Place is a French term meaning everything in it place, which is a term we use in the industry to refer to many different things but most commonly used to refer to preparing for either making a recipe or getting the essentials need to carry out said recipe. I like to use mise en place in my everyday life, to extent of brushing my teeth, having my clothes laid out the night before, anything that can be done in preparation for a task that I must accomplish. Mise en place does not always have to be preparing physically it can also refer to a mental state. Getting yourself in the game or mid set to accomplish the tasks laid before your is all mise en place. This is a term that we as culinarians use in our everyday life that carries more meaning than just being prepared to make a recipe.
ReplyDeleteOne of the things I noticed about this class was the variety of products that can be made from the same base dough. More or less every day we would mix the same doughs and produce a multitude of products that could either be sweet or savory. Coming from a culinary background I feel that it is important to be able to produce a large amount of profit turning product while also maintaining a reasonable par stock and food cost. Being able to produce so many products from one mother batch helps limit a lot of excess allowing the mixer to be free for other products. At the same time if you screw up the mother batch it would ruin all the products that could be potentially made. I feel that if I owned a bakery, I would definitely use the skills learned in this segment to produce quality items but I believe that I would change a few things in regards to recipe content and fillings. The concept of creating a mother dough and using it for multiple items would be a common theme utilized.
ReplyDeleteDay 2: October 10
ReplyDeleteToday was a lot to say the least. I’ve learned in such a short amount of time how each chef I have likes their kitchen run just a little bit different. As a person with anxiety, this crazy atmosphere can stress me out from time to time. Today in class we made brioche in their classic shapes. While this was a difficult task for me, I thought some of mine came out okay. I hope that from day two to day nine I can improve even more. We also laminated dough for the first time today, which I expected to go horribly, but it went okay. Chef Hitz literally placing his hands overtop mine helped me a lot to understand how the machine works since I am a more hands-on learner. Going into this class knowing that this would be my hardest lab this year scared me, and to be honest, it still does. There’s so much to learn in such little time. However, I see this class and honestly all of college as one big learning experience. Today definitely felt very overwhelming for my team. We accidentally left our Danish dough in the freezer, so we had to wait an extra ten minutes for it to thaw a little. Ultimately, we got it done, but it taught us to pay more attention to our Danish dough. I’m excited to see what tomorrow brings.
Day 3: October 10
ReplyDeleteI thought today in class went a lot better than I exepected it to. It probably had some to do with the fact that we were first to use the laminating machine, so we were able to get that done and worry about other things first. We used our first laminated Danish dough today to make croissants and learning how to shape them was really interesting. Of course, though, the day isn’t complete without someone making a mistake, and today that person was me. Yesterday, I made the special crumb topping with Samantha and I packed it into the container, not even thinking about the fact that it would probably all stick together in the fridge. When taking it out today, it was one big crumb topping block that I had to help team three break apart. This definitely taught me that crumb toppings don’t need to be compacted down, which I didn’t know before taking this class. I think as a group we had a better day than yesterday; we all took turns on the laminating machine and got a chance to do it without chef holding our hands. When I was doing it, I pressed the wrong button, but luckily someone was there to catch the dough before it fell off. I definitely learned my lesson on looking before acting, so I’ll try to not let that happen again. Overall, today was actually a pretty decent day; we did a second batch of brioche, which looked somewhat better than yesterday’s, and chef said our croissants looked pretty good. I’m really looking forward to Monday to see what we learn next.
Day 4: October 14
ReplyDeleteAs a whole today was relatively okay. We are usually a group of five, but we were missing a person today, so there was only four of us, which called for us to adjust compared to how we’ve been working. It was really stressful at the beginning of class because while laminating all four of us were completely unable to answer chef’s questions on how to laminate our danish dough to be cut. Honestly, it was really embarrasing, but it taught us that we should definitely be going over our notes and watching any videos that chef has posted to help us. However, the end of class went really well; we all got good critiques on our swiss brioche and were able to learn how to make our mistakes better when we continue on Wednesday. Chef Hitz truly knows what he’s doing and makes it very easy to learn from our mistakes. He doesn’t make us feel stupid, instead, he asks us questions to make us think about how to fix something, rather than just telling us and making us feel bad. Over the past three days I have learned how to use a lamination machine, how to make brioche, danish, pumpkin bread, etc., and I have really enjoyed this class so far. Viennoiserie has taught me a lot thus far, and I’m really excited and nervous for the practical next Tuesday. Hopefully we all can do well on it.
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ReplyDelete10 October 2019: Day 3
ReplyDeleteToday was a bit hectic even getting in at 6 didn’t seem to make everything run smoothly at first. Toward the middle of the day we seemed to get into our groove with only a few hiccups. We had to relearn the steps to laminating the croissant dough as we trimmed it twice and it is only supposed to be trimmed once. One of my partners almost sent the dough to the floor when they sent the sheeter the wrong way. Luckily I was standing at the end of it and picked it up before it fell. Our baking went quite well chef even pulled our croissants to show another group how dark to cook them. So today was an educational day for us to say the least. Chef would surely call it a once in a lifetime opportunity.
15 October 2019: Day 5
ReplyDeleteToday we had a guest speaker come in and it really messed up our timeline for working because we had to get out of the kitchen two hours earlier than normal. Chef made the decision that we would work on the muffins today to keep things moving. First, we mixed our sweet dough and laminated our Gen 4 danish dough. The laminating seemed to go much smoother this time. Then we did all of the muffins splitting the team in half to work on two at a time. This also allowed us to have one person leave to do dishes, make the glaze and check on the danish dough in the walk-in. I think it worked out well, though if/when we make more muffins we have to make sure to mix the batter a bit after pulling it off the mixer to make sure no ingredients are unincorporated at the bottom. Also we have to mix a little less as on one of our muffins Chef saw some tunneling.
17 October 2019: Day 7
ReplyDeleteToday was difficult everything seemed to go well this morning, but in the afternoon things started to go wrong. Our sweet dough was completely off and all of our products had to get thrown out we aren’t really sure what went wrong and we are just hoping that the doughs we made for the practical on Monday. On the bright side we have everything ready for Monday and my brioche shaping was good. Our bake was a little dark on some so we are going to change how we load the oven. Also we are going to double check our notes on how to fill both the danishes and brioche tarts as we had a slip-up with the cinnamon sugar. We plan to double check our orientation for our sweet dough when we put it through the sheeter as we turned the dough prematurely today. Some studying for the practical is definitely in order and I think all of my group will be going to bed early on Sunday night.