The Bakehouse Scarecrow

 With the Bakehouse now sharing the baking space with herbs, fruits, and vegetables it was time to add a Scarecrow for the times the plants are outside.

 

Dec. 10 Bagel Class

Lots of baking energy in Pratt Road Bakehouse yesterday as all five of the students brought their own skills to the class and together we crafted a nice assortment of bagels.  Great job, everyone!

Nov. 12 Artisan Bread Class

     Wonderful group today.

Nov. 5 Pizza Class

We definitely had some pizza artists on hand for this class.  Fun stuff!

The Pizza Class (5-25-16)

Our own sauce tops the pizza's.

  

 Toppings per your favorite ones.  We used roasted peppers, roasted redskin potatoes, greek and green olives, caramelized onions, roasted garlic cloves, shitake mushrooms, and fresh herbs of oregano, chives, and, of course, sweet basil.  The latter three go on after the pizza exits the hot oven.

It was great to see my good friends Sandy and Judy in the class.  Great at their Procurement jobs and great with their pizza's!!

 The organic hi gluten flour mixed on the dry side makes for a very accommodating thin crust pizza.

Here's one of the pizza's baked at 485 F.

How you shape the crust is a variable.  It looks good anyway.

The Bread Class

With the maximum 7 students on hand we made a variety of artisan bread shapes using a poolish, biga, and a straight mix method.  Fermentation was the star of the show whether it be over night or from the starters we used.  

The students have loaded the oven with their baguettes and batards.  450 F for 25 minutes.

The loaf below was the first to come out of the oven.  We used an overnight cold fermentation. 

It lives and breathes

The precursor to a focaccia bread.  When you want to gain some extra flavor try letting your dough ferment in a cooler environment.  This batch, used for my focaccia class on Dec. 5th in the Bakehouse, is the dough after 12 hours in a 45 F environment.
So, mix at 10:00 PM and it's ready to be pre-shaped the next morning.
Next week we do the Bread Class.  Yep, I'll try and remember to take more photo's next time.