Rising stars

Monday, November 20

So today we continued with the baking theme and moved on to breads. Our teacher said we'll probably put on a few pounds between last week and this week with all the sweets last week and now this week with all the breads, finishing the week on Wednesday with pizzas and foccacia (the school is closed on Thursday because of Thanksgiving). The one big advantage of having Thanksgiving so late is that the Christmas promotions and decorations will not be out in full force until after Thanksgiving. You can see it starting slowly with stores starting their decorations but you can feel that it's subdued and there is a collective waiting until after Thanksgiving. Also, I really like all the outdoor and indoor Christmas fairs that are starting to pop all over the city, which is giving the city a more European feel and less commercial than the big shopping mallls. I went to the first Christmas fair in Bryant Park and it was lovely with vendor stalls in little gingerbread houses, outside stands for hot apple cider and sweets, a skating rink in the centre crowded with people of all ages, and a bar beside the skating rink called " Celcius" and they say it is a "Canadian bar" but I couldn't really find the relationship to Canada except for most of the bar being outside and it being cold, though Canadians would be smarter and sit inside with a hot toddy or warmed brandy or other hot beverage to warm up.

Sorry, short sidetrack. So, to bake breads.... see, too much bread and carbs in my brain and it's turning to mush. After an indepth lecture on all the steps to making good bread, and how we could fail, we each chose one of the bread recipes to follow, mostly vegan and healthful of course. I decided on the bagel as I thought I should learn about this food that I love so much and have eaten so many of. I didn't high hopes that I would create much more than hard bricks as it looked complicated and warned my classmates when they would say they loved bagels. So over a four hour period, I followed closely the recipe step by step, consulting my teacher from time to time... letting the dough rise, kneading it, letting it rise again, punching it (well not really punching it but stretching it), breaking it into even weighed pieces, rounding or shaping each piece into a smooth round and then putting a hole in the middle, letting them sit and rise again, preparing the topping (I made some carmelized garlic, onions, and added poppyseeds), boiling water and blanching carefully each bagel, putting topping over the bagels, putting them into the oven, and then the cool off period. So after all this time and work, what would be the result? Would it be worth the effort? Would it be as good with more natural ingredients such as whole wheat flour and brown rice syrup? I made a cream cheese spread with the carmelized garlic and onions to accompany it. The chef tasted it, as he did with all the final results, and said that they were very good. Hoorah! Four hours of work for that nod of approval from the chef who is a culinary expert. The rest of the breads were delicious as well: herbed dinner rolls; wholewheat poppyseed bread; pissaladiere - a French type pizza bread; spelt bread; pita; whole wheat bread; apple ring, which was a large roll log filled with spiced apple filling; bulgur raisin bread; challah bread, which a student successfully and beautifully made into a six strand braid, which is often not attempted; semolina bread, and olive bread. All served warm with some sauces, butter, cream cheese, etc. You had to try a bit of each one of course and it was hard not to each too much, but we all did of course. On to baking 2 tomorrow...