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October 5th, 2009
12:04 pm - Is this on.........?
Haven't posted here in about a year, but if anyone is still reading this, check out Man of La Mancha at the Georgetown Palace Theatre where I'm actually singing and playing a bad guy under goulish makeup.
Day-to-day stuff is now on Facebook...
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November 2nd, 2008
12:12 pm - K.A.F. 9-11 and after
Sorry for the delay in posting about days 9-11, but it's been a bit busy...
The last few days were hectic, as we went through baguettes and croissants, which are a bit labor intensive to prep. The baguettes turned out fantastic, partially because I'd already been through some classes and wasn't afraid to get the dough as wet as needed. One of the secrets to baguettes is that the dough looks too wet to work with at first and you have to control the temptation to add more flour. The unusual kneading techniques we learned in class--(which include one technique of cutting the dough and one for "flipping" the dough--work fantastically and bring an otherwise ornery dough into alignment in no time. The final technique of folding dough to add strength allows even doughs that get through the flipping phase to finally come together.
The final day was a bit of a letdown, unfortunately. This was the first day that recipes didn't quite work as planned and resulted in pretty much a class-wide failure of some breads. They tried to do the miche--a grand success in the whole grains class--but the dough didn't develop enough and so were too loose for final shaping. They ended up sticking badly to the linen when we tried to remove them from the bannetons. They didn't rise in the oven much and ended up overcooking--a total loss. My impression is that the instructors didn't take into account that the class was 2 hours shorter than the professional grains class, which meant that if the bread needed another fold and additional rise time, there wasn't any way to work it into the schedule. There were also some miscalculations in the roasted vegetables used to top the focaccia so that they burned quite a bit in the oven for most people. We did more flat breads and pizzas in the wood-fired oven, so I've gotten a LOT of practice at that now. It's a truly wonderful way to bake and I'm hoping to start looking at building one at home.
We had a "graduation ceremony" at the end of the artisan class in which students got certificates and metal dough scrapers (you just can't have too many of those, I say). I also got a cloth KAF bag inscribed by Jeffrey as a special gift for being there so long. I was overjoyed with my time there and can't wait to find more classes there and perhaps at other cooking/baking centers.
Getting home on Friday evening I thought that I might do some prep for a weekend of baking, but underestimated how tired I would be from my whirlwind trip. On the way home from the airport, my dad and I stopped at Aster's Ethiopian and I commented to them about my bread class excursion and how I've always wanted to learn to make injera. The owner, Aster Kassaye, is a lovely woman and she took me in the back to see all the various stages of making prepping and preparing the gloriously spongy bread. I'm going to have to procure a few special flours first and then I'm going back to get some starter so that I can try making it myself. I wouldn't say that there were exactly "secrets" to doing it correctly, but being able to see the correct consistency and watch the pouring technique in the pan definitely helped encourage me that it IS possible.
I did get some baking in this weekend: a pullman loaf (still rising) and some flatbreads. It's a bit of work adjusting to the home oven, but I think it's going to be possible. It's nice to have a better feeling for how the dough is supposed to behave and have some tools for dealing with it when it doesn't.
Epilogue: Interestingly enough, the recipes in the KAF cookbook for croissants aren't quite the same as what we did in class. The class versions were a little simpler and may actually be what they use in the bakery to save time and effort. However, I can see some advantage to the book version (which includes more work to prepare the butter initially and uses more folds), so I'm going to give it a try next weekend. The weekend baking will be starting Wednesday or Thursday, depending on what I'm attempting, but it's going to be fun experimenting. If all goes well, I'll get my website back up and start a diary/blog/photo/recipe section.
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October 27th, 2008
06:29 pm - K.A.F.: Day 8
The day started well with a little time to kill after breakfast and finding a pinball machine in the hotel (Terminator, good condition, strong flippers but the rubbers need replacing). Dropped a dollar into it for three games and an hour and a half later had to leave for class with 6 credits on the machine. Got me psyched for the day...
The artisan class is covering all the breads I've been hoping for--baguettes, ciabatta, croissants, etc.--as well as some review of other breads I've done in previous classes, such as miche and lavash. I'm getting very confident in my kneading and rolling technique and looking forward to being able to schedule a day of efficient baking around different breads and goodies. We made the lavash today, which I can see is going to be a regular staple of my baking; it's way too easy and way too delicious. Then we prepared butter and dough for croissants for tomorrow as well as a poolish for baguettes. This is what I've been waiting for...
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October 26th, 2008
05:02 pm - K.A.F.: Days 6 and 7
Day 2 of the wood-fired oven class (yesterday) centered around breads, including a basic sourdough that I've actually been doing for some time. It was nice to see that most of the technique I was doing was ok, but that I hadn't quite understood the "drop kneading". A little coaching and I was forming very clean dough with tight shapes. The oven produced a beautiful crust and delicious bread. I'm very excited to get my sourdough starter running again (I've been a bit lazy while doing the show) and do this one again. This was an excellent class and as soon as I get home I'm going to have to start investigating what it will take to have an oven built in the back yard.
Today's class (pizza on the hearth) was a bit of a break. The instructor told me that it would be redundant to the wood-fired class, so they would refund my money and I could take a day off for sightseeing. Well, actually, she wasn't *sure* they could do that, but she'd as the office on Monday. As it turns out, I got to the Simon Pearce glass and ceramic workshop early enough to tour the facility, have lunch and get back in time to sit in on the class. They had an odd number of people and it helped for me to team with someone, so I effectively "audited" the class while helping my partner and generally coaching where I could. Got to have a bit more pizza and practice and a refund on top of it.
Next up is the four-day finale: Artisan Baking at Home. I'm very much looking forward to this one and it should be different information from the other classes while helping to pull together the skills I've been learning. They're also 5-hour days, so not quite as intensive as the pro class, but still a good workout.
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October 24th, 2008
07:50 pm - K.A.F. Days 4 and 5
Yesterday was the first evening class--crepes. I've been making crepes for a long time, so this was more of a time filler for me than something useful. It was a 2-hour evening class that was nicely hands on with a lot of practice and trying different recipes, so it was extremely well done. It was also fun to be cooking with a much larger group (a dozen or so). Ok, ok, I guess I was showing off a little: standing eggs up on the counter until I used 'em (got a gasp from the instructor), getting smooth swirls on my batter and finally a few flips in the air. Still, nice people, nice food, nice review. A fun evening.
This afternoon was part 1 of the wood-fired oven class, and that was much more informative. First, we started with a slide show of ovens throughout history and some lecture on the different styles, materials and uses. Learned a lot about fire management, baking schedules, hearth maintenance, etc. A lot of people in the class already have wood-fired ovens and brought pictures. Very educational. Tomorrow we'll discuss more about the different kinds of ovens available for home use. This gives me even more incentive to get the backyard deck plans going to figure out where one might go.
After the technical discussion we got to the hands-on work of making pizza! Very exciting because the recipe is straight-forward and easy to make, although it is a tad time consuming. This batch was pre-made, but you have to get started a day before and then it still takes 5-6 hours of prep time before you have usable dough. Learning how to properly assemble a pizza and load into a FREAKING LARGE oven was fun.
Tomorrow is an all-day session where we build more kinds of bread and learn to use the falling heat of the oven manage different types of cooking. Very excited...
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October 23rd, 2008
10:50 am - K.A.F. side note: Microwaves!
I forgot to mention one of the more interesting discoveries of the class: you can microwave food in a stainless steel bowl! I had a metal bowl of crushed tomatoes that needed a bit of warming before adding to the bread and the instructor told me to put it in the microwave. I looked around for a glass bowl to transfer it to when he told me to just put it in. My initial reaction was that I was about to be punked or that he was somehow testing me. He insisted that this was possible and it would be fine, but NOBODY else in the class had heard of this nor had the KAF class assistant. Everyone looked amazed and leery. I finally decided that it was his bowl and his microwave so que sera, sera. I put it in, hit start, and moved a safe (I hoped) distance away. Sure enough, the tomatoes heated fine and the bowl remained relatively cool. Apparently that's a great way for melting chocolate as glass tends to superheat while metals don't.
Before trying this at home, make sure that you have a microwave made relatively recently. If yours is older it should have warnings on it about metal in the microwave. If it doesn't, then apparently stainless steel should be ok in it. According to the instructor, aluminum isn't microwave safe.
Note: I'm just reporting what happened. This posting is not intended to certify, endorse, recommend, provoke, incite or in any other way encourage reckless experimentation in your microwave. You are SO on your own.
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October 22nd, 2008
04:23 pm - K.A.F.: Day 3
Today we mostly worked on constructing our bread creations. We had to do everything pretty much on our own: mixing, folding, pre-shaping, final shaping and baking. This includes making the decisions on the timing of each phase, loading and unloading the oven (which is an aerobic exercise in itself) and determining when the bread was done. He would give some guidance, of course, if we got too far off the track, but for the most part he let us make our own decisions and then we gathered around at the end to evaluate the results.
It was AMAZING to see our bread go through the different stages and develop very much as we'd hoped. Our bread was the best looking for rise and color, perhaps partly due to the fact that we hit our dough temperature target much closer than the others and got a very active rise out of the bread. We also went with a hearty 2% yeast formula. The black beans cooked in perfectly although the parsley disappeared entirely. I got the texture on the beans right, but made a mistake chopping the parsley so fine. I didn't expect it to so completely vanish into the dough. Also, we originally calculated 2.3% salt, but backed down to 2% because we noticed the crushed tomatoes we were given had salt listed in the ingredients. Turns out a bit more salt would have been OK because of the beans, so I'll go back to the original amount when I try to re-create this at home. We also went light on the chili powder, but mostly because my partner is a wimp with spices and was scared of it. The reality is that although it brought some aroma to the party, I think it could have done with more, so I may as much as double it in the future. The teacher seemed pretty happy with the results, but admonished us to always analyze scientifically and push for improvements for next time.
I've always treated baking as something that required precise measurements and careful attention to recipes, but this class has taught me that it's possible to create new recipes from new ideas and to listen carefully to the bread at all stages so that adjustments can be made at all times to maximize the chances of success. The answer to "What should I do?" is almost always, "What does it seem to need?" and the answer to "When am I done with this step?" is "When the bread tells you it's ready". Just like in acting, the key to success is listening.
Current Location: Norwich, VT
Current Mood:  accomplished
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October 21st, 2008
06:14 pm - King Arthur: Day 2
Second day of the whole grains class and I'm hip deep in miche (a monstrous 2-kilogram "high-extraction flour" sourdough round that accompanied a lengthy lecture on the various parts of the wheat kernel and how different wheats are created from it), brown rice bread, oatmeal bread, rye (with currants, nuts and seeds) and finally a large sheet of lavash (Armenian flat bread). Can't wait to upload the pictures of the haul.
Yesterday we learned a technique for ensuring the temperature of the dough is at the desired temperature after mixing and had to apply it to all formulas mixed today. I got to run the main mixing for the brown rice bread since I'd been assigned to create the pate frementee for it the day before. This was my first time running a large commercial mixer. Quite fun--I felt like a "real baker".
We also had to do all the preparation and scaling for our bread creations, as well as presenting to the class how we arrived at our formulas, what our bulk fermentation schedule was and what the final shape of the loaves would be. If this works, I'll turn the formula into a home recipe and post it.
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October 20th, 2008
05:48 pm - King Arthur Flour vacation
I'm currently in Norwich, Vermont taking 2 weeks of baking classes at the King Arthur Flour Education Center. This is my idea of an ideal vacation.
The first three days make up "Professional Baking with Whole Grains" and after one day I'm exhausted. It's an all-day class and other than a spot of lunch in the middle of it, the instructor doesn't seem to believe in taking breaks. Jam-packed with fun information and activity. We've already made a honey spelt bread, a carrot walnut bread (whole wheat), a vollkornbrot with flax seeds and rye berries (a 100% rye bread!) and a rosemary flatbread (out of this world!). On top of that, we learned about using "baker's percentages" so that we could re-size formulas and calculate yields like the pros. The final touch was having to INVENT a bread of our own (working in 2-person teams). We've created the formula already, they'll shop for our specialty ingredients, we'll do any necessary pre-work tomorrow, then make the bread on Wednesday! My creation is a spelt and whole wheat "Southwestern Black Bean Bonanza", which includes crushed tomatoes, parsley, chili powder and whole black beans. We'll find out how it works later this week...
Current Location: Norwich, VT
Current Music: Adding Machine (the musical)
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September 8th, 2008
12:07 pm - The Odd Couple
Well, not sure how many people are reading this anymore, since I don't bother to enter much these days, but I'm in another show. This time I'm starring as Oscar in Neil Simon's "The Odd Couple", again for WOBCP (http://www.wobcp.org). It's a role I've wanted to do for a *very* long time and I'm excited to finally have the opportunity. We run Sept. 19 through Oct. 4 (see webpage for details) and I hope to see lots of people there!
My current e-mail is shaevel at gmail dot com since I still haven't bothered to put the shaevel.com domain back up.
Current Mood: busy
Current Music: Spring Awakening
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