I am Cursed with Breads! *ugh*

Remember the good ol' days when I'd whine post after post about my bread failures? Well.. I gave it all I had..and I hoped and prayed...for something edible; or just something which looked decent. I was convinced I could not make breads. It was my personality; impatience and spontaneous inaccuracies. There was no hope for breads in my oven; not until I joined Chef Mary and her assistant Daniel in their artisan bread bakery at the NotterSchool. I was optimistic again! I knew it if it wasn't happening here; it wouldn't happen for me anywhere else! Well... so?
How am I enjoying my new week of breads?
To be honest; I want to do more breakfast pastries. I miss Chef James and Louise! *sob* There was more to do; there were more fun colours and I kinda miss the smell of butter in the air. The breakfast pastry class was jammed packed with work and lots of pressure compared to artisan breads.


3 weeks of "Artisan Breads" is a compulsory component of the course and I understand how important it is to learn everything before you decide you hate it. Honestly; I am already heaving towards disliking it! *shrug* I know it's only the second day I've been doing breads; but it really is not something I'd love.
Chef Mary is great at teaching the subject and extremely knowledgeable and helpful... it's not the instructor...it's the topic! *sigh*
It's not "Su" to be baking shades of brown and beige. *giggle* Don't get me wrong; I truly appreciate an amazing loaf for the way it tastes and looks! The wonderful flavours from yeasts and toasty grains hidden within freshly baked loaves make my day perfect! Now that I've baked bread myself; it is safe to say.. I totally have my upmost respect for people who can bake good bread! For their patience and their wisdom and understanding of their product. Unlike what everyone else believes; being a bread baker is way beyond 'easy'. It needs a high level of attention, lots of patience and obnoxious bakers like me out of their way! *laughs* I take my hat off to those who are meticulous and generally calm+patient whilst in the midst of baking in large quantities. I personally am a bit of a perfectionist; but only in certain aspects of food. My favorite would probably be baking with heaps of sugar and its Aesthetics...*giggle*
I know you can possibly 'prettify' bread to make it look amazing; but seriously;Come on! how much can you do with glossy shades of brown and yellow?!
You know how some like to be behind the wheel and driving; but some prefer to be chauffeured around and pampered? Well; with breads...can I just please be the passenger? *laughs* I just want to EAT bread... making it is too much for me to handle! Playing with foul smelling fermented gunk all day isn't my idea of fun! *laughs* Having freshly baked wonderful bread in your mouth is easy; making it is a different story!
Alright.. I'll stop throwing my tantrum. I'll get back to working on being more disciplined and patient in the kitchen tomorrow. After all; I do have 3 weeks of breads to get by; so I may as well try hard to make the best of it, I might even end up loving it at the end! *shrug* possibly? I'm open to new ideas and I know for sure our classes on Artisan Breads are going to teach me lots more than I can imagine. Patience for one. *laughs*
I might need to get Jocelyn; my new partner in breads to smack me around a little to calm me down everytime I'm a little too enthusiastic about finishing everything to quickly. Waiting for proofing times and benching times are dreadfuL!! I could tell from the frustrated expressions of my classmates that they weren't having a great time either. It's going to take awhile before we fully enjoy ourselves in bread class.Nicole looks pretty smiley in this shot though... Hmm..wonder what she's all smiley about? It might be that some of us in class are actually enjoying themselves~ *shrug*..
so...
What have we made so far? Well; we've made lots...but we've also gone through a fair number of failures. Unlike the class before us which had goodies to bring home everyday at noon; we don't have many yummies *sob*. My curse of breads failures must have rubbed off onto my classmates. We did come up with a couple of good products though. Breads are a little more temperamental in comparison to pastries. Water temperatures; proofing and handling must all be perfect to achieve a successful baked loaf. Smaller scaled ingredients such as salt and yeast must also be extremely precise and accurate for breads to turn out perfectly flavored and risen.
Our pizza's and dinner rolls are probably the best items turned out so far.

The dinner rolls were soft and wonderfully glazed with a tinge of golden yellow. I thought they were delicious! Not too difficult to make either.
We will be starting off french breads and baguettes tomorrow! I love baguettes! I must admit.. despite it still being just 'BREADS'; I am pretty excited.
Chef Daniel was threatening me with his makeshift water 'gun' if I took anymore pictures of him. I didn't think he'd actually squirt anything on my lens *laughs* I'll just take more pictures of Chef Mary instead~ *pfft* Camera shy... I don't think he'd be very pleased if he happen to come across my blog one day. *laughs* This picture was too funny; I had to have it published, sorry Danny~