Boulangerie menagerie
Bread is one of my favorite things to bake. There's something about the tactile pleasure of kneading dough and the necessity of delayed gratification in breadmaking that I find wholly satisfying.
In our first boulangerie class last week, we made viennoiserie - the French term for various breakfast pastries. Before class began I could barely contain myself. I still cherish a memory from college when I made pain au chocolat for my hippie co-op (a group used to choking down burned rice and soggy tofu), and I overheard a usually reserved, arrogant hipster exclaim, "This is the best pain au chocolat I've had since I was in Paris!" I glowed for weeks.
On our recipe list were croissants, brioches au sucre and pains au chocolat. Croissants and pains au chocolat share the same basic dough, which has elaborate amounts of butter folded into it before it is shaped, risen, and baked.
You have to admit, that's a lot of butter.
We all shuffled down to the tiny breadmaking kitchen in the deepest depths of the hotel, where all the squat, humming machines always remind me of a mad scientist's workshop in a Tim Burton movie. There we used a kneading machine that stretches the dough into ever longer and thinner strips, and then returned to our kitchen upstairs to turn it into small horn-shaped croissants and cute little pain au chocolat rolls.
A small brioche au sucre is frequently my breakfast of choice as I race off each morning to school. I love its yeasty, eggy interior and the crunchy sugar nuggets that decorate the top. In class we made the larger version shown here:
I did perhaps more than my fair share of sampling when everything emerged from the oven. Fresh, warm pain au chocolat is one of those simple pleasures that tastes so good your eyes tend to roll back in your head. At least, mine do. Maybe I should get that checked out. Anyway, my favorite days in pastry class are when we make something delicious, and there's so much left over that the teachers beg and plead with us to take bagfuls home. I happily obliged.
In our first boulangerie class last week, we made viennoiserie - the French term for various breakfast pastries. Before class began I could barely contain myself. I still cherish a memory from college when I made pain au chocolat for my hippie co-op (a group used to choking down burned rice and soggy tofu), and I overheard a usually reserved, arrogant hipster exclaim, "This is the best pain au chocolat I've had since I was in Paris!" I glowed for weeks.
On our recipe list were croissants, brioches au sucre and pains au chocolat. Croissants and pains au chocolat share the same basic dough, which has elaborate amounts of butter folded into it before it is shaped, risen, and baked.
You have to admit, that's a lot of butter.
We all shuffled down to the tiny breadmaking kitchen in the deepest depths of the hotel, where all the squat, humming machines always remind me of a mad scientist's workshop in a Tim Burton movie. There we used a kneading machine that stretches the dough into ever longer and thinner strips, and then returned to our kitchen upstairs to turn it into small horn-shaped croissants and cute little pain au chocolat rolls.
A small brioche au sucre is frequently my breakfast of choice as I race off each morning to school. I love its yeasty, eggy interior and the crunchy sugar nuggets that decorate the top. In class we made the larger version shown here:
I did perhaps more than my fair share of sampling when everything emerged from the oven. Fresh, warm pain au chocolat is one of those simple pleasures that tastes so good your eyes tend to roll back in your head. At least, mine do. Maybe I should get that checked out. Anyway, my favorite days in pastry class are when we make something delicious, and there's so much left over that the teachers beg and plead with us to take bagfuls home. I happily obliged.
posted by cindym at 3:39 AM
6 Comments:
Gorgeous!
It's almost 4 PM, and I haven't eaten yet. I think I drooled into my keyboard. ;+) It's been years since I made bread of any kind. I really miss it, especially the yummy smell and the soft interior of bread fresh from the oven. I know you're supposed to let it cool, but butter melts so beautifully on that soft warm bread.
I think I better go make something to eat.
"BEG OR PLEAD" to take some of the bread home? I'll be right over.
Wow!! That looks wonderful! It's no wonder why something as simple and ubiquitous as pain au chocolat and butter croissant can taste so good when done well - it's definitely all that French butter. Succeeding in baking my own homemade brioche is a goal of mine.
Cindy,
During one of my earlier incarnations I made croissants at home for a living. I'd make up the dough at 4:00pm and then refrigerate it. At 6:00 I'd add the butter and fold it a couple of times, then back in the fridge. I repeated this several times until, around 9:00 when I'd make the crosissants and refrigerate them.
At 4:00am I'd get up and transfer the croissants to a proofing oven to rise for a couple of hours. At 6:00 I'd begin baking.
They were damned good croissants but I haven't made them since.
These look divine. Anything with that much butter is bound to be good. Reading Kevin's post reminds me why I don't do much baking -- just not enough time. Can't imagine being where they beg you to take it home -- what torture! LOL.
Where are you? Whaaaaaa. . .
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