Friday, October 15, 2010

The Baking Life: Flour Power

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One of my many jobs in the past several years has been baker (thanks, UT English degree!). I was lucky to get a slot at Sweetgrass Bakery in Helena, Montana with no inside contacts (I'm told that three members of the same family are currently working there.). They taught me the basics of shaping dough, which is surprisingly tricky at first, and how to bake a variety of bread using unreliable ovens. Among the many highlights of working there were dozens of interesting conversations, a connection to the town locals, and a story I'll have for the rest of my life concerning Montana celebrity Ted "The Unabomber" Kaczynski.
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I have since made lots of baked goods on my own. I frequently make croissants and danish, but I have also made loaves of bread, cookies, and miscellaneous treats.
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Tonight, I botched some French baguettes. I'd take a picture, but instead I'll focus on the scene of the crime: the flour jar.
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This jar has been in use for what seems like my entire life. It's hosted cookies mainly, but when we have a surplus of flour and a scarcity of cookies, you can find it filled with the former. Oh, it's probably not a great idea to have a glass container, but until we break it, we're going to use it.
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Tonight the flour jar oversaw my tortuous project. I really don't have any good excuse for messing up, though I was trying a few different things. First, mixing French dough is the very first thing the good folks at Sweetgrass teach a newcomer. Sure, the newbies screw it up for a few months, not realizing that the morning crew spends a commensurate amount of time cursing their very existence, but they eventually get it right, or at least okay.
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Well, one thing I tried was mixing active dry yeast with weak wet yeast. This shouldn't matter at all, but I mention it for accuracy. I added warm water at first to active the dry, then added lots of cold water.
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Then I don't think I added enough flour, as I was shooting for the wet end of okay. You see, I'm experimenting not only with doughs but with my family's mixer. It doesn't touch the bottom of the bowl, so I have in the past added too much flour. I swear, you can't win in my house.
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Finally, I spaced out on the rising process. That is, I let it rise too much and dry out. Yes, I did this.
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The thing that's great about a bakery is how many different projects you can have going at one time. They all require you to stay in or near the kitchen.
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At home, I don't want to stay put for the requisite amount of time to let something rise and wander away, usually to the demise of the bread. I used a timer in this case but ballparked too high.
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Double finally, I burned one tray of bread and did okay on another. The stuff did NOT turn out like French bread AT ALL, but it didn't taste half bad with butter. The burnt loaves will go to the birds, and my dad and I will eat off these half survivors. C'est la vie.

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