Bread Galore....

I am now a proud holder of an International Certificate of Bread Making, issued by Taylor's College.  It is amazing how much more prestigious something sounds when you put the words International and Certificate together.  And all I had to do was attend a 2-day workshop held over the weekend.  Of course, dishing out RM700 for the course contributes a long way towards getting your name printed on the cert.  A week before the course, a friend who had taken the same workshop last year, gave me some discouraging feedback.  Apparently most of the dough was prepared in advance, the facilities had roaches and the instructor was average (Chinese and married - somehow, this became critical information to share with me also).  Ultraman, (staunch supporter of Google), also did not help matters with his fervent belief that I would not learn anything from the course which I could not learn from Google.

So, it was with some trepidation that I made my way to Taylor's Lakeside campus on that fine Saturday morning.  The campus was pretty huge and I had to be picked up like a lost puppy by Anne, Taylor's marketing executive who was in charge of the registration for the course.  We collected two more lost souls, and made our way to the kitchen.  There was only eight of us in the class, much less than the initial minimum of 15 that Taylor's wanted to run the course.  Guess 8 is still better than 0 huh?  It was a pretty mixed crowd - Libyan, Nigerian, Malaysian... hmmm, maybe that's why it is an International certificate?  But the best part came when a young, single Frenchie by the name of Francois introduced himself as our instructor.  I suppose my friend must have really expressed her disappointment to Anne last time.  I had to rub it in and sent her a text message on the spot... Ka Ka Ka.

Over the next two days, Chef Francois took us through the joys of baking bread.  We made quite a variety of bread, ranging from soft rolls, wholemeal loafs, multi-grain, baguettes, brioche, fougasse, etc.  It is amazing how different breads can be churned out by just tweaking the proportion of practically the same ingredients.   I learned different shaping techniques like how to round the dough into small balls...

Rounding, rounding, rounding - Pic courtesy of new friend Nava

Finished product - Yummy soft buns with red bean filling

...how to shape loafs that look like stalks of wheat which has the Frenchie name of Epi de Ble.

Hard at work on my Epi de Ble - Pic courtesy of new friend Nava

Finished product - Stalks of Wheat

...how to handle really wet dough like ciabatta....

Cutting ciabatta dough

 
...how to shape and cut a fougasse...
 

Finished product - Onion Fougasse

Of course, you can always be creative...

My Happy Face Onion Fougasse

I was looking forward to the making of the brioche since I nearly "killed" my dough on my first attempt baking it at home. It did sooth the ego when Francois made a batch of failed brioche dough and had to re-do it. Guess I was not doing that badly after all.  The brioche turned out great in the end - really tasty and soft.

Beautiful Brioche in Traditional Shape

Taste test for the brioche - Excellent!

 
I also learnt a traditional kneading method where you basically slam the dough onto the counter, fold it, lift it with your fingertips and slam it again.  It was tough work.  The idea was to minimize handling of the dough with your hands to keep the temperature cool.  And I learnt how to tell whether the gluten in the dough has properly developed by doing a window test.  Basically, you stretch a small piece of dough out between your fingers to see how elastic and clear the "window" is, and whether it breaks easily. 
 
Overall, I had a fun time in class.  I was fortunate I had a small class of 8 where the nice, helpful Chef Francois and his assistants could spend time answering all our inane questions.  I doubt he would have been able to do that with a class of 18, which was the max number of participants for the class.  The participants were also a fun and varied lot ranging from engineering managers to lecturers.  It is always nice to mingle with people enjoying the same interests. 

Model students

 
While there was definitely room for improvement in terms of organizing the sessions such that the students can execute the whole process beginning with measurements all the way to baking and cooling, and getting rid of the roaches (yes, they were running around - luckily just saw the small ones and no roach bread got made.  To their credit, Chef Francois did say they tried many times with various methods to get rid of the pests but they keep coming back), I was glad my fears were generally unfounded.  So was the experience worth the RM700?  New knowledge, new friends, an International certificate and access to a young French chef who gave away his email address? ...I certainly wouldn't complain if they could lower the price but it was good enough for me.  Who knows, my quest could certainly end in a bakery! Till my next Patiserrie adventure then....