pie and bread

repost from September 2008

CIA day 3

original post titled 'bread'

6:15AM - I don’t even remember what I ate for breakfast. My morning pre class routine includes a stroll by the huge windows overlooking the preparation area of the Apple Pie Bakery. Students are hard at work preparing for the day. I could watch them for hours.

7:00AM class greets us with an hour lecture(we begin talking about bread baking today!), and then into the kitchen to watch Chef’s demos and produce as directed. 8:15AM - Scones, cookies, and cake are plated for our early morning snack with coffee or tea.

Today we filled our pie crusts that we made yesterday. Just as a point of reference, we have 7 teams...each team made 4 pie crusts, and Chef made the full recipe, which was 8 crusts. We produce 20++ pies! Cooked fillings included blueberry, apple, and cherry. We made pecan pies. The custard pies are cooling and will be topped with whip cream or meringue tomorrow.

We tasted Chef’s apple pie, cut while still slightly warm. Delicious!!! And the curst......so flakey!!!

I went to the Apple Pie Bakery for lunch today...their paninnis are as good as their breads and pastries.

On to the bread. Dough mixing...dough rising, dough shaping...dough baking...Focaccia...baguettes...

Beautiful baked color, the sound of the crackle after the freshly baked loaves are transfered from the ovens to the work table via the bread peal. We should have waited at least 30 minutes to taste, but the aroma was more powerful than the clock. Delicious! Once again, we’re eating, and evaluating the texture of the bread.

We made hazelnut biscotti....and someone else wanted to make sponge cake. We tasted the cake today...the biscotti still needs to be dipped in chocolate tomorrow.

We had our class photo taken today, and tomorrow we will ‘graduate.’

A walk around this campus could cause one to gain weight. The smells from all the classes producing as instructed and from the restaurants cause one to just stand still and experience...

Dinner tonight at Escoffier. Quail as an appetizer, a chicken main course, and praline-caramel pastry for dessert

Alarm set for 4:45AM...tomorrow is the last day. We are all sad to see the classes end. Our quest for knowledge brought us here, and will continue to drive us.