Today was pretty standard; it was me, Alexandre and Yan (same
pronunciation as Jan). I preshaped the baguettes while Alexandre used the
“diviseuse” (divider) and Yan did the pain bio. I’m getting the hang of the
shaping but it’s also very dependent on how much or how you flour the dough and
surface as like I said before it’s a very soft dough and coupled with being
cold (wet) makes it difficult to handle.
I’m definitely speeding up though. Standard stuff charentais,
flutes, dejeunettes [170g] (tradition, campagne and multi cereals...roll for sandwiches),
fiscelles [150g] (means string in French...Alexandre told me to just think of a
g string...; p). I helped shape the kamut and spelt. And also the pain de
seigle Auvergne (rye bread, speciality from Auvergne which is the
region in France where Mr Pozzoli is from, it has a rye leavain and is mixed on
the day and then put in the prover so the dough is warm and then to shape it,
you flour the dough in the bowl, flour your hands, all with T85 rye flour, and
then form a point with your hands and scoop a piece out, correct the weight and
then gently form in a round shape and put seam side down in a pailles. It’s not
formed a lot so you have a dense texture and the top cracks nicely...will take
a pic soon)
I helped Yan with the pain viennoise and then shaped the baguettes
with the machine. I’m also more efficient with that as well, but the height of
the table kills my back because to place the last baguettes on the couche I
have to stretch far.
I got to score some baguettes and load
them in the oven this afternoon which was cool but it was frustrating for me
because I’m used to a certain angle of scoring as well as using more of my
wrist and here they cut at a much straighter, oblique angle down the middle as
it doesn’t affect the regularity of the form during baking (scoring – laminé)
on my second batch I improved but it’s about 70% of how it should be. Like most
of the different things here, it’s just a habit that I need to get used to.
After the baking they have a special
vacuum to clean out the oven, not using a big brush, and it’s long and has a
thick PVC sleeve so you can hold it. Only think is the pipe is metal and gets
flippen hot...
But generally there isn’t much flour
in the oven as they don’t need to use much flour during proving or loading the
breads as they have the couches and tapis respectively.
Chef made pate feulleteille which is
like puff pastry but it normally has sugar in it and when they make a “savoury
(salé)” pate it’s the same but just less sugar. Like most French pastries, it’s
mixed for a long time at a lower speed. They made cheese straw type snacks with
this, one flavour with seeds and one with spices and cheese. The other day chef
made a pastry with fennel (fenouil) seeds that was shaped into rings and baked
and meant to be had with an apéro which was pretty cool.
After work I went into the cellar to
play with the cat...I still don’t know what to call him. But when he sees me
now he meows and tries to attack my shoes and rub himself on me. He loves
playing and ends up biting and scratching my arm but when I stop he forces his
head under my arm or hand.
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