Bunny Chow

Bad Ass Bread

Today we baked the baguette des gones, which is shaped into a batard and then scored with short horizontal scores. The flavour is almost reminiscent of bresoala, with the wine and fat of the sausage coming through in the aroma. With the toasted hazelnuts in it, it really is a meal on its own. I think a nice variant would be chorizo cooked in cider, replacing the saucisson and red wine, and adding thyme or sage and some roast garlic. Once cooked and cooled down it’s tied up like salami and displayed hanging from the piece of ribbon.

A viennoiserie that they make here which is really nice to have with coffee is “chouquette” which is choux pastry that is piped and then sprinkled with hail/rough sugar and then baked. If I see any left over from the day before I nail those guys down!

Tuiles

We also baked tuiles today, in the deck oven which just shows that you have to be able to use your deck oven for pastry/cakes as well as you still have that residual heat there that is available to use so you can save money and also if your convection oven is full you can use it.

Pain Surprise

Chef made “pain surprise” today which is a miche of pain de campagne that is hollowed out like a bunny chow, but you keep the interior intact and then slice it into very thin slices. Each 2 slices you layer with usually 5 different fillings, 2 meat, 2 fish and 1 cheese. Chef used rillettes (pork), duck mousse, smoked salmon and I didn’t see 2 of the layers. Once each layer is completed the edges are trimmed so the round will fit inside, then cut up into 12 pieces each and layered back in... It’s the perfect thing for a picnic or birthday...I explained to chef and Alexandre what a bunny chow is,but I don’t think something like that will take off in France.

Bunny Chow

Some people came knocking at 6am, obviously after a night out, to buy some pain au chocolat and croissants...French bakeries just don’t do filled croissants or pies or stuff like sausage rolls, but they do make small pizzas which is kinda weird but they are popular and pretty good, but not thin crust how most people in SA prefer it.

For lunch today I had a multi cereal baguette with some rillettes and fromage a tartiner (I think its cream cheese)...man the small things are what make life so good.

I miss training. When I get back I want to get back to krav maga and maybe also start weight training.

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