Food & Sex

Standard morning stuff...start off with a lil' coffee with some cream coz doc told me I’m 100% healthy and cholesterol and all that jazz is cool so no reason not to. That with a pain viennoise with white chocolat and the day can only get better...

 I helped Alexandre arrange the loaves on the shelves this morning and he explained that all the loaves with a corner pattern on it, like a square or diamond, always arrange it point up, all of them. You have to think about it like a picture. Also, in France, any bread made with biological flour has to be kept on a separate shelf, above other bread as obviously if flour falls onto the bio bread and isn’t bio, you can’t call the bread bio any more...pretty strict.

Around midday I helped Alexandre with the croissants and pain au chocolat again and afterwards, I made a mix for beurre noisette and honey madeleines..We tasted some late in the afternoon and the flavour was amazing...beurre noisette and honey. It definitely was one of those “food is better than sex” moments.

After I made the dough for bread with saucisson cooked in red wine, where you add the wine as the liquid and it also has hazelnuts in it. I think that some sage in the dough would also be cool. And that bread with a nice strong cheese would hit the spot...

Alexandre made pannetone today...the dough is mixed slowly for 1 hour, maintaining a temperature of 24-26 degrees. It then has Lyonnais praline and orange peel added (praline is normally 18% of weight of dough) and proved slowly at a ambient 29 degrees with humidity for 12 hours before it gets baked at 180 for usually 45 min. Before it gets baked, the skin gets scored in a cross and butter is piped over the cross so when you bake it, you put it in for 5 min, and when the crust starts to form, you take it out and pull back the folds and pull them over the edge of the paper and that way, the crust doesn’t impede the rising of the pannetone.

Alexandre scoring pannetones

There was a problem with the pannetone though, this time, Alexandre tried adding praline as 25% of the weight instead of the normal 18%. What happened was the praline melted and the sugar caramelised, creating steam and turning the centre gooey...so even after 1.5hrs the big pannetones were still not cooked in the centre. After cooking, the pannetones are pierced with a double skewer which is joined at the blunt end forming a long U shape. Once the paper is pierced at the base, the pannetones are hung upside down to cool.

Mr Pozzoli made some decorative bread yesterday which I missed out on, but they do new ones every 2-3 weeks so I hope to see it soon. It’s a mixture of rye flour, water, salt, a lil' yeast and egg whites. Next level shit.

 Oh and I named the male cat “Gazuese” [ga-zoos] which means gas/effervescent/gassy as he’s always running around and loves to chase things and play. So its Bonnie and Gazuese...today bonnie jumped onto my lap and just looked at me and waited for me to stroke her...she really likes to just sit or lie somewhere and let you stroke her whereas Gazuese will force his head under my hand and is almost jealous of any attention his sister gets but I think it’s just his playful and bubbly personality.