It’s hard to get a rhythm to writing these posts. Part of is that from Thursday evening until Saturday afternoon, I’m constantly on the run cleaning, setting up for the bake, baking and then selling at the market. I never got back to list off the menu for the first week (I was still making changes to while we were baking.), and I completely biffed last week. I thought I’d have time on Friday, but it slipped away from me. This week I’m doing it before I get rolling.
We’re starting to get the hang of working in the new bakery. The oven is the biggest thing to learn. The first week the oven was much cooler than what it should have been. The temperature indicators showed that it was where I wanted it, but the breads didn’t lie — They were all way too light colored, and as a result, didn’t have a toasty note to the flavor. I was pretty disappointed. Last week a couple oven thermometers helped us get a better handle on it, and as a result, the breads came out much nicer. In particular, the ciabatta was dramatically better than I’ve ever made it before. In fact, it was good enough to stand up against any ciabatta I’ve ever had.
People have been asking for chocolate chip cookies, so this week I will be making my first pass at them. They will be good, but I’m sure to be tweaking the recipe for a while. It takes a few times to get a new product “just right”. I will also be baking the toasted oatmeal cookies, and here is the bread list for week 3:
Baguette
Ciabatta
Semolina
Sourdough Seed
Walnut Raisin
Brown Puffy
Rye
I might also play around with a few loaves of 100% rye — either the ones I was baking last summer, or I might try an authentic pumpernickel where the bread is loaded after the oven is turned off and left there until morning. The long slow bake breaks down the starches into sugars and those get caramelized so the bread turns very dark. I also have some other things I’d like to try. Come down to the market on Saturday morning and there might be a surprise or two!
Peter