Blah, blah, blah

 All I talk or think about is bread. Bread, bread, bread. I have started planning my meals around what will go well with the bread I just brought home. The only trouble is, our instructor doesn't abide by the syllabus so I can't plan ahead. I guess that also makes it kind of exciting.

Last week was baguette ridiculousness. We made 2 on Tuesday, 2 on Wednesday and 2 on Friday. On Wednesday we had a banh mi party at our house to help get rid of the baguettes.

This week we have made quite a variety of things. Pretzels were delicious and we even made pretzel rolls which I have been meaning to make for months. They taught me a very important lesson as well. Proper cooling and storing is crucial. I threw the rolls into a ziploc bag while they were still warm and they ended up wrinkly and disturbing and found a new home in the trash. Sad. You must cool bread all the way before storing! Must!

We also made bagels this week. I wasn't super excited about these since I can't eat them (I broke my jaw long ago and wound up with a list of thing never to eat again) but my friends were happy to take them.

I love challah bread but I wasn't sure what to do with two loaves of it. Luckily I had a friend with a plan. She invited us to dinner where we paired the challah with a bohemian goulash dish. A match made in heaven!

I love just looking at the challah bread. It is so shiny and it was fun to braid. I am really starting to love my breads class. Kneading practically puts me in a trance. Getting something to rise and double perfectly has become a new obsession. Just when I am getting used to it all we are preparing to switch to laminated doughs and  a new learning process will begin. I wonder what my new obsession will be?

*New thing of last week - I walked into a bakery I have never been to and inquired about doing a stage.
*This week - new foods, kolache, a super yummy bohemian dessert. Like a yeasty cookie. I feel like that isn't really enough so I'll try to squeeze something else in.