Wednesday, September 2, 2009

The Making of a Sunburst


So today.... the best thing yet! We dove into the very interesting world of artisan bread with Vienna bread shaped like a Sunburst. While I watched the teacher show us the steps to creating this amazing work of art, all I could think that there had to be a catch to making it look so good. Then I started to piece it together and before I knew it I had a bread that I was afraid to eat cause it looked so good. Because of the many different steps I decided that is would be a great time to show you, the viewer, the steps to making some good looking bread. To the left is the first step of the process in which you roll out 10 long pieces of the vienna dough that has fermented and been benched. You then take each of the pieces and start to intertwine them in the middle as you shape a type of sun, leaving one piece out to hold for later. Next, group pieces into threes and begin to braid each group while alternating and underbraiding with and overbraiding. Tuck in the end pieces of each braid. Slightly turn each braided piece to look like a type of sun. With the final piece of dough, roll it up into a spiral and place in the middle of the sun (where you will see an opening). Egg wash the whole thing and get it in the oven. You can add different toppings to the bread such as dill, large salt, or sesame seeds. After letting it bake for awhile you will get to pull a beautiful sight out of the oven. Your freshly baked, artisan bread that looks like a pro made it. So here is it. The beautiful bread that you will wow your friends with. The only problem at the moment is that I have to get the thing home. Ending up the size of a large size sheet pan makes this endeavor a bit tricky. So as we speak my sun is parked at school in the holding box, awaiting its day to arrive home. When that comes I do not know at this moment but I am bound determine to make it happen. At the end of this week I will have completed bread class and will move on to bigger and better things next week. What those things are I have no idea yet but I will fill you in when I do. Right this second, it is time to write a report on Babka (a type of Jewish bread) for a presentation I have to give on Friday. In addition to writing a paper, you have to have a tasting of the bread. This is the tricky part because it has to turn out well enough to feed it to others! But at the same time, no one in my class has tasted Babka before so I might be safe on that account. But I have faith that it will turn out, I even asked the rising dough before I left to please oh please rise for me tonight(essentially, yeast is kinda like a plant....just feed it and water it then watch it grow) so I don't have to do the whole thing over tomorrow. Cross your fingers and think happy thoughts.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

These looked beautiful. Makes you look like a a pro already. Sorry you got the crud from your teacher. Make sure you call Keith once in awhile. Glad he has the correct phone now. Will you email me your phone number-I am wondering if I have the correct one now. I did not realize you had changed it. Holly, the nurse at The Center, told me how to send a message. My doctor is in Iraq for 10 months. He has been there a little over a month and the OR group has lost 2 men and they have 2 injured. They need lots of prayers-for them, all the people in the service, and all of their loved ones and families.

Much love, Grandma G.(the good witch)