Finished bread and moved on to V!

Hello Gang!

 Well we finally finished up our bread rotation yesterday and we started in Veiniossarie (or something like that..I'll just call it V from now on)

 Bread yesterday was fun. We made 5 different breads and just puttered about. There was only three of us in the group so we each got to pick a bread and make it our selves. I jumped on doing the pretzels. I love that dough. I also volunteered to make the raisin bread - that was kind of a pain in the ass. Never made that one before.  Chef cuts back on the amount of liquid in our bread recipes so we have to make adjustments until we get to the right consistency. Not always the easiest thing to do when you have never made that specific kind of bread before. Some of them I would have to add a half a litre of liquid. I was worried about "over watering" (as I call it). It's a good way to learn, or else you are just following the recipe and not learning by touch.

 I also got to learn to use the cooks meat slicer to slice potatoes for our potato bread. It's the next day and the right side of my back is so sore. I hate that machine! lol. The worst part was taking it apart to clean it and not being able to get it back together. And apparently none of the cooks could help me. I was in that kitchen for a looooong time before I got that piece of equipment back together. I love our pastry lab. Feels like home. Going in to the cooks kitchen is like going in to Narnia..a far away weird land.

 We got through our last day in bread smoothly and ended that part on a high note :) yay!

Blueberry Scones

Raisin bread

Potato bread

 Today we started in V. Love this section.

 Today we made beautiful brioche. You all should remember my love affaire with brioche dough. It's like silk. I want brioche pyjamas.

 We had to roll out our brioche. I've told you all how I can not roll a simple shape like a circle or a rectangle. It's impossible for me. Today I made a kite haha. I was  already having a cranky day but this just made me laugh. It did not matter how much I stretched or rolled this dough, It wanted to be a kite. I called Chef over to help me and he stood there laughing and said "well, if this was a kite making contest you win!" haha yay! I win!! He tried to save it for me and got me a rectangle. The problem with brioche dough is you can not work it to much because of the high fat content, it gets really soft quite quickly.

 I dove in to my tool kit to get my little off set spatula. My bakers blade (a blade on a stick essentially) had the safety cover off and i ended up slicing the top of my finger and down underneath my nail. Hurt.like.a.bitch. I'm pretty lucky and my injury list is small for this year, but when it do hurt myself I make it count! haha.

 We finished off the brioche with some almond cream, candied orange and crushed hazelnuts (I believe..could of been walnuts. I was busy tending to my wound when they got them) we baked them and they got brushed with a flat icing. SO GOOD!

I mean come on! How amazing does this brioche look!

Then we spent the rest of the afternoon making Florentines! These are amazing Italian cookies. Very time consuming though. You make your syrup then fold in the sliced almonds. Scoop them out and then spread them nice and thin. Bake them, shape them. Coat the back with chocolate and eat. I forgot to take a picture, but I brought some home for Davin and myself so I snapped a quick phone pic of it..half eaten. haha. Davin loved them! Candied fruit, almonds and chocolate. Seriously good.

mmm florentine! 

 Today is Wednesday so we were suppose to do skills training. Nope. Second wednesday snowstorm in 2 weeks. I'm so behind in my training. We are going to be working on our french pastries tomorrow but I work..same as last week. Poopies.

 The drive home was hell. I love driving in snow, not a problem for me 99% of the time. Today it was ice with snow on top of it. I almost wiped out twice just walking to my car. Not the little slip.. but the full out arched back, standing on one leg, arms flailing trying to keep your balance while you cuss your little brains out. My back was already sore and I think I tweaked something trying to keep my balance. Work tomorrow should be a blast and a half.

 I got completely stuck on three different hills. If the person in front of you stopped or slowed down you were done. Tires spinning and you just slid from side to side. An 18 wheeler slide sideways so myself and the women in front of me both got stuck on the hill. Had to reverse down the street until we could gain some speed to get up the hill.
 I got around the turn and got stuck again because I had to stop for a car. Again I was not the only one sitting in the middle of the road with their 4 way flashers on. So again I reversed down the street on to a side street and had to try five times before I made it up my street. I was so glad to of made it home in one piece.

 I may be Canadian and winter is just what Canada is..but boy lord am I ever ready for spring. I just need the snow and ice to go away. forever.

 That's my pastry day in a very small nut shell.

 Have a wonderful evening you beautiful people!