First Night At College

All went well last night. We had to do the dreaded quick introduction of ourselves but it was all very informal and light hearted. I felt a little stiff in my very crisp 'whites' but at least my clogs had arrived in time and are remarkably comfy if a little bit groovy. The evening passed quickly once we moved into the kitchen. I think that cooking at college will be quite different from cooking at home, just trying to locate everything in the vast stainless steel kitchen was tricky, however hopefully we will all now know where all the bits and bobs are for future weeks.
We followed our recipes and had a demonstration by our tutor, Adam. We made a starter for our focaccia bread first and popped it into a prover ( wish I had one at home),and then moved on to our white bread. The main difference being that we used a little bit of milk powder in the mix and also fresh yeast as opposed to the usual little sachet of instant yeast that I use. With the white bread mix I made 2 batches of rolls some seedy knots and some larger plaits as well as a small tin loaf.
Scaling the rolls at 50g for the seedy knots and 100g for the plaits, the knots all managed to appear quite even in size and uniform. However the plaits were a little more irregular in size, I obviously needed to measure the length of the individual stands before plaiting ( sounds a little crazy), as  of the rolls were shorter and slightly fatter as others were long and narrow. A minor issue as the taste of the rolls was delicious. Having done some research today into the use of milk powder ( I have previously used  for burger baps) I discovered that it is used to give a softer crumb and can give the bread a better colour so although not a necessary addition quite lovely especially for a breakfast roll. So I will definitely be going for a softer texture again, as anyone who knows me well will know that I am rather adverse to a crusty baguette!!
Next we made focaccia bread using the starter that had turned into a huge gloopy mess, adding more flour, salt, sugar and olive oil and a lovely mix of chopped fresh herbs. On retrieving it from the oven Adam poured an obscene amount of oil over the top which was worryingly swimming! however I needn't have worried as it turned out exquisitely and tasted divine. As I sit here this evening writing this husband is just tucking into his dinner (gnocchi with tomato, basil and bacon), with a large hunk of focaccia.  He has proclaimed it delicious and so has redeemed himself for coming home so late!
All in all a great start to my course, everyone was friendly and I feel more confident, my main aim for next week is to try to remember some of the other students names. Next week is sweet enriched dough's and Chelsea buns. The kids can't wait! and I have a freezer full of lovely bread for the week.