Is that clear to you?

Good Morning!
Last night was the first day of Module 2, and we jumped right in. I walked into the room to find others busy measuring and sifting—fifteen minutes before class started. Not to be left out, New Chef (I’ll start calling her plain old Chef from here on in) asked me to find the bread proofer from another classroom. I had no idea what a bread proofer was and failed at my mission, but at this point (seven minutes before our first class) Chef didn’t know my name, so I didn’t mind.
Chef introduced herself briefly (read: she told us her name) and began making bread. Because bread making is a long process, we needed to begin right away, otherwise we wouldn’t have time for the bread to bake and risked going home empty handed! Once she demo-ed a large batch of country white bread (to be made into 30 or so loaves), and we began our small batch (to be made into 15 or so rolls) and everything went into the proofer, she began to talk. Chef explains things clearly and has no discernible accent. She must be American (though she never told us anything about her background. There is a chance she is Canadian.) Every other sentence she would slip in “Is that clear to you?” or “Do you get that?” but I think that was first day nerves and will become a less frequent phrase.
Chef is more into homework than Old Chef, and has given us work for tonight’s class- one of the things she did tell us about herself is that she is on the homework committee at school (I don’t think it’s actually called the ‘homework committee” but that’s the gist). Five points to the person to read up on and explain baker’s percentages and the maillard reaction to me.
Learning how to bake bread is entirely different than other types of baked goods. With bread making, everything you do is towards the bettering of the gluten. Gluten is king in bread, whereas with most other baked goods you try to avoid gluten at all cost. Gluten is responsible for the chewiness and texture of bread, but wouldn’t it be awful to have a chewy cake? Chewy pie crust?
In bread making, your schedule is determined by the bread. If the bread needs more proof time, give it to the bread. If it is ready to be kneaded, drop everything and do it. If it needs steam, you had better go take care of it or else a disaster of monstrous proportions will occur- namely, weird bread. A word about steam. It is very important to keep your bread dough hydrated throughout this process- dry dough will yield dried out bread. This is true even when the dough goes into the oven. The first stage of the baking of the dough is Oven Spring, where the yeast in the dough is still alive and is still making the dough rise. It is important not to let the crust form at this point, because otherwise there is no room for the bread to expand and weird tumor-like things will grow out of the bread. How can you prevent the outer layer from baking in a 475 degree oven? Steam! Professional deck ovens have steamers that do this, but at home you can put a cup or two of water into the oven along with the bread to keep things moist. About halfway through the baking, once the yeast has died (140 degrees internally) you want to start crust formation and so you stop adding steam. Crust forms, the inside cooks (to around 180 degrees) and the dough has turned into a beautiful, golden brown loaf of bread.

There will be a lot more production in module two then there was in mod one- we made thirty loaves of bread and 75 rolls last night. The first ten lessons are devoted to bread, which is nice, but I get impatient. Breads are slow, and the more time you give them the better. Chef kept contrasting bread dough to pie dough- which is faster. By the end of class it was clear to her that I have a thing for pie, and she directed all pie questions to me. “Bread dough needs to be kept warm. What about pie dough? Why keep it cold?” What do you do to pie dough if it is browning too quickly- add steam?” and so on. I know my pie. Bread? Not so much, but I guess that’s what the next ten lessons are for.
- “I’m in it for the Pie” Baer