Week 4: More reading and anticipation ...

So here is a quick summary of the rest of the Ten Essential Steps of Making Bread from The Bread Bible:

6) Slashing (Scoring) and Stenciling: Slashing the dough is not necessary, but allows the dough to release steam during baking and prevents splitting in a jagged line. Essentially - it makes it prettier!

7) Glazing: Glazing is mostly for appearance too. It creates a shiny appearance, and sometimes a darker color. If you are going to slash the bread, do so after glazing because it creates a strong contrast (again making it look more appealing). You can glaze with water, flour, melted butter, egg whites, egg yolks, or a cornstarch mixture.

8) Baking: The goal during baking is to get good volume and a beautiful crust. Steaming the bread when first baking will help create this.

9) Cooling: Cool breads with a crisp crust on a rack so there is enough air circulation. Cooling is part of the baking process. DON'T cut the bread while it is still cooling. Reheat it later if you want to serve warm bread.

10) Slicing and Storing: Serrated knifes usually work best, and electric knifes are best for soft breads. For storing, the freezer is better than the fridge, because the fridge it can get stale faster.

Also, I glanced through some of the authors recipes, and oh my ... I think I may have to renew this book when my library loan ends to try some of them out.

This weekend I am finally going to get some practice. For fall break, I packed up my children and headed to my parents house full of siblings, nieces, and nephews. I requested that we make bread a couple of times so I could get some practice and learn from the master herself (my mom). Tonight we are making some Sausage Pretzel Bread for breakfast tomorrow, and then tomorrow ... homemade cinnamon rolls. I am really excited about the cinnamon rolls because I want to make some for my family on Halloween, and I am hoping I can learn with the help of my mother today so I can do it on my own in a couple of weeks (Zone of Proximal Development). I am also hoping that I develop automaticity for baking breads one day. I thought of this last night as I was making spaghetti sauce with my sister last night. Because I have made it so many times, I have developed an automaticity for making the sauce. I don't need to refer to a recipe, I already know how long to cook the meat, and I don't even have to think about it while I am making it. One day I will get there with my bread making, right???

Reflection:

Thinking about different learning strategies this week, I realized that I am really a visual learner.  I will not get as much out of an experience where someone is just explaining something to me as I will by actually trying it myself. I am confident that with my mom's help, and being able to actually try making the bread tonight and tomorrow, I will learn some skills that will help me be able to do it on my own!