The Start of a Fun Class

Yesterday was the last day of demos which meant that today we finally got to bake things. :)

But let's start with yesterday. There was bee stings (with no filling), brioche, cinnamon buns, bee sting cakes, a fruit crumble bread, farmer's bread, herb and onion focaccia, and gluten-free buns and gluten-free lemon cakes. It was a busy day yesterday so by the time everything was done and we could finally have a taste of the products that were demo'd, everyone was rather ravenous. As soon as Chef finished cutting a bread, people would lunge to grab a piece. Hungry hungry hippos!

Onion and herb focaccia

Fruit crumble yeast cake thing

Other than the gluten-free cookie from nutrition class, I had never made anything else gluten-free before. The gluten-free buns and lemon cakes used a lot of ingredients and required more attention than the other products, but they turned out well. I would never have guessed either were gluten-free and the lemon loaf was actually really good! Just like a really light and fluffy chiffon.

Gluten-free buns get baked in muffin pans

Gluten-free buns

Gluten-free lemon cake

Friday's are a bit different here in downtown compared to Monday to Thursday. From Monday to Thursday, we make the same things over and over, but on Friday, we get a different set of recipes and we have the chance to bring in one of our own recipes to try out. Special projects Friday's it's called. For my group, we made potato sourdough, chocolate brioches, and apple cinnamon sticky buns.

Lovely cuts, Mr Potato-bread

The chocolate brioche fillings looked just like two-bite brownies.

Chocolate brioche filling

Chocolate brioche in three stages

Cut each little brioche bun

Top with more chocolate and icing sugar...viola!

When you cut a chocolate brioche open while it is warm, the center should still be soft and slightly gooey, a bit like a lava cake. If those decorative cuts are a bit too deep or the center of the dough was too thin when rolling it out, you'll be able to see the chocolate filling like in the brioches below.

Back to front: Cheese and ham danishes,
Mad Hatter oatmeal bread, and chocolate brioches

We had quite the tasting platter today but hey, it's Friday! Or as a previous workplace used to call it, "Fat Friday"!

So many goodies!

I can already tell this is going to be a fun class. My mind is already thinking of what kinds of recipes we could make on special Friday. The Chef said he would like ethnic breads, so maybe pineapple buns? Or how about a variation of cocktail buns? So many things to make, so little time! :)