Sugar & Snowstorms: Delirium

According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine, "Delirium is sudden severe confusion and rapid changes in brain function that occurs with physical or mental illness"........or with overnight baking.

Over the past two weeks I have been partaking in NUMEROUS learning moments and instances of delirium, made possible through "Artisan Breads" and the magic the happens when the clock strikes midnight......Cinderella doesn't get all the excitement.

Spending extended time with my blockmates and Chef Matt has allowed us to gain further insight into points of weakness with which we can ruthlessly torture each other. Chef Matt has a sense of humor and minimal sympathy, which can be misconstrued for having no heart.... however, his ability to provide an enjoyable work environment has eased the pain of the overnight bake-onset delirium. Kat's unfathomably high metabolism has her taking mis-shaped bread and leftovers to munch on.....which Chef Matt translates into nourishment for her family, "Remember, Kat has a family to feed". Kirsten's grace allows easy access for jokes, she often "falls off her shoes" and lets the mixer cage "slip". Suzy's Suzy-ism's are priceless and provide plenty of entertainment, "I saw a streetsweeper once". And the continued abuse for my "accent" has proved to be classic entertainment to apparently withstand the test of time.

The soliloquy I was asked to recite for their entertainment, any word with an "en" or "n (in)" results in a little chuckle.

Furthermore, the discussion of the creepy security guard, Chef Matt's fear of the Midwest (his fear roots from BTK which he explained to Suzy to be Burgers, Tacos and K-esadillas), and potentially postal people, combined with exhaustion, has resulted in paranoia and elevated anxiety upon our departure in the wee-hours of the morning. Pumped up kicks.

So about this aforementioned "Artisan Breads"....the class begins at 7:00 pm and ends whenever all the bread production for La Brioche and NECI on Main is finished. The general demand includes 44 loaves, 8 baguettes, 72-108 sandwich loaves, and 9 large loaves for La Brioche, and 22 loaves and 6 baguettes for NECI on Main.

The class has 3.5 components in which we all rotate throughout the three weeks of class.
The first component is mix. Each night the mixer is responsible for scaling ingredients and mixing 7-9 doughs, as well as providing a production schedule for the remainder of the class. Mix is an enjoyable job when things go as intended.

The second component is shaping. Bah. The shaper folds the dough, scales the dough, preshapes the dough, and shapes the dough. Not my fave, but tolerable if you have a good helper and a functioning scale.

The third component, my favorite, is bake. "The harmonious balance between the skill of the baker and the natural transformation that happens during fermentation". The baker helps out in various areas until the dough's are proofed and ready to load into the oven. The baker's friends, the peel, planchette, semolina, and the lame aid in the desired final product characteristics.

The half component is the shared responsibility of making preferments, "Pre-ferments save time without robbing the bread of its flavor". Blame it on the alcohol.
Yes blame it on the alcohol. In the past few years I would accompany that comment with a photo like this:

Now, I pair it with a ciabatta biga gone awry, you know, making a funny no one understands about the byproducts of fermentation in the production of bread? I have always understood (or potentially misunderstood) this to be my passion for baking, no, no, these past two weeks have proven that there is a fine line between what I considered to be my baking passion shining through and being a super-nerd. It's whatev, I'll take it.

Now I express my apologies as I did fail to keep you updated last week which has resulted in a lengthy post this week. So sorry friends, so so very sorry, I will offer up some explanation. My weekends generally consist of facebook, tastespotting, pinterest, getting fit, laundry, church, blogging, popcorn with M&M's, and a movie as background noise. (After mentioning my weekend rundown, I am further proving how super-nerdy and elderly I have become....NBD) However, last weekend I made what was supposed to be a quick trip down to Massachusetts, the trip turned out to be quite an adventure. What I considered to be a blizzard altered our plans a bit, a 2.5 hour drive was accompanied by about 8 inches of snow resulting in an additional 2.5 hours on not so user friendly roads. Tyler and I decided to stay overnight and had a quaint little campout in his living room without power. A nice little story to write home about, but it delayed the weekly update.