Whole Wheat Bread

Today was another excellent day in Breads, if not one of the most excellent days of my entire life. More on that later. To begin, we worked today with whole wheat flour, which is something I am really interested in as I try to work on being a more healthy eater.

Our first bread today was a whole wheat roll, which we shaped as a "batard", not to be confused with a "bastard". A batard is similar to the shape of a football, and it has one giant slash through the center, again to open up during the initial period of baking. Like the baguette, the slashed area should develop really dark crust and form an ear. Still need a bit of work in the slashing department. Here are some batards:



We then made rolls that also had whole wheat flour. In this dough, we also grounded up flax seed to be mixed with the flour. (As a side note, flax seed is better for you when ground; it's high in omega 3 like fish so it's a very good supplement to your diet. My brother is a big fan of flax seed - he grinds it into yogurt which is also a common use of it.) After mixing the dough, before fermentation, we layered in walnuts, sunflower seads, and whole flax seeds. Throughout the fermentation process, these would continue to be distributed throughout the dough. I absolutely loved this. It was nutty and very flavorful. Here's a close up of the roll:




So, back to the earlier point I made about today being most excellent and life changing. Well, seriously, in the midst of all of the delicious bread baking, Chef taught us to make, and then we actually made, fresh mozzarella! Can you even imagine my level of excitement, enthusiasm and pure awe? I am still in love with the fact that this experience was part of my day. So freakin amazing. Here's a picture of the fresh mozz, which we wrapped:



So you may be wondering, "Carol, why did you even make fresh mozzarella?" Well, next week, we'll be using the fresh mozz on a margherita pizza that we'll be making in class. Again, how freakin excellent. My instructor rocks. Today was amazing. Cheese and bread - is there even a better combination? (Well, when you add in the wine, it's just a bit better!)