Day 42 - Showpiece is complete!

Today I completed my Dead Dough Showpiece. I think it came out looking pretty good. You can look at the sketch I drew, Dead Dough Showpiece sketch, and see that I changed it a little but basically used the same elements. The Chef instructor placed my showpiece in the window so everyone can see it.
Again dead dough is not edible. (Ok you could eat it buy it won't taste good) It's called dead dough because yeast is not used. This is used for making decorative pieces. To make dead dough, use the following ingredients:

First make the Syrup with the following proportions.
Mix the syrup first and bring it to a boil. Then let the syrup cool.
- 100% water
- 100% sugar
- 35% glucose

Then make the dough with the following proportions:
- 100% flour
- 67% syrup

You can add food coloring or use herbs and spices to make colors. I used beet powder, spinach powder, and tarragon.
After mixing the dough, wrap in saran wrap and let it rest so the flour absorbs the moisture. You can then work with the dough. If you need to roll it out, use a little flour on the work surface and rolling pin. After you finish making the shapes you want then let the sculpture air dry. After it's dry, bake at 200 degrees till the sculpture is hard. You can make many pieces and glue them together to make the final product. I used hot glue to assemble my showpiece.

I also baked a Chocolate Cherry Sour Dough bread. It taste very good. The cherries are dried cherries, I guess kind of like a juicy raisin. I found out today that I made a 100 on my practical last Friday. I didn't get my score sheet, I only received the grade. It surprised me. Tomorrow, I'll have my last practical in this class, Intro to Baking Principles and Functions. Next week will be the start of Basic Patisserie Techniques.

Day 41 - Sour dough and Parker House Rolls

Today I made Parker House Rolls (center above) and some shortbread chocolate chip buns. The Parker House Rolls came out tasting and looking good. The shortbread chocolate chip buns (because I don't know what else to call them) is basically a basic bun with chocolate chips mixed in with a shortbread cookie crown. It really tasted pretty good, but I would add more chocolate chips the next time I make it.

I also made Grissini (Bread sticks) and Sour Dough Boule proofed in Banneton (basket). Some of my bread sticks were plain and some had asiago cheese in them. The Boule was nice and the pattern you see is made by the dough proofing in the basket.

Also I baked some of the pieces to my showpiece. So it's still a work in progress.

Day 40 - Work in Progress

No pictures today as I'm working on my Dead dough showpiece at school. I'll get pictures up when I'm done. I did add a new page on my blog showing the tools and gadgets that I use during my baking at school and home. Just click on My Tools right above my picture.

Dead Dough Showpiece sketch

Here is my sketch of the Dead dough showpiece that I'm making this week. This will stand up and this is a front view. Wish me luck. I'll show a picture on Friday of the outcome.

Dead dough is inedible dough just used making decorative display pieces.

Added later: Click here to see the completed Dead Dough Showpiece.

Day 39 - Pizza Dough

Today the topics of discussion were Dead Dough Showpiece and Pizza Dough. The pizza dough was easy. I made four pizzas and I have a picture of one. I also started thinking about the dead dough showpiece I need to do this week. The showpiece is due on Friday. I drew a preliminary sketch today and I'll clean up the sketch later. If I get time I'll scan it tomorrow and show a picture of what I hope to accomplish.