Yeast, Yeast, Yeast...

Week 1 (possibly longer) of baking is complete! Our kitchen is categorized into 8 sections; 3 of them being “Yeast Breads.” We all rotate to the next section after 3 days. I began in the first Yeast Breads section so today I am on my fourth out of nine days working with different yeast breads. In other words, I’m ready to make something other than bread. J

Everything here is so much different than at home! We must stay very clean whenever we’re in the kitchen, begin with copying the recipe we’re making into our notebooks, scaling out all of our ingredients, and being VERY aware of things that could go wrong. Such as going into the fridge too often, and sneakily licking the beaters.

(So far I’ve been able to keep this a secret from my mom so don’t tell her what I’m about to say!)

Mrs. Nikkel taught me a simple way to roll buns (dinner rolls) in about 5 minutes, whereas my mom has been struggling to teach me every time she’s whipped up a batch in the past year or so.

You see, it’s a breezy 3 step process:

1.       Start by really squishing the ball of dough you’re working with while rolling it in circles.

2.       Ease up a bit but still press on the dough; keep rolling

3.       By now, your hand should be a cage over the formed ball and just finishing your last round or two. (the seams should be in a neat swirl at the bottom)

This is the most significant technique I’ve learned so far.

            Bye for now,

            ~Monica