“Pour up, bake. Head shot, bake. Sit down, bake. Stand up, bake.” Sometimes I like to imagine Kendrick Lamar is in my baking class rapping this as we put bread in the oven and whip up frosting. Instead, all I hear is the sound of ovens beeping, dishes being washed, and “Where’s this ingredient?”, “Does this look okay chef?” Not that these are unwanted noises, they just aren’t K-Dot.
Today we made honey wheat bread, challah rolls, pastry cream, and chantilly (whipped) cream. I started with the challah rolls, and I ran into a couple problems. First of all, I didn’t make them as uniform as they should have been. That was my own fault. I shouldn’t have been lazy about rolling and folding. Second, They under proofed so they stretched more in the oven. All of my issues with these rolls came from being in a hurry to get them in the oven. If I had been more patient and careful they would’ve been more uniform and wouldn’t have stretched so much. At least they had a nice color! 
Next I started with the honey whole wheat bread. The recipe produced 5 pounds of sticky dough that needed to proof for 2 hours. I shaped 2 one pound loaves and 40 rolls with it. Both turned out well. The crumb was good. The loaves were a little misshapen because I put the slashes more sideways rather than up and down (this makes the bread grow at funky angles in the oven. To avoid this next time, I will use my fingers and a guide to make sure my slashes stay down the center of the bread.
While the breads were proofing/baking, I started on my pastry cream. My senior year of high school I went to a culinary program at a technical school. I have this horrible memory of the first time we tried pastry cream. The first time I made it, it curdled. So I tried a second time. It curdled. I tried a third time, and surprise- it curdled. After that I just walked out. So yeah, I was a little nervous to make it again. In the same fashion I made the orange curd, I took every step slowly. The only issue I had was not cooking the tempered mixture for a full two minutes. I was so nervous about over cooking it and it curdling that I took it off the heat too soon. This left a bit of a starchy taste. To avoid this next time I’m going to have to be brave and cook it longer.
Lastly I made chantilly, which is whipped cream. Mine turned out good it had stiff peaks and was still shiny.
