“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.