trick or treat?

For the first several minutes in the kitchen this Saturday, I thought a trick was being played on my group. There were four of us chefs-in-the-making last week and only two of us were present yesterday. And we were both newbies. After getting over some initial doubts, we decided to be confident, positive gals and do what we had to do to survive the heat in the kitchen. And survive we did. We successfully made the same amount of bread that every other group did AND received compliments from Chef B on how efficient we were and how well we worked together. Definitely a treat!

The majority of the day was spent working on our soft rolls. Everyone made their own full batch in the morning and we were taught various ways to roll, knot and braid the rolls so we could practice a bit before our first practical exam in the afternoon. We had to present Chef P with four rolls total, two rolls in two style varieties. Consistency within each set of rolls was important as well, and with only a half batch of rolls to work with (seven), there wasn't a lot of room for error. I ended up choosing the fairly simple cloverleaf roll and the more difficult double knot roll. We brushed our finished rolls with egg wash, threw them in the oven and let them cool before lining up Top Chef style to be judged. These aren't the exact rolls I used, but these are the two varieties I presented. I received a 92 for my efforts, and Greg, Lin and Mike received two huge bags of roll rejects for their enjoyment.

Rye bread was next on the list. And not just rye bread, but light rye and dark rye, both complete with caraway seeds. I always thought it was the rye flour that gave this bread its smell, but it's actually the caraway seeds. And, much to my surprise, cocoa powder or coffee is used to give the dark rye its color. Instead of marbling the bread and making it into a sandwich loaf, we rolled the two varieties together. Reuben anyone?

And now for my favorite bread of the day, complete with a shout out to one of my best friends and readers. That's right - Challah! This braided Jewish bread is pronounced "holla" and also happens to be a nickname for one of my favorite Fort Wayne couples (the Richendollars). Kristy - I may not be able to mail you bread, but our class did give you several shout outs on Saturday. Our Challah dough was gorgeous and we ended up braiding it into two huge loaves, instead of breaking them into four smaller loaves like normal bakers might choose to do. I was happy with this decision of course. And my taste buds were very happy with the results. You can literally smell the honey oozing out of the cracks.

Enjoy it with your eyes. Greg and I will be enjoying it with chili for dinner tonight. As a matter of fact, it is challah-ing my name now. Hope your Halloween is full of tasty treats!