I made some bread Saturday morning to take to our ward Christmas party that night and it turned out pretty good. I did leave it in the oven a little too long so the crust was a little thicker then I wanted it to be, but all in all it was very good. It went very fast at the dinner, a few people asked me some questions about bread that would not usually talk to me. I still think it's a little weird when people ask me questions about baking, but what's even more amazing is that I can usually answer their questions. I guess I'm not giving myself enough credit, that should come with more confidence I guess.



Baked in the new-to-us oven that I am very pleased with. After taking it out of the oven, I spread butter on the top to give it a nice crisp crust.

The practical final did not go like I wanted it too. The important thing is I learned things from it. One thing I learned is that I need to keep my head in the game at all times, as they say. In the morning before class started I got really frazzled for a number of reasons none of which were good enough to make me so nervous, but I have anxiety issues when it comes to people scrutinizing what I'm doing. Lets just say I made a lot of stupid mistakes and because of that I was getting frustrated with myself and making more mistakes. The bread that I made was terrible.

But the important part of this whole class is that I learn, and oh boy did I learn some things. Bread making is definitely an art, one that I would like to master, but this is going to take a lot longer then one semester of bread class, especially when that's not all we learned in this class.
I learned that I have to be well organized in my mind as well as on paper,(recipes, agenda, time schedules and everything else you can think of). I can't rely on others to do anything, really. If I can't do it right myself then I may as well go home.
I learned that planning is essential to running a successful bakery. If someone needs an order of bread at noon, you can't start at 9:am and expect to get it done with no problems, anyway it takes more time then that when there's no deadline.
I learned that I have to trust in myself more and believe that what I'm doing is right and not second guess myself, because that's when doubt creeps into my mind.
I learned that making bread has to be done by feel and factors change every day, you can't go by the book all the time. You have to use your head and common sense.

I saw a video about the art of making bread and they had this little old lady on it and she said bread is love. It's like a loaf of love, or something like that. I have to agree with her and expand it to all baking and pastries, because for me it is, its a little part of me. I think that's why I got so frustrated with myself when I screwed up in class. Because I take a lot of pride at what I'm trying to do and it was a real good eye opener that I still have a lot to learn which I knew and will say I am still excited about.

I had another class before the practical final. We made Challah bread (which is a Jewish holiday bread) and man was that some good bread. Linda ate half a loaf within a half hour of when she got home. We also learned how to do a six strand braid knot, an easy thing to do but I think it turned out pretty good.

We also made bread sticks.

It's been a long tome since my last post. We had our holiday baking class then Thanksgiving. My little Lydia had her 4th birthday and now I'm in the last week of regular classes. With finals coming up next week, you can bet I've been really busy.

For the class before Thanksgiving we made some holiday desserts. We made three different kinds of pies; apple, pumpkin, and peanut butter. They were all very good. The peanut butter pie was a bit too rich for me, but Linda loved it. We also made more cinnamon rolls along with apple cinnamon raisin bread, which I still forgot to bring home somehow so I'll have to make that after school is over. We also made some nut roll and poppy seed roll which were both very good.