Monday is Bun Day! [Sept. 9 2013]
For some reason today, I decided to put my hair up in the highest bun I could possibly magane on my own. I like to think it's because I'm psychic and knew we were going to be actually doing stuff in the kitchen. Because that's what we did. We made buns.
Actually, we made Hard Rolls. They're kind of like a French bread, I guess. All I know is that watching Chef Nowak kneading the dough is a very emotional experience, and it was so beautiful that I started to cry during the demo.
The recipe in the book is measured in three ways: Imperial ounces, Metric grams, and percentages. We were told to half this recipe. The problem with this is that it takes forever to measure things this way, because you have to calculate about how many cups, then we actually had to use scales to measure stuff, and I was already taking a while to get started.
First, the flour. I have no idea how many cups are in 1250 grams, nevermind how to half that. We had no calculators, and obviously no phone or computer to just look it up online. So I estimated about 6 cups.
We needed 15g of salt, sugar and shortening, which I estimated to be about 2 1/8 teaspoons. So I added the salt and sugar to the flour, sifted it with this huge ass sifter the size of a bicycle tire, then cut the shortening into the flour. And by cut, I mean smoosh to death between my fingers.
Then we made little wells out of our flour mixture, and poured in warm (about body temperature) water. (We know it was body temperature because we checked with our elbows. That's how kitchens work. Do not argue about it.) I estimated half of 1lb 10 oz to be maybe 2 3/4 cups of water, but I wasn't really sure, so I poured in a little extra just in case. Then we had to go and poison our wells with egg whites, which at this point I was an expert at separating (thank you, Rugratz).
Then we had to add 16oz of yeast. Measuring spoons don't work that way, so I just looked at everyone elses yeast tins and decided to wing it at this point. Then I gently bathed my yeast in the slimy well, which was pretty much like playing in a mud puddle with actual mud. It was great.
So then we stir our mud puddles, gradually drawing more flour to the center to thicken our slurry. Then our slurry became a paste, and the more we played with it, the more it became dough. I was always told that the more you play with dough, the tougher your finished product will be. But bread needs to be kneaded a lot to develop the gluten strands so the bread has structure. So I kneaded my dough lovingly and energetically while the chef walked by, gradually sprinkling more flour over it as I rolled it around like I was a kitten on crack. And eventually, it was ready to go in the proofer.
After a brief intermission in which we cleaned and went out for lunch, we came back to retrieve our risen dough and make buns out of it.
2 ounce rolls. Measured on an actual scale. Chef Nowak has one of those balance scales with the two sides, but the rest of us used scales with dials. I separated my dough good enough, and when I had all my 2oz pieces ready, I rolled one with each hand for extra efficiency, and I'm pretty sure it looked like I was giving two guys hand jobs, because that's what it looked like when the chef rolled his.
I somehow ended up making twice as many rolls as everyone else, but my dough turned out fine. Unfortunately, only ~4 people actually got to bake their rolls because we ran out of time, so many of us had to have ours put in the freezer.
My buns await my return next monday to be baked, and I am eager to help them fulfil their destiny.
