Continental Bread Makin- part II

Bread bread and more bread! That's what you get when each country fights to have their own version of the leavened dough. 

French Loafs/ Baguette

We began by making rye bread, which essentially is a bread consisting of a higher percentage of rye grain. Rye supposedly has more fibre and less fats and does not cause a high spike in blood sugar level as oppose to a white bread. 

The making of Rye Bread

Rye Bread

I quite like the taste of Rye Bread as it has this deeper flavour to it and reminded me of the sourdough I had at San Frans. However, I had my Rye un-toasted which is a bad idea and it turned out to be rather hard and dry. 

Next, we proceeded with making French bread. We made both French Loaves and Baguette, which basically only differs in shape. The French bread is a lean dough, consisting of minmal fat and sugar, hence it may be slightly tough but crisp, when made properly. The scoring of the Baguette is  a little challenging as each score has to in the centre, at approximately 30 ˚ angle and overlapping 1/3 of the previous score. 

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/files/u5218/Baguette_score_drwg.JPG

The score must also be at an angle scaring only the skin of the bread, creating this ridge-like effect. The French loaves were pretty tasty but you gotta toast them as they taste really crispy and yummy straight out of the toaster. Bro ate a whole baguette the night before and he liked it un-toasted; I'd say his lazy :P

Not a great example but the best of the lot.

Due to the lack of time, we mades some bread rolls as a class. Bread rolls are really common in Europe and are essentially your basic, generic buns. They can be used as sandwiches, appetizers or even dunked in soups. 

Bread Roll

Unfortunately I didn't manage to try any as I gave quite a few away but Bro and Mumsy seemed to like it alot.

Simple Bread Roll

Last but not least, the Bagels. I wasn't a fan of Bagels as I always had the perception that they were fattening. I guess they are kinda high in calories as oppose to fatty but they taste darn good! I had my first bagel at Panera Bread and OMG! they tasted a-m-a-z-i-n-g. They were crispy on the outside but chewy and moist in the inside..mmmmhmmm...

Bagels originated from Poland and are popular amongst the Jews. They were invented as a competitior to Obwarzanek which is a lean bread of wheat flour designed for Lent. 

Bagels

To achieve that unqiue chewy texture, the bagels are blanched in seasoned water (mainly malt, sugar or honey) or about 1 minute before baked in the oven. I've always been intimidated by Bagels as it seemed pretty laborious. However, after attempting once, its pretty simple: just mix, blanch then bake. Sealing the dough to achieve a circular shape might prove to be pretty challenging albeit it comes with practice. Alternatively, you can always use a doughnut cutter to shape the bagels.