The great food blog revival

So where do I begin? This food blog was once my little passion on the side where I could write about the foods that excited me or share a new recipe with my rather small but much appreciated group of readers. It has shamefully been neglected and left to gather virtual dust with no posts in over a year. I have however somehow managed to reach over 1200 views which seems slightly bizarre to me when considering my blog writing absence. Well this all changes here. Since I last wrote on here many things have changed and I have a lot more exciting food related topics to talk about. I have left Starbucks, I'm working as a chef and I'm on a patisserie course which I finish in June. Thanks to Facebook I have a nice little collection of photos and posts in chronological order of the tasty bakes I have been producing on my course. So I thought it would be fun (when I say fun I obviously mean incredibly boring for any normal person) if I start my blog again from the beginning of my new course, a fresh start and all that jazz. Hopefully you will get a little insight into the joys of being a patisserie chef and learn a few things along the way.

It all began in September after a very last minute and quick admission on to the course. I mean literally, I was signed up the week before term started so with a mad panic I ordered chef whites, a neck scarf and skull cap (really) and my dough scraper. When it came to my first day I was a bag of nerves but off I went on the train with my backpack full of uniform and knives. Really it wasn't so bad in the end, the people were lovely if a little intimidating and the actual lessons were really fun (once again fun has its second meaning.) My course, which is every Wednesday, soon became the highlight of my week and continues to be.

In the first week we started with a basic bread recipe. We were taught the method used by Richard Bertinet, a French baker who has a lot of skill in his field. He goes back to basics and argues that you simply need four ingredients to make fantastic bread; Flour, yeast, water, salt. That's it. He also has a rather interesting way of working the dough which you can see along with the whole bread making process here. Even if you're not really interested in the kneading its worth a watch just purely for his sexy french accent.

With the basic white dough recipe we made some poppy seed rolls and some olive, herb and parmesan sticks. We also made some rock salt and rosemary focaccia with a basic olive oil dough. Lets just say I'm not the best baker, I'm more of a pastry kind of girl but I was quite happy with the results. The rolls were a little chewy but I think I just needed a bit more practice, the focaccia however was delicious and went down a storm. Here are the recipes so you can give them a go!

Basic White Dough

Ingredients

500g (1lb 2oz) strong bread flour
350ml (12 fl oz) water
10g (1 heaped tsp) yeast (fresh if possible) 
or 5g (½ level tsp) dry
10g (1 level tsp) sea salt

• Preheat oven to its highest level.
• Rub the yeast into the flour (or mix in if using dried yeast). Add the remaining ingredients and the water. Mix for a couple of minutes until the dough starts to form.
• Transfer the dough onto your working surface. Continue to mix the ingredients by stretching out the dough and folding it over onto itself.
• Keep working the dough until it comes cleanly away from the work surface and is not sticky.
• Lightly flour the work surface, place the dough on the flour and form the dough into a ball.
• Place the dough into a mixing bowl and cover with a tea towel.
• Rest the dough for a minimum of an hour. Turn out gently onto a well-floured surface. Be careful not to deflate it but expect it to spread out to cover a square of your work surface. Generously flour the top of the dough, cover with a clean tea towel and rest for five minutes.
• Once rested you can cut with your dough scraper and shape in to rolls. Place on a baking tray and leave to prove before you place them in the oven. Then bake for 10-15 mins until golden brown. 

I'm a cheater but I'm using a link to the recipe for the olive, herb and parmesan sticks

And lastly,

Rock salt and Rosemary Focaccia

Ingredients

500g strong bread flour
20g coarse semolina
15g yeast (fresh if possible) – same amount if dry
10g salt
50g olive oil
320g (320ml) water
4tbsp olive oil plus a little extra
A few springs of fresh rosemary – dried works well too though
Rock salt

Preheat the oven to 250C. Mix the bread flour and semolina together and rub in the yeast, using your fingertips as if making a crumble. Add the salt, olive oil and water, then mix the ingredients using your hands or a scraper to bring the dry up into the wet.
Lift out the dough onto your work surface. Do NOT flour or oil the surface – it may look sticky, but it will all come together. Knead the dough for 10-15 minutes, as per the demonstration in the video. Put the dough into a floured bowl and leave to prove for an hour in a warm place, until it has roughly doubled in size.
Turn the dough onto an oiled tray. Drizzle the oil over the dough, then, using your fingers, push and prod the dough so it spreads from the centre towards the edge of the tray. Cover with a tea towel and leave to rest somewhere warm for 45 minutes.
Prod again, dimpling it with your fingertips, and rest for a further 30 minutes.
Take the leaves off the sprigs of rosemary and push them evenly into the dough. Sprinkle on the rock salt and immediately put into the preheated oven. Turn down the heat to 220C and bake for 25-30 minutes, until it is light golden brown.
Cool on a wire rack. Brush with a little more olive oil while still hot.