What's Baking on Wealthy Street?

Commercial Yeast

Bread and Pastries from Wealthy Street Bakery

Yeast and Water: the beginning of the dough making

Kneading the dough

More Kneading

Introduction to Wealthy Street

     Today we had a guest speaker from Wealthy Street Bakery. She gave us some background on the history of the bakery. She said the bakery uses no artificial flavorings or preservatives. Their goods are all natural and baked in a stone oven. They claim that their bread is more European influenced. She told us that there are two major types of yeast used by their bakery. The first is commercial yeast. This is the most common type and helps the bread to rise more powerfully. This type of yeast can be used in a wide variety of bread. The second type of yeast is wild yeast used in sourdough. They use a sourdough starter to make this type of dough which they keep active by feeding it twice a day. She said that sourdough can be very different depending on where you come from. For example, sourdough in San Francisco is very sour compared to other parts of the country.
     She also gave us some information on how they bake the dough. Loaves of bread have to be sliced on the top so that they don’t “explode” while baking. The bakery also hand rolls all their bread. She told us that the kneading process allows for gluten to be formed, which is the protein bread. This gluten in the bread gives it its structure. I was interested to learn that higher protein bread will make the bread chewier. High protein gluten is used in things such as bagels to give them that chewy texture. It was also interesting to learn that it is much harder to get something like whole wheat breads to rise.
     The speaker also told us a little about different types of pastries baked on Wealthy Street. She said that all of their pastries are yeast made. The croissant is yeast dough made with a lot of butter. The Danish has dough that has more egg and sugar in it. All of the pastries they make at the bakery originated in Vienna. She also told us a bit about rye bread. She said that it used to be more popular than it is currently. Rye flour does not taste very good with commercial yeast and thus is more difficult to make.

Time to Taste Test!

After the introduction to bread baking we had the chance to try some of the bread from Wealthy Street! My reactions are as follows.

1. Whole Grain Health Bread

     a. When looking at the appearance of this bread it had a lot of nuts in it. It was a medium brown color with a harder, darker crust. It looked like it had a lot of granules in it and was extremely textured. The texture of it was coarser and crunchy. It was not quite as smooth as the other types of bread. There was not a very significant aroma; however the aroma was heavier and deeper than the others. It almost smelled more rustic. The density of this bread was greater than the others. When eating it the bread it felt more dense and heartier. It seemed to fill me up more than the others. Finally, the flavor was rather unique. I actually liked this bread the best! It had a bit of a nutty flavor to it and seemed very filling and hearty. It seemed to have the most flavor of a lot of different grains.

2. French Bread

     a. This bread was very pleasing to the eye. Its color was a cream, almost yellow in appearance. It had a darker crust and had a lot of holes in it. The texture was very smooth and porous. When tasting it the texture was cool and light. The aroma was very fresh. It smelled as if it had just come out of the oven. The density was far less than the previous bread. It was much more light and airy. The flavor was much sweeter than the sourdough and was not as hearty as the health bread. The flavor was pure tasting bread with just a hint of sweetness.

3. Sourdough Bread

      a. The appearance of this bread was a little darker. The crust, however, was lighter than the French bread. The texture of the bread was smooth like the French bread. However, it was not as porous as the French bread. This bread was also only slightly dense. It was light and airy like the French bread. The flavor of it was quite different than what I expected. It was not as sour as I expected. It almost tasted just like French bread with simply a hint of sour.

Making a Loaf!

       The recipe that my partner and I decided to make was for Focaccia bread. Focaccia bread is one of my favorite types of bread, so I was excited to see how it is made. As I kneaded the bread it became more pliable and elastic. What had first started out as a lump of liquid and flour was quickly becoming soft and stretchy dough. As I kneaded the bread further it began to take on the consistency of bread more and more. The experience of baking bread was very exciting. I loved being able to see all the steps that go into making bread what it is. It is amazing to me that what simply starts out as a lump of ingredients, has become a delectable treat! My favorite part was kneading the bread and then spreading it on the baking sheet. It was fun to be able to watch the dough rise before baking. When I pulled the bread out of the oven, I was delighted to see the final product. It was a great sense of accomplishment to see that I had carried the recipe through correctly and soon will get to enjoy my creation! I think that using mass instead of volume would be better suited to bread because one could be far more exact. I was surprised by how precise the process had to be in order for the consistency of the bread to come out right. I think that mass would be better suited for the dry ingredients needed in the bread.