Maybe I should've given up bread...

For Lent this year I gave up sweets. Pretty big sacrifice given I am in school for pastry. I do have a provision I can taste in class. And I have been really, really good about the tasting. But bread, bread is a different story. And I think this particular day was the first Tuesday after Ash Wednesday. We made four breads that week, one being brioche. I cannot say enough about how wonderfully delicious (and sinfully fattening) brioche is. We made up the bread in three ways: loafs, grand tetes and tetes. The tetes are usually baked in a fluted bowl, but we improvised and just used a round bowl for the big ones, and the fluted tartlet pans for the small ones.

Brioche Loaf

Brioche in a bowl...or how we baked our Grand Tetes

Brioche Grand Tetes -- finished product

Brioche Tetes...aka individual pieces of yummyness

The second bread we did was challah. My roommate really loves challah so I brought home two loves - one for her and one for work. (I like to bring my breads to work so I can share my breads with others since my family is so far away). The coolest thing about the challah was the braiding. I always feel so accomplished when I do something so neat. Practicals are this week, so we'll see how well I remember the six braided technique.

Six-braided Challah loaf

The next bread was an olive fougasse. This bread was pretty good, and had a really cool makeup. Surprisingly, I hate olives (especially black), but I don't mind black olives in bread. I liked it better than the olive bread we made earlierr in the semester.

Olive Fougasse

Finally, we made aloo paratha, which is an Indian bread stuffed with potatoes and spices. We topped it with a tasty cucumber yougurt, provided by J. Mac's husband. It's always a treat when he makes his cameos in class because it usually means we're getting something good to eat.

Aloo Paratha

with cucumber yougurt