Breads, Market, and Cookies

We finally had more bakery classes this week!  We made baguettes, rye loaves, croissants, and pain au chocolate (and several other sweet breads)!  It was SO much fun.  I absolutely love making bread, it's one of my favorite things to do.  Here are some pictures of boulangerie class.

Learning how to roll baguette dough

Rye loaves before their journey to the oven

This is what happens if you don't add steam when baking a baguette--it's really ugly and small and has a bad texture

MMMMM rye bread in the sunshine!!

Transferring raw baguettes to be baked

Our baguettes!!

My croissants and pain au chocolat!

We also took a field trip to Rungis.  It's one of the largest markets in the world.  I mean it's HUGE, it's like a city almost, with their own police department and everything.  You can even buy trucks there.  We visited the fish department, the triperie (animal parts), the meat department, the poultry and game department, the cheese/dairy department, the vegetable/fruit department, and the flower department!

Scallops

The most awesome fish ever

SHARK!

Scary fish

Maybe I should put a warning--the next several pictures may be a little gross for some people, but I was fascinated and really enjoyed the triperie and meat department!

They leave the claws on--it's so cool!

I learned that chicken companies have started to add carotene dye to the chicken so it looks more yellow.  That way, their consumers will think that the chicken had been raised naturally and fed on corn.
 

Chickens with heads!

Look how giant they are!!

Veal

T-bone steak!  (entrecote in French)

Giant wheels of Gruyere

Chevre with herbs

Morel mushrooms

I kept walking around and asking the vendors questions, all the while practicing my French.  And I came across this--a bushel of potatoes that had soil in it still.  So I asked the vendor why, was it just to keep the potatoes fresh?  No.  They add the soil to display the terroir.  I had learned about the concept of terroir previously in my wine class, it's the Earth that the plant grows in, from a certain region, climate, etc.  And displaying the terroir like this shows the potential buyer what the potatoes have been growing in.  I thought that was such an interesting concept.

I also asked one of the flower vendors about their eucalyptus, and I learned that there are 4 different kinds and that it's grown in Italy and France.  I would love to accidentally discover a field of eucalyptus--it must smell so amazing!

Poppies!

 This week in class, we made 27 kinds of petits fours.  It was a lot of fun making these little cookies.