YET ANOTHER FIRST .... BREAD

For years Dora has been drawing a thick line between her honors student status in the physical sciences vs my condemnation to low-life at St Paul's Co-educational College at 13, when I was assigned to Form 3 Arts to focus on the 'humanities', a word them mathematics & physics types can hardly spell, let alone study. It was like a life-sentence with no parole. I survived the rest of my years, until Upper 6 in fact, with a self-deprecating sense of humor which, to date, is still necessary at St. Paul's reunions. Amazing!

Not surprisingly yours truly was already lost-in-space only 20 minutes into today's lecture on bread, yeast, carbon dioxide, alcohol & fermentation process. Cut the science routine, just show me how to knead the silly dough ... I quietly protested! Anyways, I learned that dough in fact has a life its own & like people, needs TLC & careful management. FDT is 'Final Dough Temperature' ideally @26-27C. The formula calls for a fine balance of flour temperature @ 20C, room temperature @ 18C & to dilute the yeast properly water temperature has to be @22C if mixing by hand, or 27C by machine. Now, friends & family, does it at all sound like the Raymond you know? To make a long & exhausting day short, it was rewarding. A collection of what our class did was shown, most were excellent (mine included) ie soft crumb, thick crispy crust and we had a big bread party at the end. 'Bread without butter is not bread' Chef Michael proclaimed as he produced a large plate of generously sliced unsalted butter, the kind that makes Dora frown, at me. Since she is not here I had 3 pieces, piping and crusty hot .... with butter of course, didn't you hear the Chef?