Sticky!

One of the most interesting parts about baking bread is learning how to tell when the dough has had enough kneading. Different doughs have different textures but they all need to have proper glutten development. Take the bagels, they kneaded for about 8 mins. A bagel is a fairly lean dough, as there is not coupious amounts of butter, sugar and eggs to make it a rich dough. Lean doughs tend to need more time in the mixer than rich doughs.

Rich doughs tend to be stickier than lean doughs. One of the richest doughs that we have made so far is a brioche dough. Brioche is interesting because even though it is a rich dough, it has one of the longest kneading times ever, about 15 mins. No fooling!

As if eggs, sugar and butter are not tempting enough, we took our brioche dough and made some tasty hazelnut crunch spirals and sticky buns. They were also, very sticky.

Sticky Buns!

Hazelnut Crunch Spirals!

Mmm...pools of delicious caramel syrup. I actually am not a huge sticky bun fan as I much prefer the better tasting cinnamon roll but it was one of the better ones I have had.

We're still making breads... I am so not a baker. Sure, it comes out okay and yes I am learning however I want to be creating pastries! Cakes! Plated desserts! The artistic side of things! It will be here soon and the next thing you'll know I'll be in a cake studio learning even more to get nearer to starting my own studio! Hooray!

Keep the eye on the prize. . .