I visited with my neighbor, Sandy. We arrived about 10:00 a.m. We talked to
the ladies up front…asked if it was okay to go watch the bakers. Yes!
There were four bakers. Each would grab a large sheet pan with two
mounds of dough covered with this cloth from France. They didn't know the Fremch name. So far I am not able to find by researching. They would dump the mounds on the work table one at a time…take a
new clean sheet pan and slowly after putting a mound in the pan..push it out
until it almost filled the pan…then put the cloth over the first layer in the
pan…and then repeat with the second mound…put the pan in the large tray
carrier. This was repeated until all the mounds were flat in the pans.
All of this was followed by feeding each of those flat
pieces of dough from the large sheet pan through the laminator…what does
this do…well it acts as a wonderful rolling pin and at the same time butters
the dough.
The long rolled out flat
pieces of the dough were taken back to the work table. Using this neat baker tool which
is a six piece cutter all connected…they begin to cut the dough from bottom to
the top. (This would be perfect us, Jo Martin…every piece is perfect.) Now for all you quilters they use the big plastic ruler which looks just like our six inch ruler… out comes
the cutter wheel. (Why these people would be great quilters.) When they get to the end the baker come back with the ruler and
cutter…cutting diagonally thereby creating this long piece of shaped dough. (It looks a lot like a
sports team banner.)
Frst thing we watched today was the making of croissants by starting at
the bottom of dough which is the longest part of dough…and rolling it up to the
pointy part…keep repeating.
When the bakers were finished making the
croissants they started on the almond croissant…they did the same thing but
this time put in this piece of solid almond filling..and once again rolled that
up from the bottom of work table to the top…yum! Always my favorite.
After the almond
croissants were the bakers brought the laminated sheets to the work table…one piece at a time....only this time
the bakers cut perfect squares of dough…and from the bottom of each square they
rolled up two batons of chocolate…guess what?
Pain au chocolat!
What an exciting and interesting adventure. I learned so much. From now on I will be more respectful of all the flakey pastries. Although most of them I suspect in the United States are not as time consuming as these.
We ordered lunch…and all those pans
of croissant, almond croissants and pain au chocolat were set aside to proof.
Sandy ordered Quiche Lorraine…it came
baked and served in a square piece of Danish.
I ordered a Ham and Cheese in a
croissant served with a salad with a balsamic dressing and their homemade croutons.
Lunch was followed by a vitist to their Harvest Market next door….and looked at everything…now I am looking for a recipe that uses
lobster mushrooms…
It was time to go home so we went
back to the bakery…Sandy bought a Cranberry and Walnut Boule…I bought a Seeded Loaf…guess
what ? An Almond Croissant..and their famous Morning Buns…guess what I am having
tomorrow morning?
Almond Croissant
Seeded Load
Morning Bun
The almond croissants had been restocked
with new croissants so I asked if those
were some of the croissants we had watching being made…and the young lady
said,”‘Oh, no!” then explained that
those croissants will proof for about two days…tthen glazed and proofed for
another 8 hours before going into the oven.
Proof Bread
125 W. Main Street
Mesa, Arizona
(480) 270-8320
Hours:
Tuesday - Saturday 7:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.
Sunday 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Closed Monday
