Bread and Cheese ~ A Mini Tutorial

Chris here:

Today was bread baking and cheese making day. 

Using transparent/white and caramel colored Sculpey, I made a blob of the transparent/white and a thinner blob of caramel, which I layered on top. Then I stretched and stretched it until it took on a long, tubular shape. Using my straight razor, I cut off lengths for my French bread, and pinched off the ends. Using my straight razor, I gently scored the tops a few times.

I used the same roll for my challah, only I rolled it very thin.

 I made three long lengths of the thin strands. Then braided it.

After braiding, I cut it into challah lengths, pinched the ends, and added chia seeds to the top. The chia seeds are a little out of scale, I'm going to have to find something smaller.

After baking at 275 degrees for 15 minutes and giving it time to cool, I finished it off with a thin coat of satin varnish.

I also used the thinner piece of 'bread dough' to make dinner rolls. I cut small pieces off the roll of dough, and gently scored them down the middle.

What is the point of a feast of fresh baked bread without some good cheese? Let's start with Edam.  I added some pale yellow to the transparent/white. It was much too bright, but perfect for butter. I make a few sticks of butter and some pats of butter for the sliced bread before adding a little caramel color to mellow it out.

I rolled and stretched the translucent/white/yellow/caramel mix, then rolled out a thin layer of red.

I carefully wrapped the cheese in the 'wax', then cut it off into small segments. The next step was to make sure the wax covere the cheese on the cut off sides before rolling each piece into a ball and flattening it slightly to make it 'Edam' shaped. After baking, I gave the wax a light coat of satin varnish.

I made the brie in a similar manner, except I made an off-white rind, and pressed it into sandpaper for texture.

After baking, I added a little bit of satin varnish to the cheese, and not the rind, to give the cheese a glossy, melty texture.

Time to feast!

Mahja is off to the open market to sell the rest of the bread.

I know she'll sell it all very quickly.