Baking Class Numero Uno

I had baking class last week, to start my second and final semester off for the culinary program. I was not intrigued, nor was I excited about the idea of Bakery 105. I have never been much of a baker. Cookies from scratch yes, brownies from a box and lemon bars once but for the sake of the blog is about as far as I have delved in the world of baking.
Our first class was simple with a recipe of Soft Rolls. Walking into the 6 hour course I thought, "sweet, we'll get out super early, how long could rolls take?" And when I walked out of class only 45 minutes early, I was pleasantly surprised at what had just taken place in that bake shop on the 3rd floor. One, the whole vibe was way less intense then the kitchen. For example, we had to let the dough "proof" for about 45 minutes (let it do some rising reaction thing, in a box at 80 degrees F) that is to say, we had some major downtown after cleaning our stations. Two, it is super specific. The ingredients need be correctly measured. It is not like what I so love about cooking, just a lil bit of this and lil bit of that, and typically it does not royally mess up the dish on whole. With baking, you need what you need and you need to understand how the ingredients work. I had measured everything out and began to add my water to the dough mix. When I had about a 1/4 left in the measuring cup I just dumped it all in because it was correctly measured out. My dough went to mush. Sometimes even adding the correct amount of water according to the recipe is not what is needed. I needed to go slower and work with the dough. I needed to think about how it really did not need all the water. It was a peaceful environment on whole. It felt very "zen" of us to use our hands and quietly work with our dough, mixing and creating it and in the end, shaping it into uniform certain knots.
Looking forward to the rest of the semester. Stay tuned...