Flour Play - Pt. 1 &2: Cakes & Breads
October 26th 2024 - Cakes & Flavors
This fall we kicked off the 2nd annual Flour Play series, an offering focused on centering Afro-Indigenous influence and necessity in the pastry arts alongside the joyful practice of developing baking skills.
Baking is an ancient tradition with techniques, ingredients, and meanings that have been developed over centuries and regions. And a tradition that is inextricably tied to the agricultural and culinary technologies and skill sets of African, Indigenous and Asian people across the globe. However, the more recent and dominant narratives told by European chefs and educators might have you believe otherwise.
With Flour Play, understanding those histories is equally important to developing the skills and intuition that successful baking projects require. During our first session “Cakes” we focused on cake baking techniques and some of the common flavorings that are used in baking overall, but especially in cakes: chocolate, vanilla, florals, etc. And talked about the histories of those flavorings and spices.
After some demonstrations on bringing together an oil cake batter and a basic buttercream, bakers grouped up into teams to make their own cake batter and buttercreams from scratch.
(Above) A couple of spooky sample cupcake decorations to inspire participants in decorating their cupcakes and (below) participants bringing together chocolate, vanilla, and pumpkin cake batters to bake up and decorate.
November 9th 2024 - Quick & Yeasted Breads
In our second session we got into “Quick & Yeasted Breads” which focused on different types of flours and leaveners used throughout baking. Our medium of practicing these concepts was to make dinner rolls and buttermilk biscuits. Prior to getting our hands into some dough we discussed the significance of bread and grains in Black and Indigenous communities, and got into grinding up fresh sorghum flour using our new flour mill.
Our bakers did a beautiful job with bringing together their doughs, getting them prepared for baking with various wash options and fun add-ins (scallions and cheddar!), and unveiling deliciously golden breads from the oven at the conclusion of class.
Getting into flour and leavening properties and grinding up fresh sorghum to bake with.
Grinding up Brooklyn-grown sorghum in the grain mill.
Going over the different parts of the grain mill.
A participant brushing their dinner rolls with an egg wash.
Bread making team showing off their finished dinner rolls (above and below).
Scallion cheddar biscuits fresh out of the oven!
