Sheep may safely graze

I thought you might be fed up of photos of bread by now, so here are Thibault and Juliette's sheep. Not having a dog, they recruited us to herd them the short distance to their daytime pasture -- they were in no hurry. At night they are returned to the paddock near the house because of wolves.

We made an early start at 8 a.m. today, as opposed to the leisurely 10 a.m. the other days. Several of us including me had long drives home, so we aimed to finish around 5 p.m., or at least before 6.

We got straight to work on the viennoiserie, since it needed at least 6 hours to prove, plus the time spent faffing about shaping it (extra 1). We made eggless brioches, white sandwich bread, and pain d'épices, all using sourdough starter. Why were the brioches eggless? There are a whole load of extra hygiene rules to follow if you have eggs in shells in your workshop, and Thibault has grown to prefer the flavour without eggs. Incidentally, note the barefoot bakers in extra 1 -- no outdoor shoes in the workshop, and we decided it was too warm to bother with indoor ones.

We had quite a bit of spare time while waiting for the dough to prove, so we herded sheep and then had an early lunch. After lunch it was a high-speed production line making scores of tiny balls of dough to construct the brioches with. It was great practice at shaping; I have now learned to do the proper swirling motion to make bread rolls. Then the balls had to be slotted into small moulds, six to a mould. While the oven heated we quickly made the batter for the pain d'épice, which is really a cake made with baking powder, but we added a dollop of starter for flavouring.

More baker's peel jockeying (extra 2) ,and 35 minutes later we opened up the oven. As soon as everything was out we tucked in and demolished one of the brioches -- it was delicious. Then it was time to share out the vast quantities of bread and still-hot viennoiseries and say our goodbyes. Down the hill at a quarter to six. It's been a lovely few days, and I feel I've learned a lot. I see lots of kit- and flour-buying in my near future.

I stopped off in Murat to buy some Salers cheese (when you're in the Cantal it would be rude not to) and a bottle of the white Auvergne wine I enjoyed a couple of days ago. I was pleasantly surprised to find traffic on the A75 very light, given that it's the big changeover weekend between July and August. Even the always busy A9 from Béziers to Narbonne was no busier than normal (mind you, it was after 9 pm by the time I got to that point). 

One more extra, of the Viaduc du Garabit which I saw out of the corner of my eye, and pulled into the conveniently positioned service area to admire it. Built by Gustave Eiffel between 1882 and 1884 -- a certain family resemblance. It was hard to get an acceptable photo shooting into the sun, but it was so dramatic I tried anyway.

Home very shortly after 10. Hauled everything in from the car, quickly wrapped up some brioches and white bread and put them in the freezer, enjoyed a couple of slices of pain d'épices with a cold drink, and then it was time for bed. I did feel sad coming home to a completely empty house -- no Mystère, and S isn't back till tomorrow (Sunday) :(