Boracay Test Kitchen

Last night’s experiment slash dinner:

Double bone chop in pineapple sriracha glaze.

Andy hitting two birds with one stone: practicing her knife skills and prepping to cook her favourite, lumpiang gulay.

French boule by Andy, ciabattas by Francis

French Boule a la Chamba (haha)

Never have I imagined I’d learn how to make a proper bread before coming to the island. It’s a whole different game from stovetop cooking. It’s precise, a lot more scientific, and it really tests one’s patience!

I started out learning the basics: how yeast works, proper kneading, the importance of letting the dough rest and rise, baker’s percentage, shaping the dough, etc. It was a steep learning curve. It was really frustrating at the beginning cos a lot of factors come into play, and it’s hard to be consistent. I learned throughout the process that even ambient temperature and humidity significantly affects your dough (hello, Philippine climate)! But I kept at it almost daily until I’ve gotten the hang of it, until I’ve come to know my dough.

I made this French boule not knowing it would come out this way, hence “a la chamba” hehe! I was so proud of myself cos it was my first time to get an oven spring like this (trick is in the shaping/folding/tucking and scoring).

It was such a beauty that we hurriedly took out our photog equipment to take pictures. We couldn’t pass the chance to have something to remember it by before gobbling it up (finished it all by the following night). hahaha

Swipe to see how much I’ve improved!

- Andy