To become better at learning, become better at failing…..

One of my hobbies is making bread from grains I sprout, then dehydrate and mill.  It feels like more often then not, I fail, and on an epic level of failure (from my perspective this is when the whole effort needs to be tossed as it’s inedible.)

I had one such experience over the weekend where I was making a cinnamon swirl loaf for an Easter Brunch. It had this horrible fermentation aroma like sour whisky mash.  Researching what caused this was likely that  it rose too fast because the proofing temperature was too high. I had a new proofing box and the temperature dial was not calibrated correctly.  OMG it was disgusting.

I still wanted the cinnamon swirl experience so I regrouped.  I had wanted to test out a recipe for a cinnamon roll focaccia bread and it dawned on me, that I could use some of the same techniques with focaccia bread on cinnamon rolls.  This recipe started with a pre-made pizza dough from the grocery store.

Blasphemy – I can make my own pizza dough, thank you very much. Since this was a way out there experiment, I was not expecting any result.  I made my pizza dough (with pizza dough flour), then made a feeble attempt to follow the recipe, except, well I did not get store bought pizza dough, nor did I press it into a cookie sheet to make it into a focaccia.

Since I was “experimenting” – I was also not paying attention to making the pizza dough since this is something I am very good at. Plus I made sure the proofing box temp was between 80 and 85F.  I did know I needed to knead the dough longer since I wanted to form more gluten and get a better oven rise.  I also did not want a pizza dough flavor profile so I substituted avocado oil for the olive oil and cinnamon sugar for the italian spice blend.

Well these three things – made the best cinnamon roll dough I’ve ever had.  After I formed the cinnamon rolls, and had them  do their second rise, I poured a cinnamon sugar slurry over the top and let it seep in for about another half hour.  (with focaccia there is a salt water pour over the top of the bread on it’s second rising).

I baked them per the usual – 400 F for about ten minutes, took, their temp, turned the pan and went for another 7 minutes, and voila the internal temp was 200 F (done) – and they were AMAZING.

I was not planning on success here – I just wanted to see what would happen.  It got me thinking about where else in life am I being too cautious because I want to succeed?   If I was okay with failing, could I stumble on other ways that might create something extraordinary – like my new way of making cinnamon rolls?

What else this experiment did was renew my confidence to keep trying with the sprouted grains. Seeing how things come out, trying new approaches, enjoying the process more than being attached to the outcome. Often times after an epic fail where I have to toss the whole effort, I don’t make attempt at any type of bread for a good long time. But getting back on the horse right after that failure, renewed my confidence that yes, I will trying something else with my sprouted grains flour.

For me, failure is a good thing – it stimulates more learning than success does (because I dive into figuring out what happened at a deeper level when I fail than when I succeed ).  When I do succeed after the failure,  I document the “recipe” so I can replicate it.  But succeeding too soon,  I often miss some of the steps that could help me succeed again. To become better at learning (and succeed more often), become better at failing.  When I fail more and fail faster, I learn more and learn faster.

Michelle LaBrosse, PMP, CAC, PMI-ACP, RYT

Founder, Cheetah Learning

www.cheetahlearning.com