[Scroll down to Sunday 5th May for the first day's happenings, followed by what happened on the following Sunday.]
I'm running a 12-hour course over the first two weekends in May, at a village hall in the village of Hornblotton, near Yeovil, Somerset.
In this post I shall detail all the planning involved, plus the story of how the two sessions went, along with photo's both from me and from my students.
Here's the letter that has gone out to the students to set the scene:
Summary
[It was decided to make sourdough on the second session. Here's the story of the starter - and the loaf, I made this week.]
Sunday, 12th May
Another wonderful day! Once again the students arrived early and I had many helping hands unloading my 5 ovens and all the equipment - bowls, jugs, etc.
I'm running a 12-hour course over the first two weekends in May, at a village hall in the village of Hornblotton, near Yeovil, Somerset.
In this post I shall detail all the planning involved, plus the story of how the two sessions went, along with photo's both from me and from my students.
Here's the letter that has gone out to the students to set the scene:
10th April 2013
Breadmaking made easy workshop,
10.00am - 4.00pm
5th and 12th May at Hornblotton
Village Hall
Dear Student,
This letter sets out what I intend will
happen on the first day and includes a list of items which you will need in the
session. If you are new to breadmaking, let me reassure you that it is much
easier than you may have been led to believe. It is indeed, ‘easy peasy’! Oh,
and it’s also a lot of fun, as you’ll find out!
The session will begin in a relaxed fashion
– the first thing you need to do is to find somewhere at the side of the hall to
park all your stuff, get yourself a drink and a chair to sit on round the
tables in the middle. There is some necessary administration to complete, which
we will go through together. If you need any help with the forms I will be
there to give you a hand, so there’s no need to worry. Bring a pen if you can
remember, although I will have a couple to spare.
Before we start breadmaking I’d like to
spend some time finding out what you expect to get out of the day’s session so
that I can hope to meet all your requirements.
Lunch. We’ll be eating around 12.30-1.00,
and everyone will make their own. All you need to bring is a little vegan cheese –
say 50g – and a tomato or a mushroom.
I’m still working on the programme, but
just to say that during the 2 days we’ll be making many of these breads:
Soda breads
Fancy dinner rolls and freeform loaves
Small filled savoury breads – from sizzlers
through stuffed parathas to pierogis and baozi (Chinese buns)
Larger filled savoury breads – from pasties
to calzones to pane casereccio
Hot cross buns, through Chelseas to apfel
kuchen (German apple cake) or schiacciata con l’uva
Flatbreads – from naan through pitta to
trenchers and focaccia to pizzas
Sweetened breads – from iced buns through
Devonshire splits to pain au chocolat and jam doughnuts
No-knead overnight bread
Yeast-risen
batters – pikelets and socca
If you don’t see the bread you’ve always
wanted to make on this list, get in touch and we’ll see how we could fit it in
to the programme.
I have a blog, which
I call “No bread is an island”, in which I write about – among other things –
my teaching practice. On here I’ve started a post, “Hornblotton breadmaking”,
which will include everything about the course, including all my planning:
Please have a
look at this, if you can – plus, check out all the recipes on there, including
those for the breads I’ve already mentioned.
I have several aims for this course, one of
which is that everyone should enjoy themselves! Another is that everyone will make good bread. At any
time during the day the kettle can go on for a mug of tea or coffee. Cost 20p.
I'm sorry if this all sounds too daunting.
Please let me assure you that it will all fall into place quite easily. If you
have any suggestions, (or reservations) at all, please don't hesitate to ring
me, I'm always happy to talk about bread.
Finally, can I draw your attention to the
word ‘Companion’? The ‘com’ part means together – as in community – and the
‘pan’ part of the word means bread. So ‘Companions’ are people who make bread
together! Which is what we shall be doing over these two Sundays!
Best regards,
Course Tutor
Ps. If anyone would like to get there a few
minutes early to help me set up, I would appreciate that!
You
will need to bring:
Apron
Several tea towels, both to cover your
dough whilst it's proving and to wrap any warm bread in to take home.
Something to carry away the finished
products (a large basket or cardboard box lined with tea towels would be ideal)
Mug for hot drinks
You can also bring the following items –
but they’re not essential:
Set of measuring spoons
Any favourite cooking utensil – sharp
knife/scissors are always useful
Your favourite baking tray
Your favourite weighscales
[In the original letter I did, of course, include my contact details. For obvious reasons I've removed them from this copy.]
Wednesday 1st May
0505 - Demonstration of my overnight, no-knead bread, that I’d made last
night – folding and shaping itWednesday 1st May
My planning so far - this isn't set in stone, but it's roughly what I intend to do
Lesson plan 5/5/13
Get there by 9.30 (make sure Alison knows I
want to start setting up then)
Set up the hall with tables, kettle(s) on,
arrange ovens, etc.
Timings:
0000 - Fire drill, toilets, introductions/register/name
labels – icebreaker – expectations – what’s going to happen today (soda bread –
wraps/rolls - high hydration dough for pizza and focaccia - Chelsea buns/Swedish tea ring) oven work - risk assessment - photo permission form. My faults as a tutor.
0030 – Soda bread demo times 2 – both plain
and spicy fruit. Have baking paper/trays to hand
0045 – Students make their own plain soda
bread – which goes straight into the oven
0110 – Yeast-risen dough demo (need
lukewarm water) (check ovens)
0120 – Students follow suit
0140 – Demonstrate 2 wraps and 3 rolls –
students make their own lunch
0200 – Put the dough to prove
0205 – Make a high hydration dough which
will make a pizza and a focaccia. 2 mugs flour to 1 mug water – put to one
side. (Revisit every 10-20 minutes)
(0230) – Start baking everyone’s lunch.
Make fruit dough – 2 mugs flour, 2 tspoons
mixed spice, 2 dsps sugar 1 mug dried fruit
0300 – Lunch – but checking ovens/dough
0330 – Shape Chelsea buns and Swedish tea
ring - put to prove
0400 – Divide dough in two pieces, one
slightly larger (focaccia) than the other (pizza)
0425 – Roll out dough for pizza, cover with
tomato puree and grated vegan cheese
0450 – Roll out focaccia – shape and put to
prove
Rest of the session, while the bread is finishing baking:
Discussion, including: breadmaking rules - what makes a good baker - how to improve - good breadmaking habits (practice, practice, practice) - is there anything that would stop you making bread at home?
Homework – I’d like you to think of
someone, who doesn’t know how to make bread, who you could teach between now
and next Sunday
Breads for next week
Well, that was the planning - and we pretty well stuck to it!
In the event, 11 out of the 12 turned up - one had some unavoidable family commitments. And next week we'll be missing Sue, who would rather go to New Zealand to visit her family than enjoy a second day's breadmaking!
The day got off to a splendid start - I was met at the front of the village hall by Jenny and her husband (Colin?), who helped set up the hall with tables, etc.
Very shortly after I arrived, just before 9.30, the students started arriving. I had loads of offers of help, so setting up was a doddle.
There were various levels of breadmaking experience within the group - most of the students had had a go at it, with the main requirement being to achieve a level of consistency.
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| Jim, Denise, Viv, Amanda, Michelle |
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| Amanda, Viv, Julia, Sophia,Sue, Lavinia, Roger |
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| ...and Simon, on the end |
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| Simon, eating a serious Chelsea bun! |
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| Chelsea buns |
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| Chelseas, fruit soda bread and several fancy dinner rolls |
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| Two Swedish tea rings - to be dredged with icing sugar on arrival home |
[It was decided to make sourdough on the second session. Here's the story of the starter - and the loaf, I made this week.]
Sunday, 12th May
Another wonderful day! Once again the students arrived early and I had many helping hands unloading my 5 ovens and all the equipment - bowls, jugs, etc.
0000 - Register/name labels - what’s going
to happen today:
sourdough; pane casereccio (for lunch), petit pain au chocolat, jam doughnuts, pierogi/parathas, spelt bread (if
we have time), ciabatta
0015 – Sourdough demo –
0030 – Students make their own sourdough,
shape it and put to prove – which goes straight into the oven
0100 – Yeast-risen dough demo (need
lukewarm water) (check ovens) – different way of doing things!
0110 – Students follow suit - make their
own lunch. Lavinia makes a socca pancake
0130 – Making a sweet dough for PPs/JDs
(demonstrate jam tarts?) Put the dough to prove
0200 – Put the potatoes on to cook
0225 – Peirogi/pirotzkhi/parathas dough
(0230) – Start baking everyone’s lunch.
0300 – Lunch – but checking ovens/dough
0330 – Spelt bread – then,
0400 – Ciabatta
0425 – Bake the sourdough
0450 – Demonstration assembling a
‘no-knead, overnight’ bread
Admin
Homework – I’d like you to think of
someone, who doesn’t know how to make bread, that you could teach between now
and next Sunday
Final questions
Summary - closure
We began, as planned, with sourdough. 6 of the students had brought in their own starters, so I initially proposed that they should make a loaf using these - and the students who hadn't managed to make their own should use my starter.
In the event, the students with starters also wanted to make one using mine - and the students who had no starters were given some by the other students. So everyone made two sourdough loaves. Brilliant!
I was so impressed by the starters that students had made, I took a pic of them all - I'll try and remember whose was which:
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| Denise's |
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| Viv's? |
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| Amanda's? |
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| Sophia's |
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| Julia's |
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| Lavinia's |
These were put to one side to rise, while we got on with the rest of the programme.
We made the pane casereccio, which we were to have for lunch. I'd asked the students to bring some vegan sausage, mushrooms and tomatoes - but they also brought harissa paste, pesto and smoked paprika. These were shared quite willingly between the students, there was a lovely atmosphere of co-operation and friendliness in the room!
I took advantage of Viv's harissa paste to accompany my polony and mushroom filling.
Once this was made and put to prove by the ovens, we went on to the sweet dough and made pain au chocolat and jam doughnuts.
I'm not sure of the running order any more, but at some time the lunch was baked and eaten, potatoes were peeled and boiled and mixed with grated cheese and curry powder - the filling for the parathas and pierogis. The parathas were fried and the pierogis - mostly - boiled.
Time precluded making the spelt bread, but we managed to make some socca pancakes - Lavinia has a problem with gluten, so making these gram flour wraps came in handy for her. Several other students had a go at making these, and everyone had a taste.
Lastly we had a bit of fun with the ciabatta. My version of this bread has an increased liquid content - 25% extra - which makes a semi-batter and is beaten entirely in the bowl. It's not easy to get this right, first time up, and a couple of the students got very stuck up indeed!
Eventually, all came right and they all turned out some lovely loaves.
Late on in the proceedings I realised I hadn't taken any pics - so I went round taking random photo's of anything of interest.
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| Denise with her basket of bread |
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| 2 sourdough loaves, pain au chocolat, pierogis |
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| Pierogis and parathas - bottom; jam doughnuts and pain au chocolat, plus a sourdough loaf. I'm fairly sure these are Jim's |
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| Pierogis and parathas - top; jam doughnuts and pain au chocolat |
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| Amanda keeping a close eye on her ciabatta dough |
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| Simon's sourdough and pierogis (baked straight in the oven and not poached) |
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| Pierogis, jam doughnuts and pain au chocolat |
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| Two sourdough loaves, parathas and pierogis |
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| Ciabatta |
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| Ciabatta |
Everyone agreed they'd had a great time - and, more importantly, that they would continue making bread, now they had started.
There were two mentions of further breadmaking sessions arising from this. Jim has just asked me for some Saturday dates in July/August - he's hoping I'll run a workshop in his local village hall.
Amanda and Viv also mentioned the possibility of another workshop at sometime.
Just received this photo from Roger, with the following comment:
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"Excellent course Paul. Many thanks again. Whoever would have thought I would be able to make all of this! Best wishes," Roger
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