2ND VEGAN BREADMAKING COURSE at The Planet Cafe, Taunton

Tuesday 20th September 2016
Arrived late tonight - traffic in Taunton was pretty well grid-locked, due to Station Road closing to allow a new bridge being placed in position. A couple of the students were also late - but with breadmaking being such an easy activity, we soon got back on track.

Focaccia and Chelseas tonight:

Not sure who loaf this belonged to - but it's a well-risen loaf

Another good loaf - and this time I can identify it to Sarah H

(Note: I ask the students to place an initial on top of each batch of bread - for two reasons; firstly, so the students can be re-united with their own bread - but also so that I can identify these breads when I'm putting these pics up on here.)

BREADMAKING MADE EASY - Highbridge, Somerset May 2014

Here's where I shall post all the preparation and planning for this course, plus links to the recipes of all the breads we make over the three weeks. I'll be surprised if we don't make a dozen or so different varieties of bread between us all! 

Here's the pre-course letter that students will receive:

Dear Student,

Breadmaking at Morland Hall, Pearce Drive, Off Morland Road, Highbridge, TA9 3ET, 9.30-12.30, 6^th to 20^th May 2014

This letter sets out what I intend will happen in the first session and includes a list of ingredients and utensils which you will need to bring. If you are new to breadmaking, let me reassure you that it is much easier than you have been led to believe.

The session will begin in a relaxed fashion – the first thing you need to do is to find somewhere to park all the stuff that I ask you to bring, get yourself a drink and a chair to sit on. There is some necessary administration to complete, but we can go through this 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 I’d like to spend some time finding out if you’ve had any experience in breadmaking, and what you expect to get out of the course, so that I can hopefully meet all your requirements.

The breads we will be making on the first morning are: Plain soda bread, spiced fruit loaf (also soda bread) and a tinned loaf, yeast risen.

Each week you will make 2 or 3 varieties of bread – most of them chosen by you and the other students. However, there are various techniques I want to cover, such as ‘No-knead, overnight bread’, using the cloche method, etc. You will be given the recipes for all the breads we make, plus general breadmaking hints and tips. My aim is for you to become a competent home baker (if you’re not already!), able to bake any bread you fancy.

Bring a large basket or a cardboard box to carry all your equipment and ingredients, and the finished products to take home with you!  Coffee or tea is available during the session.

I want to reassure those students new to breadmaking that my first aim for this course is for everyone to enjoy their learning – I always delight in these sessions, and it’s my job to see that everyone else does. Breadmaking is an easy, everyday craft – as you’ll come to realise (if you haven’t already)!

If you have any questions, doubts, suggestions at all, please don’t hesitate to ring or email me. I always enjoy making contact with my students before the course begins.

Finally, I’d like to 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 the word ‘Companion’ can be taken to mean, ‘Someone who makes bread with friends’. Which is what we shall be doing on these Tuesday mornings!

I look forward to meeting you and welcoming you on the course.

Paul (Course tutor)

P.s. I’ve started a post on my blog where I will post all the planning for this course – plus all the pics, both mine and yours!

http://nobreadisanisland.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/breadmaking-made-easy-highbridge.html

Have a look around the blog – this will help you decide which breads you’d like to make.

Shopping list:

500g strong white flour (own brand is fine)

500g strong wholemeal flour (if you want to make a wholemeal loaf or rolls)

Baking powder

Olive oil

Salt

2 dessertspoons sugar (granulated is fine)

Mixed spice

100g dried fruit

10g fresh yeast (but I'll have plenty available if you can’t find any)

You will also need to bring:

An apron

A couple of tea towels, both to cover your dough whilst it's proving and to wrap your warm bread in to take home.

Baking paper/parchment (this is unlike ordinary greaseproof paper as it contains silicon)

Something to carry away the finished products (a large basket or cardboard box lined with tea towels would be ideal)

Mug (there are cups and saucers in the centre – not sure if they provide mugs)

Wellington Children's Centre

I have been asked by Kelly, one of the organisers, to run a 3 week breadmaking course with their families, on Jan 25th, Feb 1st and Feb 8th. (Story starts at the foot of this post.)


Wednesday 29th February.
Finally, with three families having turned up, we ran the session this morning. These small sessions are often more intense - and cosy, I suppose

[More to come]


Wednesday 22nd February.
Unfortunately, as often happens after a break - and this was a break of 3 weeks - only one family turned up; so it was decided to try again next week.

Wednesday 8th February.
I couldn't make this date, and the 15th fell in the middle of half term so the 3rd session has been rescheduled for the 22nd.

Wednesday 1st February.
The word had obviously gone out, because we had 7 families (all mothers) today! 5 new families and 2 from last week. (Benjy and his dad couldn't make it.)

After a demo from me, everyone set to with a will - half of the mothers with babies on the lap were doing everything one-handed - and the dough was made and the pizzas almost finished before I remembered to take a picture. It was a busy, hectic, session - no-one (except for the two families from last week) had made bread before, so everything was all new.

The pizza dough was 1 mug flour, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1/3rd mug water and a teaspoon of yeast. This was quickly kneaded, rolled out into a circle and covered with tomato puree (made into a sauce with the addition of water) and grated cheese)

The initials on top of the pizza are to identify them - otherwise it would be impossible to reunite everyone with their own.

One of the mothers made a tiny pizza for her daughter - you can just see it next to the topmost pizza in the picture. An idea I think I might pinch for the next time I do a session with very young children. The pizza, being very small, cools down very quickly, so the child can get stuck in to 'her' pizza very quickly.


Wednesday 25th January
We only had a small group in the first session - 2 mums, one dad, two babies and a 3-year-old. It was a very relaxed session where each family made a batch of dough -  and made a variety of shapes. The three-year-old, Benjy, was a delight, taking to shaping the fancy dinner roll shapes with gusto! I've been promised some photos which I'll post when I get them. Next week we're making pizza - and the week after, petit pain au chocolat and jam doughnuts.

Breadmaking courses

Wednesday 7th December 2011.
Just heard I'll be running another course in Williton starting 17th Jan, for 5 weeks - and then another in the summer.

In February I'll be running 2 or 3 sessions at the hostel for the homeless where I held a starter session recently, plus another 2 or 3 in the summer.




Tuesday 1st October 2010.
I shall be running two evening breadmaking courses in the Autumn term, both for the general public:

In Wellington from 22/9/10 to 20/10/10, and

In Bridgwater from 2/11/10 to 30/11/10.

I'm starting a new Family Learning course at Bishop Hull Primary School in June for 6 weeks, for 8 or 9 year 3 students and their parents.

I've also been given £200 by West Monkton Parish Council to run 3 more breadmaking sessions under the 'Breadmaking for all' banner.

These will run back to back on Saturday the 18th of September - from 10 in the morning to 5 in the afternoon.

The breads we will be making are two varieties of soda bread and a batch of Chelsea buns.

I've now started working for the Worker's Education Association, which is very exciting.

I've been asked to run 2 courses in the Autumn and Winter for Taunton Association for the Homeless. They have a new training kitchen and a small cafe. The idea ATM is that some of their products may be sold in the cafe (or at least displayed there) and when students  complete the course they would be able to help out in the cafe.

And the WEA have been given some money which must be used up by the 31st of July - so I'll be doing  5 sessions  at the Albemarle Centre in Taunton, which is a drop-in centre for Adults with Learning Disabilities.

"Breadmaking made easy", Burnham, Sept - Oct 2011

Monday 17th October.


Christmas loaf and pane casereccio (rolled, filled pizza) tonight, the last session.


In this classroom I have a PC at my disposal, so I have been able to put pictures of the bread they were making up on the screen (from my blog). We were halfway through making the pane casereccio when I suddenly realised the computer screen was blank - and the PC was dead. Thinking it was either something I'd done or it was a computer fault I just left it. Shortly afterwards I noticed one of my ovens had gone cold. I still didn't twig. It was only when I noticed that the bread in the oven wasn't browning as it should have been that I realised the power was off. It became obvious that a circuit breaker had tripped somewhere.


I checked in the next room, where the sockets were still operating OK. I found a pair in the small kitchenette - about 20 metres away from the classroom where we were working, but still. Then another 2 sockets were found, so we were able to keep on baking.


Not sure if my four ovens had caused the outage, since we'd used them without any problems in the previous weeks. 


It was nice to hear that the group were sad about the course finishing and were wondering what they'd do with their Monday evenings from now on. I was given a lovely card from everyone thanking me for my efforts over the past 5 weeks. They were a lovely bunch and we had a lot of laughs. I shall miss them.


I have only one pic to post from this session - showing how one student, Joan,  shaped her Christmas loaf, using tinned apricots. [That's still to come.]


Monday 10th October.
Sizzlers and Chelsea buns on the menu today - although Will opted to make a Peshwari naan.

Excellent session, but no pics since I forgot my phone!

Monday 3rd October 2011.
3rd session - Tarte Alsace and Apfel kuchen tonight. The students are now no longer beginners - they all know what to do:
Make the savoury dough - put it to one side, make the fruit dough, shape it and put to prove; shape the first dough, add toppings and put to prove.

They're all very organised and it all works like clockwork - except for the photo-copier! [More to come]

Here's a couple of pics from the session:

Remembered to gather these Apfel kuchens together for a group photo...

But only just remembered in time to take this pic of Tom's Tarte Alsace before he put it away in his basket.

6 students, 4 women and 2 men - none of whom were breadmakers, except one had a machine.

The venue is an ordinary classroom, but, since I have 4 ovens I can carry around with me, we can turn it into a kitchen of sorts.

Each week we make two batches of bread - generally one each, sweet and savoury. The first evening the students made soda bread - I demonstrated a plain one, while the students made a spicy fruit loaf - and also a batch of fancy dinner rolls.

The breads made on the second evening were chosen by the students. The main focus was meant to be on loaves of bread, but one of the guys was desperate to make a pizza:

And here it is.

Here's a focaccia and a batch of sweet breads - pain au chocolat and jam doughnuts:

The two large ones are the doughnuts and the others are the pain au chocolat.

Here's a loaf with the buns.

Next Monday we're making Tarte Alsace and Apfel kuchen.

Breadmaking courses Autumn 2011

I have two courses running in the Autumn - both at far-flung places (for me!).

Essential Breadmaking Made Easy (First Steps) at:

Burnham  - Mon 19th Sept 19:00-21:00 for 5 weeks; and

Williton - Tues 15th Nov 13:00-15:00 for 5 weeks.

I'm also running pizza-making workshops for the youngsters of Halcon, Taunton, every Wednesday morning through the summer holidays in the wonderful new wood-fired dragon (I mean oven!).

Just heard the Burnham course is going ahead - 6 have enrolled, so there's still room for a couple more!

Williton June-July 2011 - Student pics

When I conduct a breadmaking course I often give the students some homework, which is to go home and teach someone what they've just learned.

Here's Annette's proof:

Annette's 7-year-old daughter plus a pizza and some pain au chocolat they'd made together!

Pane Casereccio and Apfel Kuchen - Annette reports that half the apple cake went in one sitting between her and her husband

Annette again, this in preparation for a coffee morning.

Evening breadmaking course, Autumn 2010

It's my intention to create a portfolio of pictures of bread made by my students as a result of this course.

Here's the first - some fancy dinner rolls made by Collette at home:

And here's a couple from Nic:

These were made by Kath on Wednesday evening. We also made some grissini, but I expect they didn't last long!

Here's 3-year-old Zoe, Kath's daughter, making a fruit soda bread

Yesterday Claire (the new member of the course - this was her first ever attempt at making bread) sent me these four pics from her phone:

Sun-dried tomato focaccia with Parmesan

Peshwari naan (my non-authentic version). The letter C is there so that Claire can identify her own bread. You can just see her breadsticks that she made from the same dough as the focaccia.

Cheese and tomato pizza - base made from the foccacia dough.

Ciabatta

Here's a mix of pics (see what I did there?;)) from Collette. The pizzas were made at home.

Collette's Apfel kuchen

"They were seriously yummy! 

I shocked myself!! " Collette

Pizza by Charity (Collette's daughter)

Ciabatta

(More to come.)

Letter of introduction to the evening breadmaking course

Dear Student,

Breadmaking at Court Fields Community School, 7-9pm on 29^th September

I’m delighted to hear that the course is going ahead, albeit with low numbers. If you have a friend who’d like to come with you, it’s not too late (they would be very welcome!).

This letter sets out what I intend will happen in the first session and includes a list of ingredients and utensils which you will need to bring. If you are new to breadmaking, let me reassure you that it is much easier than you have been led to believe.

The session will begin in a relaxed fashion – the first thing you need to do is to find somewhere to park all the stuff that I ask you to bring, get yourself a drink and a stool to sit on. There is some necessary administration to complete, but it’s best if we go through this 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 I’d like to spend some time finding out if you’ve had any experience in breadmaking, and what you expect to get out of the course, so that I can hopefully meet all your requirements.

The breads we will be making on the first evening are: Plain or fruit soda bread, and fancy dinner rolls or a loaf (traditional English loaf or a focaccia).

Each week you will make 2 varieties of bread – most of them chosen by you and the other students. Also there are various techniques I want to cover, such as ‘No-knead, overnight bread’, using the cloche method, etc. You will be given the recipes for all the breads we make, plus general breadmaking hints and tips. My aim is for you to become a competent home baker (if you’re not already!), able to bake any bread you fancy.

Bring a large cardboard box or basket to carry all your equipment and ingredients, and the finished products to take home with you!  Coffee or tea is available at 20p per mug – the kettle is always on. (Or bring your own, of course.)

I want to reassure all those students new to breadmaking that my first aim for this course is for everyone to enjoy their learning – I always delight in these sessions, and it’s my job to see that everyone else does. Breadmaking is an easy, everyday craft – as you’ll come to realise (if you haven’t already)!

If you have a particular variety of bread you'd like to make instead of one of the breads on offer, I'd be very happy for you to do that. Get in touch if this idea appeals to you and we will see how we could fit it in to the programme. Or if you have any questions, doubts, suggestions at all, please don’t hesitate to ring or email me. It’s always nice to make contact with my students before the course begins.

Finally, I’d like to 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 the word ‘Companion’ can be taken to mean, ‘Someone who makes bread with friends’. Which is what we shall be doing on these Wednesday evenings!

I look forward to meeting you and welcoming you on the course.

Paul (Course tutor)

Evening breadmaking course in Wellington

Planning for this course...(Including letter of introduction)

We're making 2 sorts of soda bread (choice of) and a yeast-risen dough out of which can be made a loaf or a batch of rolls. 

In my demo for the soda bread, I shall show the students how I make a loaf of soda bread without measuring anything - just to show them how easy it is.

Then I'll demonstrate how I make a sticky dough - which I'll then knead several times, ending up with a manageable dough.

Out of this, students will be able to make a batch of bread rolls or a loaf.

The students will get recipes for these, plus a handout telling them why they should make bread, and giving them a mass of info including some relevant websites.

(I'm hoping the students will all have access to the web. If they haven't I'll need to do some photocopying!)

Breadmaking courses - update

Here's the info on the courses I was hoping to run this Autumn.

The Wellington course is going ahead from next Wednesday - but only with 4 students, hoping to pick up more as the course goes on - so if there's anyone interested within range, give Somerset Skills and Learning a ring on 01823 663000.

There's also room on the Bridgwater one, starting in November.

The Bishops Hull Family Learning course (now only 5 weeks) has begun with 9 families attending (10 from next week!)

I'm also running an after school club (Bishops Hull Bread Heads - or BH squared) which has 5 youngsters attending (maybe 7 next week).

The 'Breadmaking for all' village project was a bit disappointing - I only had 8 for the  first session and 2 for the second. Both were extremely good fun, students included 3 children (3, 5 and 8) a grandmother and a father.

However, the TAH course hasn't happened yet since there aren't enough takers.

I'm offering a free taster course shortly, hoping to attract  a few more students.

The Albemarle course went extremely well, attracting up to 12 students  (many old friends amongst them!) - with plenty of support they were very successful.