Sourdough Breadmaking Course & Toast

I was introduced to the delights of sourdough bread about 5 years ago.  Sourdough bread for the uninitiated is bread made using ancient and natural yeast cultures.  It was how we used to make bread before the introduction of a specific strain of baking yeast widely adopted in the beginning of the 20th century.  Prior to that bakers used yeast produced during the beer brewing process.

Name of Sourdough Bread

The name of sourdough bread is derived from the slightly sour taste derived from the lactic acid produced by the lactobacilli and yeast during the proving or fermentation process of the bread.

Sourdough Toast

One of the biggest revelations of experiencing sourdough bread for the first time is when you try toasting it.  Sourdough toast is unbelievable!  The open crumb structure produced by the lactobacilli and the flavour of the bread produces a toast that is unrivalled to any other type of bread in my humble opinion.  Try stilton on toast on sourdough bread and you will think that you have died and gone to heaven!

Sourdough breadmaking courses

Hartingtons runs a number of sourdough breadmaking courses with expert artisan bread baker Andrew Auld of the Loaf in Critch.  On his intensive one day sourdough breadmaking course you will learn how to make 3 different style of sourdough breads including a fabulous rye bread. On the course Andrew demystifies the production of the mother starter culture and give you the confidence to handle and work with sourdough.

Artisan breadmaking courses

Artisan bread making course sells out

Hartingtons Italian bread making course has sold out illustrating just how popular our bread making courses have been. This is testament to the quality of our bread making tutors who are all passionate about real bread making.

Don't worry though we still have a full range of artisan bread making courses available and more are being added daily.

There are a few places left on our introduction to artisan bread making on 29th March or why not try an introduction to sourdough bread making to learn the skill to make your own fantastic tasting sourdough bread.

Lets get bread baking

New birth in Bakewell

Hartingtons gave birth to its own mother culture last week. This sourdough starter culture can be used in our future artisan sourdough bread making courses.

We made our culture under the instruction of one of our bread making tutors David Neville who incidentally is off to work with Morrisons, starting this week to help them upgrade their already impressive range of artisan breads. Apparently, Morrisons are the only one of the big supermarkets that have retained genuine bread baking facilities within their stores.

To make you own starter culture all you need is flour, water and some grapes. Leave the culture exposed to the atmosphere and it will pick up the natural wild yeast spores, which then work symbiotically with bacteria to produce the unique sour taste. Each starter has a completely original composition. This made the birth of Hartingtons 'junior' a very special moment in Hartingtons short life.

We are doing a sourdough bread making course in May with Andrew Auld of the Loaf. By then young Hartingtons may even be old enough to play his part.

Sourdough bread making course

The popularity of artisan bread making cannot be denied. One of the most resurgent areas of bread making that has come about is that of sourdough. You can tell sourdough by the irregularity and relatively large size of the air pockets within the crumb of the loaf (see image ).

What is sourdough?

Sourdough bread making uses a naturally occurring combination of bacteria and yeast which was first used as far back as ancient Egyptian times to leaven bread (make it rise). It was used exclusively until the middle ages but now has been replaced largely by cultured or 'bakers' yeast. Sourdough is particularly important in Rye bread making because rye does not contain enough gluten to make leavening with cultured yeast rise effectively.

The popularity of sourdough

Sourdough bread has become more available in recent years with the increasing popularity of artisan bread producers who champion the cause of real bread production and a return to more traditional styles of bread making.

Taste wise it has a more sour or tangy taste than cultured bread. I love it and it makes particularly brilliant toast.

Hartingtons is pleased to announce that we have the Peak Districts finest artisan baker Andrew Auld from the Loaf in Crich taking a full days course in the art of sourdough baking on 3rd May.

So if you want to learn how to make this truly traditional artisan style of bread come along for a full days bread making course in Bakewell and learn something new in 2012.

Hartingtons - Food Experience

Sourdough Masterclass with Dan Lepard at the Cookery School at Little Portland Street

Famous artisan baker, Dan Lepard, is returning to Cookery School for a 'hands on' Sourdough cooking class.

Dan will show you how to create a healthy leaven (or 'starter') as well as giving expert tips on mixing, kneading and shaping the dough.

Pick up a host of tips and tricks on the day which will enable you to get the perfect crust, texture and most important of all.......... the perfect taste!

Because class numbers are limited to 14 Dan is able to work with each of you individually throughout the day.

The next Sourdough Masterclass is on Sunday 27 November from 9.00 a.m. to 4.00 p.m. priced at £215.

Check out Cookery School website at http://www.cookeryschool.co.uk/ for full details.