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

Another bread making course SELLS OUT!

Another artisan bread making course sells out at Hartingtons School of Food in Bakewell.

This time it's Andrew Auld's introduction to sourdough bread baking.

If you are interested in a sourdough course please email your details through the contact page as we will be announcing further dates very shortly.

There is still 1 space on the introduction to artisan bread making course on the 29th March and a few spaces left on the Italian Breadmaking Course on 20th May.

Let get Baking in Bakewell!

Junior Hartingtons in Bakewell

There have been two births at Hartingtons School of Food in Bakewell recently.


The first was junior Hartingtons. As you can see our first ever sourdough culture is now in short trousers metaphorically speaking and is fast growing up to be a proper sourdough culture that we are hoping to use in our first ever sourdough bread making course on the 3rd May. The image shows junior at feeding time as we spruce him up by changing his flour.

The other new addition to the Hartingtons stable was Hartingtons New Ale which was bottled as part of the finale of the first ever introduction to artisan beer brewing course. The course tutored by Paul Taylor was a fantastic event and one which hopefully will inspire a host of new beer makers who realise that they don't need expensive kit to get out there and start brewing their own unique and great tasting artisan beer from raw ingredients. We are already planning a series of beer brewing courses in Bakewell in the Peak District over the coming months so keep watching the website if you are interested.

Also if you are thinking of organising a stag event in the Peak District how about a day learning and producing your own unique beer for your wedding party? For more details please contact us