Artisan Sourdough Made Simple
What you'll learn
- Create a natural, wild yeast starter using flour and water.
- Maintain this starter in the fridge.
- Use the starter to make your own leaven.
- Bake 6 different delicious, nutritious and beautiful artisan sourdough breads – including 2-day sourdough baguette.
- Use the principles of slow fermentation and fridge retardation to make the baking fit around your schedule, not the other way around!
Requirements
- Instructions for making a wild yeast leaven (sourdough starter) are given in the course. The following is a list of basic equipment you will need for baking artisan sourdough.
- This takes about 3 days to be ready for use, so you should plan ahead for your first baking day.
- Most bakers will already have a basic range of equipment, but the list of what we use on the course is given here:
- Digital scales, or measuring cups. Probe thermometer Jug Mixing bowl (which will fit in your fridge) Plastic scrapers Sharp lame, grignette or craft blade for scoring dough A couple of metal baking trays and a loaf tin A couple of bannetons or proving baskets. A clean dish brush (or similar) for brushing out bannetons A silicone spatula A flour shaker A couple of clean shower hats A plant sprayer for misting dough with water .
Description
Master the ancient art of baking with a wild yeast leaven to create nutritious, delicious and beautiful sourdough breads.
Learn how to make and manage your own leaven and bake genuine artisan sourdoughs with surprisingly little effort.
Follow step-by-step video instructions from expert artisan bakers
Complete six authentic sourdough bread projects
Get the sourdough taste and texture you’ve always wanted, from mildly tangy to truly tart- and, if you like it that way, properly holey!
Discover the trick of fitting “slow dough” into the fastest lifestyles!
Learn a wonderfully simple sourdough routine that’s good for you, body and soul.
Hand-made sourdough bread is real bread.
It’s better for your body, thanks to its low GI, and the way fermentation modifies gluten, making it easier for your gut to digest, while making nutrients in the flour more bio-available.
It’s also good for your soul. A freshly baked artisan sourdough on the table is guaranteed to warm anyone’s heart - and the good news is that you can easily do this every day.
Content and overview
Our practical course is designed to give you crystal clear instructions on how to build beautiful, sourdough bread-baking into your everyday life. No stress, no fuss. Just a simple, 5-minute routine.
We start by explaining what a natural, wild yeast starter (leaven) is, and exactly how to make and look after your own. Creating the starter takes about 1 minute a day for 5 days, but after that you can keep it going for the rest of your life.
Once your starter is established, you’re ready to begin the first of our six authentic sourdough projects. Each one gives you an insight into a different technique, a different flour, or ways to incorporate other ingredients. Together, they build your knowledge and experience of key sourdough principles such as leaven use, hydration, fermentation and retardation.
Whether it’s a crackling baguette, a fragrant thyme and olive bread or a rich walnut rye, we aim to give you enough knowledge and confidence to regularly bake all your own sourdough breads for yourself with virtually no effort at all.
Here are a few of our favourite 5 star testimonials from our other courses:
I gave five stars because the genuine enthusiasm of Penny and Dragan is so infectious, and all the various aspects are explained and demonstrated in such an easy to follow manner. I felt drawn in and couldn't wait to get a starter going. I'm looking forward to the time when I have rocked & rolled & chafed and, hopefully, ended up with a lovely smooth ball of dough - like the one that Dragan cradled in his hands so affectionately. Looks a little like play dough for grown-ups. George.E. Morley
Penny and Dragan removed the mystique surrounding sourdough and made it very "do-able." Really love the FAB recipe! Bobby Ollar
…The bonus too is they show the stages of dough development clearly and this was something I struggled to understand before this course. They keep it simple as bread baking should be. I'm really looking forward to more courses. Julia Bilecki
Dragan and Penny! Thank you for putting together such an awesome course. Incredible support, you know what you are talking about. Very insightful course. I really learned a lot, all of the additional advice/tips very helpful and useful. All the best for you. Marcelo Ariatti
The videos are priceless! Aden
Why not check out the promo video and the free lectures for yourself?
Who this course is for:
- Students with some previous baking experience will find this course enriches their skill set, but it is also suitable for complete beginners, so long as they are reasonably confident in the kitchen.
- The information contained in this course has been verified and documented as carefully as possible. The authors cannot be held liable for the use or mis-use of its contents. This means, that we cannot be held liable for accidents or injuries resulting from mis-use of ovens, blades or other kitchen equipment. Baking is a very responsible business and under-18s should be supervised by a competent adult.
Instructor
- 4.7 Instructor Rating
- 2,173 Reviews
- 10,418 Students
- 14 Courses
Lifelong bakers Dragan Matijevic and his wife, Penny Williams, set up their first microbakery in Oxford, 2008, selling artisan bread to locals from "The smallest bakery in the world" - a tiny, converted garden store. It was originally intended as a side-project, something to complement their freelance incomes as a magician (Dragan) and a copywriter/ translator (Penny). But the bread had other ideas! It proved such a success that they were soon baking six days a week, and being asked to give classes.
In 2012, Dragan and Penny moved to Devon, establishing The Artisan Bakery School in a rambling Devonshire cottage with a good kitchen and a slightly bigger bakery. They now offer a wide range of one-day classes or baking mini-breaks, from Beginners through Artisan Sourdough & Rye, Woodfired Pizza, Viennoiserie, Gluten-Free, Wheat-Free and Heirloom Grains, Heritage Techniques.
The Artisan Bakery School focuses on teaching people how to bake bread with integrity. That means authentic techniques, and ethical ingredients: no chemicals, no preservatives, no cheating and no cutting corners. We also show people who are time-poor how to fit real, slow-rise bread into their hectic lifestyles with minimal effort. We think baking should be fun and there’s no reason why you have to be a slave to your dough!
Teaching the craft of artisan bread making is our main trade. This is because we believe that such skills need to be passed on to future generations – for their pleasure, for their health and for the health of the planet.