As a treat, Mrs Spratticus booked me on a bread baking class at our local artisan bakery - Real Patisserie, Kemptown, Brighton. It was on a Sunday afternoon and we had the run of the place for three and a half hours of baking up a storm under the guidance of French baker and patisserie chef Clement and assisted admirably by Jamie.
The class of six dough-boys'n'girls were tutored in making French sourdough flutes, two white sourdough loaves (one with ears and one with a beret - pics will make more sense), a rustic rye loaf and a seed laden soda bread.
In between mixing, kneading, prooving and baking the loaves, the tea and coffee flowed and we munched our way through pain au choc and pain au raisin.
So take a look at the wheaty fruits of our labours...
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| Rolling the oven ready flutes onto the 'peel' - trickier than it looks... and it looks quite tricky! |
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| White sourdough loaves with beret - chapeau! |
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| White sourdough loaves with 'ears', and flutes |
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| The whole bread haul |
So, what did I learn? Well...
- Dough is a little more forgiving than I thought and you can play around with it (ears, hats...maybe even shoes and a pipe?)
- The 'shock technique' of kneading - basically slapping the dough onto the work surface - "treatin' it ruff"
- For sourdough, really do try and go as wet as you dare
- Rye bread isn't as heavy as I thought it always was (not sure what I've been eating thinking it's rye)
- Use a proper blade (or lame) for slashing - basically a razor blade on a handle - it makes a BIG difference
- The point at where you gather the bread prior to its final rise is called the key - it's like a loaf's belly button
- Key up or key down when baking - it makes a different looking loaf
- You can make French sticks in England!
Many thanks to Real Patisserie - a great course and a fab way to spend a Sunday afternoon!
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