Sourdough Bread Course
Sourdough bread-making is traditionally a skill that has been passed on directly by experienced bakers for millennia.
With time on your hands why not use this moment to learn to bake with Sara, who teaches guests in her beautiful Cornish kitchen and is now offering interactive online classes.
You will be guided through the different stages of sourdough baking:
- activating your starter the night before
- step by step instructions for mixing, kneading, rising & shaping
- the science & health benefits of eating sourdough
- baking methods & tips
- recipe and instruction sheets
Then you can eat your own loaf, warm out of the oven the same evening or for breakfast the next morning.
With your starter, a banneton & a recipe to follow you’ll never look back!
Sara learned sourdough bread making 10 years ago with Vicky’s Bread, who supply some of the best bread throughout Cornwall and the South West. Since then she has baked nearly every day & has developed a simple, reliable approach to making all kinds of delicious loaves to teach beginners and more experienced bread-makers alike.
The Story of the Starter
The starter is the magic ingredient of sourdough. It’s just flour and water but has been ‘activated’ by the wild yeasts and bacteria in the environment feeding off it. The by-products are CO2 and lactic acid, which make the dough rise and give that special flavour to sourdough.
You can make your own starter, but if you can it’s good to get hold of one that’s already active. Starters often have their own stories: I got mine from Vicky when I did my course 10 years ago. She had brought hers back 15 years previously from where she trained on New York Broadway, when it was already over 100 years old. But that’s nothing compared to the 4,500 year old starter Seamus Blackley brought back to life from yeasts in old Egyptian cooking vessels! The bread he baked was apparently much richer and sweeter than the sourdough we are used to now.
