Loaf Cookery School - Bread: Back to Basics

This weekend was AMAZING (imagine how Scott Mills on Radio 1 says it and repeat).

Not only was the sun shining and the UK was finally getting its first taste of summer for the year, I also went on my first cookery course! Yay!
This course was booked ages ago, honestly AGES ago. We had to book it back in September its so popular. Myself, Isabel, my sister Sarah and our friend Briony all went to the Loaf Cookery School for a masterclass on making bread that is consistently good and without additives.
Run by Tom Baker (I know what a brilliant name) from his home and garden in Cotteridge, Birmingham. Loaf is a social enterprise that is trying to promote good food and healthy living in Birmingham and through the community.

The course was a whole day, where we got to make various types of breads including: a boulle, ciabbatta, wholewheat rolls, sourdough batons, brioche and fougasse.
Each bread was made from either a basic white dough which only had flour, water, salt and yeast in it. Or a sponge that allowed the yeast to ferment before hand.
We started the day with a nice cup of tea and a few slices of bread (of course), whilst Tom explained to us a bit about Loaf and about what our itinerary for the day was.
He then went on to demonstrate to us the basic white bread dough and de-mystify a lot of things about bread making that had previously been making my bread dense and manky. Within the first 10 minutes of his demonstration (and after annoying him with a dozen questions) I already knew so much about where I had been going wrong for years!

For one, when books tell you to flour the surface before kneading DON'T. No no put that handful of flour down, seriously this will mess you loaf up big time. One of the biggest misconceptions is that you need a floured surface to knead on, but in reality this will only dry your dough out and prevent it from being light and fluffy. (There was a lot of sciency stuff that Tom explained about dough and gluten chains, but I honestly can't remember enough of it to tell you it properly. Sorry!)

We then went on to make our ciabbatta's, which is a really wet dough and quite difficult to handle, but really satisfying when you get it right.
By the end of the morning we had made all our doughs and were waiting for them to rise and prove.
At this point we moved out into the garden and used our first set of white dough to make fougasse, a traditional french bread in the shape of a leaf. We flavoured them with Razal Hanoush, which is a morrocan spice mixture and cooked them in Tom's clay oven. That oven is FREAKING AMAZING. Honestly one of my next projects is to build one in my garden...Ok so I know thats not going to happen but hey I can dream.

Tom showing us how to make a Fougasse

Our attempts as Fougasse!

Whilst waiting for the doughs to prove we made home made pizza's for lunch again in the clay oven, which one of the other bakers there described as ' the best pizza she had ever had'.


The afternoon was spent learning how to shape the dough and proving it, and discussing other types of bread and techniques.

Bread shaping techniques

Sourdough batons

I would honestly recommend this course to anyone who has tried making bread before and its always been a disaster like mine, or even novices and pro's. Tom is really friendly and puts you at ease, whilst making sure you always feel supported by him. Also you have to do it just to see his lovely bathroom!!