Last Wednesday night we braved the frightful weather for a bread baking class at Le Pain Quotdien in Soho. It was some of the most fun I had ever had. There were only six of us in the class, we came home with a cab full of bread (we even gave a baguette to the driver!) and we learnt SO much.
I first read about the classes on Casey’s blog and knew straight away that it would be something that Bill would love to do, so I booked us in!
We learnt how to make baguettes, fruit and nut loaf, rolls filled with chocolate and then, we made pizza and got to eat it right there and then for dinner!
We have tried to make bread so many times and it seems impossible to ever get it right. We learnt so much about the environmental effects that really can change the way a loaf turns out and even just how the dough ‘has to feel’. The importance of weighing everything and also the use of flour is so important. We would always get quite excited when kneading and throw flour all over the place. As our baker said – all of the flour you need is in the recipe and if it is sticking flour should only be used sparingly. Even learning how to properly roll a roll so it is perfect and there is a lot more to rolling out a baguette to just treating it like play dough!
Bill was awesome at picking the exact weight to cut the dough at –
We were doing all of this right in the front of the bakery – so we had so many people asking us if we were bakers in training and watching us through the night! We had so much fun making the chocolate rolls – a little bit of butter and a chocolate button created an amazing roll!
Here I am creating the yummiest baguettes ever –
Ready to go into the oven –
Cooking away –
Our bread!
Then we got to make pizza for dinner!
We also got to come home with a whole lot of fresh dough to keep… or eat as I like to do! 😉
We would even go and do this class again – there is a definite art to baking bread and while we can go and get a bread maker and have a machine do it all for us, it just isn’t the same. We cannot wait to try some of these tips out and try and recreate some of this at home.