Breadmaking 101

Demi Baguette

Months ago (back in March I think), I signed up for a Pittsburgh Groupon with the Gaynor's School of Cooking.  By the way, if you aren't on Groupon's mailing list or Living Social's mailing list, sign up stat.  Great deals for all kinds of stuff.

Pain au mie

Anyway, I signed up for a Groupon with Gaynor's School of Cooking in the South Side and had been waiting and waiting and waiting for an advanced pastry or cake decorating course to come along, to no avail.  As it turns out, their pastry chef is on maternity leave, so I opted to take their breadmaking 101 course. 

Pita rounds

Onion Oregano bread

Breadmaking, as we've discussed before, is an essential part of baking.  It was the first baked good and it's symbolism and iconography are so far infused into food culture it's inescapable.  French people are forever portrayed as beret wearing, baguette carrying, artists on bicycles, and Italians are known for their artisanal foccacia breads and rich olive oil dipping sauces.  You get what I mean.

Rosemary foccacia

My class began at 10 am today (and I was late, ugh!) and in 4 short hours, 4 women made 4 demi-baguettes, 8 bagels, rosemary foccacia bread, onion and oregano loaf, pain au mie, sunflower seed bread, pita bread and challah.  From scratch I might add.

Garlic Salt Bagel

It was a wonderful class- and it's not something you need experience or lots of baking know-how to do.  Gaynor, the owner, is a wonderful teacher and the class has a very laid-back feel to it.  Plus, you get to take home the freshly baked breads which makes the money spent completely worth it. 

Sunflower seed bread, one of my favorites!

Of course, I can't share the recipes I learned here.  This is something better learned by patronizing a great local cooking school.  I will say that I believe bread is more intensive than some types of baking, but it's also more forgiving.  If you measure a cake out wrong, it really won't work.  But with bread, you can self correct along the way by adding more flour or more water.  For instance, today, our flour was a little moist, so we had to add much more than our recipes called for. 

Challah

Bread, it might not be super sweet, but it's Sugar Lovin worthy!