Monday, February 13, 2017

The Mysteries of Sourdough at Bridgehead

As a present, S signed me up for this class at bridgehead. So sweet!  Apparently I had been talking a lot about my barista class there. If you missed the recap, read about it here.  I also took the croissant course and it was great.. I guess I never got around to blogging about it ( could have sworn I did, but I can't seem to find any evidence of that) 

Well, I won't let that happen this time. One key takeaway from both the croissant and the sourdough course; don't try it at home. Croissants are such a long strenuous process; and sour dough bread really needs specialized equipment (you need to be able to proof the bread just right and have an oven with steam etc). 

The starter isn't as hard as I imagined but you need to "feed it" every day. You create the starter by mixing flour and water, and then every day you throw away 80% of the mixture and add more flour and water. 

One lady in my course said, well it's just like watering your plants or feeding your dog. you need to do it every day. Hmm well I didn't know a plant I didn't kill and I definitely don't have a dog so... But it was really interesting to learn about the process and see how the bread is made at the Bridgehead Roastery. The starter at Bridgehead has been alive for 9 years. Wow!!! The longer you have it for, the more flavour develops. Once you have starter, you use it for about 25% of your dough to make the bread. 


Like at all the bridgehead courses, we were welcomed in the best way possible- with coffee and treats!! yum! 


Our instructor showing us how it's done.



He is taking them out of the bamboo baskets. They have nice lines imprinted on them.


You use a sharp blade to score the bread before baking.



yummm

The fresh bread was so good!!! See those big holes? They are a sign that the bread turned out well.

They gave us dough to take home. When I tried to made bread with it, it failed miserably and I had to toss it. i think i know where I went wrong..the oven was too hot to proof it and the dough kind of melted..and became very sticky. Woops. Ah well. I did make pizza dough with some of the dough and that was really delicious! I made pizza for my parents and then again for S and everyone liked it.

I love these bridgehead workshops and highly recommend them! This instructor also teaches pastry at Algonquin. That would be fun!!


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