Discounts on Course Bookings
If you are booking more than one month before a course, you may choose to pay a 25% non-returnable deposit to secure your place(s), with the balance to be paid a month before the course.
If you pay in full on booking, we are happy to offer the following discounts:

1. Two or more people booking together each receive a 5% discount on their course costs.
2. Two or more members of the Real Bread Campaign booking together each receive a 10% discount on their course costs.

Only one of these discount offers is applicable to any one booking. We’ll ask for your Real Bread Campaign membership numbers where appropriate.

Bread Matters Advanced

The road to bread enlightenment

Venue      Macbiehill Farmhouse, Lamancha, near Edinburgh

Cost          2-day course £395 (including VAT)

              5-day course £875 (including VAT)

Dates       Sat-Sun April 20-21, 2013 (2-day course)

Monday to Friday 24-28, 2013 (5-day course)

This course is for

• enthusiastic amateur bakers who want to take their breadmaking to another level
• bread novices who have the culinary confidence to take the fast track to slow baking competence
• Bread Matters alumni who’ve had a bread baptism and are now ready for total immersion
• anyone attracted by a weekend (or a full week on the 5-day course) in a lovely place, making bread with a friendly and interesting group of people, in a way that is regularly described as ‘life-changing’ 

The course lasts

Two day course:   10 am to 5.30 pm & 9.30 am to 4 pm

Five day course:   10 am to 5.30 pm; 9.30 am to 5.30 pm; 9.30 am to 5.30 pm; 9.30 am to 5.30 pm; 9.30 am to 3 pm.

You will learn

• the essentials of bread fermentation in considerable depth
• all the important ways of making bread, from basic yeasted, through sponge-and-dough, to sourdough, with examples from a wide variety of cultures and traditions
• how to evaluate your breads and work methodically towards quality and consistency
• a wealth of techniques for kneading (or not), moulding, preparing loaves and finally baking them in a wood-fired brick oven
• more about bread (in the widest sense) than you may have thought possible 

You will make and take home

• a wide selection of different breads baked in the wood-fired oven – and a new confidence for all your future baking.

You will also get

• a signed copy of Bread Matters by Andrew Whitley
• coffee, lunch and tea (all organic, with much of the food grown on the Macbiehill smallholding or Whitmuir Farm) each day
• a three-course dinner on the Tuesday evening (partners or friends can come too, for an extra charge).

Breadmaking is essentially quite simple. So this course is ‘advanced’ not in the sense that it teaches a whole lot of complicated techniques, but rather in offering a chance to spend more time perfecting the art. It is aimed primarily at enthusiastic amateur bakers, including those who may want to learn a bit about scaling up their baking, in terms of both quantity and variety. People planning to bake (or already baking) commercially might prefer the focus of the Baking for a Living or Baking for Community courses.

The Advanced course will deepen your understanding of breadmaking and your control over the process. We make a wide range of breads and there are opportunities to try out new ideas or work on personal favourites. 

Conversation leavens the physical work, the Bread Matters library is on hand for research and inspiration and everyone shares baking and other experiences in a relaxed and friendly atmosphere.  On the five-day course, we also visit nearby Whitmuir Organic Farm for tea and a farm walk.

A blend of inspirational and overwhelming – can’t wait to take some time to digest and revise the very rich content over a much longer period. Big thank you for the whole experience.

As a relatively novice baker I found the course interesting/challenging enough and it really did provide the knowledge I needed/wanted. Thank you.