Italian Baking

Thursday-Friday 18-19 September 2008

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Learning about Italian bread means going on a cook’s tour of regional specialities. To Italy’s credit, its bread hasn’t fallen prey to homogenised brands and national distribution. Most of its baking is small-scale and locally distinctive.

This course takes us from the bubbly focaccia of Liguria to the golden semolina bread of Puglia, with an encounter with Tuscan schiacciata along the way.

Try your hand at polenta bread with its delicate maize sweetness and learn how to handle the wettest dough you will every encounter in your search for the chewiest ciabatta you’ve ever tasted.

At the heart of all good Italian bread, of course, is long fermentation, embodied in the famous biga or yeasted sponge. The course explains how to make your own and then develop it to bring flavour, keeping quality and nutritional vitality to all your breads.

 

‘This has completely changed the way I view breadmaking and has spurred me to bake and experiment.’