As part of my Christmas present from my lovely Rob, I was given a few baking lessons at the amazing Bread Ahead Bakery in Borough Market, London. I can't tell you how excited I was to book some classes! We discovered Bread Ahead one weekend whilst strolling through Borough Market, browsing the fresh food stalls. Hidden away at the back of the market, on Cathedral Street, is the bakery which has been purposely built as an educational 'hub' and bakery school, run by Justin Gellatly {expert baker and author of the amazing book Bread, Cake, Doughnut, Pudding}, Matt Jones and Aidan Chapman. Each day, Bread Ahead also have a small stall in Borough Market itself, where they sell some of their classic baked goods, such as doughnuts, sourdough and rye breads, Italian breads and a whole lot more. If you haven't visited, it's a must, if only for one of their legendary doughnuts which are out of this world.
Bread Ahead have a brilliant selection of bakery classes to choose from, ranging from the simple 'Oath to The Loaf' where you are taught the basic skills to make a perfect bloomer, to more specific classes for the more advanced baker, such as 'Guide to Nordic Baking' and the 'Patisserie Workshop'. They also have seasonal classes held around the year - at Christmas time they had a Yule Log class and a mince pie class! It's not surprising that I was slightly stuck for choice at first but after lots of contemplating I decided to book myself onto the 'Introduction to Italian Breadmaking' class. I'm a big fan of Italian food; I love a good pizza, pasta makes my tummy happy and I would happily put mozarella on anything! But I can't say I had ever attempted to bake ciabatta or focaccia before...
So on Wednesday evening I arrived at the Bread Ahead bakery for my lesson in Italian breadmaking. I didn't know what to expect really and I'll admit I was pretty nervous turning up on my own. But as soon as I walked through the doors, the bakers and staff at Bread Ahead were so warm and friendly I needn't have been nervous at all. There were 9 of us in the class, so it was nicely intimate and I was reassured that most of the others attending hadn't done much bread making before either. We were introduced to our teacher (or should I say expert baker), Matt, who has over twenty years experience in baking. He is such a cool guy and his passion in baking really shines through with his brilliant enthusiasm.
We started by making our focaccia. Within minutes we all had our hands totally sticky with dough mixture. Whilst baking at home I'm a bit of a tidy freak and try to keep my hands (and the kitchen) as mess-free as possible but this just isn't the way when you're making bread. Nope! Bread flour covered the surfaces and Matt had us kneading with all our strength. We were commanded to 'feel at one with our dough' like it was some spiritual exercise... and somehow, strangely, I felt so excited about my little bit of dough and how it was going to be transformed from just a few simple ingredients into a truly loved, Italian bread!
Once our Focaccias were put in the proving containers, we started making our Ciabattas. All the while, Matt fed us with various facts and tips about various ratios of flour and water and the significance of these. He was able to show us dough at different stages of 'proving' and the vast quantities of 'starters' that they have stored in the bakery. Bread Ahead was only established in 2013 but already they have earned themselves a top reputation and provide bread for many of the restaurants in and around Borough Market.
I loved the rustic, industrial feel of the bakery with the large industrial sized ovens and all the bread baskets and Bundt tins stacked up on the shelves. Apparently the bakers arrive to work at midnight and bake throughout the night! They often bake around 300 loaves of bread overnight and croissants too... you can imagine the divine smell that must waft through the bakery come 6am!! Mmmmm. Being a nurse, I know first hand how difficult nightshifts can be but the smell of freshly baked bread must make things a whole lot better. There are few things nicer in this world than freshly baked bread!
We then left our Focaccias and ciabattas to prove and got baking our Grissini sticks {basically like Italian breadsticks} and Amaretto biscuits... whilst enjoying a cup of tea and the yummiest brownies!! I'll definitely be making the Grissini sticks again, they're super quick to make and are a lot of fun. You have to roll the dough out into long, thin, sausage-like shapes - rolling and rolling until they're as thin as pencils. It took a bit of time to get the hang of the technique and mine were a little skeewwif but I don't think it really mattered that they weren't perfectly uniform. They turned out so well and were so more-ish. They'd be perfect to serve if you've got friends over!
The Amaretto biscuits were also super quick to bake and surprisingly easy - made from just egg whites, sugar, ground almonds, honey and almond essence. They were heavenly to eat warm!! We each tried a couple straight from the oven. So, so good.
The ciabattas were pretty quick to bake and we made such a large quantity of dough between us that we ended up with nearly 30 ciabattas on the table! They smelt amazing...
I was so impressed with how professional they looked!! You wouldn't get bread this fresh and tasty in Waitrose, that's for sure. This is the real thing!
Our final job was to season our focaccias with fresh rosemary, oil and vine tomatoes...
After 15 minutes in a hot oven they were ready to serve...
And off I went, back home, armed with a huge box full of fresh focaccia, ciabattas, amaretto biscuits and some grossini. For once, I was that annoying person on the tube, smelling of yummy food!
I cannot put into words how much I would recommend a lesson at Bread Ahead. I enjoyed every minute and even though I class myself as a beginner in baking, I came away with some brilliant tips and was so impressed with how well my breads turned out. It was an absolute honour to be taught by Matt who was encouraging, patient and so enthusiastic. It was the best way to spend an otherwise gloomy Wednesday evening - a total escape from my normal week and a real treat. I've got another lesson booked in for February, can't wait!
Thank you, Bread Ahead!
Lydia xxx
We started by making our focaccia. Within minutes we all had our hands totally sticky with dough mixture. Whilst baking at home I'm a bit of a tidy freak and try to keep my hands (and the kitchen) as mess-free as possible but this just isn't the way when you're making bread. Nope! Bread flour covered the surfaces and Matt had us kneading with all our strength. We were commanded to 'feel at one with our dough' like it was some spiritual exercise... and somehow, strangely, I felt so excited about my little bit of dough and how it was going to be transformed from just a few simple ingredients into a truly loved, Italian bread!
Once our Focaccias were put in the proving containers, we started making our Ciabattas. All the while, Matt fed us with various facts and tips about various ratios of flour and water and the significance of these. He was able to show us dough at different stages of 'proving' and the vast quantities of 'starters' that they have stored in the bakery. Bread Ahead was only established in 2013 but already they have earned themselves a top reputation and provide bread for many of the restaurants in and around Borough Market.
I loved the rustic, industrial feel of the bakery with the large industrial sized ovens and all the bread baskets and Bundt tins stacked up on the shelves. Apparently the bakers arrive to work at midnight and bake throughout the night! They often bake around 300 loaves of bread overnight and croissants too... you can imagine the divine smell that must waft through the bakery come 6am!! Mmmmm. Being a nurse, I know first hand how difficult nightshifts can be but the smell of freshly baked bread must make things a whole lot better. There are few things nicer in this world than freshly baked bread!
We then left our Focaccias and ciabattas to prove and got baking our Grissini sticks {basically like Italian breadsticks} and Amaretto biscuits... whilst enjoying a cup of tea and the yummiest brownies!! I'll definitely be making the Grissini sticks again, they're super quick to make and are a lot of fun. You have to roll the dough out into long, thin, sausage-like shapes - rolling and rolling until they're as thin as pencils. It took a bit of time to get the hang of the technique and mine were a little skeewwif but I don't think it really mattered that they weren't perfectly uniform. They turned out so well and were so more-ish. They'd be perfect to serve if you've got friends over!
The Amaretto biscuits were also super quick to bake and surprisingly easy - made from just egg whites, sugar, ground almonds, honey and almond essence. They were heavenly to eat warm!! We each tried a couple straight from the oven. So, so good.
The ciabattas were pretty quick to bake and we made such a large quantity of dough between us that we ended up with nearly 30 ciabattas on the table! They smelt amazing...
I was so impressed with how professional they looked!! You wouldn't get bread this fresh and tasty in Waitrose, that's for sure. This is the real thing!
After 15 minutes in a hot oven they were ready to serve...
And off I went, back home, armed with a huge box full of fresh focaccia, ciabattas, amaretto biscuits and some grossini. For once, I was that annoying person on the tube, smelling of yummy food!
I cannot put into words how much I would recommend a lesson at Bread Ahead. I enjoyed every minute and even though I class myself as a beginner in baking, I came away with some brilliant tips and was so impressed with how well my breads turned out. It was an absolute honour to be taught by Matt who was encouraging, patient and so enthusiastic. It was the best way to spend an otherwise gloomy Wednesday evening - a total escape from my normal week and a real treat. I've got another lesson booked in for February, can't wait!
Thank you, Bread Ahead!
Lydia xxx
No comments:
Post a Comment