When the class introduced themselves on Sunday evening, they gave different reasons for taking the class–“I’m tired of making hockey pucks”, “I make one kind of bread and I want to learn to make more”, even “I’m interested in making bread for sale”.  For such a simple food, there are a lot of details that contribute to success and we began by feeding the sourdough with rye flour that evening.

Monday started with French baguettes and trips to the herb garden and the vegetable garden to see what we could incorporate into the week’s baking.  Amanda, one of the Folk School’s gardeners, brought a bag of beautiful snow peas.  Hmmmm….  Next day was for sourdough rye breads, including dense German Black Bread that must rest after baking for at least a day before slicing and gets better-tasting with age.  On Thursday the studio was filled with brick oven-baked, herby foccaccias and the wonderful aromas of a gala dinner.  Each student brought a guest to share the bread and a meal enhanced by vegetables and salad from the garden and topped off by heavenly (garden grown) raspberry ice cream.

Sweet breads on Friday were a big hit and easy to do with a week’s experience in handling dough and yeast.  Students prepared coolers for taking bread home and made plans for sharing with friends, co-workers and family and Show-and-Tell gave us a chance to share with all the week’s students, which is really the whole point.