Come to learn the art of sourdough and how to bake fantastic sourdough breads in Italy.
Padua Padova – Veneto region – Italy | Duration: one week.
Our mission is to teach baking workshops on sourdough bread and seasonal treats.
We bake just like our grandmas!
We are excited to share our sourdough passion with more people!
Take our sourdough bread course soon.
Firstly you need time, patience and love. The process of making the sourdough bread takes days on end and – of course – you need special baking and kitchen equipment.
Secondly you have to understand the subtleties of the bread making process.
Thirdly our approach follows a set of special concepts that we introduce in a single basic recipe (the first sourdough rustic and country bread) and then build on throughout the course.
Finally the goal is making bread with a good crust, a satisfying depth of flavor, and a supple, moist crumb.
All different steps lead back to natural levain and the starter as origin of the sourdough process.
Making sourdough bread and other sweet and savory recipes with “lievito madre” can be divided into three basic steps.
First you must develop a healthy starter.
Then you must manage the good bacteria and the wild natural yeasts in the starter by maintaining a sort of routine, building to make a sourdough to raise your bread dough (or focaccia dough or pizza dough).
Finally you’ll shape and bake the dough into a lots of different breads and sweet and savory recipes.
Our goal is big and we really think we can share our knowledge about sourdough with people all over the world.
We preserve the heritage of bread in our bread classes and reintroduce this tradition of sourdough baking with our own sourdough courses.
Each sourdough has its own culture, and shapes different breads or recipes.
There is a Sourdough Library in the village of St. Vith, southeast of Brussels, where there is the largest collection of over 130 sourdoughs from over 23 countries preserved for future generations.
Our sourdough bread program will enrich your culinary and baking training!
ABOUT OUR 50-YEAR-OLD SOURDOUGH STARTER – LIEVITO MADRE
We inherited four different sourdough starters (“lievito madre” mother yeast – a real live organism) from our grandma, who got them from one of her friends in Ferrara town in the 1970s (Ferrara is famous for its peculiarly shaped “coppia ferrarese bread“) . Our mother yeasts are very old but very rich and active. Every day the sourdoughs are refreshed with their original peculiar flour, following their original and ancient recipe. So we guarantee the natural microscopic sourdough culture is stable and strong.
The sourdoughs have been growing in our fridge for decades and we have shared samples all over the world.
We have planned to pass down the family heirloom to our students.
And now during our courses we hope that you will keep our sourdough starters alive for generations to come.
We feature various Italian breads, cookies and pastries made with authentic Italian recipes
Our sourdough courses are designed for those wanting to learn the art of sourdough
We help adults learn how to make the sourdough starter from scratch, how to feed, how to maintain it.
Then you will learn how to make bread by hand, kneading, fermenting, proofing and baking sourdough bread, sourdough focaccia, sourdough pizzas and other breads or sweet recipes.
You need curiosity and anyone can do it if you have an interest in it.
Sourdough (in Italian ‘lievito madre‘ or ‘madre’) Bread is a type of bread that doesn’t have chemical or instant or dried yeast added.
Sourdough bread uses natural microscopic yeasts from flour, water and the surrounding air.
Because of this, sourdough takes a lot longer to make than other types of normal bread. It’s nutritious and more digestible.
Do you know “Panettone”? The new obsession of bakers? “Lievito madre” is the perfect sourdough starter for making this specialty.
Unfortunately the rhythms of life today and after commercial yeast became cheap and available, the skilled practice of caring for and using sourdough declined, but please taste a healthful bread made with natural leaven and compare it to the yeasted version! Of course natural leavens require more work to maintain, and bakers abandoned the old healthy practice in favor of the more convenient commercial yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae).
During the pandemic it become popular try to bake some sourdough bread. But it is not simple. So maybe you need an expert baker to learn it.
We love to encourage using locally sourced flours whenever possible.
We ensure that we offer our customers the best service, recipes and products.
You will always have fond memories of exploring the art of making bread with us!
WEEK-LONG SOURDOUGH COURSE DESCRIPTION:
YOU WILL LEARN:
- a brief history of bread in Italy;
- how to make your own starter (wild yeast natural leaven) and other different starters (lievito madre), during the week it will grow and be ready at the end of the course;
- how to refresh your own sourdough starter, a living organism;
- how to maintain, nurture, allowe the natural yeast to multiply and grow into a bubbling creature, it;
- about fermentation techniques;
- about mixing techniques;
- about kneading techniques (we have no mixer, the entire process is by hand);
- the role of water, flour, and sea salt from Trapani on the west coast of Sicily;
- the importance of the gluten development and dough structure;
- you will bake with our 50-year-old starters (we have made an infinite amount of magnificent sourdough loaves);
- how to bake a few different open-crumb, beautiful sourdough loaves (with different hydrations);
- the importance of high hydration in combination with a natural, long fermentation creates a delicious loaf of bread or focaccia or pizza;
- why the slow rising is so important;
- information about forming and proofing;
- the importance of a good oven and crust development;
- how to plan a bread baking schedule;
- each student will receive their own sourdough culture to take home and continue to grow;
- every day you will make different enriched or normal breads or focaccias or pizzas.
The sourdough bread class includes all materials and baking samples (5 lessons, one day food market tour, 6 nights accommodation).
The course covers everything from what sourdough (lievito madre) is to how to bake delicious sourdough breads.
LOCATION: PADUA PADOVA – Veneto region – Northern Italy
COURSE DURATION: 5 days, 4 hours per day
DIFFICULTY: INTERMEDIATE TO ADVANCED
COURSE TAGS: Bread Lovers, Slow Food, Farm to Fork, Bakers, Sourdough Lovers, Foundational Bread and Baking Learning, Bread Making, Travelers.
Available on request for any day, year round, based upon availability.
OUR BREAD COURSES ARE ON DEMAND (continuously available)
Contact us soon.
Register for sourdough bread course – Email us soon: click here.