On arrival at the Cann Mills, where the course was taking place, we were met by the delightful Paul, as seen below. Lucky for us, there were no other participants that day, so we had brilliant one-to-one tuition and could ask away with all our bread-related questions.
(I forgot to take any photos, so all have been acquired from Panary's website).
Not only did we get to make four different types of sourdough bread (a Pain au Levain, 100% Russian rye, Bubble bread and a hybrid sourdough using fresh yeast as well as a sourdough leaven), we also learnt oodles of tips on regular bread-making including shaping loaves, correct temperatures for proving, the benefits of stone ground flour over industrially produced flour and much more that I won't bore you with.
A tour of the mill was also on the agenda by the Miller, Michael Stoate, a Fifth Generation miller. We managed to pick his brains as well and is was great to see the variety of flours they produced.
A fire in the 1950's, meant a replacement shell to the mill was required, but we still got to see the old workings and waterwheel still in operation.
I think I can safely say we came away with lots more knowledge on Sourdough and yeast based bread production .............oh and a heck a lot of bread. This photo (which is mine!) is just of what I got to keep!
On the left 'Bubble bread', centre 'Pain au Levain', top right '100% Russian Rye' and bottom right 'Hybrid bread'.
May the 'November Learning' continue!
Happy baking!
Mmmm, bread. Glad you had a good day. Shaftesbury is lovely, it is really near my home town (village really)
ReplyDeleteI'm still working my way through all the bread! We had a lovely cappucino in the cafe with the view down Gold Hill and drove across country to see the lovely countryside.
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