People were baking bread using wild yeast and bacteria cultures long before they understood the science of natural leavening. This course explores the science and techniques that enable anyone to create delicious sourdough loaves at home. Our goal in class will be to help those new to sourdough baking develop an understanding of the fundamentals, and those with previous sourdough baking experience overcome some of the barriers to creating consistently excellent results. While baking we will incorporate topics such as: starting, maintaining, and using sourdough cultures; dough hydration and temperature; how different flours affect fermentation, texture, and flavor, and more. We will discuss the key variables of sourdough baking, their effects on both the process and product, and how to manipulate them to create the desired outcome. We will be using the indoor ovens to practice hot hearth baking and the use of steam so students can replicate this process at home.

While the course is accessible to those new to baking, some previous baking experience with yeast or sourdough breads is beneficial. This course requires students to be able to stand for long periods of time and enough hand strength to mix dough by hand.

Required Tools

• The book The Perfect Loaf by Maurizio Leo
• Two 2 quart Cambro brand (or similar) plastic storage containers, with lids
• Six, 2-gallon Ziploc bags to store bread once cooled

Optional Tools

• If you have an accurate digital kitchen probe thermometer and/or digital kitchen scale, please bring them
• Notebook or paper to take notes
• NHFS provides aprons, but bring your own if you have a favorite