Making Bread at The Foodworks Cookery School

Forget a day's pampering or spa treatment and instead feel the heat in the kitchen. A day's cooking course offers inspiration while refreshing and challenging the mind, returning you to the world an all together better person.

FOR THE CULINARY INCLINED

So to the Cotswolds, south of Cheltenham to The Foodworks, a cookery school that's been going for only a year and has a kitchen filled with appliances still sparkly new. The school sits on the edge of a typically English country estate in its purpose built premises. The brainchild of Harriet Elwes, who is mad keen on bread, the school offers courses for all seasons, levels of ability and cuisines. Harriet runs a slick operation, with cooking days that are choreographed to perfection, striking a good balance between spoiling the students (delicious brownies and granola bars for elevenses), whilst also giving them some useful skills and ideas to take away.

BREAD MAKING

I was lucky enough to go the very popular bread making course with Maurice Chaplais, who has a bakery and deli in nearby Cheltenham. Lots of people are afraid of baking bread, me amongst them, and this course dispels the myth. We set out to make wholemeal loaves and white rolls and baps. The recipes Maurice gave the class were virtually foolproof, making sure that you're mindful to use exact measurements. Bread making is a precise art and you cannot improvise with handfuls of this and that.

Maurice had prepared the yeast mixture the night before so that we could turn the recipes around, giving the dough time to prove and cook. Stirring, kneading and watching the dough rise are simple pleasures and surprisingly fulfilling. And then there's getting used to handling strange knives and equipment. At first, I felt clumsy and fairly useless, despite being a confident cook. However, you quickly get the hang of it and you convince yourself that you're working like a pro.

Soup was prepared and left to simmer. The physical work done and bread in the oven, Maurice showed us how to make muffins, fruity and bursting with goodness that would be for our pudding. Lunch soon followed and with a glass of wine, we sat down to enjoy the fruits of our labours.

REFRESHES THE MIND

Days like these are invaluable not only for the skills learned but they enable you to look back in on the way you cook, so that you can tweak some of your own practices and learn from others.

DID I TRY IT AT HOME?

True to my word, I did bake bread the following weekend. It wasn't quite as easy without Maurice Chaplais standing by but I'm sure with practice it will get better.

18 April 2011

Arabella Dymoke attended the bread making course at The Foodworks Cookery School on Tuesday 5th April 2011.