Bread at home
Bread from four things: flour, water, salt and time. We bake the first loaf in the very first module, then raise a starter and go through every stage by measurable signs of readiness. The end is a recipe that repeats itself from bake to bake.
What you will be able to do
8 modules, one project
01 The first loaf3 lessons · 1 h 48 minOpen
Almost no-knead bread on ordinary yeast: minimum technique, maximum result. By the end of the module a real loaf with a crisp crust comes out of the oven.
02 Baker's percentages2 lessons · 1 h 05 min
A bread recipe is a formula in which everything is counted from the weight of the flour. Understand it once and you can read any recipe and scale it to your own tin.
03 A starter from scratch3 lessons · 1 h 29 min
Seven days, flour, water and a jar. We keep a log of observations and check readiness by measurable signs: rise time, growth in volume, smell.
04 Mixing and gluten2 lessons · 1 h
There is no need to knead for twenty minutes: autolyse and folds do the same work. We check the dough with the windowpane test — it is easier to describe than to demonstrate.
05 Shaping and proving2 lessons · 1 h 03 min
The tension on the surface of the shaped dough is what turns a flatbread into a loaf. Proving with the finger-dent test and a cold night in the fridge that makes the schedule easier.
06 Baking2 lessons · 1 h 03 min
Steam in the first minutes decides everything: without it the crust sets before the bread has risen. Three ways to get steam at home and the signs of a finished loaf.
07 Diagnosis by the crumb2 lessons · 1 h 06 min
A failed loaf is a source of data. We cut it open, look at the crumb and the crust and use a table of signs to find which stage let us down and what to change next time.
08 Project: your repeatable loaf3 lessons · 1 h 44 min
The end of the course: your own recipe with percentages, a protocol and a schedule. Three bakes in a row with the same result — that is the criterion that the course is finished.
What you get
About 3 kg of strong wheat flour for the whole course and 1 kg of rye or wholemeal wheat for the starter. Ordinary supermarket flour is fine. Roughly €4–6.
Kitchen scales accurate to the gram — the main tool of the course: all the control here is built on weight, cups and eyeballing do not work. €8–10 if you do not have scales yet.
A bowl, a 0.7–1 l jar with a loose lid for the starter, a scraper or an old plastic card, a tea towel and a second bowl instead of a proving basket — most of this is already in the kitchen.
Best of all is a cast-iron or heavy-based pot with a lid that takes 250 °C. If you have none, the course covers the method with a baking tray and a bowl of water. The whole course without the pot is about €15 on top of what you already have.
The whole first module is open
Watch the lessons of the first module and the first task. If the format does not suit you, you have lost nothing.