Sourdough bread workshop
A perk of cookieman's job at the Uni is that he receives emails informing him of upcoming cultural events, exhibitions, and student projects. While the first two can be hit or miss (though always welcome imo- this town is hardly a smorgasbord of intellectual stimulation), the student projects can be quirky and often have the added element of a chance at participation. This week there was a particularly good one: an art project which involved baking. How tailor-made for me is that!
The project has grown a live culture, and they want to see how far from Loughborough they can spread this little bit of culture. They've experimented with making some beer-type substances with it, but sourdough bread is the main use.
So, they offered free courses in sourdough bread making this week, and sent home little pots of the culture (one rye and one regular white-wheat) for people to make bread at home. Ideally, we will then continue to feed the culture at home, and find a way to pass it along to people who live further away from L'boro. For my part, I'm hoping to palm some off on the in-laws in Germany, as they like to make bread at home. Or maybe the youngest brother-in-law. He's usually up for this sort of randomness. I'll give it some thought.
I hope they're successful. I think they're awfully optimistic about the involvement of the people who opted to take the course. They ran several on the day, and mine consisted of just myself and another lady who worked at the Uni. She was mostly there for the same reason I was- to learn a bit more about sourdough. The group after us was substantially larger (during our time slot it was bucketing rain out so I've no doubt people decided to blow off the course because of it because hey, it was free, no loss. They said they'd had 5 people no-show) and mostly student age.
It reminds me a little of a project Jamie Oliver attempted here in the UK. He visited a town 'up north' (read: stereotype of them all being unable to cook proper food because they're too busy cursing at one another and living in their own filth or something) (okay maybe not but that's really the impression he gave me during the series. I'm not a fan of his. Is it obvious?) The idea was an interesting one. He wanted to take a few people who didn't cook much, if at all, teach them a few things, then send them out into the wild to teach six of their non-cooking friends, with the hope the idea would snowball from there, and all of the savages up there would become smug bastards top chefs with TV shows of their own.
However, it didn't work that way. It petered out quickly. Maybe a handful of his original class (of quite a good number of people I might add) continued to cook at all, and of course only a few of those bothered to share this newfound knowledge.
My point being, I think these students are going to need to teach a whole boatload more people how to make sourdough bread with their culture if they want to see any real results. I have visions of me and maybe one other baking geek making it to their reunion party in a few months. I hope I'm wrong, though!
And I hope I'm able to find another person or two to palm some culture off on.
As for the bread-making itself, well, I've got my first rye experiment happening as we speak. I didn't make rye in the class so I am unsure about the texture of what I've got rising in there at the moment, but we'll see. Certainly the sponge I grew last night worked well, so I've got a nice starter for my next batch, should this one not be amazing. If I manage to get a good batch or two, I might post about it in case anyone is interested. or even if you aren't interested, really.
The project has grown a live culture, and they want to see how far from Loughborough they can spread this little bit of culture. They've experimented with making some beer-type substances with it, but sourdough bread is the main use.
So, they offered free courses in sourdough bread making this week, and sent home little pots of the culture (one rye and one regular white-wheat) for people to make bread at home. Ideally, we will then continue to feed the culture at home, and find a way to pass it along to people who live further away from L'boro. For my part, I'm hoping to palm some off on the in-laws in Germany, as they like to make bread at home. Or maybe the youngest brother-in-law. He's usually up for this sort of randomness. I'll give it some thought.
I hope they're successful. I think they're awfully optimistic about the involvement of the people who opted to take the course. They ran several on the day, and mine consisted of just myself and another lady who worked at the Uni. She was mostly there for the same reason I was- to learn a bit more about sourdough. The group after us was substantially larger (during our time slot it was bucketing rain out so I've no doubt people decided to blow off the course because of it because hey, it was free, no loss. They said they'd had 5 people no-show) and mostly student age.
It reminds me a little of a project Jamie Oliver attempted here in the UK. He visited a town 'up north' (read: stereotype of them all being unable to cook proper food because they're too busy cursing at one another and living in their own filth or something) (okay maybe not but that's really the impression he gave me during the series. I'm not a fan of his. Is it obvious?) The idea was an interesting one. He wanted to take a few people who didn't cook much, if at all, teach them a few things, then send them out into the wild to teach six of their non-cooking friends, with the hope the idea would snowball from there, and all of the savages up there would become smug bastards top chefs with TV shows of their own.
However, it didn't work that way. It petered out quickly. Maybe a handful of his original class (of quite a good number of people I might add) continued to cook at all, and of course only a few of those bothered to share this newfound knowledge.
My point being, I think these students are going to need to teach a whole boatload more people how to make sourdough bread with their culture if they want to see any real results. I have visions of me and maybe one other baking geek making it to their reunion party in a few months. I hope I'm wrong, though!
And I hope I'm able to find another person or two to palm some culture off on.
As for the bread-making itself, well, I've got my first rye experiment happening as we speak. I didn't make rye in the class so I am unsure about the texture of what I've got rising in there at the moment, but we'll see. Certainly the sponge I grew last night worked well, so I've got a nice starter for my next batch, should this one not be amazing. If I manage to get a good batch or two, I might post about it in case anyone is interested. or even if you aren't interested, really.