WFO Bread Class

[Faith In Virginia]

Hay Jay

I agree with you , If I had the time and money to spare I would be there in a minute. As a home baker with no aspirations to be the next Peter Reinhart the shorter and cheaper class will do me fine. I agree with your earlier post that bread in a WFO has much to do with dough handling and shaping.

I should contact Peter Reinhart. Johnson & Wales in Charlotte NC is about a two hour trip but the school does not advertise classes like that. I should check to see what and where he is teaching.

[texassourdough]

Hi Faith!

I am an amateur and intend to stay that way! I am treating the SFBI class as a vacation. While it is not inexpensive, it is cheaper than going fishing in Alaska! So with a bit of perverted logic I can figure I am saving money! )

Peter is on this site periodically now, but he is more easily reached via his web site and blog. I have visited him at J&W and I know they don't do a lot of classes but I think they do have some periodic boot camps for amateurs. Peter travels all over doing classes at grocery stores and such... If you email him he might be able to tell you when he will be near you.

Good Luck!
Jay

[Lburou]

Originally Posted by Faith In Virginia

....snip
I should contact Peter Reinhart. Johnson & Wales in Charlotte NC is about a two hour trip but the school does not advertise classes like that. I should check to see what and where he is teaching.

If you get his schedule Faith, would you mind posting it here?

[Faith In Virginia]

Jay, I do like your perverted logic. I own my own business so vacation for me is a weekend class. Unfortunately if I take more then a weekend off I get into trouble. I took 5 days over Christmas came home to find 1) I had 10K stolen, 2)I'm being sued, 3)I need to sue to try and get my 10K back. 4) a job that I was working got stolen. 5)I lost some people that work for me. Not to bad for a 5 day trip over the holiday.

So I don't even want to think what that vacation really cost me... LOL that's business I guess.

Lee, Yes I will post what I find out. Perhaps I'll ask him if he would put it up on his web site Pizza Quest.

[davmorr]

A lot of great info and insights on bread classes. Both the Mary G and KA classes are now on my wish list. Maybe, someday, SF.

What was particularly helpful to me with the North House class was seeing what difference hearth and dome temperature make. Right now, I'm baking bread and learning my oven at the same time. I've baked the same bread formula over as much as a 150 degree difference, or more, in hearth temperature because the bread was ready (or my schedule didn't allow waiting) and the oven was too hot or had cooled a bit much. Among other things, the class just added to my experience about the effect of different hearth temperatures.

I'm more enthusiastic than ever to continue the journey with bread baking in my oven. . . but, we hit minus 25 degrees here in Northern Minnesota two days ago, so I'm waiting for a heat wave next week, with temperatures in the teens.

[texassourdough]

Faith! That was a real OUCH!

Davmor, the great challenge of WFOs and sourdough is getting them on the same schedule. Commercial yeast is more predictable so I tend to suggest people learning their ovens go with IDY to make the bread more predictable. Fortunately you can bake decent bread over a fairly broad range but real magic occurs when you hit it right!
Jay

[Faith In Virginia]

Lee,

This is what I found out for Peter's classes that he will be teaching. This is in an email from Peter

"I do have two classes coming up in Charlotte, one on Feb. 12 on Artisan Breads Everyday, and the other on March 26th on Pizza. The ony way to sign up for these is to go through the Johnson & Wales website at Johnson & Wales University ; and then navigate to Charlotte (we have 4 campuses) and then to Chefs Choice, where you will find the calendar. I will not be doig any travel teaching for a while because I'm working on a new book."

Here is a link...https://apps.jwu.edu/chefschoice/clt...hsections.aspx

Guess what... Both classes are FULL. So all we can do is check back and see.

Here is a link to KA guest instructors. I would love to take a class with Hamelman one day....The Baking Education Center: King Arthur Flour

[Lburou]

Originally Posted by Faith In Virginia

Lee,

This is what I found out for Peter's classes that he will be teaching. This is in an email from Peter

"I do have two classes coming up in Charlotte, one on Feb. 12 on Artisan Breads Everyday, and the other on March 26th on Pizza. The ony way to sign up for these is to go through the Johnson & Wales website at Johnson & Wales University ; and then navigate to Charlotte (we have 4 campuses) and then to Chefs Choice, where you will find the calendar. I will not be doig any travel teaching for a while because I'm working on a new book."

Here is a link...https://apps.jwu.edu/chefschoice/clt...hsections.aspx

Guess what... Both classes are FULL. So all we can do is check back and see.

Here is a link to KA guest instructors. I would love to take a class with Hamelman one day....The Baking Education Center: King Arthur Flour

That was very kind of you...Thank you very much! I'll keep an eye out for something close and affordable.

I wonder about local culinary programs at universities and colleges and how they work their adult education programs? Have to look into that too. Being subscribed to this thread could be a good thing in time too.

P.S. I found WFO home baking classes about 40 miles away from home, offered at Tarleton State College in Stephenville, TX....They offer real bread & WFO baking instruction!!

[davmorr]

texassourdough,

Thanks for the tip on yeast. You're right. My challenge has been to get the bread and oven on the same schedule. One time I planned to bake in the evening, had the bread ready, but the hearth was too hot. Even with the door off for an hour at 10ºF, the hearth still was in the 600º plus range. I finally had to go ahead and bake. I got nice crumb, but keeping the crust from charring was a challenge. Each bake is a learning experience, at least at this stage of my WFO journey, but I'm having fun. I really appreciate all the sharing and good info in the bread forum.