The Bread Day

Attending a bread making course at River Cottage HQ

Hello, friends - and welcome back to a special River Cottage edition of Taisty Bytes!

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Yesterday, I attended The Bread Day at River Cottage HQ. A full day hands on course learning all about (and eating) bread. Regular readers will know that the art of bread has been one of those things that I’ve always appreciated, but never quite felt fully confident when making. I can muddle through, but knowing how to knead and handle different doughs properly was something I still struggled with.

So, the idea of spending a day in the River Cottage kitchen, guided by people who live and breathe this stuff, sounded like the kind of learning I’ve been craving for for a while! Teaching yourself with books and YouTube is great, but you just can’t beat learning from people in real life, can you.

Huge kudos points to Ben for booking this for me!

The course was led by the amazing Chiara Tomasoni, Head Chef of the River Cottage kitchen team. You might’ve seen her on MasterChef: The Professionals earlier this year, but what stood out most was her warmth, energy and absolute love for what she does. You know when you can just tell someone is completely passionate about what they do? Totally that!

A literal font of knowledge, Chiara kept things fun and approachable, while sharing so much wisdom about techniques and timings - as well as the ‘where and why’ about each ingredient. I’m genuinely inspired by her passion for food, especially her care for where ingredients come from and how they’re grown or sourced.

The morning was all about getting the doughs going: mixing, kneading, folding and learning to read the feel of each one. We prepared a classic farmhouse loaf, a seeded rye with raisins and a rich, buttery brioche dough - which, fun fact, included mashed potato! This helps make the final bread extra soft and pillowy. We also got our pizza dough underway, ready for a wood-fired lunch break. Honestly, I’ve never tasted one like it before!

With all the different proofing times, the day had a really nice rhythm - moving between stages, checking on doughs, stretching, shaping and adding in folds periodically for the ‘no knead’ doughs.

In the afternoon, once everything had risen, we moved on to shaping and baking! After plaiting the brioche dough for our loaves (no awards will be won this time for my plaiting skills!), we used the off-cuts to make doughnuts. After a few minutes each side in some hot oil, we tossed them in cinnamon sugar. They were bloody good! And honestly, after seeing how easy it is to make doughnuts now… so bloody dangerous, too!

With our breads in the oven, Chiara spent some time showing us how to make butter from scratch. You can quite literally just combine double cream and a spoonful of yogurt, leave it out for a couple of days, then whisk until it splits into butter and buttermilk. Squeeze out the water, mix in any flavours you want (or keep it plain) and then roll it up tightly in some parchment paper. And just like that, you’ve made your own fancy butter!

I am 100% going to start doing this, as I’m always using buttermilk in my bakes.

By the end of the day I was equal parts absolutely knackered and buzzing. It was full on, in the best sort of way. The kind of tired that comes from learning loads, using your hands and being totally in the moment.

I left with a tote bag stuffed with freshly baked bread, a couple of new cookbooks and probably most importantly, the confidence to start tackling more breads at home without second guessing every step.

Being lucky enough to live nearby, I’ve already got my eye on a few more courses at River Cottage HQ *wink*…

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So, the doughnuts didn’t survive the journey home (no regrets) - but here are a few snaps of all the breads that I made!

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I hope you’ve enjoyed today’s post! Thanks for stopping by and sharing in my little corner of the world.

See you next time!
Mark + Hiro 🐾