Making Bread

I already bake my own baguette and hard crusted dinner roll. I was interested to learn about other varieties of bread. There are many courses available in cooking/baking schools, but most of them are heavy on time and fee. The friends tell me that baking courses do come up in the community clubs, and they are right.

I signed up for the first available one that was held at a cc near me. It was the first of a two-stage course, each consisting of 4 one-afternoon a-week classes.

I love everything about the course!
I love the instructor. She is of the same mold of teachers I encountered in my school years. Dedicated, sincere, knows her stuff, never loses control of the class.

I love the course mates. Some are experienced bakers who wanted to know more about this particular category of food. Others are novices for whom everything about cooking/baking is thick mystery and unfathomable magic.

I love listening to everyone's stories of goof-ups and victories in their attempts to bake their favourite bread.

For me, I picked up on the one critical step that has been missing from my bread making all this while - the technique of folding/kneading the dough for surface tension so that the bread will hold it's shape!

Sadly I will not be able to do Stage 2 of the bread course because of schedule conflict, but I will make myself free to sign up for their cake course in November. Heh!