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Back at the Bertinet Kitchen – bliss!

After my introduction to bread making (amongst other things) in September last year, it’s rare for us not to have homemade bread at Battenburg Towers. In fact Missy B would be horrified if there was no pain facon beaucaire in the freezer for after school, or “buns” as she likes to call them for fear of being accused of having fancy tastes.

Anyway, I am back at the Bertinet Kitchen cookery school for a whole week of making bread. Day one was a bit of revision for me, perfecting the white bread and making some lovely breadsticks, cute little tin loaves, fabulous fougasses and these fantastic bloomers.

I learnt a lot last time I was here, but coming back reminded me of a few bits of the technique that had somehow got a bit lost. The bloomer was a particular revelation – I thought the white loaves I’d been producing at home were pretty good, but now I can see how they can be even better. While Richard Bertinet showed us how to make flamiche, his lovely team quietly rustled up the rest of a gorgeous lunch while our backs were turned. We had salad, cured salmon, many jars of delicious things – an aubergine and pine nut dip, perfect pesto, pork rillettes. I could go on, but you’d be soooo jealous.

Yesterday was French breads. Richard made sure we got serious and gave us deadlines for our baguettes and our pain de campagne, so the pressure was really on to remember the rules: weigh everything before you start, clear up as you go, make sure the dough knows who’s boss. He’s right though – as long as you concentrate and get the techniques right, you can produce a fine array of baguettes, epis, walnut rolls, olive rolls. Getting the cuts right on the loaves is really tricky, but Richard assured us that it takes actual bakers a while to master this and he gave lots of our loaves the thumbs up. I have to say that wouldn’t have sent any of the ones I tasted back.

We have a great group of people on the course – with me on the middle table are Gilda from Ecquador who now lives in LA, Moira tom Vancouver and Peter from London – we make a great team and I am really looking forward to making Italian breads with them today!!