A Taste of the Past

Historical and Traditional Cookery

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Day-long Cookery Courses: Basic Bread Making | Further Adventures in Bread | Jam and Curd | Basic Baking | Sour Dough and Sponges | Fancy Breads | Mediterranean Breads
Evening Cookery Club: Christmas Treats
Other Services: Talks and Demonstrations | Recipes for Forty Hall | Catering

Bread Making for Beginners

Traditional bread in different forms
Traditional bread in different forms

The aim of this course is to teach complete beginners how to make 3 different types of bread. We will use traditional and long proven recipes that are quick and easy to use.

The course will start with refreshments and home made biscuits while we take a look at different types of yeast and wheat flour. To a beginner the range of baking products may seem to be confusing, so we will try and demystify the whole process and familiarise you with the range of ingredients at your disposal.

Then we will move on to make our breads. We will start with bread rolls made to a traditional, double rise, bread recipe. This is the standard method that you will find in many recipe books. Once you have mastered this process then you can turn your hand to a huge range of bread recipes.

While the first bread rises we will make a Grant Loaf. This is named after Doris Grant, a food quality campaigner who first raised the issue of the nutritional standards of white bread sometime in the 1930s. She invented this very easy, family bread recipe for overworked housewives during the Second World War. She wanted to show everyone that they could eat home made, organic and nutritious bread. Even today, the price of her bread is probably less than that of most cheap, sliced breads. As to time, once you remember the recipe then it would probably take longer to clean out your bread maker than to prepare this for the oven; use a tin liner and you don't even have much in the way of washing up to do.

Lastly, we will make traditional Irish soda bread. The key to quick and easy cooking is not so much to cut corners and compromise on taste or quality but to look for recipes that are genuinely easy. Soda bread is great stuff: it is easy to make and in bread terms, quick to cook as well.

With all the hard work largely done, we will stop for lunch. Lunch is usually home made soup with bread, salads, cheeses and fruit followed by a small dessert. If you have a great dislike of any of these things or any food allergies then please let me know on the booking form.

After lunch we will prepare our breads for the oven and bake them. There will be the option of shaping the traditional bread to make savoury or sweet rolls. Previous clients have used cheese, onion or chocolate to make their breads a bit more interesting.

Lastly, if there is time, we will cook some flat breads on the stove top to see how easy it is to turn one recipe to different uses.

The cost of the course includes all your baking ingredients, course notes, equipment and lunch. You will also take home all the bread that you have made.

Grant loaf
Grant loaf

Booking and Other Information

To find out more information about any of the courses or catering on offer please call Claire Passaris on 07999 871 053.

To book a course please send a booking form and cheque to Claire Passaris, A Taste of the Past, 80 Orpin Road, Merstham, Redhill, Surrey. RH1 3EY. I do require payment in full at the time of booking as I have to pay for everything before the course. However I will not cash your cheques until I have enough people to run the course. Please give me your e-mail address or mobile phone number and I will send you a message a couple of days before I cash your cheque. I will also use it to tell you of any changes to the course details.