Traditional Artisan bread baking

On 11 and 12 September, seven excited novice bakers entered the fascinating (and delicious) world of artisan bread making. Held at Le Cordon Bleu Adelaide in a state-of-the-art pâtisserie kitchen, the 2-day workshop introduced students to the skills of traditional artisan bread baking.

Taught by internationally acclaimed award-winning Master Baker Paul Riglau, Le Cordon Bleu’s Traditional Artisan Bread Baking short course teaches students how to produce handcrafted, 100% natural sourdough products. Paul’s unique process involves a slow fermentation and unhurried ripening of the dough resulting in an exceptional texture and unique sour taste.

He teaches the entire methodology from scratch, including preparing the flour, calculating temperatures, fermentation and creating your own natural yeast. The finished breads were a triumph and featured unique flavours such as semolina; oat porridge; maple granola; potato & horseradish; barberry & fig; apple cider vinegar; beetroot; and beer with pearl barley & molasses.

Workshop attendee Nick Teoh said: “For a non-baker like me, it was an awesome experience making exotic breads like maple granola, or beetroot sourdough. Learning the proper methods and the science behind it was really interesting. And the best part was the smell of the bread wafting through the kitchen and sampling our delicious work.”

Our excited new bakers left the workshop knowing how to bake perfect home-made artisan bread, their hands filled with freshly baked goods and a Le Cordon Bleu Certificate of Participation.