The day following my special birthday dinner by Chef Justin Ward, Hubby and I hosted a bread making class with our Chef and his special flour.
Justin has grown in notoriety in the US the past few years with his research on the differences in flour made from wheat grown in the USA and in France. He was quoted in a Wall Street Journal article and made the local news in Texas when he recently conducted cooking classes at Stephen F. Austin State University.
My class size was limited due to space and the availability of only two ovens.
New friends and old, along with my daughter, sister, and niece, gathered like chicks round a mother hen to learn about the benefits of using flour made from a wide variety of heirloom grain.
Then we scattered to our stations and began to follow Justin’s carefully stated directions to create two different breads—a baguette and a fougasse, a kind of pizza.
We learned the proper ratio of water to flour, depending on atmospheric conditions. We used our fingers to combine the ingredients on the countertops, and then we folded, flung, rotated, and slapped that dough until it had just the right stretch to it.
Leaving it to rise a while, we started on our second round of dough. When it was ready to rest from its torture session, we broke for a snack.
Returning to our rising lumps, we learned a few ways of shaping our baguettes—with a rounded end, with a pointed end, and with a cut that created a loaf with what looked like leaflets.
Then we stretched our second round of dough into fougasse and sprinkled it with rosemary from my garden, cherry tomatoes from the garden, sliced red onion, lardons (bacon chunks), and shaved parmesan cheese. Some put olives on ‘em.
The smell from the baking bread was a swoon-worthy deal. By the time the bread was baked, we were ready to break it and quickly!
I’ve had the honor of hosting three other classes with our chef, but the breadmaking class was probably my favorite of all. We had so much fun, and I hope we can do it again next year!
