un weekend di pane / a weekend of bread

A few months ago, I wrote a post about arte bianca, i.e., the art of making bread (literally, white art). I am passionate about making bread (fare il pane), just as I am passionate about making cheese (fare il formaggio). This past weekend, I attended a workshop at the San Francisco Baking Institute, a wonderland (paese delle meraviglie) for bread and pastry makers. It was a birthday gift that I gave to myself. The Institute holds professional courses in bread and pastry making. This year, they have offered weekend-long classes that are perfect for baking enthusiasts for whom a week-long commitment is practically difficult. The workshop I attended last weekend was called "Specialty Breads at Home."

The first photo shows six of the seven breads we made during the weekend. The beautiful loaves are the instructor's production displayed for the end-of-class photo-op. From the left: ciabatta, 100% whole-grain, miche, Finnish rye, pear buckwheat, 100% whole-wheat pan. We also made challah.

This is a sample of my own production: miche (in the back), 100% whole-grain (left), pear buckwheat, and Finnish rye (in the foreground). For some reason, I have problems flouring the loaves before baking, which explains the difference between the surface of my breads and those of the instructor. Besides regular flour, we used whole-wheat, pumpernickel, rye (farina di segale) and buckwheat flour (farina di grano saraceno). We also used flaxseed, sunflower and sesame seeds, wheat germ (germe di grano) cracked wheat, rolled oats and dried pears. Five of the breads were hand-mixed, so I will soon try to make them in my kitchen (I don't have a stand-up mixer and I don't plan to get one, even though that means giving up on the idea of making panettone at home).

The main differences between making bread at the Baking Institute and at home are: the oven (forno) and the amount of dough. The bread we made during class was baked in bakery-size ovens. However, there was also a home oven and the instructor used it to demonstrate techniques to approximate at home conditions typical of bakery ovens.

Have you ever handled 10 kg (22 lbs) of bread dough? That's me moving that quantity from the table to the tub in the foreground during my first workshop at the Institute ("Sourdough Bread at Home") in early March (thanks to Orso for the photo). I like mixing bread dough, seeing it come together under my eyes thanks to the action of my hands — so much so that looking at a mixer in action makes me quite impatient.

At the end of each day, we tasted the breads we had baked. The schedule was such that we tasted ciabatta and challah on Saturday and the other five breads on Sunday, a real feast of flavors and textures. I brought home all the bread I made, so, as you can imagine, there is a good amount of bread in our freezer right now.

Click on the button to hear me pronounce the Italian words and expressions mentioned in the post:

un weekend di pane

or launch the un weekend buono come il pane audio file [mp3].

[Depending on your set-up, the audio file will be played within the browser or by your mp3 player application. Please, contact me if you encounter any problems.]

Comments

[Peter]

Simona, that must have been a wonderful day...bread making is most therapeutic. The breads look gorgeous and I hope you'll try and post your own batch soon!

[sweet Artichoke]

What I like most about baking bread at home is the lovely bread smell which invades the whole appartment/house! There is something festive in it!
And waow, congratulation for your breads, they look perfect!

[Ivy]

Happy Birthday Cara Simona. Wow, wonderful bread. Where is the cheese?

[Astrofiammante]

Auguri di buon compleanno!!! Hai fatto proprio un full immersion panificatore, ma per caso sei tu dietro quella massa di impasto? Sììì.......Ragazza mia, ti sei fatta scoprire, tu sei figlia di braccio di ferro, ;-))) ciauzzzzzzz

[Silvia]

You've made a wonderful present to yourself. I love baking bread and to be honest I prefer it the way you did it - with not so much flour, I find it better on taste that way.

[bellini]

Making and tasting so many breads in one day would be a dream come true.

[Jaime]

wow that's an impressive spread of breads!

[Mike Moyle]

Cara Simona. What a wonderful post. I particularly liked the photo of you struggling with the 10kg of dough! It looks like something from "The Blob"! I had not realized your focus on l'arte bianca. I do not currently have any intention of getting involved in the production end, but I do love to eat the output! I am curious as to what breads that one can find around the Bay Area you particularly enjoy. My favs would include Acme's walnut levain, Tartine's country bread and, most recently, the bread served at Cavallo Point that you may have seen mentioned in my post about the "My Calabria" class -- Cavallo Point's pastry chef, Ethan Howard, does a fantastic job (unfortunately that bread is only available at CP). Buon Natale!

[Milen@]

Il pane ha un che di sacro ....
Gli gnocchi viola del post precedente sono incantevoli :D

[Sara]

Buon compleanno! That's a great gift to oneself! I always meant to take a weekend workshop at the SBI. I've heard great things about them. Now you totally convinced me I should do so soon!

[Jacque]

That looks like a wonderful course... how fun! The bread looks fantstic and I can't believe that mountain of dough you're holding.

[Catalina]

These loaves look so yummy :) I can't imagine not having a slice of fresh bread with layer of butter and homemade jam on my breakfast :) I love bread :) The photo where you're holding the huge mass of dough is very impressive! I have problems to handle dough which weights about 1 kg :D

[Zita]

Sounds like it's a very interesting weekend, and that pic on 10 kg bread dough is amazing :)

[Suzanne]

Simona, I sure didn't expect you to visit my blog out of all the DB there are, so glad you like the crostata, it was a fun challenge. Your bread looks beautiful!

[Simona Carini]

Ciao Peter. It was indeed!

I also love the smell in the house when I bake bread. However, it makes it difficult to convince my husband to wait until the bread is completely cooled before slicing it.

Thank you so much, Ivy. The cheese was at home, and you can imagine what we had for dinner that evening.

Grazie, Astro. Ebbene si', sono io. La foto me l'ha fatta una ragazza che ha fatto il corso con me.

Ciao Silvia. I am glad you like less flour on the surface. For the pear buckwheat one, though, I'll need to use more to show the stenciled pear properly.

Ciao Val. The whole experience is a bit dreamlike.

Thanks, Jamie.

[Simona Carini]

Ciao Mike. I like Acme's walnut levain too (and I like making walnut sourdough bread at home: I think the combination is wonderful). I have never had Tartine's bread. You see, the problem (so to speak) of baking your own bread is that you rarely buy it. I would like to visit Cavallo Point, after reading about it in your blog posts. Buone Feste!

Ciao Lenny. Hai ragione! Fare il pane e anche il formaggio ci pone sulla linea dei notri progenitori. Grazie.

Ciao Sara. It's a great place. I am looking forward to taking some more weekend classes there next year.

Hi Jacque. It sure felt like a mountain. I must say though that when I took the second class, I was a lot less intimidated.

Hi Catalina. Fresh bread is such a treat.

Hi Zita. It was indeed very interesting and also a lot of fun.

Hi Suzanne. It was my pleasure. It's a special treat to see what the DB's have done with the challenge.

[Andreas]

What a great birthday gift.
Much smarter to attend a workshop than to buy a stand-mixer.

[Foodycat]

That photo is brilliant! I can't imagine trying to heft that much dough around. I think 2kg is the biggest I have made.

[Simona Carini]

Hi Andreas. It was indeed a great gift.

Thanks Alicia. Part of the challenge was that the table is a bit too high for me. I am certainly glad everything went well.