Panary – Two day 'British traditional' bread making course

Whether you fancy trying your hand at making a good old-fashioned cottage loaf or a London bloomer, there are no pre-requisite standards required by PANARY.

Master Baker Paul Merry always expects to teach a class of mixed ability, and he knows how to draw in the less experienced student.

Led by Paul you will be guided through the hand skills needed to create these shapes, as well as the familiar tinned loaves.

Learn to use sweet English whole meal and blends of white flours made by English millers who know how much Canadian to add.

Work with longer fermentation times to make bread with remarkable flavour, experience overnight starters known by British bakers as “sponges”.

Learn about malted breads, rye breads, and tackle a few of the vast panoply of English rolls.

For the sweet toothed there will be the almost forgotten family of dough cakes enriched with butter and fruit or saffron.

You will also have the opportunity to tour the working watermill with the miller at the family run Cann Mills in Dorset, where the slow & gentle stones produce a natural flour that is more nutritious.

Price includes:

all tuition

printed materials/recipes

an apron

lunches

drinks/aperitif snacks in the bakery when 2 or 3 day course

all raw materials, plus your inspired produce to take home

Paul Merry has been involved with craft baking and masonry ovens for over thirty years, and has been teaching courses for fifteen years. When he is not teaching he is a consultant in traditional baking or is dealing with his French wood-fired ovens.

An Australian, he had his own bakery with wood-fired oven outside Melbourne, where he enjoyed for over a decade the life of the village baker in an appreciative community.

He considers that the step from being a master of your trade to becoming a teacher and a consultant is a natural and easy progression.

“During the years I was in my bakery I enjoyed having apprentices, and to watch them flourish into competent bakers was deeply rewarding. I have always enjoyed teaching my craft, and now I see it as a worthy duty given that the craft itself faces extinction unless others are persuaded to put the clock back to allow time for fermentation and the proper handling of dough.”