Helene's sourdough workshops run from 10am to 4pm in her microbakery in Mears Ashby, between Wellingborough and Northampton. There are never more than six people. Lunch is included, and you go home with two loaves you shaped yourself, your own starter and the recipes.
Mostly beginners. Some people have tried sourdough at home and want to find out why their loaves keep coming out flat. With six people at most, Helene can keep an eye on everyone's dough and answer questions as they come up.
Plenty of people book in pairs. One guest came with her granddaughter, another with her mum. Neither of them had made sourdough before, and they now bake it every week.
The morning starts with the starter: what it is, how to make one and how to feed it so it stays lively. Then you mix your dough by hand and learn what fermentation is doing to it, and how time and temperature change the bread you end up with.
Lunch is homemade and eaten round the table together. In the afternoon you shape your loaves and score them, which decides how they open up in the oven. Helene also covers yeasted bread and sweet doughs, and goes through what to do when a loaf comes out flat, dense or pale.
A San Francisco-style boule and a seeded loaf, both shaped by you and ready to bake in your own oven. You also take home your own sourdough starter and the recipes from the day. Sylwia, who came on a workshop, wrote on Google: "You will come out with knowledge and skills and you will be able to bake sourdough at your own house."
Helene is a trained pastry chef and a qualified teacher. She studied at Tresham College, then trained with The Sourdough School, where she specialised in Baking as Lifestyle Medicine, with Wayne Caddy's Sourdough Slingers and at The Artisan School of Food. She bakes for two collection tables every week, so what she teaches is what she does herself.
A place includes lunch and drinks through the day. New dates go up in the WhatsApp group first. For the price or to book, message Helene on WhatsApp. The full details and common questions are on the sourdough workshops page.
A place also makes a good present, and there's more on that in giving a workshop as a gift. Helene runs sessions for community groups, social prescribing, people with learning difficulties and fundraising events too.
No. The day starts from the very beginning.
Yes, a homemade lunch, plus drinks through the day.
In Helene's microbakery in Mears Ashby, Northamptonshire, close to Wellingborough, Earls Barton, Sywell and Northampton. You'll get the address when you book.
Mention them when you book and Helene will tell you what's possible.
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