Bread courses/days in the south of England?

While I'm reasonably happy with my sourdough bread, there's a lot of room for improvement - mainly in shaping technique and the like. I've seen a few day courses around these parts, but all of them have been for bread beginners; you get to take away starter, they demonstrate a basic loaf, etc.

Does anyone here know of any? I've only ever tasted my own bread (exluding supermarket wares), and I've never seen anyone else make a loaf (excluding breadmakers..).

Hi,

I have been to to the Lighthouse Bakery and enjoyed it very much.

http://www.lighthousebakery.co.uk/

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/23057/pugliese-bread-lighthouse-bakery

The Real Patisserie in Brighton (Kemp Town branch) offers courses as well. Just around the corner from me; nice staff.

http://www.realpatisserie.co.uk/pages/kemp-town-shop/7646

And there is the Community Chef

http://www.communitychef.org.uk/

Cheers,

Juergen

That's great, thank you for the feedback. :)

if you come to Brighton...

Juergen

Will do! The page doesn't have a lot of info about their classes, so I might shoot them an e-mail.

A friend of mine had the most enjoyable day at the Phoenix bakery in Weymouth, and they pretty much geared the day to the ability of the students. www.phoenixbakery.co.uk cheers Nici

... in Bath, is where I'd like to head one day. Not a lot of use for you, Ian, if you want somewhere specifically in East Anglia. But for those who would like a trip to the beautiful and historic town of Bath in the south west of England, then it should be a fabulous event. Richard Bertinet's site you can find here: http://www.thebertinetkitchen.com/ (Alas, no fancy-schmancy edit buttons again - why is that???) All at Sea

This website has several bread courses in all areas of England, including some great-looking courses in the East:

http://www.sustainweb.org/realbread/real_bread_campaign_bread_making_courses/#east

That's a great list, thank you.

is another. They describe day courses (much like you mention - intro to flour, intro to starters, make a loaf) but also others.

http://www.panary.co.uk/

Note I haven't been there - but am considering it as mostly I'm like you and want something beyond the introduction but still would like improvement on basics (shaping springs to mind).

Edit: I just clicked the pheonix bakery link above and can see that they source their flour from the mill where Panary hold their courses. Small worlds.

That's a good list of courses! They aren't cheap, but with most classes being quite small, you can see why. I'll have a proper peruse when I get home!

There is a pretty big space in between the community college level 'bake a loaf in an evening' for £35 and then a 12 person Dan Lepard course in London for £230 (http://www.cookeryschool.co.uk/classes) ... that's £230 just for a day! Not to mention Bertinet's 5 day course at a squillion quid.

I'm sure they're all fantastic but, holy cow, that's a lot of cash.