Sourdough Basics for Home Bakers (June 2024)

Tough getting consistent results with sourdough at home? Put off by the mess? Come along and get to the bottom of getting the best results, using simple and minimal-mess techniques ideal for the home baker.
 
What to expect:

Join us at Kelmarna Community Farm and delve into the wonders of sourdough with seasoned home baker Neerav Dhanani. He will guide you through the basics of baking sourdough bread, from starter to loaf, through a combination of demonstrated techniques along with plenty of hands-on practice to give you a feel for the whole process. Plus, be sure to bring all of your pressing sourdough questions to get answers from a tenured home baker.

Neerav will start by demonstrating how to shape and bake a well fermented dough. You'll then get hands on to craft your own dough, with Neerav guiding you with essential skills, tips, and tricks for you to practice in action. Neerav will take advantage of the time between steps (baking is a patient process, after all) to focus on the magic of the sourdough starter and to demystify some of the science and terminology behind sourdough baking so you can make the most of online recipes at home.

Neerav will have a variety of goodies to taste as well, including:

• an overnight cold proof loaf
• English muffins (baked by you on the day!)

Then, after a full session and delicious tastings, you won't go home empty handed! Take with you some of Neerav's heirloom sourdough starter, the dough you craft during the session (to prove and then bake the next day), the dough scraper provided on the day, as well as a printed recipe and detailed guide for a basic sourdough loaf and pizza dough.

Tickets include: admission and guided instruction, including demonstrations, practical baking activities, Q&A, tastings, a dough scraper, and printed recipes

What to bring:

Essential:

• a refillable water bottle
  
• a large mixing bowl (to craft your dough)
• a 1L or 2L container (to take home your dough)
• a small, sterilised jar (to take home some starter)
• weather appropriate gear

Recommended:

• a notebook and pen
• all of your sourdough questions

Neerav Dhanani is a statistician by profession but has been making sourdough bread at home for about 20 years. Through lots of reading, research, and years of trial and error, Neerav has arrived at a set of techniques perfect for home bakers to make sourdough baking easy, mess-free, and to consistently make delicious bread at home in a way that fits your schedule. Neerav is excited to share what he's learned, to help you stoke your passion, and to give you the tools you need to succeed with sourdough!

At Kelmarna, we strive to make education accessible for everyone. So, where possible, we offer a 35% discount on our workshops to valid Community Services Card holders. If you book one of these tickets, please email us a copy of your valid Community Services Card, and remember to bring it along to the workshop. Please note that this option does not include Super Gold Card holders.

We look forward to seeing you on the farm soon!

Kelmarna Community Farm Workshops Program.