Rye Sourdough Masterclass - Hands-On Rye Bread Class Sydney

Try buying a proper loaf of dark rye in Sydney. You'll find plenty of pale, soft supermarket loaves with "rye" on the label and almost no rye inside. Now and then you'll find the real thing at a specialty bakery — dense, dark, properly sour, twelve dollars a loaf, and sold out by ten in the morning.

If you grew up with German, Polish, Baltic, Scandinavian or Jewish bread on the table, you already know exactly what I mean. You've been trying to describe that loaf to people for years.

In this class, you'll make it yourself.

Everything you know about bread stops working

Here's what nobody tells you about rye. It has very little of the protein that makes wheat dough stretchy — so there's no windowpane, no springy ball, nothing to knead. It drinks far more water than wheat flour and handles more like thick clay. It ferments faster and turns sour sooner.

Treated like wheat dough, it fails. That's why most home bakers try rye once, pull a brick out of the oven, and never go near it again.

Treated like rye, it's honestly easier than a sourdough boule. Fewer steps. No shaping tension to master. No scoring nerves. It simply asks you to understand what it is — and that's what this morning is for.

Freshly baked warm rye bread enjoyed in class

During the masterclass, we will bake two full-size artisan rye sourdough loaves fresh in the studio oven to slice, share, and taste together.

You’ll get to experience the entire baking cycle firsthand and taste warm, aromatic rye bread served with butter and good salt while we discuss flavor, crumb structure, and baking techniques. It's the moment that makes the whole morning click!

You'll also mix, handle, and shape your own full-size rye sourdough loaf dough to take home and bake in your own kitchen the next morning.

What you'll learn

• Why rye behaves nothing like wheat: No food-science lecture—and exactly what to do differently.

• How to build and keep a rye starter: Alongside your white one or instead of it.

• How to handle sticky clay-like dough: Without panicking and adding excess flour (the mistake that ruins most first attempts).

• How to read the ferment: Rye moves fast and the window is narrower than wheat — I'll show you what to watch for.

• Baking in a tin: Achieving a dense, even, properly moist crumb that keeps for up to a week.

• The golden rule of rye: Why you must not slice it for 24 hours, and what happens when you do.

• How to flavour your loaves: Caraway, molasses, seeds, and the sweet-sour Baltic style that surprises everyone.

What you'll take home

• A full-size rye sourdough dough: Mixed, shaped in a tin by you, and ready to bake fresh in your own oven at home the next day.

• A jar of my own active 16-year-old starter: To keep culturing at home.

• My printed rye recipe booklet: Packed with recipes, troubleshooting tips, and schedules.

• (Optional) Bonus: 20% off the Hankerie Starter Tool Kit for all attendees.

Who this class is for

Complete beginners are genuinely welcome. This isn't an advanced class — it's a different grain, and a more forgiving one than people expect. You don't need to have baked sourdough before, and you don't need to bring a starter.

If you already bake sourdough every week, this is the natural next step. Rye is where deep flavour lives — and it's higher in fibre and lower GI than white flour, which matters to a lot of the people who come through my studio.

Small class size capped at maximum 5 guests per session so everyone gets individual guidance, hands-on practice, and plenty of time for questions!

Class Details