Series of Cooking Classes: Hands-On in Seattle

	To Yeast !
—A regular toast at the first class of the Baking Series
	I had a great time at the bread class. Thank you so much, I could not have spent a better Saturday morning anywhere else.
—Helen W., 2007

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Saturday Baking Series
New Series Begins in March 2008!
Saturday morning seems like a perfect time to get a little flour flying and fill the kitchen with the delicious scents of fresh baking. This series will teach you the basics of many kinds of bread as well as pastries and baked desserts like pies and cakes. We'll discuss the chemical properties of ingredients, like how the gluten in flour affects the final product, so you understand how and why the formulas of baking recipes work. You'll often take baked goods home with you. The six classes are:

1. Simple Lean Doughs: Flour, water, yeast and salt are the components to make all of the basic breads. We will cover baguettes, pita bread, and ciabatta. You will learn a new kneading technique and understand exactly how kneading, resting, proofing, and all the stages of baking affect the bread's gluten development, giving you control over the final product. You will learn how to shape loaves by hand, all about "oven-spring," and how to develope a tender loaf with a chewy crust.

bread

2. Enriched Doughs: Enriched doughs are breads and rolls that contain tenderizers such as milk, butter, or eggs. We will expand our baking knowledge with brioche, dinner rolls, sandwich bread, and cinnamon rolls. Pictured here are the buttery and delicious favorite of this class, Uncle Gerry's Butter Rolls, a Thanksgiving tradition in our family.

3. Quick Breads: Quick breads are baked goods (muffins, biscuits, etc.) that use chemical leaveners such as baking powder instead of yeast. They follow completely different rules and are a very valuable part of a baker's repertoire. Learn how to deal with gluten in a different way, allowing you to make perfectly soft and tender muffins and pancakes instead of the often over-chewy standard.

4. Pastry: Make your own puff pastry, croissants, and pâté de choix, which is used to make éclairs and profiteroles (we'll make pastry cream to fill these delicacies!). We will use the puff pastry to make Napoleons and palmier cookies as well as our mouthwatering lunch entrée, Salmon Kubiac, which pairs salmon, mushroom duxelles, and asparagus within a wrapping of puff pastry and is served with Hollandaise. Pictured here are some of our homemade croissants, painted with butter and about to be baked.

bread

5. Pies and Tarts: Here we will be focusing on the crust, demystifying and clarifying pie crust recipes. You will learn three different crusts: basic pie crust, pâte sucrée (sweet crust), and pâte brisée ("short" pastry, for flaky crusts). You will learn a new rolling technique that eliminates the frustration of trying to get your crust to turn out round. We'll also learn how to make a good pie filling, from Lemon Meringue to Strawberry Rhubarb to Apple Cranberry (pies vary by season, of course).

cake

6. Cakes and Tortes: We will learn the ratios necessary to make a cake without a mix, all about tortes, plus we will learn about frostings, meringues, and buttercreams. Understand basic Gènoise, cheesecake, flourless cake, and pound cake as you learn the techniques that make each possible.

Registration Information
Where: CC House, Beacon Hill.
Who: Taught by Chef Katie Coleman and Chef Gabriel Claycamp (Lean and Enriched Doughs classes).
When: Six consecutive Saturdays, 10 am to 1 pm, beginning March 15. For the March 2008 Series, the classes will fall in the following order based on instructor availability: 3/15, Pastry; 3/22, Pies; 3/29, Cakes; 4/5, Lean Doughs; 4/12, Quick Breads; and 4/19, Enriched Doughs. If you need to miss a class, you can make it up when the series is next offered.
How Much: $420 for six classes. Each class includes a full meal. Registration is limited to 10 students.
How: Call us at 206.284.8687 or click here to register online. Please see "The Fine Print" for registration details and our cancellation policy.

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