Introduction to Pastry and Enriched Breads

***NEXT DATE AND LOCATION TBD***

Want to spruce up your baking skills utilizing the magic of sourdough fermentation and baking with stone ground, regional flour? Join Betsy Gonzalez of Osono Bread and Brennan Johnson of Gentle Rhythms for the Introduction to Pastry + Enriched Breads workshop!

Lessons will be delivered through conversation-style lectures, hands-on baking, and brief demonstrations to provide the principles throughout this two-day workshop. Classes are geared towards beginners with little to no experience, but experienced bakers should still be able to take away new lessons on flours and milling as well as new pastry techniques. All levels are welcomed.

WORKSHOP OVERVIEW

Through this two-day workshop, instructors will walk you through the principles of baking pastry and enriched breads.

Students will bake and decorate sourdough cakes, mix and shape flaky pastries (think fruit-adorned galettes and pies), bake sourdough cookies, and explore decadent bread doughs that incorporate butter and sugar by making brioche and cardamom buns. With an emphasis on baking seasonally, you’ll learn the beauty and flavors behind freshly-milled flours and local ingredients that can transform your baking repertoire.

Classes begin early in the morning with a meal break provided on both days — with coursework ending in the afternoons, you may spend the rest of the day wandering the beautiful community of Serenbe or exploring the vibrant city of Atlanta a short drive away.

Students will take away a jar of sourdough starter, a wide array of pastries that are decorated and baked by you and your teachers, and local stone ground flour with a recipe guidebook to get you straight to baking.

 
 

location + class schedule

***NEXT DATE AND LOCATION TBD***

Day 1: 9:00 am - 2:00 pm | Day 2: 9:00 am - 1:00 pm

 
 

Our class discussions

  • Starters: overview of creating and maintaining sourdough starters; discovering the potential of discard (leftover) starter for pastry

  • Fermentation: demystifying the various stages of fermentation and understanding how it can play a role in flavoring and enhancing pastry and breads (both sourdough and yeasted)

  • Regional, stone ground flours and seasonal, local ingredients: learning the role of various types of flour in pastry-making; how to source regional grains, and baking with the seasons

  • Sourdough pastry recipes: enhancing existing or developing your own pastry recipes through naturally fermented cakes, sourdough flaky dough, and sourdough cookie dough

  • Enriched bread recipes: discovering the versatility of a one-size-fits-all dough for a myriad of uses, starting with cardamom buns and brioche

Tickets can be purchases through Gentle Rhythm’s store. Please refer to our policy page for our workshop terms and conditions. Our workshops are nonrefundable.

 

Your baking instructors

 
 

Brennan Johnson

Brennan’s fascination with food culture and history was catalyzed by a trip to Western Europe in 2009 to study communal brick ovens. He began baking bread soon after, baking out of his father’s own brick oven and selling at local farmers markets during his high school summers. He has a degree from Whitman College in Environmental Humanities — which, for him, meant exploring our culture’s relationship to food — an herbalism certificate from Terra Sylva School of Botanical Medicine, and has worked in restaurants and bakeries in San Francisco, Portland, Asheville, Minneapolis, and Europe. Gentle Rhythms is, for him, a way to piece together those disparate experiences, combining his curiosity in food studies with his love of hands-on cooking. These days, he is usually found on the road, learning about foodways wherever he is.

Betsy Gonzalez

After cultivating a baking career both regionally and abroad, Betsy Gonzalez established Osono Bread in Atlanta, Georgia in late 2018. Their old-world approach to baking emphasizes an investment in regional millers, local farmers, and the nourishment of the community through the tangible form of bread. Over the years, Osono Bread has grown to provide naturally leavened bread and pastry at weekly farmers markets throughout Atlanta.

Beyond a dedication to wholesome baking, Betsy strives to use their platform to share the beauty of creating community through food and the power of the people's labor behind it.