Class: Want to spruce up your pastry skills utilizing the magic of sourdough fermentation and baking with stone ground, regional flour? Join Betsy Gonzalez of Osono Bread (an award-winning microbakery in Atlanta, GA) for the Introduction to Sourdough Pastry workshop! This introductory course is taught through a combination of demonstrations and brief hands-on elements to provide the basics of pairing sourdough techniques with pastry at home.
Our baker will demonstrate on how to ferment pastry dough and batters, provide a lesson on sourdough starters and fermentation, and under the guidance of your teacher, students will bake and decorate seasonally-inspired, sourdough cakes, sourdough turnovers, and sourdough cookies in class. We rely on conservation-style lectures and demonstrations to provide the principles throughout this 90-minute workshop.
Students will take away a jar of sourdough starter, pastry decorated and baked by you and your teacher, local stone ground flour to bake with, and a recipe guidebook to get you straight to baking.
Topics covered:
Starters: brief overview of creating and maintaining sourdough starters, discovering the potential of discard (leftover) starter for pastry
Slow fermentation: demystifying the various stages of fermentation and understanding how it can play a role in flavoring and enhancing pastry
Regional, stone ground flours and seasonal, local ingredients: learning the role of flour in pastry-making, gaining a new perspective on flour, how to source regional grains, and baking with the seasons
Sourdough pastry recipes: enhancing existing or developing your own pastry recipes with active or discarded sourdough starter, beginning with naturally fermented cakes, sourdough flaky dough, and sourdough cookie dough.
When/where: Saturday, April 22nd // 10:30 am - 12 pm // Carolina Ground (3rd Space), 1237 Shipp St. Hendersonville, NC 28791
Instructor: 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.