The Baking Lab

Anything that has food involved in it makes Shrim a very happy girl, although I am not too sure about the lab bit (hated chemistry in school: p).
The Baking Lab hosted a team building workshop for us where we had to bake our own bagels and pizza (woohoo). Located in a very mysterious building where you literally need to walk through an alley way and then walk up some old stairways, it almost made me feel like I am on the sets of a James Bond film! We went in and were greeted very warmly by the chef there who was teaching us how to BAKE! :)
We were taught how to knead pizza dough and bagel dough which was something very new to me, there are so many things that we think we know but in reality we don’t! For example I had no idea that if the dough starts sticking all you need to do is leave it for 15 minutes and then get back to it instead of adding extra flour to it. There are so many techniques of folding the dough as well which were very interesting. I also had absolutely no idea that Bagels need to be boiled in water before baking and that is what gives it the texture and guess what boiling the bagels was so therapeutic, could do that for hours!
I am not giving out anymore secrets because you should try it out yourself — go get down and dirty and covered in flour!
Verdict: Absolutely loved it and can’t wait to go back again to learn some new trade secrets!

Des bagels, des bagels, des bageeeels !!! (Et des pizzas aussi…)
Une jolie découverte made in London dans un lieu insolite. De loin, on dirait une petite usine en brique (style bristish oblige) et très vite, après une poignée de marches, on se rend compte qu’il y a un petit atelier de cuisine bien sympathique qui n’attend que nous ! Et oui, it’s «baking time» !
Au programme: préparation de bagels pour le petit déj du lendemain et création de pizzas pour le dîner du soir. A part la préparation de la pâte, on s’occupe de tout ! On pèse des portions de pâte, on façonne les bagels, on les fait bouillir (oui oui, ça aussi ça a été une grande découverte) et on les regarde dorer dans le four pendant 15 minutes. Sauf que ! Quand on prépare à manger après une journée intensive de travail… Comment vous dire… Mon corps a failli m’intenter un procès pour non assistance à estomac affamé ! Direction l’atelier pizza avec le même chef, qui, soi dit en passant, a été adorable du début à la fin de l’atelier cuisine. Patient, pédagogue, professionnel,… bref, perfect ! Tout est mis à notre disposition: ustensiles, garnitures (sauce tomate, mozza, basilic frais, charcuteries… de qualité of course !)
L’ambiance était géniale et on a fini en beauté avec la dégustation de nos petites merveilles gourmandes !
Petit +: Le chef nous avait préparé des red velvet cupcakes, un fondant au chocolat (à tomber !!) et un gâteau au citron (tout aussi bon) pour le dessert.
Bön à savoir: Pas de tablier fourni, donc né vous étonnez pas de ressortir tout enfariné !

I’ve been baking breads for quite a long time now, but I haven’t been able to be very consistent in terms of producing equal quality loaves: sometimes my dough fails to rise; sometimes it rises too much; sometimes it’s underbaked when I cut into it and sometimes the flavour is off.
I was looking at my favourite foodie-​website here in London (Edible Experiences) and there I cam across Maria’s Baking Lab. I spent some time browsing the website and then signed up for one of the bread baking classes: The fundamentals of bread baking.
The class was lead by Emmanuel Hadjiandreou, an artisan baker from heart. I really enjoyed his teaching style, which is hands-​on and very informative; each step in the baking process is explained and he tells you exactly why you do this and what the processes behind it are.
The course lasted from about 6pm to 9:30pm and during that time we baked a wholemeal bread, some wholemeal bread rolls and a soda bread. For me, most of the stuff that we did wasn’t anything new, but what I really enjoyed was learning some good (kneading) techniques that will make sure my future loaves will be of better consistency.
I can recommend this class to anyone and I’m now also eyeballing with the upcoming sourdough classes… my sourdough bread baking attempts have been even less successful and I’d really love to get a handle on this technique. (I grew up in Germany and sourdough breads are just a fundamental way of living there.)