Inspirational Master Classes in Bread Baking

Traditional bread baking is becoming increasingly popular in London. There is a growing number of bakeries and cafés that serve homemade sourdough bread and several of them are Swedish. Some say it is very easy to make sourdough bread, but if you want the perfect bread it is always good to seek guidance from true experts. Manfred Enoksson of Saltå Kvarn is a real Swedish authority on traditional baking and he is a frequent press, radio and TV contributor. Manfred is also noted for his inspirational courses at Saltå Kvarn. When the TRH The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall visited Sweden a few years ago they visited Saltå Kvarn and were delighted to get a briefing from Manfred.

During the weekend Manfred Enoksson visited London and gave several master classes at the Swedish residence, where focus was on artisanal sourdough and rye bread. Manfred is a wonderful and pedagogical teacher with great patience and it was a true pleasure to have him as a guest at the residence. I thought that I had some basic knowledge about bread baking, but I quickly discovered that traditional baking is not only an art form, but real science. You have to pay attention to every little detail including room temperature.

On Sunday several small scale bakers and café owners with a passion for baking joined the six hour master class. It was a great opportunity to ask a lot of technical questions and to network with each other. On Saturday Manfred gave a master class to members from the Swedish business community. There were many good laughs and quite good outcomes as regards production of both traditional bread and cinnamon buns. I think that we all went away thinking that bread baking is actually quite a lot of fun and very relaxing.