Features / Food
Mark’s Bread: On a roll
Mark’s Bread host popular one-day introductory bread marking courses in their North Street bakery. Becki Murray rolled up her sleeves.
There aren’t many things better than freshly baked bread in the morning. One thing better is actually making the bread yourself.
At Mark’s Bread one Sunday a month, new bread-making skills are learnt in fun, small groups of no more than eight. This ensures that all participants get the help and attention they need from Mark Newman and his team as well as having enough space on the bench in the bakery’s cosy surroundings.
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The friendly atmosphere was cemented as soon I stepped foot through the door, with coffee and fresh croissants provided to tantalise the taste buds. My seven new friends and I were then told about all the different shapes and ingredients that we would need to get us started and we could choose exactly which flour mix we wanted from rye, white and wholemeal.
We began by making our sourdough as this takes the longest amount of time, before moving on to start making baguettes, learning about how to shape them and get the correct texture. Mark is really hands-on, firstly showing how to make each type of bread and then going around pointing out ways to make people’s techniques better.
None of us on the day’s course knew much about bread making before walking through the bakery doors, but regardless of prior experience we all had a great time, chatting and asking plenty of questions to the patient professionals.
Previous participants have been known to come back to the bakery, wanting to continue trying all that their cafe has to offer in homemade sandwiches and other culinary delights, made from the types of bread they learnt to make. Those who have caught the bread-making bug also return to buy their yeast and have any further questions answered.
At the end of the day, you not only get to go home with armfuls of bread, and knowing that you’ve made it all yourself makes those freshly baked loaves even more delicious.
The one-day course, ‘Introduction to the handmade loaf’, costs £150. The next dates are February 7 and March 6. For more information, visit www.marksbread.co.uk
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