Bake with the Best: New Baking and Cooking Classes with Baker & Cook’s Dean Brettschneider

Whether you want to perfect your bread technique or learn the secret to Singapore’s tastiest baked goods, Dean Brettschneider’s new baking and cooking classes are a great place to start!

Dean Brettschneider, co-owner of Baker & Cook and Plank Sourdough Pizza, has opened up his own baking and cooking school behind Baker & Cook Greenwood Avenue. This is the place to come if you are hankering after homemade sourdough, perfect pizzas and pastries but don’t know how to bake yourself.

Home bread baking is getting popular, thanks to people wising up and reading store bought food labels. It is the only real way of knowing what you are feeding yourself and your kids. Ever wondered how the supermarket “cotton wool” style bread taste soft and last weeks on your humid kitchen counter? Chemicals and dough conditioners and a lot of unnecessary additives. Real bread has only a handful of ingredients (often just flour, salt, yeast and water) and will only last a few days on the counter (but really good bread will be wolfed down before then!). If you bake your own bread you can always do what we do: have it fresh for the first two days then slice it up and freeze it ready to be popped into the toaster for breakfast.

What to Know:

• Dean Brettschneider has published many a cookbook including a bread ‘bible’, called, well, BREAD (a must-read).
• All bread baking lessons are taught by the affable Kiwi Dean Brettschneider himself.
• There are also other talented guest chefs for other ‘themes’ cooking up everything from macarons to super foods. Click here for the schedule.
• For bread lovers, start with the Basic Bread Baking Class – this is for everyone from complete beginners to those who make bread at home on a weekly basis but would like to improve on their loaf.
• Classes are from 10-4pm – yes that’s a full day’s worth as the dough needs time to prove and besides, you’ll make a few different breads in this time.
• Its $245 for basic bread making (other classes range from $180 – $495)
• Cappuccinos and flat whites are on offer for cooking stamina, plus there’s lunch with your crew in the kitchen and wine thrown, too.
• They do corporate events, birthday parties, and evening classes on request.

Classes are all hands on deck — it is a full participation class. No sitting back and watching demos! You will get your hands dirty (and you’ll love it). Case in point: the secret to great bread is all in the kneading. Dean will demonstrate how to knead (and how not to) and then you’ll have a go – its super simple yet takes a bit of practice to master. This is THE big lesson – crack this and chances are you’ll walk away being able to make anything from fougasse to walnut raisin rolls for breakfast.

I make my own bread weekly and while it’s edible (even by the standards of Dean the man himself), it could do with a bit of a workout – it’s much too dense. Dean advised me to try a little less water and the rest of the magic would happen once I learnt “the knead”. If you only learn one thing in these classes, it is this. It will turn any bread from meh to OH YEAH!

Brettschneider’s Baking & Cooking School, 1 Greendale Avenue, Singapore 289495, Tel: (+65) 6463 5508

www.bakingandcookingschool.com