What is the Bake for Health Certificate?
This is a 1 year course.
Not all bread is created equal, and whilst most sourdough bread making courses focus on big holes, we go far beyond the crumb structure of your bread. Of course, it goes without saying that you will get beautiful open structured bread, but this course is about applying the science and understanding to the bread that we bake to bake and eat bread to support gut health. You will learn the secrets of the Sourdough School baking protocol and bake healthy bread that supports your gut Microbiome and you will start the course by doing a gut microbe analysis, bake the protocol for 12 week, retest and get feedback from the gut health team at The Sourdough School.
*please note that there is a shopping list of baking equipment, ingredients & tests that you will need to purchase in order to take part in the course and the cost is in addition to your course fees.
Gain a unique insight
You will be baking according to the Sourdough School Bread Protocol, so on this course you will gain an insight into your gut microbiome and physical and mental health. You will test your biome at the beginning of the course and again in late January; when you get your results back you will have a feedback session with the Research and Medical Directors at The Sourdough School and discover how you have responded.
Where is the course taught from?
The Bake for health Certificate is run from The Sourdough School you can see the school in the video above. The School is a centre of research and development, set in 2/3 of an acre of organic gardens in the UK, in Northamptonshire. Vanessa and the team apply nutritional, medical evidence lifestyle evidence to baking and teach The Nutrition & Digestibility of Bread Diploma.
The Science.
We apply the evidence to the way we approach our recipes, applying nutritional, medical and lifestyle evidence to our techniques of baking bread for optimal health. Our bread protocol is supported by the many years of research and development by Vanessa Kimbell and the Sourdough School team. You will learn to bake bread that helps to reduce bloating, balance blood sugar and that is good for your mental health. Changing your approach to your most basic food and understanding how your sourdough can improve your gut health, weight management and mental health, and improve the way you feel.
Live Sessions & Support
- Whilst most online courses will leave you to it, we don’t. Your course is supported with regular live baking clinics & tutorial sessions with Vanessa live from The Sourdough School.
- The Club is about a community, and it is very interactive. We have a fun lively baking forum which is supported by both Vanessa and a professional baker who are part of our baking team. Our club has an alumni membership and have students who have been members now for 10 years – it is lovely.
A living syllabus.
The course is structured with a week-by-week lesson plan but there are new recipes, magazine features and tutorials added in real time throughout the year.
A library of resources
You can also use the club as library of teaching resources and support and just enjoy the community and content – it is packed full of video tutorials, sourdough recipes, tips & techniques as well as a glossary, and the recipes are referenced with the studies used to create them.
Who does this course appeal to?
The course is suitable for anyone with a passion for baking to learn to bake sourdough for their friends, family, neighbours and community. This year we have an amazingly wide range of students, from professional bakers, Farmers, home bakers, to GPs, Nutritionists, Dieticians and Health Care Professionals and Microbiologists. It is ideal for bakers as well as healthcare practitioners who want to improve the bread that they create and bake
Why are the numbers limited?
The numbers are limited because we provide support and guidance to our members and we limit numbers to make sure that we allow enough time for Vanessa and the team to do this well.
How does the course work?
This is a combined technique. The course is self-guided self-learning and supported with the live sessions and the forum. The course is structured with lessons, tutorials, recipes, detailed videos, and a paced pathway, building your skills each week with recipes. The recipes that progressively become technically more challenging, at the beginning you will be baking sourdough pancakes and flatbreads and tin loaves and by the end you will to be baking advanced high hydration boules.
The course will build your confidence, prioritising understanding and knowledge.
What will I learn?
A list is too limited. But you will learn techniques of how to bake bread and baked goods that support health including:
- Creating and maintaining your starter
- How and why change your starter into a chocolate or sweet starter
- Mixing, shaping, scoring and baking techniques
- Why different flours all behave so differently
- To assess and recalibrate your baking
- To get a wonderful open honeycomb crumb structure
- The flavour and nutritional properties of heritage grains, including Einkorn, Emmer, Spelt and Khorasan
- To recognise when your bread is under or over proved
- What to do when things go wrong with your bakes
- Rescue tips for over proved bread
- Why wholegrain matters
- The differences between roller milled & stoneground flour
- How to refresh, maintain and connect to your starter
- The mechanisms to control fermentation, and digestibility
- How to bake to suit your schedule
- How milling your own flour increases nutrition and diversity
- Why your gut microbiome is important
- Use up left-over starter to make every day easy
What recipes are included?
There are dozens of recipes, but recipes include
- High hydration sourdough boules
- Baguettes
- Sourdough Brioche
- 10-minute sourdough technique
- Pastries
- Buns
- Focaccia
- Pancakes
- Waffles
- Pizza
- Pasta
- Cakes
- Sourdough fizz
- Cultured butter
- Pickles & Compotes & Soups to eat your bread with
Request a Syllabus
Our next intake will be for a start date of 22nd September 2022 you can request a syllabus here and we will send you more information about online open days.
