Afternoon Tea with Jim Dodge

Join celebrated pastry chef and author Jim Dodge for an afternoon of baking and tea!

In this class, you will learn European techniques for hand mixing, giving you a greater understanding of how the ingredients are manipulated and changed during the process to create the perfect texture, tenderness and flavor in your scones and shortbread.  This knowledge will increase your pastry judgement and skill when mixing similar doughs at home or in a mixer. Chef Jim will also demo the three-day process to create Brioche pullman loaves, an art that just takes patience and knowledge.

Class Menu:

• English Scones
• Welsh Currant Cakes
• Cucumber & Brioche Tea Sandwiches
• Scottish Shortbread
• Loose-Leaf Fortnum and Mason Tea

We will finish the class with a tasting of the day’s menu and loose-leaf Fortnum & Mason Tea during the Q&A.

This is both a demonstration and hands-on class; students will make two of the recipes and Chef Jim will demo the rest. Each student will leave with each of the items that they make in class.

Although masks and proof of vaccination are not currently required to participate in any courses at the Artisan Baking Center, masks are encouraged for any participants who wish to use them in order to stop the spread of infectious illness. Please stay home if you’re experiencing any symptoms of illness. Email us at [email protected] if this occurs to speak with a class coordinator.

Jim Dodge is an award-winning pastry chef and author who comes from seven generations of hoteliers from the lakes region and white mountain of New Hampshire. After early training and direction at his parents’ luxury resorts, he began a two-year Swiss pastry apprenticeship with chef Fritz Albicker, at which time he decided become a pastry chef instead of a hotelier. The Swiss influence with his New England heritage, resulting in unique methods of preparation and styling. In 1978, Jim moved to the West Coast to be the executive pastry chef at the Stanford Court in San Francisco for 10 years, during which he became one of the first pastry chefs to be nationally recognized.

In 1991, Jim made his home in the Pacific Rim and opened The American Pie, a restaurant and pastry shop offering modern American fare in Hong Kong; a wholesale bakery and a second American Pie followed. In 1993, Jim returned to the States and left retail baking for education, joining the New England Culinary Institute in Montpelier, VT, as senior vice president.

He is the author of “The American Baker” and “Baking with Jim Dodge”. Besides teaching pastry domestically for over 30 years, he has taught in Japan, Korea, Mexican and Panama. Jim is an advisor to the Julia Child Foundation and jury chair for the Julia Child Award.

Categories: Baking Class, Beginner, Cooking Class