Two-Day Bread Baking Retreat with Michael Kalanty
March 20, 2027 - March 21, 2027
Saturday & Sunday, 9 am to 5 pm
Join us for two days of intensive bread baking!
Some breads are especially valuable teaching tools, and Chef Michael Kalanty has selected his favorites to create a hands-on learning experience that goes well beyond following recipes.
Through demonstrations, discussion, hands-on baking, and practical problem-solving, you will discover the science behind great bread, and how to put that knowledge to work in your own kitchen.
Each bread introduces different dough characteristics, fermentation methods, and baking techniques. Whether you are relatively new to bread baking or already have some experience under your belt, you will learn the skills and confidence to understand not just how bread is made, but why it behaves the way it does.
Our Menu:
Pain au Levain: Classic French Sourdough – Explore the principles of natural fermentation, levain management, and the relationship between acidity, flavor, and dough texture. You’ll work with Chef Michael’s 32-year-old organic sourdough culture, whose lineage is preserved by the International Sourdough Museum in Belgium. At the end of class, you’ll leave with your portion of the culture to continue baking sourdoughs at home!
Best Home Pizza Dough & Chocolate Babka Coffeecake – These breads are based on pre-ferments, one of the baker’s most valuable tools. Discover how preliminary fermentation influences flavor, dough handling, fermentation, and finished texture.
Honey Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread, Chewy New York Bagels, & Pain au Lait Burger Buns – These enduring favorites demonstrate how flour selection, enrichment, hydration, and mixing influence dough flavor and texture. These are ideal doughs for practicing bench work and shaping techniques.
Plus, you will learn professional skills that can make all of your breads better:
- Read your dough: Recognize the signs of proper mixing, development, and fermentation.
- Choose the right mixing method: Understand when hand mixing or machine mixing produces the best results.
- Handle and shape with confidence: Adapt your bench techniques to doughs with different hydrations and texture characteristics.
- Manage fermentation and proofing: Learn to judge dough readiness by its condition, not simply by the clock.
- Make the most of your oven: Understand how temperature, steam, and baking methods influence crust and crumb.
You will leave with more than a collection of tasty recipes. You will have a better understanding of how bread dough works and the confidence to apply what you’ve learned to breads you haven’t even baked yet!
Lunch is included both days.
Instructor Bio
Michael Kalanty is a professional bread baking instructor. He’s written baking curriculums for culinary schools across the country, in Italy and in Brasil. His textbooks have won awards like “Best Bread Book in the World”® at the Gourmand Cookbook Awards in Paris and have been translated into Portuguese. When he was the Director of Boulangerie for the Le Cordon Bleu schools in North America, he was awarded “Best Instructor of the Year”.
His breads won TWO first place awards at the Tiptree World Bread Awards at the International Bakery Expo in Las Vegas recently. You can find him teaching online at The Great Courses.com and Craftsy.com.
Health & Safety Protocol
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.
Categories: Baking Class, Beginner, Bread, No Experience Necessary