Giving it welly

This is how you knead bread! M is a potter, so she's using her clay-whacking skills to develop the gluten in this dough. I'm doing  a bread-making course with CooknwithClass. We used to look after Eric's website till we decided to retire, and I couldn't resist when he said he was launching a three-day bread masterclass. He has a very successful cookery school in Paris, but about five years ago he and Yetunde decided to move down to Uzès with their little boy and start a second school there, which seems to be doing really well.

We were just three students: me, M who is French, and J who is Canadian, so Eric had to conduct the class bilingually. Fine for me, I understood everything :) And M and J understood enough of the respective languages not to make the translation too laborious. We got a lot done: starter, poolish, some beautiful Breton sablés, pâte brisée for a quiche. Yes, I know I said it was a bread course. We also made some quick seeded bread (see Eric kneading it in extras), a sandwich loaf, and started the dough for chocolate bread, hamburger buns and a sourdough loaf, ready to continue tomorrow.

Then we swiftly made salad and the filling for the quiche, and sat down for lunch (second extra). A very pleasant morning. I gave J a lift into Uzès and then headed for my AirBnB ... having got up at 5:30 a.m. this morning to get here in time (two-hour drive on a very busy motorway), I was ready for a rest. A lazy afternoon, a snack in a cafe, and now I'm making the acquaintance of my hosts' most magnificent tabby cat before an early night!