Our Class Offerings

At this time, our class offerings are heavily slanted towards bread classes, but we are adding other classes as demand and time allow. If you don't see a class you'd like to take, please use the contact us page and tell us about the class you'd like to see us offer. We'll think about it, and if we decide to offer it and you were the first to suggest it, we'll let you take it free.

If you want a special class, check out our information on retreats and workshops.

With each class, you'll get a cookbook that Mike wrote for the class. Each cookbook comes with Our Limited Lifetime Subscription of free updates. When we re-offer the class with new recipes, you'll get the new recipes in email intray.

With that out of the way, here's a list of our classes.

Introduction to Bread Baking - this class is aimed at the person who has never baked bread before, or who has never baked bread successfully before. You'll bake two or three loaves of bread, depending on how many students are in the class, and how well the class moves along. You'll also make a pizza for lunch. You'll learn how to knead effectively, how to tell when your dough has been kneaded enough, how to shape loaves, how to tell when your dough has risen enough, and how to bake the bread. We'll talk about picking flour. We may make some rolls in class out of some of the bread dough. You'll leave with your bread, your pizza leftovers, and a cookbook. This class is an all-day class, running about 6 to 8 hours. Cost - $100 per person, with a 25% discount for a second person from the same family.

Introduction to Sourdough Bread Baking - this class is aimed at someone who has some bread baking experience. We'll take your bread making skills to the next level, teaching you how to make good breads with sourdough. You'll make two or three kinds of sourdough breads, and a sourdough pizza for lunch. You'll learn how to care for a starter, how to feed a starter, how to tell when your starter is ready for use and how to convert existing recipes into sourdough recipes. You'll take home the breads you baked, your pizza leftovers, our very popular sourdough cookbook, and a jar of sourdough starter so you can put your skills to work at home. This class is an all day class, running about 6 to 8 hours. Cost - $100 per person, with a 25% discount for a second person from the same family.

Advanced Bread Baking Techniques With Pre-ferments Several baking teachers have said the baker's job is to unlock the flavor in the ingredients. In this class, you'll learn how to use preferments to shatter the lock! Preferments are the techniques that let a baker unlock the flavors in the ingredients and make breads that are vibrant with flavor. You'll learn how to make autolyse, biga and poolish. You'll learn what those words mean. You'll learn how to convert existing recipes into recipes that use preferements. We'll revisit sourdough and examine it a bit more. You'll make three different breads using different pre-ferments. At the end of the class, you'll go home with the breads you made, your pizza leftovers, and our very popular "Advanced Baking Techniques with Preferments" cookbook. This is a long, but fun, 6 hour class. At the end of it, you'll feel pretty good about all you did and all you learned! Cost - $100 per person, with a 25% discount for a second person from the same family.

BagelMania! - Oh, the bagels you'll make! classic dense, chewy New York Style bagels, the kind that have been harder and harder to find as the old bagel makers retire, leaving the city at the mercy of people who make sweet, soft, textureless things that resemble doughnuts more than bagels. People like Lender's and H&H. At the end of the class, you'll go home with the bagels, bagel dough to oil and bake, and our very popular "Back To Bagels" cookbook. One person who took this class told us that his family thinks he's a "bagel god" now. Perhaps you'll join the ranks of Bagel dieties too! This is a fun 4 hour class. Cost - $60 per person, with a 25% discount for a second person from the same family.

Afternoon Tea With The Averys - some people say afternoon tea is an English affair. Others say it is more an American event. I really don't care. I intend to enjoy afternoon tea even if it was introduced by Bugs Bunny's buddy Marvin the Martian! It's civilized, it's elegant, and most of all it's fun. Afternoon tea is a light meal - finger sandwiches, biscuits (or cookies to us Americans) and other sweets. Tea will, of course, be served. The idea is more of an elegant afternoon snack than a meal. In this class, we'll bake some nice white bread, some nice biscuits (cookies if you prefer), make some curd, prepare ingredients, and then make finger sandwiches with our fresh bread. We'll set the table properly, and then we'll make tea. Once the preparations are finished, gentlemen will don jackets and ties (if they haven't already), we'll shoo off the servants so we can talk about anything we'd like and we'll have tea. This is a 4 to 6 hour class, though it can take longer depending on how much people talk during tea. Remember to be civil... serious discussions of religion and politics are discouraged, but discussions of whose car is parked next door are fine, if presented with wit. Chances are you won't take any food home, just some happy memories and a cookbook. To paraphrase Mark Twain, "Too much of anything is bad, but too much tea is just enough!" Cost - $100 per person, with a 25% discount for a second person from the same family attending the class. If you would like someone special to attend the tea with you, but not the class, please notify us before hand. If we have room, we will be glad to accommodate you, and your special someone. (The teatime shown is a very light tea, when we have class, we'll take a picture of the real thing, maybe even with real students in the picture!)

Evening tea or High tea with the Averys - is a more serious food affair. It is a meal. And as a result, more food is prepared than for afternoon tea, and more substantial food. We'll bake some bread, make some English meat pies, we'll overcook some vegetables (well, maybe we won't be quite that authentic), and make tea. According to Miss Manners, "While some unscrupulous restaurants try to make afternoon tea sound more 'high society' by calling it high tea, the word 'high' is actually related to 'It's high time we had something to eat.'" We usually have our Evening or High Tea class as a Sunday class, starting a little later in the day so students can attend church, sleep late, or run errands as suits their preference, and then work up to a high tea around 6:00. This is usually a 6 to 8 hour class, depending on how much people talk over tea. It's a civilized custom, and we wouldn't dream of hurrying people out the door. As with the afternoon tea, you'll probably leave with happy memories and a cookbook - people seem to eat, drink and be merry at these events. Cost - $100 per person, with a 25% discount for a second person from the same family attending the class. If you would like someone special to attend the tea with you, but not the class, please notify us before hand. If we have room, we will be glad to accommodate you, and your special someone.

Simple Simon Met A Pieman - with spring, summer and fall come a bounty of fresh, local produce. And we love to make pies. Peaches, strawberries, blackberries, apples, cherries, rhubarb, grapes and apricots all have their day in the sun, and their days on our table. There are so many kinds of pies to make! So, we offer this class when we can get great produce at local farmers markets. And then we make pies, tarts, tarte tatin, empanadas and more. This class runs 4 to 6 hours. Due to the cost of ingredients, we have to charge a bit more for this class than we would for other short classes. You'll leave with pies, tarte tatins, empanadas and whatever other goodies we whip up. Rather than lunch, we usually have afternoon coffee with pies and whipped cream. And for those who have never whipped real cream, we demonstrate how to whip cream - once you've had the real thing, you'll never go back to the stuff in a can or tub. Cost - $100 per person, with a 25% discount for a second person from the same family attending the class.

Whole grain breads - Some people seem to think I'm a white bread kinda guy. Not at all. I just insist that whole grain breads taste good or I won't eat them. It's not an unfair test, it's the same test I apply to all breads, and in fact all foods, that I eat. So, in this class, we're going to focus on whole grain breads that taste good, ways to get a good rise out of whole grains and unlocking the flavor of the breads. We'll be revisiting a lot of familiar techniques from earlier classes and reapplying them to a new set of ingredients. If you love whole grains, or if you just have a dreary certainty that your life will be healthier if you eat them, you'll want to take this class! You'll go home with two or three breads you baked, the leftovers from your whole wheat pizza, and my whole grain cookbook. Cost - $100 per person, with a 25% discount for a second person from the same family attending the class.

Flavored Breads - I focus a lot on unlocking the flavors in flour to make rich flavorful breads. But there is a broader world beyond breads made with the "big 4"of flour, water, salt and riser. We'll make a killer cinnamon raisin bread, an addictive cinnamon roll, and either a jalapeno-cheddar bread I call "Pepper Belly" or a totally over the top garlic-cheddar bread I call "garlic head." You'll take home three breads, any leftovers from your flavored dough pizza and my flavored breads cookbook. This will be a 6 to 8 hour class. Cost - $100 per person, with a 25% discount for a second person from the same family attending the class.

Holiday Baking - Have you ever noticed how many holidays have specific foods that are indelibly identified with holiday at a very visceral level? And each country and culture has its own culinary traditions. In this constantly changing class, offered near many major holidays, we'll make Christmas, Lenten, Easter, and Thanksgiving specialties from around the world. Panetone, Stollen, Christmas cookies from around the world, figgy pudding and more. We're very open to suggestions for special holiday baked goods you remember and would like to make (if only Aunt Martha hadn't taken the recipe to the grave with her!) We're still waffling about Halloween - most of the baked goods have been pretty cheesy - bad batter in a character pan covered with strangely colored icing. If we can find something that isn't cheesy (or that cheesy is cool), we'll reconsider Halloween. You'll take home three baked goods, plus leftovers from whatever seasonal meal we come up with for the holiday in question. Oh, yeah, AND the cookbook too. This should be a 4 to 6 hour class. Cost - $75 per person, with a 25% discount for a second person from the same family attending the class.

Slack doughs - most breads are made with fairly firm doughs. Slack doughs, verging on batters, are what allow bakers to make breads with big holes in them. Breads like ciabatta and focaccia. We'll have fun getitng over our fear of sticky doughs, learn to handle glop and make three great breads. We'll make a flavored focaccia for lunch. You'll take home the three breads you made along with your leftovers and the cookbook for this class. This is a 6 to 8 hour class. Cost - $100 per person, with a 25% discount for a second person from the same family attending the class.

Sourdough quickbreads and cakes - more often than not, people think about raising breads with sourdough as if it were another form of yeast. And it does that very well. However, when sourdough starter gets very sour, it can be used with baking soda to make quickbreads and cakes, in much the same way as buttermilk and baking soda. In this class, we'll make a cake, some cupcakes, some muffins, and some biscuits. For lunch, we'll have biscuits and gravy (Mike will make his famous sausage gravy - there will be other biscuit fixin's for vegetarians.) You'll take home the cake, muffins or cupcakes, and any of your leftover biscuits. And, yeah, the cookbook too. This should be a 4 to 6 hour class. Cost - $75 per person, with a 25% discount for a second person from the same family attending the class.

Rye breads - are a lot like Ford's. You either love 'em or hate 'em. I grew up with them and love them. In this class, we'll make three rye breads and learn the techiques you need to master to make good rye breads. We'll talk about the kinds of rye flours that used to be available and how to find 'em or make do with what you can find. You'll leave with three loaves of rye bread you made and baked. For a change, we'll have a catered lunch. (Well... that depends on how you define catered, but we won't be making the lunch in class.) You'll also have a copy of our rye bread cookbook. This is a 6 to 8 hour class. Cost - $100 per person, with a 25% discount for a second person from the same family attending the class. (Note - these classes are on hold due to the difficulty of getting rye flour at present. When the new crop comes in, we'll have rye classes!)

Croissants, Danish and Brioche - Every time I think about giving this class, I put on three pounds. So few people have had GOOD croissants. Rich butter taste, rich fermentation flavors, caramelization from being fully baked, a texture that explodes into shards of crust in your mouth but still melts in your mouth. Does it sound like I like croissants? We'll make the very similar Danish. And then, just in case you haven't gone into butter shock, we'll make some brioche. We'll make filled and plain croissants, petits pains au chocolat (the classic after-school treat for French school children, though almost everyone enjoys them), several flavors of Danish pastries and Brioche. For lunch we'll have savory filled croissants and coffee. You'll be taking home the croissants, Danish and brioche you made, along with a cookbook. This is a 6 to 8 hour class. Cost - $100 per person, with a 25% discount for a second person from the same family attending the class.

Flatbreads - in every part of the world, except here in the United States, the breads of the people are flabreads. Naan, tortillas, pita bread, lavash bread, lavash crackers, and nan-e barbari are just scratching the surface. In this class, we'll make three of these breads, and we'll make a traditional lunch with one of these breads. You'll leave with three breads, a cookbook, and the certainty that you can make these breads at home. Easily, quickly and without special ovens or equipment. This is a 4 to 6 hour class. Cost - $75 per person, with a 25% discount for a second person from the same family attending the class.

German breads - I have to admit that I have a special place in my heart for German breads. Yeah, it's due to my mom. It was what I grew with. And I think it's a real pity that these breads are so frequently overlooked. We tend to think "French" any time we think of good breads. But, there's a big world of bread out there. Anyway..... we're going to make a grainy, seedy rye infused bread, a mixed wheat and rye bread, and what many people think is the signature bread of Germany, Brotchen. For lunch, we'll have currywurst with Brotchen. (Please let us know if you're a vegetarian so we can get some vegetarian bratwurst for your lunch. You'll take home the breads you made and baked and the classes cookbook. This is a 6 to 8 hour class. Cost - $100 per person, with a 25% discount for a second person from the same family attending the class.

French breads - are what most people think of when they think of fine breads. And French breads do an amazing job of delivering the taste of their ingredients. Many of the techniques French bakers use are copied around the world. So, we're going to copy some French techniques and breads too. We're making several varieties of baguettes, and a huge Miche. We'll focus on getting the dough right, we'll focus on how to form the baguettes so they are right - nice and straight. When it's not done well, the baguette looks like a snake that swallowed a rat. We work on avoiding that fate. Then we work on slashing the baguettes. Lunch? Let's see what we can do with the baguettes while the Miche is baking. You'll take home the baguettes you made, the miche, our cookbook and new skills. This is a 6 to 8 hour class. Cost - $100 per person, with a 25% discount for a second person from the same family attending the class.

Italian breads - at their best are delightful! So, let's delight ourselves with a nice ciabatta, a few great focaccia, and another Italian bread. We'll have ciabatta and olive oil and a flavored focaccia for lunch. You'll take home the ciabatta, focaccia and other breads you made, any leftovers from lunch and the class cookbook. This is a 6 to 8 hour class. Cost - $100 per person, with a 25% discount for a second person from the same family attending the class.

Workshops and Retreats - whether you are looking for a fun afternoon with friends or co-workers, a multi-day team building exercise, or a spiritual retreat, we find that baking and breaking bread together helps meet those goals. All our workshops and retreats are designed and brought together for your special needs, from the breads or other goods that are baked to the message that we impart. We can have retreats at our facilities or yours. We are happy to work with your spiritual advisors or management consultants to put together just the right event for you. Just use the "Contact Us" and let us know what you're looking for.

Our Limited Lifetime Subscription - Many people ask us what we mean by our "limited lifetime subscription." This subscription will entitle you to any and all updates we make to the book(s) you are subscribed to as long as we continue to update the books. We do not guarantee that there will be updates to the books, just that you will receive them if you fulfill the terms of the limited lifetime subscription. If either you or we die, that is an obvious end to the subscription. We will not assign the subscription to your heirs and assigns, and can not guarantee that our heirs will continue this venture. If, for any reason, you do not keep us updated as to your email address, we can not maintain your subscription. If you let us know about any changes to your email address before your old email address is cancelled, we will gladly change your email address in our records at no charge. However, if your subscription is cancelled because your email address changed, you did not notify us that your address had changed, and our email server dropped your old address, we will reinstate your subscriptions for a $5.00 fee.