Basics of Bread - Focaccia Pizza

This class is designed to allow guests to prepare the recipe in real-time with Chef Joe! Pour yourself a beverage and get ready for the ultimate cook-along. Prior to the lesson, you'll receive an ingredient list and simple instructions

Learn the various steps and stages of bread making.

Discussing the Levain / Preferment (which you’ll have mixed the night before)

Autolyse - Seeing the before & after of “self-digestion” (If you want to cook along, start this 45min - 1 hour prior to beginning the lesson)

Basinage - Hand mixing and working in the additional liquid

Stretch & Fold - Beginning the bulk fermentation process

Coil Fold - Building strength in the dough over a 4-6 hour period.

Bulk Proof - Resting the dough during the day in a warm environment

Overnight Fermentation - relaxing the dough and developing flavor during a low and slow cold environment

Shaping & Preshaping - (Chef Joe will demonstrate with pre-prepared dough) - you will shape your dough the day following the workshop.

Proofing & Baking - a 2-4 hour process depending on ambient temperatures (you will top and bake your dough / pizza the same day following the workshop after shaping)

Class will include recipe slide, bread formulas, & shopping and equipment lists for reference

Bread making has become one of Chef Joe’s passions and rightfully so - his focaccia and breads have become almost as popular and well known as his pasta.

Spend the afternoon learning the ins and outs of his basic bread technique, and how to repurpose the same dough as pizza. DON’T WORRY, NONE OF THE RECIPES OR DOUGHS USE A SOURDOUGH STARTER, AND CAN ALL BE MADE WITH INSTANT YEAST.

This class will function differently than previous live streams due to the time consuming nature of bread. Chef Joe prefers a long, slow fermentation and gluten development that spans over the course of three days. Obviously this would not translate into a cook-along style lesson. So instead Chef Joe will have the dough prepared in various stages to demonstrate the different techniques and times of the bread making process. During the down time - there will be an open forum Q&A discussing various aspects of bread making.

The recipe page will include detailed instructions, as well as, a FORMULA SPREADSHEET. Learning and understanding baker’s percentages is an invaluable tool when baking bread. Chef Joe has taken all the mathematics out of the equation, and created an interactive spreadsheet that automatically calculates ingredient amounts based on the changing percentages - perfect for tinkering with recipes and adapting recipes to different wheats and climates.

Not only will the lesson go over baker’s percentages, the different wheat varieties, and the basics of bread making, but Chef Joe will also demonstrate the recipes for turning the bread into a pan-style focaccia pizza.