Lexington|Local Event
Bread Making with Bethencourt Bakehouse
Get an up-close look at the world of professional bread baking with Gonzalo Condes de Bethencourt of Bethencourt Bakehouse. This interactive, live demonstration will include a discussion of fermentation theory before teaching you the techniques, science, and sensory cues behind crafting bakery-quality bread.
Gonzalo will demonstrate how to make artisan focaccia and classic country sourdough bread, and attendees will get to see crust regeneration and finishing techniques on a selection of par-baked loaves.
Select volunteers will join Gonzalo at the workstation to feel gluten strength/dough extensibility, practice a couple of coil folds, and help with dimpling and oiling the focaccia pans. Every attendee will leave the class with an individual jar of active sourdough starter and a serving of fresh focaccia.
Bread Demonstrations:
- Artisan Focaccia (Full Process): Made live using a mature Biga pre-ferment and fresh yeast, covering mixing, folds, proofing, dimpling, and baking. I’ll also bring my small tabletop grain mill so participants can see freshly milled flour in action and use it directly in the focaccia.
- Classic Country Sourdough (Cold-Proof to Bake): Brought in fully cold-fermented and baked live in a cast-iron Dutch oven to demonstrate how to get an artisan oven spring in a standard kitchen setup.
- Par-Baked Specialties: I’ll bring a couple of par-baked loaf options from my commercial deck ovens to finish live in the LexMedia oven so attendees can see crust regeneration and finishing techniques. I’ll confirm the exact varieties closer to the date based on what’s fresh.
Class menu:
- Fresh, warm slices of focaccia and country sourdough
- Charcuterie
This class is BYOB - feel free to bring your favorite beer or bottle of wine, especially if it would pair well with the class theme.
If for any reason a class needs to be cancelled, we will do our best to reschedule the event to another date. Refunds will be given to those unable to make the new date, and refunds will be given if a class is cancelled with no new date.
PLEASE NOTE: this event takes place in the LexMedia kitchen studio and will be filmed.