Learning with Experts

Sourdough and Wild Yeast Baking

£45 £27 Save 40%
Level: Peer






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Level: Peer

Course overview

River Cottage baker Andy Tyrrell teaches you the art of making sourdough bread with wild yeast. You'll be creating a starter and baking your own sourdough bread as you learn.

Choose Expert option for personal feedback from Andy on your sourdough bakes.

Wild yeast is all around us, the joy of foraging into flour and water to create your natural starter can be a life-long journey. Looked after correctly, your sourdough starter will provide you with the fantastic reward of your own sourdough makes for years to come.

Sourdough is bread with immense character, with presence – bread with a point. A sourdough loaf is so different from what often passes as bread these days. It is the antithesis of the industrial factory loaf – that soft, structureless, flavour-lite bread that is produced in such huge quantities.

This sourdough bread making course offers a superb introduction to the magical world of sourdough and its versatility. Learn all about using natural yeasts and levans to make deliciously flavoursome country loaves, pizzas, baguettes and brioche.

You'll learn

  • how to gather your own wild yeast and create a sourdough starter
  • which flour to use
  • kneading and proving techniques
  • recipes for sourdough bread, bread rolls, pizza and brioche
  • how to increase the variety and healthiness of your bread making with additional wholegrains, seeds and nuts

The course includes:

  • 4 on-demand video lessons - presented by Andy Tyrrell
  • lifetime access to the video, notes and recipes and interactive class
  • flexible classes - join and learn when and where you like
  • downloadable lesson notes
  • practical (optional) sourdough making assignments
  • access on your mobile, PC, Mac or laptop
  • small interactive online classroom chat online to students from around the world

Time to complete the sourdough bread making course:

Every student is different but in general we think the whole course will take around 13 hours 5 minutes to complete including:

  • Video lesson: 2 hours 5 minutes in total
  • Course notes: 15 minutes per lesson
  • Assignment: at least 2 hours per lesson
  • Interactive classroom time: 15 minutes per lesson
  • Tutor feedback review (Expert level): 15 minutes per lesson

Note the sourdough starter takes several days to develop, and proving your dough takes several hours (and can often be done overnight). But it will be worth it when you taste your soughdough makes!

You'll need:

All the ingredients are in the course notes, but at first you'll be creating your starter using flour and water. You will need a loaf tin and a dough scraper is helpful.

This course has been approved by the Independent Cookery Schools Association (ICSA), recognising the highest standards of training.

Ready to get started?

Just add the course to your basket above - choose the 'Expert' option for personal feedback from Andy on your starter and sourdough baking.

Any questions? Contact us by clicking on the orange speech symbol - we'd love to hear from you.

Watch course trailer

Lesson summary

Starters, a simple loaf, and zero waste
Creating your starter, is where the whole process begins. It is really just a flour-and-water batter. Well, perhaps not "just". Because it will also contain, invisibly but crucially, the spores of wild, airborne yeasts – the ones that happen to be native to your own kitchen. These will begin to feed and multiply and, as they do so, all sorts of interesting things are produced: bubbles of gas, flavoursome alcohol and the acids that give sourdough its characteristic, slightly tangy taste. During this lesson you’ll be shown how to make your starter, and we’ll do them together to make sure you get your timings right, then you’re ready for off! We will show you a simple loaf to bake as your first and give plenty of ideas of what can be made from the excess ‘discarded’ starter.
Knead and no-knead techniques and a range of country loaves
In this class you’ll follow the natural process of allowing the dough to develop slowly. You’ll learn about folding the dough and master the method of making country sourdough which can incorporate different flours and varying levels of hydration to suit your taste and skill. These are the lovely rustic loaves that we often think of as ‘sourdough’ and this method is what you need to get you started.
Expanding sourdough baking: pizza, baguette, focaccia, brioche and more
In this lesson you’ll learn two very adaptable recipes. First a hybrid dough where we include a tiny pinch of yeast that helps us to create baguettes, focaccia, pain rustique and pizzas. For the second recipe we’ll make a complexly naturally-leavened brioche dough that we’ll turn into a classic loaf and a chocolate, almond babka. A great way to extend your repertoire.
Sourdough for life – upping the health benefits with wholegrains, nuts and seeds
Natural fermentation is the key to unlocking the natural goodness found within the grains we use in baking. When we use more wholegrains you’ll also create the most delicious bread. We’ll look at how to increase the wholegrains in your sourdough, incorporate them successfully and ways to make them more digestible. We’ll use a variation of the country loaf technique that will ensure success. We will also be focusing on a delicious Danish Rye using ale and malted grains, that will be welcome in any kitchen.

Choose how you want to learn

Expert-level

Develop your learning further with marked assignments and personal tuition:

  • Start the course whenever you like
  • Tutor access for personalised assignment feedback & coaching
  • Certificate of completion and CPD learning hours
  • Online classroom with up to 20 classmates
  • Lessons with expert videos & notes
  • Group chat & direct message with tutor & classmates
  • Lifetime access to videos, notes & classroom

Peer-level

Get the most from shared knowledge and community study:

  • Start course whenever you like
  • Practise what you learn with your peers
  • Online classroom with up to 20 classmates
  • Lessons with videos & notes
  • Course assignments
  • Group chat & direct message classmates
  • Lifetime access to videos, notes & classroom

meet the expert

Andy Tyrrell

Passionate baker and chef champions farm-to-fork ethos teaches nationwide and shares the joy of cooking.

Read more

Why choose Learning with Experts?

Start whenever it suits you, and immerse yourself in motivational lesson tutorials with expert guidance.
Enhance your learning and personal growth with lesson assignments. Each course includes an optional assignment at the end of every lesson.
Drop a friendly message or respond to your assignment feedback. Our world-class experts are just a click away, ready to help you!
Stay informed about your own progress and those of your peers, and take joy in celebrating achievements along the way.
Chat and share ideas with passionate communities of learners from around the world.

Frequently asked questions

What’s the difference between PEER and EXPERT options?

At Peer and Expert level, you get access to the same core content and features:

  • Video lesson tutorials led by your expert tutor
  • Downloadable lesson notes
  • Option to practise what you learn with lesson assignments
  • Group learning within an online interactive classroom of up to 20 classmates
  • Lifetime access to videos, notes and classroom

If you choose Expert level, you get all of the above plus the following:

  • Personalised assignment feedback and coaching from your expert tutor
  • Opportunity to interact with your expert tutor through a private messaging system
  • Certificate of completion.
What is an online classroom?

Our online classroom has been developed to allow you to learn from our experts in a sociable environment alongside up to 20 other students. After each video tutorial led by your expert, you will be encouraged to practice what you have learned with optional assignments - these can be seen by the other students in your class, who are free to share their own thoughts and questions with you.

You will be encouraged to take part in an ongoing class discussion where you can discuss ideas, post images or work, and comment on each other’s assignments. It’s a great way to learn from other like-minded people who share your passion from all over the world.

This means not only do you benefit from people who are outstanding in their field, but also from a close-knit group of like-minded people whom you can learn alongside. Group learning has shown to greatly improve not just the experience of studying, but also how well you retain the knowledge, and we have built our classroom experience around this fact.

When can I start my course and how long will it take?

You can start your course any time within 12 months after receipt of your purchase confirmation email. Once you start, you’ll have lifetime access — meaning you can revisit the lesson videos and notes whenever you want.

Our courses are designed so that you can study at your own pace, some prefer to binge learn while others like to spread their studying over a longer period of time - it’s completely up to you. To give you a rough time frame, each lesson video is approximately 30-40 minutes long, and we recommend that you spend around an hour on each assignment.

How often can I speak with the Expert?

If you opt for the Expert version of your course, the time you have to interact with your tutor is limited to course length. You will have one week per lesson to chat to your tutor and to have your assignments marked, and during this period you can ask them as many questions as you would like.

To find out the length of each course, head to the product page and look at the Course outline to see how many lessons it contains. e.g. a four lesson course assumes that you will have completed the assignments within four weeks.

Your tutor interaction period will start as soon as you enter the classroom. If you find that you are struggling to complete the assignments in the allocated time or you wish to put this function on hold, just get in contact with one of the team via the support button and we will help you out.

Support and full FAQs

If you need any help with a course, be it one you’ve started already, or one you are looking to purchase, please don’t hesitate to reach out to our Support email address, or view the full FAQ’s here.

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Awards and accreditations