Mesa Crust Club: Learn to Bake Sourdough Like a Pro!

Here in my 1960's desert home sourdough kitchen & microbakery, we will walk through the entire sourdough baking process step by step by getting your hands into the dough and learning the

 old-world skill of crafting a beautiful loaf of organic sourdough bread on our 8 foot family table. 

This class will be an intimate group of 8-12 local community members or those visiting our beautiful state. 

Sourdough School for Beginners is broken into two informative and transformative lessons. 

 SOURDOUGH 101: THE STARTER SESSION

The first 60-90 minutes of class is solely dedicated to learning everything you 

need to know about maintaining a robust and healthy organic sourdough starter.

We will talk about:

Environment & Temperature 

How your starter performs

What to look for in your sourdough starter 

How ratios work in your daily or weekly feedings

How the science works behind a wild yeast

Overall general care

 You will get to feed your own sourdough starter that you take home with you in a new mason jar with cloth covers and a beautiful rose quartz to promote wellness and love in your sourdough journey. 

We will talk about alternative ways to keep it thriving if you work full time too! 

You will go home with a dehydrated sourdough starter in case you need a backup or you want to share the love of sourdough with someone you know with a full instruction guide on how to reactive it. 

 You will receive a detailed step-by-step printed guide to help guide you through your feedings once you go home along with a printed sourdough starter tips guide. 

SOURODUGH 102: DESERT ORGANIC SOURDOUGH RECIPE

The last 3-3.5 hours of the class is all about diving into my Desert Organic Sourdough recipe from start to finish. I do also include my Ancient Einkorn Sourdough recipe in your take home laminated sourdough guide to encourage you to pursue the wonderful world of ancient grains!  

We will begin by: 

Prepping your own dough

Learning about ingredients

How to manipulate your dough

How fermentation works 

 How to shape 

How to score 

How to bake! 

And of course, the best part, enjoying a fresh slice in class!

I do prepare a processed sourdough dough for each attendee to learn how to shape and score a loaf to put right into our Simply Bread oven while we enjoy some sourdough that I made fresh that morning at our Sourdough Bread Bar. We will have grass-fed butters, organic olive oils and Celtic salt to taste. 

The class will also include a link guide to my "all things sourdough" must haves on Amazon along with your own lame blades for scoring your loaves at home. There will be an option to purchase our basic sourdough tool kit which includes a new banneton basket, linen bread bag, dough scrapper, kitchen thermometer and wooden spoon. It is recommended that you purchase an organic bag of flour prior to class so you have food for your yeast! 

This class is designed to be interactive and hands on and will last around 4 hours and 30 minutes from start to finish, depending on group size and dialogue.  It is encouraged that you bring your favorite apron and a notebook for jotting down notes if that is your learning style.  

You will also need to bring your favorite kitchen mixing bowl for easy transport of your dough you start in class to take home with you to bake on your own. 

This class is a great opportunity for you to bring back the connection we have lost in our food making practices and within our communities, all while learning a new skill for your kitchen. With just three simple, affordable and nutritional ingredients, you can bring this old-world skill back into your daily life whether you work full time, remotely or anything in between. 

**GLUTEN-FREE SOURDOUGH SCHOOL FOR BEGINNERS CLASS ONLY**

In our GF version of Sourdough School for Beginners, the only change in class structure is that we will be learning my Gluten-Free Country Sourdough recipe and we will not be baking a loaf in class. I will bake a loaf ahead of time so you have a fresh loaf to enjoy when you go home after class. It does take about 80-90 minutes to bake a GF boule so in the essence of keeping the class on pace, we do not bake those in class. 

GF Sourdough is very unique so if you have not tried a loaf from us I would suggest seeing if you enjoy it. 

This class is perfect for those who can't consume gluten. Please check out our Gluten-Free Sourdough tab for understanding our processes for crafting these beautiful loaves. 

No experience necessary, just a willingness to learn and connect with your local Arizona community. 

Wishing you a beautiful journey of discovery as you learn the art of sourdough! 

I’ll see you in class!
Peace and Love, 

Nicole Nungoor 

Owner and Bread Curator