Taught exclusively by Richard Bertinet, our pastry classes are a must whether you are baking for your family dinner, entertaining friends or want to learn how to make and decorate fruit tarts just like those that makes the display in French bakeries look so stunning.
On this Pastry Masterclass Richard will show you how to make puff and choux pastry. Puff pastry, although time consuming, is one of the most satisfying pastries to master. You will be rolling and folding your pastry to create the delicate layers, trapping air between the leaves that expand, puffing the pastry on baking. Once mastered you will use your pastry to make millefeuilles, simple, elegant and classic, filled with crème patissière and dusted with icing sugar that you will brand with hot metal skewers to caramelise the sugar into a criss-cross pattern. You will also be making natas, extremely moorish Portuguese custard tarts and one of Richard’s favourites.
You will then move onto choux pastry, a completely different method of making pastry but equally as light and airy. With your pastry made you will learn how to use piping bags for your fabulously retro choux swans, a Bertinet classic. This is the perfect way to master the tricky technique of piping, making sure your pastry consistency is correct using a delicate touch. You will also be making some éclairs, making the filling and icing them in the traditional way.
The day starts at 10am and will finish around 3.30 to 4pm. Includes lunch with wine. Please bring a bag and a large biscuit tin or container with you so that you can take home some of your delicious creations.
“Thank you so much for the most phenomenal day of baking the Bertinet way. I had so much fun and loved all the tips and tricks along the way. It is not often one comes to a class where the Master gives so freely and willingly of his expertise. Thank you also to the fairies who made the day seem so effortless and easy. I will certainly be back – a lot.” Marion
“A huge thank you for one of the most memorable days of my life. I had so many revelations on how to make pastry and can’t wait to get in the kitchen to experiment” Naomi
