Pioneering Baker Adhy Takes Sourdough to the Sub-Continent

A year ago, we received an enquiry from a remarkable young woman about our Microbakery Course.

"I am Adityaa (Adhy) from India. I have been living in Sydney, Australia for the past few years and moved back to India in the year 2021. I had a fascination for breads when I lived in Australia but I was not sure which are the healthy breads. My husband loves sourdough and I tasted a commercial one he bought and it created a negative image on sourdough at that time. After some time I got to taste a real sourdough and started loving them. I learned how healthy breads can be when I started to do a little research about it. I also have a disappointment that in India, people do not have exposure to healthy breads, but people in India love having breads quite often.
 
With this it raised a question in me, why not learn authentic artisan breads and provide them to people in my community? So, I have planned to start a cafe selling traditional breads majorly, along with coffee and some good food to go with breads. 
 
I am really passionate about breads and I am keen to learn traditional baking of breads from teachers like you. I started my search to find traditional and authentic bread baking schools and ended up at The Artisan Bakery School in Devon. 
 
I would like to travel to Devon from India to learn everything possible from you both about breads. I will be able to travel to the UK during the mid of this year. I have gone through all the courses you offer and I would like to customise my course with you to learn about Patisserie, Viennoiserie, Laminated breads, Wedding bread collection, sourdough, Rye, Brioche, traditional Pizza dough and everything possible. In short,I would like to do a micro bakery and micro Pizzeria course including all the breads and wedding collection breads. I will be able to spend a week to a month at Devon to learn them all. 
 
I kindly request you to consider this email as an application to study in your remarkable Artisan Bakery School." 

This is just the sort of project Dragan and I love to be involved with, so we swiftly put together a Summer School programme for Adhy, and in no time at all she had arranged her flights to join us in August.

Emails flew back and forth between Devon and Coimbatore in India's southernmost state, as we discussed preparations for Adhy's visit. And suddenly, there she was, on Day 1 of an eight-day programme. To prove it really is a small world, a fellow student on her first day turned out to be another visitor from Tamil Nadu, which made us feel very international for a small Devon village!

First day bakes

Sourdough & some laminated cheese straws.

Focaccia art

Indian elephant stencil!

Busy in the bakery

A gifted baker

Plump and soft brioche buns

Jewel-like petit fours

Three friends

A delicate touch with patisserie

Well-earned lunch

Korovai and doves

Wood fired pizza

Treacle tarts (GF); millet salad, guacamole, pitta breads, hummus, tuna pate, beetroot hummus ...etc.

Victorious Viennoiserie!

All too soon, the programme was over and Adhy flew home to her lovely family, taking her precious 'Chimo' starter with her. But the teaching/learning didn't just stop there.

3rd September from Adhy

"I have been really missing my days in UK especially at the Artisan bakery school a lot. I have ordered flours from Josef Marc and waiting for the active dry yeast to be delivered. I am planning to do pizza as my kids are very excited to try the pizzas first. Already bought flour, good quality mozzarella and cheddar for the pizzas, kids keep peeping in the fridge everyday to see if I have made something with the cheese for pizza. I wanted to let you know that, Chimo is doing well, she became very sour and acidic so I have refreshed her again. Hoping to create another starter after finding a good rye flour. 

Today being an auspicious day according to our Tamil calendar, People usually start their new venture or get married or anything good on such a day. I initiated my beginning as well, I fed Chimo with a simple ritual in front of the idol. I have attached some pictures for you to have a look. I also placed my newly bought scale, Chimo, my apron and gloves that you gave me as a souvenir in front of the idol, as a symbolic gesture of including my gurus (teachers) in my new beginning. 

Dragan and I were very touched to discover this, a ritual which reminds me that bakers here and in Europe revere St Honoratus (in the 6th century AD, when he was made bishop in France, green shoots sprouted from the end of a wooden baker's peel held by his old nurse, and it was deemed a miracle).

7^th September from Adhy

Dear Penny and Dragan, 

I now understand that we should just not rely on recipes but adapt accordingly to the variables. 

The pizzas I made yesterday were my master last evening. I understood where I went wrong, not having a simple prover box made a huge difference while shaping pizzas... What I understood is I need proper equipments even if it’s a scraper and also a lot of practice with shaping ….Thank you for guiding me with my questions. It helped me huge. 

20^th October 2023

Finally a stall, and Sold Out!

Dear Penny and Dragan,

Hope you are well. 

Finally I put forth a stall in my kids’ school event that happened on Friday. I made yeasted bread, basic white. I made few mistakes and it was a great learning. Please find the picture attached with this email for the menu I made. Although I made lot of mistakes, the breads were sold out. The slices  were so thick that I couldn’t make sandwiches so I named it open sandwich and topped the bread with the sandwich filling. People really loved them to my surprise. I got the push to make more. 

28^th November 2023

I made Croissants yesterday and it was a big hit. I was rushing to roll and fold the dough along with the butter, considering the hot weather in the supposedly cold weather. It was total fun to do the croissants waiting for it to be chilled, rolling it into three different folds and finally shaping Croissants. Please find attached the pictures of Croissants I made. For 600g of Flour and 250 g of butter, I was able to make 12 Croissants.

Thursday 30^th November

The emmer wheat arrived today and I tried making a starter from it….

Friday 1^st December

Hi Penny and Dragan,

I really couldn’t resist myself from sending this Day-2 picture of my new starter (I named them Dream)

16th January 2024

Dear Penny and Dragan,

I am very happy today and want to share with you the bread I made today. It came out so well, perfect crust, perfect crumb, wonderful ear on top.

Can’t be happier than how I am today!

Baker Adhy, we wish you every possible success with your Sourdough Bakery Cafe; your community is fortunate to have you. Your baking is beautiful, and you will only get better at it as the years go by. Look at us! Thank you for all the lovely emails and letters, the parting gifts and the knowledge that we have a friend in India, as you surely have here.

Because it made you smile, here is our last photo for you.

Many Blessings and Happy Baking!