Milk Street Digital Class: Advanced Sourdough Theory & Practice with Heike Meyer

Expand your sourdough baking skills with Heike Meyer, one of only a handful of certified bread sommeliers in the world.

What’s on the Menu:
Introduction to Sourdough Flavor Theory
Grain Milling for the Home Baker
Care & Keeping of Different Starters
Heritage Grain Field Loaves
Sourdough Pastries
...and more!

Continue your sourdough journey with this transformative series on sourdough baking with bread sommelier Heike Meyer, who will invite you to explore bread in a way you may never have imagined. What’s a bread sommelier, you ask? Like a wine sommelier, a bread sommelier has profound knowledge of bread, including history, heritage grains, home and commercial milling, fermentation science, nutritional aspects and—of course—flavor. Over the course of three pre-recorded sessions, Heike shares all of this knowledge with you, with a particular focus on how the combination of whole grains and strategic techniques yield extraordinary flavor. We’ll take a deep dive into the alchemy of different starter cultures, whether they’re made with bread flour or wheat, rye, sorghum, buckwheat or other grains and “pseudo-grains.” Heike explains the art and science of milling grains, helping you to understand the value of stone-milled flours and possibly, for the really ambitious baker, the advantages of milling your grains yourself. In addition to baking great sourdough loaves, you’ll develop an intuition for incorporating starter into other baked goods while maintaining lightness and structure. You’ll also learn to truly taste bread—your own and others—with the palate of an expert, allowing you to pair it thoughtfully and adjust your bakes to achieve the results you want.