above, a rosemary-topped focaccia straight out of the oven and left to cool on the balcony, at The Green Grocer
On past trips to Melbourne, Dan’s been delighted to hold bread making classes and other events at The Green Grocer, an outstanding organic cafe, food and wine retailer and cookery school in North Fitzroy, in the heart of the ‘good bread belt’ – Dench Bakers, Loafer Bread and Natural Tucker are all just around the corner, and if you need some written inspiration, then Books for Cooks, that unequalled paragon amongst foodie bookstore, is just a short tram ride away. Even the Piedimonte’s supermarket on the corner sells a terrific pane di rosetta.
dough for the Mill Loaf, resting at The Green Grocer
Classes at The Green Grocer have their own rhythm and charm, taking place in a fully-equipped kitchen above the cafe, the separate ‘wine room’ next door with its cool and breezy balcony overlooking the bustle of Scotchmer Street and St George’s Road providing a charming opportunity to unwind afterwards with a glass of wine or a bottle of organic Mountain Goat Steam Ale brewed just down the road in Richmond, and chat more informally with the class members.
More suited to a shorter evening class than an all-day event, Dan’s classes here have concentrated on dealing with and explaining some of the more complicated ideas from The Handmade Loaf and The Cook’s Book, along with basic techniques for baking good open-textured naturally fermented and yeasted breads at home. He’s talked about how Australian flours differ from those widely available in the UK, France or Italy, for example, and how best to use them to make outstandingly good bread, and one popular feature has been to lead the class through all the stages of making the Mill Loaf (from The Handmade Loaf), using 3 different flours (baker’s white, wholewheat and rye) from Four Leaf Milling in Tarlee, South Australia, and an ‘overnight’ method where you make the dough the night before, stick it in the refrigerator, take it out the following day and bake it when it’s puffed up and lively.
the baked Mill Loaves, left to cool out on the balcony at The Green Grocer
At these classes, Dan has also made the focaccia from The Cook’s Book. This is a good example of an impossibly sloppy, sticky dough that turns into something malleable and easy to shape, all due to the quantity of bubbles forming inside the dough – gently stretched and folded, until full of holes and ready to be shaped. The underlying concept is to mix and move the dough along, through the different stages, only when you can observe the changes that tell you it’s ready. Dough watching rather than clock watching, and realising that that you have much more time to do other things when you make bread this way. Finally, the loaves are baked using a baking stone in The Green Grocer’s large gas-fired ovens.
To compress the whole process into a single evening’s class, Dan presents doughs made at different times during the preceding day, so that the class can see all the stages from unmixed flour to fully-baked loaf, and then breads baked before the class are enjoyed with a glass of wine, so that once the class is finished, everyone can taste and talk about the end results.
It would be unfair to end this article without mentioning the cafe and shop at The Green Grocer once more. I’ve always found it a delightful and informal place to eat really good food, and would recommend you to visit their website and check out the Menu, which changes with the seasons, and the wine list. Brunch items such as eggs with sourdough toast, porridge with fruit, nuts and seeds, and fresh juices are served all day, along with a selection of salads and hot lunch dishes, or you can choose something from the bakery counter to enjoy with one of their organic fair trade coffees or range of more than a dozen types of tea and herbal infusion. The shop has the variety of organic fresh produce which the name might lead you to expect, along with ‘larder essentials’ (most of them made on the premises), convenient meat, cheese and dairy products, and their range of ‘slowfoodfast’ and freezer products, if you’re looking for a take-home meal.
the Mill Loaf, make with Australian flour and baked in Melbourne
The Green Grocer
217 St George’s Road
Fitzroy North 3068 VIC
Telephone (03) 9489 1747
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