Professional Baking at the New School of Cooking

After much research into local schools offering serious classes on baking, I decided on the Professional Baking series at the New School of Cooking in Culver City.  It's a ten week class that meets once a week for four hours and covers all aspects of baking from basic quick breads to souffles, pies, and cakes to artisan breads and pastries. The instructor, Carol Cotner Thompson, is a graduate of both the cooking and pastry programs at the California Culinary Academy and has been teaching for over 20 years.  Like many other local culinary schools, the classes at New School include some lecture and demonstration followed by hand-ons in the kitchen, but unlike other schools that pair up students in the kitchen, New School students work on their own in the baking program--a fact that I liked.

My first class met last week and I was thrilled with all aspects--the physical set-up, the instructor, fellow students, and the class itself.  (I even got my own white chef's jacket!)  Compared to a few other schools I've seen, New School is spacious and open and arranged in a way the makes it easy for ten students to get what they need without much bumping of elbows or spilling of flour.  They cleverly set-up the work tables in one direction for the beginning lecture/demonstration, and then turn them the other when students are ready to work. The instructor Carol was great--professional, personable, knowledgeable, and very helpful.  There are ten students in the class--all women--and most are considering taking their baking to a professional level.

Our first class was on quick breads which served as an intro to baking basics and gave us a chance to get used to the kitchen.  Carol demonstrated blueberry muffins, scones, and carrot cake.  She wove in valuable tips as she moved through each recipe.  (Mix brown sugar with wet ingredients, not dry.  Put cold eggs in a bowl of hot water for five minutes to bring to room temperature.  Do not over-mix muffins or scones--just until combined so they will be light and airy, not heavy and dense.)  Then we got to work.

We each made blueberry muffins with streusel topping and then currant scones, and when finished, we sampled Carol's to see what  they should taste like and then compared them to our own. (I did pretty well, though her scones were so light they melted in my mouth.)  Our homework is to bake them again on our own at home.  And of course, we got to take our "classwork" home to eat!