Baking Bread with Italian Flair

So, after our delicious meal at a A Room in the West End (see last week’s post) , Jac (Tinned Tomatoes) and I headed over to the Bellini Cookery School in the Pleasance area of Edinburgh.

We were lucky enough to be able to attend a bread making course for lovemycourse – a website which offers over 60, 000 courses in the UK. The courses they offer vary from photography, languages, arts and crafts, to name but a few. You can even set up your own courses and add them on the site. We opted for cooking and chose a bread making class at the Bellini Cookery School.

The Bellini Cookery School is actually in Gino’s Italian Kitchen on the Dalkeith Road in Edinburgh. This is a small Italian café run by Chef Angelo Cimini and manager Gina Giubarelli. We turned up and were greeted by Gina, the manager and were offered tea, coffee etc. upon arrival.

We waited until the rest of our class arrived and then we were given some ‘housekeeping’ rules. We scrubbed up and Gina gave us a bit of background to Chef Angelo before introducing him. Initially Chef Angelo seemed a bit reserved, but when he began talking about Italian cooking and baking, you could see the love he has for his trade.

Chef Angelo demonstrates

 From Italy himself, Chef Angelo has cooked for many diginitaries and celebrities over the years, so you knew what he was going to cook up would be good. He gets up early everyday to bake and cook for the café and you can see it is a true labour of love for him.

Chef Angelo demonstrated the bread making process and then we got a chance to get our hands ‘doughy’.

Jac ready to get her hands floury

 I chose to make white bread and began by rubbing in the butter and olive oil into the 00 grade flour. I decide to make a focaccia sprinkled with rosemary and salt. I also went for something sweet and made cute little cinnamon bread rolls.

My focaccia

I placed the individual rolls close together so when they proved, they touched. Jac told me this was called a Baker’s Kiss, something I had never heard before.

Jac chose to make brown bread filled with nuts and fruit (see pic at the top), which did look delicious.

Whilst we were waiting on our bread baking we were treated to delicious bruschetta, made by Chef Angelo and tasted so fresh, it was amazing.

The class lasted for around 3 hours and I was surprised by how fast it went. I thoroughly enjoyed my time and felt I had learned from a true master.

If you fancy attending a class at the Bellini Cookery School, or indeed want to look at other cooking courses available in the Edinburgh area,  check out lovemycourse . Of the 66,000 something courses available,  they have plenty to help you improve your cooking skills. Pop over to their website to find out what is on offer. I highly recommend them!

Disclosure Statement: This is a sponsored post. The course was arranged for and paid by lovemycourse. I was not committed to writing a positive review. Any opinions expressed are my own.