The Sourdough School

Baking eating and sharing bread to improve physical and mental health

Using a robust evidence-based baking protocol combining the evidence of thousands of years of baking with modern clinical insights, we offer comprehensive training to bakers and healthcare professionals, providing students with the tools to use baking in everyday practice as a wellness intervention.
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Baking as Lifestyle Medicine for Bakers and Clinicians

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2024 – The Sourdough School Baking Certificate + Optional 1 Week Workshop in Tuscany

£29.99 / month for 24 months + £1,250.00 registration fee

“This is a journey. And these aren’t just courses. Kimbell wants to change the bread we eat, one loaf at a time. She’s the real deal: a total inspiration.”–Diana Henry, The Telegraph.

Recent figures suggest up to 57% of calories are coming from Ultra proceed foods. I am not just going accept that this is the way things are. Are you?

Learn to Bake, Apply to Teach – and inspire people to stand up for their right to be well –  BALM  –  defiance that nourishes.

  • COURSE DURATION: 24 Months
  • COURSE STARTS: 28th September 2023
  • ENROLMENT DATE: 21st September 2023
  • ADMISSIONS CLOSE: 20th September 2023
  • TUSCANY DATES: 1st week September Annually
  • FOR: Bakers & Healthcare Professionals, this certificate is the practical application of BALM leading to a BALM teaching Licence
  • TYPE: Online + In person
  • AVAILABILITY:  Applications open again in 2023 and close 20th September 2023
  • REGISTRATION FEE: £999  – this is required as you enrol
  • TUITION FEES: £29.99 a month ( for 24  months) please note that your payments will begin from when you enrol NOT from when the course starts.
  • FOCUS:  Baking as Lifestyle Medicine (BALM)
  • LEVEL: From beginner
  • SUPPORT: Live weekly clinics keeping you on track & a supported community forum
  • HOURS: Total of 600+ hours available. Minimum 4 hours a week to graduate.
  • Speak to me directly  – Request a callback.
  • Download the Prospectus 2023-2024
  • Learn more about scholarships, bursaries and discounts.
  • Optional extra: 4-day in-person workshop where you can consolidate your knowledge with Vanessa and the team at The Sourdough School (when available) you may upgrade to an in-person course/workshop – email [email protected] for details.

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The Sourdough School Baking Certificate

This certificate covering every aspect of sourdough baking, from starters and ingredients to the mechanisms of fermentation and its transformative effects on bread.

  • The certificate is Beyond Baking: While many courses teach the mechanics of sourdough baking, our focus at the Sourdough School is on empowering students with a profound understanding of sourdough. This goes beyond mere recipe following; it encompasses the full depth and breadth of the art of fermentation and the science behind it, supported by evidence-based learning.
  • Comprehensive Learning Resources: Our course offers a 52 week guided baking sylbus
  • Evidence Based:  An extensive, searchable database of over 700 research studies underpinning the Baking as Lifestyle Medicine Protocol, along with access to the case studies from Vanessa’s doctorate.
  • Deep Dive into Nutrition and Digestibility: The course delves into the digestibility of sourdough, exploring topics from phytic acid to the bioavailability of nutrients, including phytonutrients. A thorough understanding of the gut microbiome, the role of different grains, and their impact on gut health form a core part of the curriculum.
  • Understanding the Science of Fermentation: You will learn about the mechanisms of sourdough and fermentation, including resistant starch, oligosaccharides, and the importance of diversity in the gut microbiome. The course also covers the interaction between plants and soil microbes and how this affects the nutritional value of bread.
  • Broader Perspectives: Our teaching extends to agricultural practices and their influence on the nutritional value of bread. This course empowers you not only to bake fluently but also to apply and articulate this knowledge in various settings, whether as a baker or a clinician interested in socially prescribing.
  • Supportive and Interactive Learning: The course is enriched with live sessions during term time, allowing direct interaction with me, Vanessa, to support and enhance your learning journey. Workshops offer the opportunity to develop tacit knowledge about bread in an engaging, hands-on environment.

A Holistic Approach to Baking and Learning:

  • System Change and Public Health: We view sourdough baking as a form of activism, and the course content reflects this, touching on system change, public health, and various related disciplines including nutrition, psychiatry, agricultural practices, and food system analysis.
  • Community-Led Learning: As part of this course, you will join a diverse community of students who contribute rich knowledge and insights. This communal approach enriches the learning experience and fosters a broader understanding of the impact of sourdough baking.

The Sourdough School BALM Certificate is more than a baking course; it’s a comprehensive, engaging, and profoundly deep exploration of sourdough and its place in the world. It’s an opportunity to be part of a movement that values knowledge, health, and community

This workshop comes with the option of a one-week graduation week in Tuscany.  Please click here for details.

 

Live Sessions & Support

While most online courses will leave you to it, we don’t. Your course is supported with regular live baking clinics and tutorial sessions with Vanessa live from The Sourdough School.

We teach as part of  The Sourdough Club, and our style is all about building community, so it is very interactive. We have a fun and lively baking forum, which is supported by both Vanessa and a professional baker who is part of our baking team. Our club has an alumni membership and we have students who have been members now for 10 years – it is lovely.

What is the Bake for Health Certificate?

Not all bread is created equal, and while most sourdough bread-making courses focus on big holes, we go far beyond the crumb structure of your bread. Of course, it goes without saying that you will learn how to make beautiful, open-structured bread, but this course is about applying the science and understanding to the bread that we bake, empowering you to bake and eat bread that supports gut health using the bread protocol to bake you will be baking advanced high hydration loaves, baguettes, pizza, brioche, cakes, pastry and pasta by the end of the course.

Gain a unique insight

You will be baking according to the Sourdough School Bread Protocol, so on this course you will be given the option to gain an insight into your own gut microbiome and physical and mental health.  You will be able to buy a gut microbiome test and test your biome ideally at the beginning of the course and again in late January; and when you get your results back, you can request a feedback session with the Research and Medical Directors at the Sourdough School and discover how you have responded.

*please note that there is a recommended shopping list of baking equipment, ingredients and tests that you will advised to purchase in order to fully take part in the course, and these costs will be in addition to your course fees. 

What will I learn?

It would be too limiting to try and list everything covered on the course here, but you will learn how to bake bread and baked goods that support health. Sourdough baking skills include lessons in:

  • Creating, refreshing and maintaining your starter
  • How and why to change your starter into a chocolate or sweet starter
  • Mixing, shaping, scoring and baking techniques
  • Why different flours all behave so differently
  • How to assess and recalibrate your baking
  • How to get a wonderful, open, honeycomb crumb structure
  • The flavour and nutritional properties of heritage grains, including einkorn, emmer, spelt and khorasan
  • How to recognise when your bread is under- or over- proved, and how to rescue over-proved bread
  • What to do when things go wrong with your bakes
  • Why wholegrain matters
  • The differences between roller-milled and stoneground flour
  • The mechanisms to control fermentation, and digestibility
  • How to bake to suit your schedule
  • How milling your own flour increases nutrition and diversity
  • Why your gut microbiome is important
  • How to use up left-over starter to make every day easy

What recipes are included?

There are over 130 recipes on this course (you can pick and choose from the library), and there are guided baking lessons through out the course.  Recipes include:

  • High-hydration sourdough boules
  • Baguettes
  • Sourdough brioche
  • 10-minute sourdough technique
  • Pastries
  • Buns
  • Focaccia
  • Pancakes
  • Waffles
  • Pizza
  • Pasta
  • Cakes
  • Sourdough fizz
  • Cultured butter
  • Pickles, compotes and soups to serve with your bread

Where is the course taught from?

The Certificate  taught online and is run from the Sourdough School. The School is a centre of research and development, set in two-thirds of an acre of organic gardens in Northamptonshire, UK. Vanessa and the team apply nutritional, medical evidence lifestyle evidence to baking and also teach The Diploma in Prescribing baking as Lifestyle Medicine

More details

The science

We apply nutritional, medical and lifestyle evidence to our recipes and techniques for baking bread for optimal health. Our Bread Protocol is supported by the many years of research and development by Vanessa Kimbell and the Sourdough School team. You will learn to bake bread that helps to reduce bloating and balance blood sugar, while also being good for your mental health. Changing your approach to this most basic food will help you understand how sourdough can enhance your gut health, weight management and mental health, and improve the way you feel.

A living syllabus

The course is structured with a week-by-week lesson plan, but there are new recipes, magazine features and tutorials added in real time throughout the year.

A library of resources

You can also use the Club as library of teaching resources and support, as well as simply enjoying the community and content – you will discover a wealth of video tutorials, sourdough recipes and tips and techniques, as well as a glossary. Each recipe is fully referenced with the studies used to create them.

Who does this course appeal to?

The course is suitable for anyone with a passion for baking who wants to learn to bake for others.  Some student just want to learn to bake to share bread with their friends, family or neighbours but Manu on the course are baking for people in their community.

This course always attracts have a amazingly wide range of students, from professional bakers, home bakers and farmers, to a student helping her community in in South Africa learn to manage their blood sugar levels, a student who runs as prison rehabilitation bakery, a chef who runs a charity that teaches people with cancer to eat food that tastes good when taste is altered on chemotherapy.

The baking certificate is also part of the Diploma in Prescribing Baking as Social Prescribing and students also include GPs, nutritionists, dieticians, other healthcare professionals and microbiologists.

Why are the numbers limited?

We provide dedicated support and guidance to our members, and we limit numbers to enure that we allow enough time for Vanessa and the team to do this well.

How does the course work?

The course uses a combination of self-guided learning and live sessions, supported by the forum.  There are lessons, tutorials, recipes, detailed videos and a paced pathway, enabling you to build your skills each week. The recipes progressively become more technically challenging, beginning with sourdough pancakes, flatbreads and tin loaves, and advancing to high-hydration boules.

The course will build your confidence, prioritising understanding and knowledge.

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