The Sourdough School

Baking eating and sharing bread to improve physical and mental health

A Social Enterprise: Providing Training & Support for Bakers & Healthcare Practitioners to Teach and Socially Prescribe Baking as Lifestyle Medicine.
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Baking as Lifestyle Medicine for Bakers and Clinicians

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2 year Online Certificate for Bakers: Baking as Lifestyle Medicine

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

Apply for a Bursary or a Scholarship

“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.

  • COURSE STARTS: 28th September 2023
  • FOR: Bakers & Healthcare Professionals this certificate is the practical application of BALM
  • TYPE: Online
  • AVAILABILITY:  Applications open again in 2023 and close 20th September 2023
  • IN PERSON OPEN DAY:  Limited places available
  • ENROLMENT DATE: 21st September 2023
  • REGISTRATION FEE: £1,250  – 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: 5-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 bookings@sourdough.co.uk for details.

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Please note that because of the way the enrolment works, your payments will begin immediately from when you enrol NOT from when the course starts.

 

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.

Your last lesson on the course

of the course is being a member of our Sourdough club, and the very last lesson of your course we set the final task for you to continue your learning by supporting and sharing your knowledge with someone you are connected to.

So as you graduate we invite you to enrol in The Sourdough Club for another year and we gift a membership code that we ask that you to give a young baker that you nominate as the final step in your syllabus. It means you can keep baking and learning from your course and you can support a young baker anywhere in the world virtually through the club and the forum – because our connection to each other is the real secret of why sourdough is good for us.

What do I need to prepare before I begin my online Course?

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