Brasserie Bread baking class: Artisan Pastry – Cakes & Tarts

When I was a kid, I – like lots of other children, I’m sure – dreamt of being trapped in a toy/candy/department store overnight and being able to freely play and roam about unsupervised within. Arriving at Brasserie Bread for an evening baking class feels much the same as we are welcomed into an empty store save for workers whom we can see through the glass going about their business in the baking area.

There are 10 of us attending Brasserie Bread’s new Artisan Pastry – Cakes & Tarts baking class, led by training manager Matthew Brock. He tells us a little about himself (he was a chef before going into breads and pastries) as well as artisan baking. The passion he has for what he does is evident and is something to be admired and respected. Amongst us there are ladies who run a café and a former Masterchef contestant so we’re in good company! I have Ms Sourdough as my partner-in-crime, as who else could be more fitting to attend a baking class at Brasserie Bread, firm advocates of sourdough and artisan practices?


We are treated to a warmed round of sourdough and, although I have had Brasserie Bread’s sourdough many times before, eating it oven-warm heightens the enjoyment with shards of blistered crust flying everywhere with each bite. But there’s no kicking back, as soon we’re all getting down to work with each recipe step being carried out by hand tonight.

Ms Sourdough (aka Breadhead) & her most apt apron

We make friands to start...


...as well as frangipane tarts for which we’ve made our own sweet shortcrust pasty. Matthew shares a handy tip for pastry – for small individual tarts, roll the dough into a log for resting which will make it easier to divide into portions and keep a round shape when rolling out.

Matthew Brock demonstrating the rolling out of pasty and piping of frangipane filling

And then there’s a gooey chocolate brownie to finish!


We sit down to a light meal of individual smoked trout quiches at the end of the evening, for which we rolled out unsweetened shortcrust pastry prepared earlier by Matthew. The class has been fast-paced with some of the perks being having all your ingredients measured and weighed out for you and, of course, not having to do the washing up afterwards! Then you also get to take home your delicious baked goodies...


Ms Sourdough and I met up over the long weekend just passed and made use of the remaining dough from the baking class to recreate the frangipane tarts but topped with slices of pear. The pastry is wonderfully short and crumbly and quite forgiving – my dough looked a little dry when working it together during the class but it held better than I expected following a rest in the fridge. If only we had professional tart rings to use instead of having to improvise with egg rings!

Leftover pastry makes for a good sablée cookie!

Brasserie Bread conducts a variety of baking classes on various evenings and weekends. I can attest to the fact that our arms were given thorough workouts and highly recommend taking along a full-length apron, although if you don’t remember to do so the kind people at Brasserie Bread will supply you with a disposable one. My apron was covered in flour and flecks of butter by the end of the class and I was all the happier for it.

Mademoiselle Délicieuse and Ms Sourdough attended the Artisan Pastry – Cakes & Tarts baking class as guests of Brasserie Bread. A big thank-you to Mei Tan who organised the particulars of our attendance and best of luck as she prepares to embark on travel and study on the other side of the world!

1737 Botany Rd, Banksmeadow NSW
Tel: 1300 966 845

Opening Hours: Mon-Fri 7am-3pm
           Sat & Sun 8am-2pm

happy eating!

27 comments:

  1. Wow, this is so exciting, i would love to do a bread making class as i have been making alot of bread but only from trial and error am i getting it right.

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  2. I've wanted to do a brasserie bread class for ages! Looks like you guys learned a lot and I love the sourdough apron hehe

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  3. Those frangipane tarts are gorgeous! You didn't make sourdough?? BB sourdough is to die for!

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  4. omg how good does the tart looks! and so good to see u blogging again! :D

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  5. I hvent been BB in too long! Gimme their garlic looafff rarrrrrr!

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  6. Looks like fun. Love your apron, it's so cute.

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  7. mmm love brasserie! haha awesome apron

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  8. Looks like a fantastic experience! It all looks absolutely delicious!

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  9. that looks awesome. will definitely have to enrol in some cooking classes once i'm back in sydneytown for good.

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  10. Send us some! Or better yet, send us the recipe for the pastry!!! I love BB... think I'm due for another visit! :)

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  11. I've wanted to do a class like this for a while, this has given me the inspiration

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  12. BB classes are awesome! I did the brioche one some time ago and it was great (still yet to blog about it though)!

    Nice tip about rolling the rough into a log and cutting it into a disk to line the tins. Your pear frangipane tart looks great and props for using egg rings! So clever :)

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  13. WOw if love to come here one day....

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  14. What a fantastic class, a lot more covered than I thought they would of. They feed you too!!!

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  15. The class looks interesting and I am sure enjoyed it. I am looking forward to my next weekend pastry class.

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  16. I am definitely using that tip about rolling the pastry into a log when making small individual tarts! Brilliant.

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  17. I love Brasserie Bread!! I have wanted to do one of the baking courses for such a long time now! It looks wonderful!

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  18. haha, love the breadhead shot. We have a few artisan bread suppliers in Melbourne, but would be awesome attending a class like this. Love it.

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  19. Hey Muppy, only pastry and sweets with this course but Brasserie Bread do offer bread-making ones as well.

    Hey Jacq, so much fun! And very informative as well.

    Hey Ninja, for glory!

    Hey Tina, thanks! Sourdough-baking is reserved for the bread classes only.

    Hey sugarpuffi, haha, yes, finally back blogging =p

    Hey FFichiban, Brasserie Bread's garlic loaf is seriously something awesome!

    Hey Dumpling Girl, isn't my friend's apron just the best?!

    Hey Joey, haha, must protect the innocent =p

    Hey chocolatesuze, so much fun playing with butter! And I want one of those aprons now.

    Hey Ladybird, quite fast-paced but you get to make quite a few things in the class.

    Hey yygall, some handy techniques are taught and definitely worthwhile.

    Hey Trisha, haha, the pastry recipe is given to you in a little handout when you do the class!

    Hey Bianca, I've only attended a few cooking classes and this was lots of fun.

    Hey Phuoc, brioche! *drools* Much butter to play with, yes? =D

    Hey Dolly, their cafe has a great menu and the bread, tarts and pastries you can buy to take home are excellent!

    Hey sara, quite a lot covered, yes. The things we made revolved around similar technique so that was good.

    Hey Quay Po Cooks, thanks for dropping by =) I'd never even made pastry from scratch before so this was a perfect opportunity!

    Hey Agnes, it sounds so simple but I'd never come across that tip before =p

    Hey Leah, and a small enough class to allow for plenty of hands-on and supervised fun.

    Hey Adrian, when you find good sourdough it makes it really hard to go back...

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  20. LOVE! Love cooking classes and this sounds amazing. I really think I need to get to a bread cooking class somewhere in Brizzy because it's something I could definitely use some pointers with. Your treats worked out a treat!

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  21. Hey Gastronomy Gal, I must admit I don't have much cooking class experience but this was enjoyable and fairly fast-paced with lots of technique tips.

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  22. Oh Rita if only I could make artisan anything!! I'm sure I would be do more of the eating and tasting but indeed it do looks like a fun class. And, I also have apron envy!!

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  23. Hey Gianna, believe me, the butter, vanilla and almond meal mixture was pretty ace - and I don't even normally eat cake batter, cookie dough, etc!

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  24. Thank you so much for sharing the 'dough log' tip with us!!!! Very useful..........I'm glad you enjoyed yourself!

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  25. Hey Kitchen Butterfly, if nothing else, this baking class goes someway to alleviating my fear of working with pastry!

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