Rye Sourdough Bread Making Masterclass

Try buying a proper loaf of dark rye in Sydney. You'll find plenty of pale, soft supermarket loaves with "rye" on the label and almost no rye inside. Now and then, you'll find the real thing at a specialty bakery - dense, dark, properly sour, twelve dollars a loaf, and sold out by ten in the morning.If you grew up with German, Polish, Baltic, Scandinavian, or Jewish bread on the table, you already know exactly what I mean. You've been trying to describe that loaf to people for years.In this class, you'll make it yourself!Here's what nobody tells you about rye: almost everything you know about bread stops working. Rye has very little of the protein that makes wheat dough stretchy, so there's no windowpane, no springy ball, nothing to knead. It drinks far more water than wheat flour and handles more like thick clay. It ferments faster and turns sour sooner. Treated like wheat dough, it fails. That's why most home bakers try rye once, pull a brick out of the oven, and never try again.Treated like rye, it's honestly easier than a sourdough boule. Fewer steps. No shaping tension to master. No scoring nerves. It simply asks you to understand what it is.That's what this morning is for.During class, we do something special: we bake two full-size artisan rye sourdough loaves right here in the studio oven, and we slice, share, and eat them warm together before you go home. Out of the oven, served with butter and good salt while discussing flavor and crumb structure. You'll also mix, handle, and shape your own full-size rye sourdough loaf in a tin to take home with you to bake fresh in your oven the next day.I've been baking sourdough for over sixteen years, and the starter you'll work with has been alive in my kitchen for sixteen years. Rye was the bread that taught me the most because it refused to behave. Everything I learned the slow way, you'll learn in four hours.You'll learn:Why rye behaves nothing like wheat - in plain English, with no food-science lecture and exactly what to do differentlyHow to build and keep a starter, alongside your white one or instead of itHow to handle a dough closer to clay than bread dough, without panicking and adding flour (the mistake that ruins most first attempts)How to read the ferment. Rye moves fast and the window is narrower than wheat. I'll show you what to look forBaking in a tin for a dense, even, properly moist crumb that keeps for a weekHow to flavour it, and the sweet-sour Baltic style that surprises everyoneWho this class is for:Complete beginners are genuinely welcome. Rye is a different grain, and in some ways a more forgiving one. You don't need to have baked sourdough before.If you have baked sourdough, this is the natural next thing to learn. Rye is where flavour lives, and it's higher in fibre and lower GI than white flour, which matters to a lot of the people who come through my studio.Capped at a maximum of 5 seats per class for personalised, hands-on guidance. You'll have your hands in dough the entire time, and there's no question too basic — my students will tell you I mean that.Ready to bake the bread you've been missing? Book your seat at Hankerie in Ryde and come and get your hands dirty.

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Upcoming dates for Rye Sourdough Bread Making Masterclass

Times are Sydney time. Dates and prices as of 30 Oct 2026, 10:41am; availability and price are confirmed live when booking on this page.

1 upcoming date between 6 Mar 2027 and 6 Mar 2027.

• Sat 6 Mar 2027, 9:30am-1:30pm

• One full-size rye sourdough loaf: Shaped by you and ready to bake fresh in your own oven the next day.
• Rye bread slices baked in class: Eat one warm in class with butter, and take the rest home with you!
• A jar of my own active mature starter: To keep culturing at home.
• My printed rye recipe booklet: Yours to keep, packed with recipes, schedule guides, and troubleshooting tips.
• Freshly baked bread, butter, and spread: Enjoyed together over the morning as we discuss flavor and technique.
• Bonus #1: 20% off the Hankerie Starter Tool Kit for all attendees.

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