Join us on Monday August 25th from 5:00pm - 8:00pm for a hands-on, three-hour artisan pizza workshop led by John Hawkins — home baker and founder of Solara Bread, a community micro-bakery based in Ottawa.
In this session, you'll explore two iconic pizza styles: Roman pizza (Pizza al Taglio) made with sourdough, and New York-style pizza made with poolish. Both feature fresh-milled heritage grains from Almanac, showcasing the depth of flavour that local grains can bring to your baking.
You’ll mix your own dough from scratch and work with pre-fermented dough prepared in advance — learning to shape, top, and bake each style with confidence.
We'll cover:
- Using heritage grains in pizza dough
- Sourdough vs. poolish: understanding pre-ferments
- Dough mixing, bulk fermentation, and fermentation timing
- Shaping techniques for Roman and NY-style pizza
- Toppings: balance, flavour, and composition
- Home baking methods: steel, stone, or oven-only
- How to choose and care for a sourdough starter
- Dough storage and the best ways to reheat leftovers
Registration includes:
-
Plenty of pizza to taste (we’ll eat what we bake!)
- Pizza and dough to take home
- A bag of fresh-milled heritage flour
- Your choice of a glass of Ontario wine or a non-alcoholic City Seltzer.
You'll need:
- Apron (we have some if you don't!)
- A large bowl (approximately 4L) for mixing your dough.
- A container for leftovers
PLEASE NOTE: Be sure you can attend the date of the class as we can only offer refunds for cancellations made by August 20th. We cannot offer refunds or substitute for future workshops due to weather, traffic or illness.
