Doughnuts + Brioche Workshop
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 7TH | 6:00 to 8:30 | little tart BAKESHOP grant park | Cost: $135
Enjoy an evening learning how to use brioche for a variety of treats! Betsy Gonzalez of Osono Bread and Brennan Johnson of Gentle Rhythms will share the sourdough and yeasted doughnut-making process from beginning to end, highlighting everything you need to know to replicate these sweet confections at home. Plus, we’ll be baking and decorating the same dough to make fruit-adorned brioche tarts and maritozzi (Italian cream buns).
Reserve your spot here!
WORKSHOP OVERVIEW
This class will rely largely on demonstrations to teach basic principles. Students will, however, use their senses throughout the lesson and get a bit of hands-on practice. Discover the versatility of an enriched dough, as your instructors take you step-by-step on how to mix, shape, proof, and fry brioche for doughnuts. Learn how to craft and flavor your own fillings and glazes, beginning with pastry creams, citrus curds, and seasonal toppings and decoration. Lessons on fermentation and maintaining a sourdough starter will be provided.
We’ll be hosting this class at Little Tart Grant Park in Atlanta, where there is ample space to congregate and cook together. We’ll have some complimentary wine and other beverages available to participants, as well as a variety of small bites.
Participants will take home a jar of starter, a 4-pack of donuts filled and decorated in class as well as a couple of extra pastries, and a comprehensive guide to making donuts at home.
Our class discussions
Fermentation: demystifying the various stages of fermentation (both sourdough and yeasted) and understanding how it can play a role in flavoring and enhancing a pastry like a doughnut
Enriched doughs: discovering the versatility of a one-size-fits-all dough for a myriad of uses, like doughnuts, tarts, and maritozzi
Regional, stone ground flours and seasonal, local ingredients: learning the role of various types of flour in doughnut-making; how to source regional grains, and learning how to bake with the growing seasons
Fillings: delving into the world of pastry cream, exploring flavor infusions for pastry cream, and learning how to cook and utilize curd fillings
Glazes: developing a variety of flavors for glazes, frosting, and toppings to decorate doughnuts
Recipes: enhancing existing or developing your own doughnut flavors, shapes, and overall recipes
Equipment: understanding the necessary tools and equipment to successfully replicate the provided recipes at home
Tickets can be purchases through Gentle Rhythm’s store. Please refer to our policy page for our workshop terms and conditions. Our workshops are nonrefundable.
Your instructors
Brennan Johnson
Brennan’s fascination with food culture and history was catalyzed by a trip to Western Europe in 2009 to study communal brick ovens. He began baking bread soon after, baking out of his father’s own brick oven and selling at local farmers markets during his high school summers. He has a degree from Whitman College in Environmental Humanities — which, for him, meant exploring our culture’s relationship to food — an herbalism certificate from Terra Sylva School of Botanical Medicine, and has worked in restaurants and bakeries in San Francisco, Portland, Asheville, Minneapolis, and Europe. Gentle Rhythms is, for him, a way to piece together those disparate experiences, combining his curiosity in food studies with his love of hands-on cooking. These days, he is usually found on the road, learning about foodways wherever he is.
Betsy Gonzalez
After cultivating a baking career both regionally and abroad, Betsy Gonzalez established Osono Bread in Atlanta, Georgia in late 2018. Their old-world approach to baking emphasizes an investment in regional millers, local farmers, and the nourishment of the community through the tangible form of bread. Over the years, Osono Bread has grown to provide naturally leavened bread and pastry at weekly farmers markets throughout Atlanta.
Beyond a dedication to wholesome baking, Betsy strives to use their platform to share the beauty of creating community through food and the power of the people's labor behind it.