Explore baking and patisserie and take your abilities to new heights in the Leiths Essential Bread and Patisserie Online Course. Develop skills in artisan bread baking, elegant pastry making and delicate patisserie techniques as you discover 50+ curated recipes throughout the course.
Professional Course
Advanced
Certification
Essential Bread & Patisserie is a 24-week professional course designed for chefs, food professionals and advanced level home cooks. It will deepen your understanding of baking and greatly extend your baking repertoire, allowing you to take on new challenges and unlock culinary potential you never knew you had!
You’ll bake over 50 recipes; learn how to work with wild yeast starters' preferments and understand the benefits of slow proving bread dough and how yeast reacts differently in enriched bread. You’ll be taught the rules of working with gelatine and chocolate and make a variety of cakes, pastries and petit fours from classics to contemporary. In later units, you’ll make passion fruit macarons, sensational sourdough and you’ll even master a glossy mirror glaze.
On completion of the course, you'll be well on your way to a potential career change or, if that's not on the menu, a master baker and pastry maker in your own kitchen.
If you’ve already completed Basics to Baker Online Course or Introduction to Patisserie Online Course, you’re eligible to receive a discount where you’ll pay for whichever part of the course you’ve not completed. This is an incredible opportunity to upgrade to a professionally certified course, honing the skills you’ve already mastered. You will still need to complete the full course in order to receive your certificate of completion.
★★★★★
Leiths School of Food and Wine has “seen oodles of students start up their own businesses or work in Michelin-starred restaurants.”
Kate Hilpern, The Independent
This 24-week course will guide professional chefs and passionate home cooks through foundation skills all the way through to advanced techniques and practices needed to refine and enhance their baking and patisserie skills.
Each week, you will unlock a new batch of video sessions that take you step-by-step through the process of cooking curated skill-based recipes. With Workshop’s unique hands-on method of learning, you’ll be cooking from day one with no need to read pages of theory in advance.
By joining the course, you will have access to the following through the Workshop app:
In addition to the core aspects of the course, you will also get:
Average cooking time: 6 to 12 hours per week
At the start of each week, you will be prompted to schedule 1-5 practical sessions and to gather all the ingredients and kit you’ll need to start cooking.
In every session, you will follow a Leiths teacher through a series of step-by-step videos in your own kitchen, learning directly through your experience. After each session, you will be asked to upload photos of your creations for discussion and feedback from your mentor and classmates.
Once you have completed all sessions on the course and taken your online assessment, you will earn your Digital Certificate of Completion.
You’ll be guided through essential bread theory and learn how to make an enriched white loaf and use wholemeal flour for bread rolls.
You’ll learn to make shortcrust pastry by hand and by machine. You’ll make sweet pastry for frangipane tarts, and savoury pastry for courgette and ricotta galette.
You’ll be learning how to use your bread dough to make authentic pan-fried pizza and spiced flatbreads.
Learn one one of the main fundamentals of patisserie, choux pastry. You’ll be making sweet-filled eclairs and savoury cheese choux with a delicious truffled mascarpone filling.
Using a larger quantity of dough, you will learn how to perfect the classic New York style bagels. Hone your skills on how to shape, blanche, top and bake this chewy bread staple.
Elevate your dishes with gorgeous garnishes and toppings for cakes and desserts. You’ll learn to use needle shreds, chocolate shards, honeycomb, and chocolate rubble. You’ll use 3 essential patisserie techniques involving sugar syrups, caramels, and melting chocolate.
You’ll learn how to work with a heavily enriched dough to create a sweet soft Chelsea bun filled with custard.
In this unit, you will learn three unique methods to making cakes. Using the creaming method, you’ll make lemon and elderflower cakes garnished with needle shreds. You’ll make the ultimate chocolate cake using the rubble you’ve made previously. Finally, you’ll make a swiss roll filled with cherry and mascarpone, using the whisking method.
In this unit, we will look at making starters for breads in later units and then make a delicious French fougasse.
Dive into baking indulgent salted caramel chocolate brownies, a tear and share bread accompanied by some flavoured butter, and some delicious muffins. All these bakes take about an hour and rely on artificial raising agents, so speed is of the essence!
You’ll be making an Italian biga to develop flavour in your focaccia.
Perfect your chocolate chip cookie recipe and learn to make a seeded cracker bread called lavosh, and a white chocolate drizzle on biscotti.
You’ll be making a nutritiously dense Vollkornbrot with a distinct chew and rye flavour. We'll also show you some toppings that can go along with this bread.
First, you’ll make meringue kisses with classic Swiss meringue. Then, you’ll move on to make a pavlova. Finally, you’ll make classic French macaroons flavoured with passion fruit and white chocolate.
Another highly enriched dough to then master a chocolate, halva and orange babka.
You’ll learn how to make a light and fluffy Genoise, decorated with the chocolate shards you made before, filled and covered with a light, meringue coffee buttercream.
You’ll be bulk fermenting and using a biga to make classic ciabatta loaves.
Pâté sucrée is a rich and delicious pastry with a biscuit-like snap to it. You’ll learn to make it by hand and with a machine, to make biscuits and some tart cases with a professional finish.
You’ll be making buttermilk pannacotta with raspberry gel and pâte sucrée biscuits. You’ll also be making a cold yuzu soufflé with a crunchy sesame tuile. In making these recipes, you’ll learn how to use three setting agents; leaf gelatin, powdered gelatin, and agar agar.
Master the complexities of a wild yeasted sourdough loaf, alongside practising the shaping, scoring and baking process.
Petit Fours are small bite-sized confectionery or savory appetizer. We'll be making salted butter caramels, lemon sherbert marshmallow, chocolate truffles with a variety of coatings.
You’ll be learning how to make laminated doughs, resulting in warm, buttery croissants and delicate pain au chocolat for a perfect breakfast pastry.
The final unit before your assessment. You'll be making a complex white chocolate cake with raspberry entremets. Be sure to leave plenty of time aside for this ultimate challenge!
You've reached the end of this course! Welcome to your assessment where you will be tested on two key recipes that you've mastered on this course.
You’ll be guided through essential bread theory and learn how to make an enriched white loaf and use wholemeal flour for bread rolls.
You’ll learn to make shortcrust pastry by hand and by machine. You’ll make sweet pastry for frangipane tarts, and savoury pastry for courgette and ricotta galette.
You’ll be learning how to use your bread dough to make authentic pan-fried pizza and spiced flatbreads.
Learn one one of the main fundamentals of patisserie, choux pastry. You’ll be making sweet-filled eclairs and savoury cheese choux with a delicious truffled mascarpone filling.
Using a larger quantity of dough, you will learn how to perfect the classic New York style bagels. Hone your skills on how to shape, blanche, top and bake this chewy bread staple.
Elevate your dishes with gorgeous garnishes and toppings for cakes and desserts. You’ll learn to use needle shreds, chocolate shards, honeycomb, and chocolate rubble. You’ll use 3 essential patisserie techniques involving sugar syrups, caramels, and melting chocolate.
You’ll learn how to work with a heavily enriched dough to create a sweet soft Chelsea bun filled with custard.
In this unit, you will learn three unique methods to making cakes. Using the creaming method, you’ll make lemon and elderflower cakes garnished with needle shreds. You’ll make the ultimate chocolate cake using the rubble you’ve made previously. Finally, you’ll make a swiss roll filled with cherry and mascarpone, using the whisking method.
In this unit, we will look at making starters for breads in later units and then make a delicious French fougasse.
Dive into baking indulgent salted caramel chocolate brownies, a tear and share bread accompanied by some flavoured butter, and some delicious muffins. All these bakes take about an hour and rely on artificial raising agents, so speed is of the essence!
You’ll be making an Italian biga to develop flavour in your focaccia.
Perfect your chocolate chip cookie recipe and learn to make a seeded cracker bread called lavosh, and a white chocolate drizzle on biscotti.
You’ll be making a nutritiously dense Vollkornbrot with a distinct chew and rye flavour. We'll also show you some toppings that can go along with this bread.
First, you’ll make meringue kisses with classic Swiss meringue. Then, you’ll move on to make a pavlova. Finally, you’ll make classic French macaroons flavoured with passion fruit and white chocolate.
Another highly enriched dough to then master a chocolate, halva and orange babka.
You’ll learn how to make a light and fluffy Genoise, decorated with the chocolate shards you made before, filled and covered with a light, meringue coffee buttercream.
You’ll be bulk fermenting and using a biga to make classic ciabatta loaves.
Pâté sucrée is a rich and delicious pastry with a biscuit-like snap to it. You’ll learn to make it by hand and with a machine, to make biscuits and some tart cases with a professional finish.
You’ll be making buttermilk pannacotta with raspberry gel and pâte sucrée biscuits. You’ll also be making a cold yuzu soufflé with a crunchy sesame tuile. In making these recipes, you’ll learn how to use three setting agents; leaf gelatin, powdered gelatin, and agar agar.
Master the complexities of a wild yeasted sourdough loaf, alongside practising the shaping, scoring and baking process.
Petit Fours are small bite-sized confectionery or savory appetizer. We'll be making salted butter caramels, lemon sherbert marshmallow, chocolate truffles with a variety of coatings.
You’ll be learning how to make laminated doughs, resulting in warm, buttery croissants and delicate pain au chocolat for a perfect breakfast pastry.
The final unit before your assessment. You'll be making a complex white chocolate cake with raspberry entremets. Be sure to leave plenty of time aside for this ultimate challenge!
You've reached the end of this course! Welcome to your assessment where you will be tested on two key recipes that you've mastered on this course.
Once you've met all the requirements to complete this course, you'll receive a verified Certificate of Completion.
After successfully completing this course, you will be invited to attend an assessment weekend at Leiths if you'd like to receive full Leiths accreditation for an additional £635.
Take a look at what previous students have said about their experience with Leiths Online, with reviews ranging from young cooks celebrating the start of their journey, to professional chefs successfully advancing their culinary skills.
Leiths Online Cookery School is a winning partnership between Leiths School of Food & Wine - the esteemed cookery school - and education technology pioneers, Workshop.
From its London school, Leiths has been equipping aspiring cooks with the skills to flourish in the food world since 1975. Through Workshop's unique hands-on learning experiences, Leiths is bringing the best of in-person teaching directly into people's kitchens around the world.
Putting the learner first is a founding philosophy common to both organisations. High-quality content delivered by top educators in the cookery world, tailored expert feedback and a close community network make it a joy to learn with Leiths Online.
Before enrolling, feel free to request a tour of the course below and you'll see how Leiths Online reimagines the learning experience.
Your class will be moving forward at a pace of 1 unit per week, however after each unit is unlocked you have the freedom to complete each session entirely at your own pace. You will also have the ability to schedule your sessions for times that suit your lifestyle.
This course has been carefully designed to make sure the advantages of real-world learning experiences are still embraced online. You will therefore be taken through the subject matter week-by-week to give you the chance to digest what you’ve learnt whilst progressing at a steady pace alongside your classmates. Unlike a real-world course though, you will also have the opportunity to revisit sessions and practice whenever and wherever you like!
Shortly before your course start date, you will be invited to introduce yourself to the rest of your class via messaging on the Workshop app.
Each week, your class will unlock a new unit encouraging you all to cook the same dishes within the same week. At the end of every session, you will be asked to upload a photo of your dish, which your class and mentor will be able to view, like and provide feedback on.
You can contact your mentor directly through the app at any time, and will receive a response within 48 hours. Your mentor will also be able to grade and comment on your photo uploads with any feedback they may have.
You’ll be able to log into the Workshop app and access your class group discussion shortly before your start date so that you can chat away and get acquainted!
All Leiths Online courses are 18+ or require parental consent for those between 13-18. The exceptions are our Teens courses, which are exclusively for 13-18-year-olds.
The accreditation weekends at Leiths school in London have a wine element to them and are only for those aged 18 and over.
If you book your place over 30 days before your course start date, you can cancel your booking and claim a full refund within 30 days of your purchase. If you book your place within 30 days of the course start date, you can claim a full refund within 14 days of your purchase.
There’s no need to worry if you have a holiday booked or have to miss a week or two during the course. You’ll have access to your course dashboard for a total of 12 months from your start date, and so you’ll have plenty of time to catch up if you need to.
Your Certificate of Completion will be awarded if you pass a 3-part assessment at the end of the course.
This assessment will challenge you to replicate skills you have learnt throughout the course with minimal assistance. You will be asked to upload photos at different stages of the process and your mentor will grade and give feedback on completion.
The opportunity to earn a full Leiths-accredited Baking Certificate at an additional two-day practical assessment in London, at the cost of £635.
Your class will be moving forward at a pace of 1 unit per week, however after each unit is unlocked you have the freedom to complete each session entirely at your own pace. You will also have the ability to schedule your sessions for times that suit your lifestyle.
This course has been carefully designed to make sure the advantages of real-world learning experiences are still embraced online. You will therefore be taken through the subject matter week-by-week to give you the chance to digest what you’ve learnt whilst progressing at a steady pace alongside your classmates. Unlike a real-world course though, you will also have the opportunity to revisit sessions and practice whenever and wherever you like!
Yes, we’ll send you a full equipment list after you have purchased the course. Make sure to keep an eye on your emails (including your spam folder) for this!
If you have already completed the Basics to Baker Online Course or Introduction to Patisserie Online Course, you are eligible to receive a generous discount on the Essential Bread and Patisserie Online Course, as you will be familiar with some of the course content already.
You’ll have access to your course dashboard for a total time of 12 months after your start date.
Units (including video sessions and supporting materials) will become available week-by-week as your class progresses through the course.
If you have a coupon, you can redeem this when purchasing a course on the checkout to receive your discount.
Please be aware
We strongly encourage every student to finish their course within the allocated access period, as this ensures you stay on track and make the most of your learning experience. However, if you believe you need additional time, we are able to offer 3-month extensions at a cost of £100.
We review every case individually so if you need to request an extension please reach out to us at support@workshop.ws.
Please be aware that with a course extension, you will receive less regular contact time from your mentor as the usual course access period will have expired. To receive a certificate, you will still be required to photo uploads and complete any assessments if applicable.
