A HealthEU course was offered for the first time this fall at Elon University, and it wasn’t just about well-being: It was about bread.
The Art of Bread Making is a new course being taught by Alexander Taylor, an associate registrar and data analyst at Elon.
Taylor has been a home baker for 10 years, and said he wanted to use this class to explore bread making further.
Taylor said his journey with bread making started with pizza dough.
“I have some friends that used to make pizzas,” he said. “When I first saw it I was in awe of them cranking through all these pizzas. So I got to asking them ‘How do you do it?’”
Taylor said he was introduced to breadmaking through multiple books, one that he pointed out was “Flour Water Salt Yeast” by Ken Forkish. It motivated him to explore more into the practice.
“I fell in love with just the sort of curiosity of all the failures and all the struggles that always came with ‘Well, how can I make this better?,’” Taylor said.
The course is designed to have students learn the basic stages of bread making before transitioning to the wide array of different types of bread and dough types.
“The first goal of this was to introduce students to a wide swath of different bread applications with different bread products,” Taylor said.
Students in the class learn about six bread types: bagels, pretzels, brioche, sandwich breads, pizzas, and focaccia. They also learn about pasta making as well, incorporating lessons about gluten and flour.
Taylor said some students in the class experience failures with doughs and loaves not working out as they expected. Taylor wants them to take away the lesson that these failures are learning opportunities, not setbacks.
“The failure that you get from bread – I have probably made an equal number of breads that have failed than ones that have been the perfect loaves,” Taylor said.
His other goal in the course is to normalize bread making for students.
“A lot of people think that it’s too hard for them and they don’t know the chemistry behind it,” he said. “A big goal behind the class is demystifying. Bread can be accessible to everybody,” Taylor said.
The class has 12 bakers this semester, and among them, Taylor said a community is being built. Students call Taylor by a nickname, Xander. They even have a class pet.
Senior Astrid Hughes said she decided to take the class after being exposed to sourdough through social media. She came up with the class pet’s name, which affectionately became Jon Doughly.
“I simply came up with the sourdough starter idea as a class pet,” Taylor said. “They took it over the top by coming up with the perfect name for it.”
Hughes said she had a mental block with bread making prior to the class.
“I’ve never tried to make it myself because I’ve heard that it’s not an easy thing to do,” she said. “It’s pretty cool that now I have the experience and I would feel more comfortable doing it at home.”
Junior Liv Dixon has worked with Taylor at the registrar’s office in the past, and his passion for bread making motivated her to take the class. For her, the class is a way to wind down.
“It’s a really great way to slow down,” Dixon said. “It’s a really wholesome activity to do day-to-day.”
Students are also encouraged to take home their creations and bake them there.
“Being able to bring it home and bake for my roommates or my family has been really refreshing,” Dixon said.
The result of the class has been heartwarming to Taylor.
“The students and the love for this has been unbelievable as a teacher,” he said. “This fall semester has only affirmed my excitement for the course.”