They usually are engaged in architectural grand designs but also are food enthusiasts and home cooks. Two amazing ladies and architects on a daily basis attended my first sourdough bread baking course.  It was a great pleasure to share with them the knowledge and experience I’ve gained for over last eight years, show them a technic of how to make sourdough lavain, feed and care for sourdough starter, and finally make bread. My keen students rolled up their sleeves to put all theory into practice and got their hands dirty while stirring and mixing, so they created their first sourdough bread we could enjoy. More about the course here…

Dumpling wrappers, usually frozen, are now easily available in stores with Asian food or online. They can be used for Japanese Gyoza, potstickers or Chinese Wonton dumplings. Flour, salt and water are the main ingredients of the wrapper's dough, but I add the egg yolk to the mixture for extra flavour. This recipe is for those who like to get their hands dirty, have spare time and want to make dumplings from scratch. The dough is very stiff at the beginning, so it requires plenty of kneading and rolling to get the almost paper-thin wrappers. A stand mixer and pasta machine are a great help here. Find the recipe here

Panettone, sweet enriched bread comes originally, according to many sources, from Milan and is a true symbol of Italian Christmas. It’s more bread than a cake, although brioche-like dough of slightly sweet flavour is studded with dried fruits, almonds and raisins. The most traditional panettone is made by wild-yeast fermentation, augmented by a small amount of commercial yeasts. Making of this Christams sweet bread is a lengthy procedure, but the result is well worth it: you will end up with a golden, aromatic, and delicious Christmas bake that melts in your mouth with every bite.  Find the recipe here…

These little buns are light and fluffy, and their dark sweet-sour filling makes your fingers and smile dark blue. I always bake them in summer when wild blueberries are in season. Sweet little cushions are made with yeasted, buttery dough, stuffed with aromatic wild fruits, and a little crumble on top. They are the best straight from the oven, dusted with a pinch of icing sugar, for breakfast or as a dessert. Find the recipe here…

It's said to be a cheat version of puff pastry, but in my opinion, this is just a more straightforward and quicker version of the French classic. Rough puff pastry calls for strong bread flour, a pinch of salt and, unlike the classic puff pastry, chilled cubed unsalted butter and cold water. Making the dough is simple but takes a little time because the dough needs chilling in the fridge between each round of folds. Once baked, quick puff pastry is flaky, crisp and buttery. It's excellent for Tarte Tatin, sausage rolls or vol-au-vents. Find the recipe here..

I love this recipe and this flatbread because it is delicious and relatively easy to make. It only requires 4 ingredients, a bit of kneading, and some resting time to get fluffy rounds. No yeast, no baking powder, no elaborate method and no long waiting time. The flatbread is soft and pliable. It can be used as a wrap stuffed with baked or fresh vegetables, meat, and beans and topped with a sauce – whatever comes to your mind and whatever you fancy. Soft homemade flatbread is better than store-bought ones. Find the recipe here...

This soft and slightly sweet bread is perfect for sandwiches and toast. The dough enriched with milk and butter can also make many different types of rolls, such as hamburger or hot dog buns. You can refrigerate the dough overnight, just after kneading and bake it the next day. It's called slow rise and helps develop the dough's flavour. However, it can be risen and baked the same day - both methods work and make delicious bread. Find the recipe here…

This is the classic Chinese Dumpling dough, generally for boiled dumplings (shui jia) and potstickers (guo tie) but I also use it - only thinly rolled - for wontons. This recipe calls for the equal amount of flour and water, and a generous pinch of salt which make the tougher dough that needs to rest at least 1 hour; however, the longer the dough is set aside and kept covered with a kitchen towel, the smoother and more springy will be. Freshly made dumpling wrappers needs to be used immediately as they become dry and difficult to shape. Find the recipe here…

If you are a rye fan, for a real treat try this double rye sourdough bread. It contains dark and light rye flour as well as bread flour to give light texture. Double rye requires overnight sponge made of light rye flour starter and some amount of dark rye flour, but on a baking day, it needs only 3 hours to be ready to pop in the hot oven. The bread is delicious, moist, sweet and tastes great next day if kept in the container. Great served with herring tartare or pickled herring. Find the recipe here… 

This is dark, moist and dense bread with a hint of sweetness - a bit in Lithuanian-style. Barley malt syrup and a little of honey give this beautiful colour of the crumb and a caramelized crust. My recipe uses light rye sourdough starter and a mix of bread and dark rye flour. It requires patience as the sponge needs to be prepared a day before and give it time to rise. But as a reward, the final rise of bread takes only two hours. Malt and Honey Dark Rye Bread is the perfect winter bread which tastes amazing with hard cheese, pickled herring or paté. Find the recipe here…

These buns are totally festive, perfect for a holiday table such as Thanksgiving or as a Christmas morning treat. Soft inside, light, reasonably sweet, full of dried cranberries and chopped walnuts, they taste delicious served warm, with chilled unsalted butter that melts on their tops. The yeasted dough is comprehensive and can be baked as a simple loaf or braided in Challah bread style. Cranberry-Walnut Buns are also great as festive burger buns served with turkey patties, vegetables and cranberry sauce. Find the recipe here…

Brioche Dough is an enriched dough, part bread and part pastry. Apart from yeast, flour and salt, it includes eggs, milk and butter which enrich the dough and produce tender and rich crumb. The simple brioche dough from this recipe consists of less amount of butter, eggs and is the easiest version to handle. It’s great for wraps, simple buns and as a sandwich bread although it lacks buttery flake of the richer brioche dough. Find the recipe here...

Gougères are cheese puffs made from choux pastry mixed with a generous amount of cheese. Gruyère is the classic choice but I also use Grana Padano, Cheddar, Emmental or Comté of good quality as the better quality the cheese, the better the Gougères. The cheese puffs can be served with soups or salads but they taste great filled with a savoury sauce, vegetable or meat and make wonderful finger food or canapé when you make them bite-sized. Find the recipe here…

Hot Cross Buns are a staple of British cuisine. They are made from enriched yeast dough packed with dried fruits, lemon or orange zest, spices and marked with an icing or dough cross on top. The cross is believed to represent the crucifixion of Jesus, the spies signify the spices used to embalm him at his burial. Traditionally spiced and fruited buns are eaten hot or toasted on Good Friday and Easter, however people buy them whenever they feel like a sweet and aromatic bun. In 1592, Queen Elizabeth I banned the sale of hot cross buns on every day except for Good Friday, Christmas and at funerals as they were too special to be eaten daily. Find the recipe for aromatic hot cross buns with a pinch of saffron here…

Kaiser Rolls require time and pre-fermented dough called pâte fermentée. This is a portion of dough made several hours ahead, left to ferment in low temperature and used as one of the components of the main dough. Pâte fermentée is crucial because improves the flavour and texture of the rolls. This is super important to ferment pâte fermentée at least overnight. 2 hours process in room temperature can be sufficient when you're in a hurry but doesn’t improve the flavour of the rolls leave them a bit flat and usual. The original method for shaping the rolls by overlapping the folds may be difficult to teach therefore many people to use a store-bought roll cutter. I use a knotted roll method which is a bit challenging but quite fun. Find the recipe here…

This is a traditional polish fruit cake called Placek ze sliwkami I bake in mid-August when first summer plums appear on the markets. This sour-sweet treat is actually an autumnal cake in which traditionally yellow-fleshed dark Hungarian Plums are used. We love homemade Placek ze sliwkami because is very comforting and full of fresh fruits. Perfect to feed the crowd and as a fabulous dessert for a garden party or picnic. If you don’t spot Hungarian Plums on the market or supermarket, other varieties such as Damsons Plums and Italian Prunes Plums work well either. Find the recipe here...

I like these simple flat and crunchy crackers because they are versatile and fancy. They are perfect pair for cheese and wine or a cheese and charcuterie board, great with dips made from pulses like hummus and peammus or fantastic as a classic snack with the seed topping. Homemade Crackers are simple to bake, the only challenge I can find is rolling the dough as thin and even as possible which ensures that they are crispy. I cut the crackers in advance but they also can be snapped into shards after baking – their irregular shapes look amazing in bread baskets. Find the recipe for Seed-Topped Crackers here

I always wanted to make bagels. I searched for many recipes which I tried and never was happy with the result. The bagels were flat, wrinkled and doughy. But I finally found the perfect recipe in a book of Peter Reinhart and also found out that dough is the key. Bagels need to be made of stiff dough to float in the boiling water without losing the shape at the same time. This recipe doesn’t require any special skills, ingredients or tools. The most important thing is to follow the instructions and your bagels will be deliciously chewy with a thin wonderful crust. Serve them fresh out of the oven with soft cheese, smoked salmon or just butter. Find the recipe here...

My brioche-style hamburger buns are made from classic egg and butter dough but with…cream. This special ingredient makes the buns very fluffy and tender with a hint of sweetness but still sturdy to hold the burger patty and the accompanying toppings. Their light and soft texture allows creating a homogeneous composition with beef, cheese, pickles, tomato, onion and sauces. If you want to make an impression and serve your friends and family the best burgers in town, start with those amazing buns. Find the recipe here…

A cast iron pot is perfect for making crusty golden artisan-style bread at home. The pot with its thick walls and a tight lid is a moisture-sealed chamber which traps steam and provides a temperature-stable baking environment. Moisture is important during the early stage of baking because allows the bread to rise fully. It creates this beautiful shiny crispy crust outside and let the interior of bread be white and soft. The crusty white bread requires a bit of work and time but its flavour and smell is worth this effort. It is the best just after cooling when the crust is fresh and very crispy. Find the recipe here… 

I always have about 200 ml of uncultured buttermilk left after making butter. It’s thin, cloudy, slightly sweet and buttery-tasting, very different from store-bought buttermilk. As a beverage, perfectly quenches thirst, cures a hangover and gives energy. It is also an amazing ingredient used in cooking and baking. The opportunities are endless with buttermilk. You can make waffles, pancakes, bread, scones and many more. I use my buttermilk to make rolls. They are light, fluffy and very soft after baking and dough is velvety – the best dough I’ve ever kneaded! Warm, fresh buttermilk rolls are absolutely delicious, ideal for breakfast with melting homemade butter. Find the recipe here...

The poppy seed roll – or in other words – the poppy seed strudel - is a typical polish pastry usually prepared for Christmas and Easter.  It consists of sweet yeast dough filled with aromatic poppy seed paste which is full of nuts, dried fruits, almonds and resins. According to some old polish beliefs, poppy seeds eaten at Christmas Eve dinner brought happiness and prevented from evil, were also a symbol of fertility. Why is this pastry exceptionally delicious? Because of the balance between the thickness of the dough and the amount of the poppy seed paste - moist, naturally sweet and rich in nuts and fruits. Find the recipe here...

This is my everyday bread. Very comforting, healthy, delicious and far different from what is mostly available now in local shops. You can buy the sourdough loaves in many artisan bakeries across London, they are decent but unfortunately pretty expensive. Making the sourdough bread at home is neither costly nor difficult however requires a bit of patience, effort and experience. You can read a lot of recipes on the Internet and in cook books but the sourdough bread is something you learn by doing. Anyway, you need to start somehow so let’s get started together. Find the recipe here...

A sourdough starter - called here also levain - is a naturally fermenting mixture of flour and water. It contains a combination of Lactobacillus culture and wild yeasts. A levain produces a vigorous leaven and develops the flavour of the bread. You don’t need ready-to-make starter from a shop or mashed organic apples. The easiest way to make a fresh batch of starter is by combining rye or light rye flour and water and allowing the mixture to sit for a couple of days. The sourdough starter I have made and used for several years to bake my every day bread needs to be looked after and fed every day so patience of a cook is crucial. Find the recipe here...

Nothing compares to fresh egg pasta made at home. Any dried and fresh noodles that come from a plastic bag does not have that flavour as homemade one does. Once you try it, you will love it. Making fresh pasta from scratch is neither difficult nor time-consuming but a good recipe is essential. There are plenty of them in cookbooks and on the internet. Some call for oil, egg yolks, others for adding of water or salt. However, genuine sfolia - the stretched-out dough we know and which is popular in most countries - is made with flour and eggs and comes from an Italian region Emilia-Romana. Find the recipe here...

White and brown chocolate chip cookies with currants are full of dark chocolate and sweet dried summer fruits. Simply bitter-sweet harmony. I am happy to announce that 200 cookies, homemade by Polly Eats London have been delivered today to Art Habitat as a part of its marketing campaign. The second equal batch of confectionery will be made and supplied next week. We are ready – all hands aboard - and look forward to this. Try to bake them yourself and you will never forget this amazing texture and taste. Find the recipe here...