Ham San Pan Class

Last week was the first of our bread classes. We have set up a group of four (Sonomi, Jacki, Mio and I) and joined the ‘Japan Home Baking school’.


After school we pack our bread baskets and head to Pan Sensei’s house to roll, kneed, fold and tuck!

We baked Ham rolls in heart shapes, Mayo rolls (obviously we made Mayo rolls, Japan is obsessed with Mayonaisse), and bread buns. It’s great being able to bake the bread together with friends, then we have dinner that the sensei cooks for us and we eat it all! Well not all of it, but we pack in a good amount, expanding our bread bellys to prepare for hibernating on snowy days (the first srpinkle of snow fell on tuesday). The rest I brought to the staff room the next day and earned some serious browny points from my co-workers!

It was very interesting to learn about managing the temperature of the water when you are making the dough. It is essential to get the calculations correct so that the yeast can become active. We were pretty horrid at rolling the dough into little balls, it was very hard not to squash them with our clumsy hands, but she said we have weak hands and she will make bread bakers out of us soon! She taught us how to make pretty heart shapes out of the bread so if all else fails and they taste nasty at least they look good! Hannah San got called Ham San by accident and the name stuck for the class, the sensei could not have enjoyed the joke more!

Mio and Jackie with raw and cooked bread!YUM

Learning to shape and cut the dough was tricky

Ham Rolls

The outcome with salad and soup!