Food & Drink

Bake Delicious Bread & Pastries

Teaches Bread Baking

Apollonia Poilâne

Recounting the story of the bakery started by her grandfather in 1932 and expanded by her father before taking the reins, Apollonia introduces herself and her revered Parisian bakery and explains what you’ll learn in the class.

1. Meet Your Instructor

Meet Your Instructor

Learn some of Apollonia’s core baking philosophies—including using all of one’s senses—as well as practical guidelines for ingredients and equipment. 

2. Baking à la Poilâne

Baking à la Poilâne

Apollonia demonstrates her French at-home starter, demystifying how to build and maintain a leaven and explaining the richness it lends to loaves.

3. Sourdough Starter

Sourdough Starter

Using the sourdough starter made in the previous lesson, Apollonia shares the secrets to mastering Poilâne’s crown jewel—its world-famous country-style wheat loaf—from mixing to proofing and shaping.

4. Poilâne-Style Wheat Loaf: Mixing & Shaping

Poilâne-Style Wheat Loaf: Mixing & Shaping

Apollonia puts the finishing touches on her wheat loaf—including baking and a scoring tutorial—and walks you through a side-by-side loaf analysis of common baking issues. 

5. Poilâne-Style Wheat Loaf: Scoring & Baking 

Poilâne-Style Wheat Loaf: Scoring & Baking 

Apollonia introduces you to the Poilâne approach to rye: a rich, floral loaf leavened by the same starter used for the wheat loaf.

6. Rye

Pain de mie literally translates to “bread of crumb.” With this first yeast-based recipe, Apollonia demonstrates how using a delicate hand results in a loaf with an irresistible, cloud-like texture.

7. Pain de Mie

Pain de Mie

Apollonia demonstrates the way to achieve the quintessential airy texture and perfectly domed tops of this French favorite while reflecting on time spent honing her brioche technique as a young apprentice in the bakehouse at Poilâne.

8. Brioche

Brioche

An Apollonia original, this corn flour bread is a recipe she spent a decade refining. She shares her process for making the gluten-free and vegan loaf, originally inspired by college dinners at Harvard.

9. Savory Corn Flour Bread

Savory Corn Flour Bread

Demonstrating an all-time favorite from Poilâne’s sister café, Apollonia shares the recipe for her open-faced ham-and-cheese sandwich and her hack for perfectly toasted slices of bread.

10. Fresh Bread: Sourdough Wheat Tartines

Fresh Bread: Sourdough Wheat Tartines

Apollonia shares her savory approach to using dry bread in this tomato-and-curry-studded French toast, a departure from the typically sweet version.

11. Dry Bread: Savory Pain de Mie Pain Perdu

Dry Bread: Savory Pain de Mie Pain Perdu

Swapping oats for dried bread, Apollonia introduces an innovative riff on granola, a great use for loaves that are no longer fresh.

12. Dry Bread: Sourdough Wheat & Rye Granola

Dry Bread: Sourdough Wheat & Rye Granola

Apollonia demonstrates two techniques for turning stale bread into delicious croutons: one oven-baked, the other pan-fried.

13. Stale Bread: Crouton Variations

Stale Bread: Crouton Variations

Apollonia shares her reimagined version of a Caesar salad featuring richly marinated brioche croutons that become the star of the show.

14. Stale Bread: Caesar Salad With Flavored Brioche Croutons

Stale Bread: Caesar Salad With Flavored Brioche Croutons

Apollonia replaces cheese and pine nuts with breadcrumbs and walnuts in this at once creative and surprisingly true-to-form take on pesto.

15. Stale Bread: Breadcrumbs & Sourdough Wheat Pesto

Stale Bread: Breadcrumbs & Sourdough Wheat Pesto

Poilâne has a rich history of collaboration with artists, including Apollonia’s father’s friendship with Dalí. Apollonia reflects on the relationship between bread and art, and shows you how to embellish loaves with leaves, roses, and letters.

16. Bread as Art: Decorating Your Loaves

Bread as Art: Decorating Your Loaves

In this concluding lesson, Apollonia shows you how to make Poilâne’s popular grain-based cookies, affectionately named punitions, or punishments, because you can’t eat just one.

17. Rye Sablés

Rye Sablés

Apollonia Poilâne Teaches Bread Baking

variant_1

Enjoy 7 days free

The promo may be over, but your opportunity isn't. Dive into the full experience, worry-free, with our 7-day money-back guarantee.

The offer has ended

Amount charged now

Your 7-day free trial starts today

Proof you've trained with the world's best

Leadership and Decision Making Under Pressure

Get this certificate.

Proof you’ve learned from the best.

Brand Strategist

Ana M. Gómez Sanabria

Founder

Karl Baron

Service Design & Design Strategist

Meghan Preiss

R&D Manager

Morten Refsgaard Drost

Chief Technical Advisor

Doug Needham

Service Manager

Ólafur Már Símonarson

Get 50% off an annual membership of MasterClass

Congratulations, you purchased an annual standard membership of MasterClass. A confirmation has been sent to your email. You will now be able to access 200+ classes in addition to your Certificate course.

You're all set!

Build practical AI skills that matter. Learn how to think with AI, make better decisions, and prove you’re ready for what’s next.

AI as Your Copilot (4 min)

Prompting: Speak So AI Listens (8 min)

Step inside The Moonshot Factory to see how teams prototype new concepts in hours, pinpoint the riskiest part of any idea, and turn bold thinking into real-world breakthroughs.

This Is Where Bold Begins (12 min)

"What If" Before "What Is" (8 min)

Learn from five former SEALs, including Medal of Honor winner Command Master Britt Slabinski (Ret), and hear how they tackle issues, recognize stress early, and use quick resets to regain composure.

The appearance of U.S. Department of Defense (DoW) visual information does not imply or constitute DoW endorsement.

Intro to High-Stakes Leadership (10 min)

Strategic Readiness Starts With You (6 min)

Pre-enroll and save 20% on this Negotiations course. Available Summer 2026.

ni-preenrollment

Pre-enroll and save 30% on this AI Strategy course from NVIDIA. 

nvidia-preenrollment

From TIME ©2022 TIME USA LLC. All rights reserved. Used under license.

Times

Wirecutter

Reviewed - USA Today

Sourdough Starter and Breads

Yeast Breads

Dry and Stale Breads

Bread as Art

Teaches French Pastry Fundamentals

Dominique Ansel

Dominique Ansel Teaches French Pastry Fundamentals

Teaches Indian Cooking

Madhur Jaffrey

Madhur Jaffrey Teaches Indian Cooking

Joanne Chang

Bake Like A Pro

Teaches Southern Cooking

Mashama Bailey

Mashama Bailey Teaches Southern Cooking

Teaches Cooking II: Restaurant Recipes at Home

Gordon Ramsay

Gordon Ramsay Teaches Cooking II: Restaurant Recipes at Home

Teaches the Art of Home Cooking

Alice Waters

Alice Waters Teaches The Art of Home Cooking

Teaches Modern Vegetarian Cooking

Dominique Crenn

Dominique Crenn Teaches Modern Vegetarian Cooking

The Greatest of All Time

Angie Mar

Charles Gabriel

Quie Slobert

Stefano Secchi

Dale Harris

Tony Gemignani

Nancy Silverton

Jeni Britton

Melineige Beauregard

Chris Guinto

Wallace Wong

Anna Leigh Waters

Joy Mangano

GOAT

Menu

What brought you to this class today?

What brought you to this class today?

Skills You'll Learn

Download