The White Cottage Bakery's Tuscan Baking Retreat with Helen Underwood
Sunday, 1st November - Saturday, 7th November 2026
Tuscany in Autumn: A Baking Retreat at Castello di Potentino
As autumn settles over Tuscany, the hillsides come alive with abundance—golden grain just harvested, grapes freshly gathered from the vines, porcini mushrooms hiding beneath chestnut trees, and olive branches hanging heavy with fruit. It’s the perfect season to step into the ancient castle kitchen at Potentino for five unforgettable days (six nights) of baking, tasting, wandering, and learning.
Using the flavours of the surrounding landscape and Italy’s treasured antichi (heritage) grains, we’ll dive deep into the traditional breads and pastries that define the regions of Italy.
What You’ll Create & Experience
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Bake iconic regional breads—Pane Toscano, schiacciata, Pane Pugliese, tarallini, rondelle—using a traditional biga and heritage grains grown just a stone’s throw away.
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Grow your own Potentino wild sourdough, following a 2,000-year-old method that begins with grapes from the castle vineyards.
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Visit a working stone mill, where local heritage grains become the flour and pasta that nourish the region.
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Craft classic Italian biscotti—including cantuccini—and sweet pasticceria favourites.
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Learn the art of pasta, both hand-rolled and machine-made, right in the castle’s storied kitchen.
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Taste wines and olive oils from the estate and neighbouring producers.
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Make pecorino and ricotta with the castle cheesemaker, using milk from sheep grazing the hills around you.
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Forage wild herbs & pick olives, connecting directly with the land.
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Escape mid-week to natural hot springs for a swim, sightseeing, and unhurried relaxation.
Autumn at Potentino is pure magic—harvest baskets filled to the brim, long tables laden with seasonal ingredients, and crackling kitchen fires ready for bread and stories.
Join us for a week of hands-on baking, Italian culinary traditions, and the sheer joy of cooking with nature’s most glorious bounty.
Helen Underwood is an award-winning artisan baker, recipe developer and food writer who has specialised in sourdough for many years. She has been teaching at the White Cottage Baking School in Cambridgeshire, UK, for the past ten years where students from around the world come to attend her workshops. She has taught chefs, bakers and keen amateurs throughout the UK and Europe the sheer joy of breadmaking; bringing together the simplest and most fundamental of ingredients and turning them, with nothing but a pair of skilful hands, into something wondrous.
She believes in using locally grown grain and ingredients, where possible, and the importance of improvisation, making for a fluid and flexible approach to her baking. Her background as a scientist is always evident, giving her students greater confidence in their own understanding and abilities. Her mission, she says, is to remove the mystery from what can appear an arcane craft and make it a simple, everyday skill that can be enjoyed by all.
Day 1 (Sunday)
Guests arrive pm
Early evening Welcome drinks
Wine tasting with Charlotte
Day 2 (Monday)
Morning: Talk on Italian grains, flour and the importance and
tradition of bread within Italy.
Make schiacciata, Tuscan-style focaccia, to be baked for lunch later in week.
Make ricciarelli dough and refrigerate.
Afternoon: Visit grounds to pick grapes for grape must.
Make pane Toscano loaves to refrigerate and bake on
day 3.
Bake ricciarelli.
Make grape must, ready to make starter on day 3.
Day 3 (Tuesday)
Morning Feed grape must, to begin Potentino starter.
Bake pane Toscano from fridge to eat for lunch.
Make pane Pugliese and ‘pucce’, incorporating the semolina from grano duro.
Talk on ancient grains, their place in history, their resurgence today
and their advantages over their modern-day counterparts.
Lunch: featuring pane Toscano, salumi, roasted vegetables & Potentino olive oil.
Afternoon Visit to Hot Springs/waterfalls/explore grounds
Early evening Make tarallini for aperitivi
Day 4 (Wednesday) RECREATION DAY
Morning Bake pane Pugliese
Make pecorino and fresh ricotta with Francesca and Lorenzo from Caseificio Murceti.
Lunch: featuring pane Pugliese with Caseificio Murceti local cheeses
Afternoon Visit to Castel del Piano
Early pm Make Charlotte’s gnudi with fresh ricotta
Day 5 (Thursday)
Morning Talk on sourdough, ‘lievito madre’: its tradition
dating back to Roman times and beyond, its maintenance and its health benefits within the modern diet.
Make sourdough loaves, using our own starter, and flour from local grains.
Bake schiacciata (from fridge) for lunch.
Afternoon Bake mini rondelle all’uva, using our grapes and
Potentino grappa – a perfect accompaniment to our evening aperitivi!
Bake cantuccini con mandorle e finochio.
Day 6 (Friday)
Morning Bake our sourdough loaves that have proved for 24 hours.
Honey tasting/olive oil tasting or olive picking
Afternoon Pasta session.
Make and shape fresh pasta to enjoy for our final
supper together
Make castagnaccio with locally milled chestnut flour
Day 7 (Saturday)
Morning Breakfast
Departure
Please note: Whilst the retreat will
broadly follow the order outlined here, the programme may change in either detail or order during the week.
Please Note
If you would like to pay a deposit
The payment system asks for payment in full. If you would rather pay a non-refundable 25% deposit at the time of booking, please enter the code DEPOSIT25 at checkout. The final payment will be due one month before the start of the course.
If you have any issues booking
Sometimes, it takes a few attempts to clear the cart if you need to make any changes to your room selection etc.
If you have any issues at all, please contact Heather Percival
e: heather.percival@potentino.com
t: +447484660546
