Online Baking Classes For Free

Ever asked yourself what’s the recipe your local bakery uses to prepare those fragrant croissants? Ever wondered what’s the secret to making the perfect artisan bread at home? What if I told you you can learn most of these skills online, and without paying a course fee? In this article, you will find a list of great online baking classes for free.

Time to turn on the oven and get ready to bake like a pro.

Online Baking Academy

This website is owned by is a skilled baker with extensive experience in both Denmark and the UK. Throughout the years, he has tutored baking students from all over the world.

To have instant access to his baking classes, you simply need to create a free account on his website. After signing up and logging in, you’ll have access to the site’s main dashboard:

Your dashboard after creating a free account.

There you will find 11 different video classes (each one divided into different stages).

• Desired Dough Temperature – In this course, you will learn how to calculate the desired dough temperature for your doughs.
• How to Make a Sourdough Starter –  In this tutorial you will learn the first step to make your own bread at home.
• Basic White Sourdough Bread – An easy guide on how to prepare Sourdough bread from scratch.
• Potato and Rosemary Sourdough Bread – A great tutorial on how to prepare this amazing bread.
• Sourdough Crackers – A tutorial on how to prepare Sourdough crackers, also known as Swedish Crisp Bread
• Focaccia Extravaganza – This course will teach you how to prepare this delicious Italian type of bread.
• 100% Rye Bread – A class on how to make a 100% rye bread with grains and barley malt.
• Dinner Rolls – A step-by-step guide on how to prepare the most amazing dinner rolls.
• Danish Pastry – This class will teach you how to mix and hand laminate Danish pastry dough.
• Cinnamon Bums – Here you will learn how to make this Scandinavian classic.
• Croissants and Pain au Chocolat – This course is quite advanced but if you are patient enough, you will learn how to prepare these amazing French specialties.

In addition to the fundamental video lessons, each course also contains helpful written material like PDF documents summarizing the most important notions and excel sheets that will help you calculate each ingredient’s quantity.

In the website’s header, you will also find a section called “Skills and Knowledge”. Here you will find free additional learning resources on how to shape bread, how to get acquainted with baking equipment, and how to make your own scoring lane.

These video lessons are not only free but also very easy to follow. The teachers explain each technique and recipe by following a very simple step-by-step process, making these classes the perfect starting point for baking beginners.

Cakes and More! Baking For Beginners (YouTube Channel)

This YouTube channel offers over 130 free videos on baking essentials, techniques, and recipes. It’s been around since 2011 and has over 120,000 subscribers.

The best place to start is the playlist section. Here videos are organized in various categories, including basic courses for beginners.  Here are the channel’s major playlists:

• Basic Tips to Bake
• Basic Baking Terms
• Basic Bake Ware, Baking Tools, and Gadgets
• Basic Baking Ingredients
• Basic Techniques
• Baking Ingredients
• Recipes
• Cakes and Brownies
  
• Frequently Asked Questions

A screenshot from an introductory video.

You should start with these playlists if you are still a beginner in baking, but this channel offers many additional videos on things like eggless recipes, Christmas recipes, Fall recipes, cake icing, and recipes for kids.

The teacher is very communicative and patient. She explains the basic concepts and notions very clearly and ofter replies to users’ comments. Some videos also have subtitles to help you learn baking vocabulary faster.

Instructables – Science of Baking Class

A very essential class on baking fundamentals. You can enroll at any time by creating a free Instructable account.

This class has helped over 17,000 learners so far is divided into 10 major lessons:

• Lesson 1: Welcome to the Science of Baking – An overview of what the class will cover
• Lesson 2: Tools and Ingredients – A list of of all the primary ingredients and baking tools, explaining their function and how they will be used in the following lessons
• Lesson 3: Fats – The different types of fats and how they are used in baking
• Lesson 4: Sugars – A description of the various types of sugars and their role in baking
• Lesson 5: Eggs – All the basic information you need to know about this essential baking ingredient
• Lesson 6: Flours – The various types of flowers and a guide on how to sift and measure flour
• Lesson 7: Leavening Agents – What are they and how bakers use them
• Lesson 8: How to Read a Recipe – Some basic advice on how to read a recipe properly
• Lesson 9: How Baking Works – Fundamental aspects of the baking process
• Lesson 10: Class Project – Putting what you learned into practice. 

Some free cooking classes available on Skillshare

These lessons are all in written format (no videos) and they use images to help you better understand basic concepts and techniques.

You can also download the entire class or individual lessons in PDF format. This allows you to read lessons when you have no internet connection.

This class is a great starting point for those who have zero knowledge and experience in baking. It will help you get acquainted with the basic ingredients and tools used in baking and understand the basic processes and techniques any future baker needs to know.

Skillshare – Free Baking Classes

Skillshare is an online learning platform with several video classes in various subjects, including baking.

These classes are taught by experienced online teachers. Unlike YouTube,  where everybody can start a channel, Skillshare teachers must be approved by the platform before they can upload their lessons.

Some examples of free baking classes available on Skillshare are:

• A Beginner’s Guide to Baking Butter Cakes
• The Science of Easy Vegan Baking
• Simple Sugar Cookies W/ Royal Icing!
• How to bake a Sponge Cake
• Learn to Bake Delicious Chocolate Strawberry Cupcakes
• Easy Homemade Focaccia Bread With Option To Make Focaccia Pizza

Some free baking video classes cooking on Skillshare

These lessons can be from 10 to 50 minutes long and are divided into several subsections to help you learn the process step after step. They also have a discussion board in which you can ask the teacher questions:

You will also find additional teachings, recipes, and equipment lists in PDF format. Just visit the “Projects and Resources” section below each video.

While it’s true that only a limited number of video classes are available for free on Skillshare, this website offers a free 14-day trial period. For two weeks you’ll have access to more 250,000 video classes in all categories (30,000 of which are entirely dedicated to cooking).

You can decide at the end of the free trial if you want to upgrade. Meanwhile, you’ll have learned a lot of new baking skills, techniques, and recipes.

Joy of Baking (YouTube Channel) 

This award-winning YouTube channel was created back in 2011, and it has since become one of the most followed channels by baking learners. It is updated every week with video demonstrations of selected recipes from its twin website (joyofbaking.com).

Unlike the previous channel we have reviewed, “Joy of Baking” is not organized into a series of playlists targeting the basic aspects of baking. It is rather an outstanding collection of detailed baking recipes. Each video shows you each recipe from start to finish and gives you all the information you need on techniques, ingredients, and equipment.

Here are some categories you will find in the playlists section:

• Bread Recipes
• Shortbread Recipes
• Cake Recipes 
• Cookie Recipes 
• Biscotti Recipes
• Candy Recipes
• Muffin Recipes
• Pudding Recipes

A screenshot from Joy of Baking’s most-watched video.

Some other playlists are entirely dedicated to recipes for special occasions, like Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas, or Valentine’s day.

Some of the channel’s most-watched videos are the vanilla cake recipe, the pancakes recipe, the red velvet cake recipe, and the pound cake recipe.

The channel’s host is a very talented baker with years of experience in teaching online learners how to bake. Her channel was also a winner of the 2015 Taste Awards.

Bigger Bolder Baking (YouTube Channel)

Another great YouTube channel for those interested in learning how to bake by discovering new recipes.

This channel was founded in 2013 by a professionally-trained chef from Ireland who has worked in kitchens around the world, developing her own style called “bold baking”.

It is one of the most followed baking channels on YouTube, it offers over 400 free videos and it’s updated every week with new content.

A screenshot from a video on Bigger Bolder Baking.

On this channel, you will find several videos that can be of substantial help to baking beginners. Some of these are:

• 5-Ingredient Artisanal Bread Recipes for Beginners
• The World’s Simplest Sourdough Bread Recipe
• 3-Ingredient Flatbread Recipe
• The 7 Most Common Breadmaking Mistakes You Are Probably Making
• The Easiest Homemade Ladyfingers Recipe
• How to Make Pie Crust 

These are just a few of the beginner videos available on this channel. Do a YouTube search for   “Gemma’s Bold Baking Basics” and you will discover many more of them.

Gemma’s teaching style is very effective and easy to understand and most of her videos also have edited subtitles.

Final Words

Like any other skill, it takes time and a lot of trials and errors to master baking.

Both theory and practice are important. You should not concentrate on one and sacrifice the other.  Some of the classes we reviewed focus more on baking essentials, tools, and techniques while others concentrate more on recipes and the practical aspects of baking.

That’s why you should not be afraid of adopting a mixed approach. You can choose one class to learn about baking essential and another one to try out various recipes.

It won’t be long before you can impress your friends, and yourself, by preparing amazing home-made focaccia or by taking the most amazing cookies out of the oven.

If you have any questions on these baking classes and guides or if you want to share your experience and suggestions about learning how to bake, feel free to leave a comment below. And don’t forget to check the other reviews in the cooking category!