Cornelia Popa – teacher, “Terezianum” Technological Food Industry High School Sibiu
Cornelia Popa is from Feleac, county of Bistrița-Năsăud, a place where people still bake homemade sourdough bread in earth ovens. Ever since she was a child, she has always been fascinated by bread, how the dough was made and processed, as she used to help her mother make sourdough bread.
Her passion for bread drove her to study ‘Breadmaking Technology’ at the School of Food Technology in Sibiu. And since 1998, she has been teaching at “Terezianum” Technological Food Industry High School Sibiu, where she shares with pupils theoretical and practical information about bread, bread types, ways to make and bake bread, both in a lab, and in the school’s breadmaking workshop.
In the school’s breadmaking workshop, she prepares all kinds of bread: Graham bread, wholemeal rye bread, white bread, etc. Mrs. Cornelia Popa emphasized the preparation of the very healthy Graham bread, based on a recipe ‘inspired by the American Sylvester Graham, who made history with his attempt to teach Americans to have a healthy diet; he invented Graham flour, a wholewheat coarse-ground flour used to make bread’.
To make it, ‘we use the indirect doughmaking recipe, i.e. prepare a starter using a small amount of flour, called leaven (10% of the total amount), allow it to ferment for at least six hours, then add 40% of the total amount of flour and leave it to ferment for another three hours, add the rest of the flour to this mix (50% of the total amount), water, salt, a small amount of flour type 650, knead the dough and then let it ferment for 30‑40 minutes. The fermented dough is then divided, weighed, placed into trays, left to rise for a last time for 30‑35 minutes, then baked in a electric deck oven for 30‑40 minutes. Normally, you can bake 40 breads in a lot’.
She also gives special attention to rye bread, which she makes both at home, and at school. Rye bread is renowned for its properties, and she thinks that: ‘As far as rye bread consumption in Romania goes, it should be promoted and consumers should be educated to choose this type’.
At the breadmaking workshop, she works alongside foreman Ioan Vinerean, who deals with the practical aspects of breadmaking, as he has more than 40 years of experience in the field, having shared his practical experience and inculcated his passion for bread and bakery products.
She prefers to eat her bread with homemade butter and vegetables.