Bye Bye Oven

The baker’s decline. A few week’s back it was the mixer moving off to a new life in Sarah Thornber’s bakery in the West Midlands. But this is the big one – the oven. The much maligned Turbofan (you can’t bake sourdough in a convection oven) has relentlessly churned out thousands and thousands of loaves […]

Bara Planc – Crumb Shot

Bara Planc 2006/2011/2021

Someone called Ben in Llanberis emailed me asking if I had any tips for making sourdough Bara Planc (sounded like he was doing all right without my help already). Bara Planc is a traditional Welsh yeasted griddle bread, “planc” meaning bakestone in some parts of the country. Just to confuse you further, a bakestone is […]

Bread Matters

Back in 2000 I did a weekend Bread Matters course with Andrew Whitley at the Village Bakery in Melmerby, Cumbria. Funny things courses. You often don’t get what you wanted but you get something you hadn’t thought about. What I got was the opportunity to compare where I was at with the other people baking […]

Tecs-Mex II

Rosca de Camarones en Escabeche – Prawns & Rice Ring with Red Chile Sauce. Not bad for a Tuesday lunch. Great thing about this is you can serve it hot with Salsa Adobada (dried chile sauce) or cold with a Salsa Tipica (fresh tomato sauce). Handy to have a choice in a British summer.

Tecs-Mex

Been getting back into making tortillas – wheat ones that is. Sometimes it seems like a real drag but, like bread, shop-bought tortillas are disgusting. So get your sleeves rolled up and stop whinging! This is how I did it this time. It was warm and the butter was very soft. I’m not a pastry […]

Walnut

Strange experience the period after you tell yourself you’ve retired. The baptism of fire when you start baking for sale and the intensity of the work completely changes your approach to bread. Retiring doesn’t reverse the process but after a few weeks thoughts and memories from the previous era start to plop to the surface. […]

Drinkies VIII – Sangria

Gor Blimey, Wot a Scorcher! How to while away the hours in this heat? Prepare your crab backs and prawn tacos whilst sipping a refreshing sangria. This is a simple, refreshing drink not a brandy-laden Balearic party-stoker; just red wine and lemonade. It’s been in the repertoire more than 35 years but only comes out […]

Incider Dealing #37 (with a happy ending)

You see dem? They look identical don’t they? Well that’s the problem, they are identical.Readers will be aware of the problems us cider drinkers have been facing getting the best deal in a world of fluctuating prices. My preferred option was to wait until Westons reduced the price of 20 litres of Old Rosie by […]

Bye bye Mixer; Hello Oven

Topsy-turvy time round here at the moment. Recently decided to retire. Sold my mixer to Sarah Thornber at Corner Cottage Bakery where it joined her two bigger mixers and was given the name Bertha. Two days later it packed up. I’d been completely honest with Sarah about the fact it was 13 years old, although […]