Complet

Saturday night: anglers on the jettee fishing, people watching the anglers fishing and us watching the people watching the anglers from the safety of the belvedere at the end of the terrace. All is calm and languid. The sea is slopping around in an orderly and atmospheric fashion. Fortunately, down the road at Biganos, M. […]

Knot Again!

There’s an olive stall on the market. Not cheap – but then neither am I – and it does the most wicked Greek cured olives: The other half of the dough got knotted:

Next Up

So I went to the epicerie bio and bought some proper flour: Made a dough with 50% of each. Still interested in the idea of a plait being a good solution when there isn’t anything much to support the dough. So I did a turban (if you can call that a plait). Have to say […]

Le Fin du Pain?

Disappearing boulangeries: This was the boss bakery in Arcachon, the one where all your “respectable” residents bought their bread. Been there for years. The big brick chimney for the long-gone wood burning oven can still be seen from the rear. This one had been here as long as I can remember. This one only about […]

Pain de Me (& Him)

Here I am, baker-in -residence, La Chapelle, Arcachon. Not a bad little gaff, of which more later. You will remember that about ten years ago Adam, for journalistic purposes, christened me “the sourdough genius”. These days it causes some people to surreptitiously snigger up their sleeves. Well, let me tell you, I knew some of […]

Heroes

With the obvious exception of Ramblin’ Jack Elliott I gave up having heroes a long time ago. When it comes to bread baking anyone serious should be working consciously or instinctively towards developing their own style so inspiration is one thing, heroes quite another. Here’s my inspiration: One Sunday morning in 1999 or 2000 I […]

Bethesdabakin’ @Twickenham 2016

After ten annual events, how do you describe a baking weekend? Every combination of bakers interacting with dough has been photographed a hundred times so that background items are needed to identify the year and location. This year we were in Twickenham which, compared with previous rural venues is kinda weird. Getting a bus followed […]

Beetbrot

Sunrise: This started off as a joke, making a bread of beetroot, buttermilk and cheese – beetroot is a bit of a cliche. But it came out really well. Not only that, it came out about the most beautiful loaf I ever made. The colours were so amazing I nearly phoned a friend who is […]

Sausages

Or “What’s in a Loaf II” – haven’t finished “What’s in a Loaf I” yet. No it’s not Merguez sausage. It’s the dreaded beetroot. Why, I hear you ask? Well, one, because I was surprised to see that people still seem to think it’s meaningful to have red bred (Bodnant Welsh Food still trot it […]

Bread for my Mom

The other week this was Med Bread (see previous post). But tomorrow we are going down to Brum to see my Mom and her current favourite bread is a soft spongy, seeded thing from Aldi. So, out come the red onions and in goes a five seed soaker. I could slice it and put it […]