Gert Vos

This is my birthday present from our friend Gert. Note the orange tamarillos and the glaze of the little pot. The significance is that oren means orange in Dutch and Welsh, and Oren is the name that Gert gave to his restaurant in Caernarfon. Gert is a very singular Dutch chef. I first came across […]

Monkey Bread

Like I said, go out and buy The Hot Bread Kitchen Cookbook: Monkey Bread – must practice my braiding. Plus Conchas. Challah buns with chocolate hats. Who needs Hot Cross Buns?

Hand Mixing

May the sun always shine through your papaya. Anyway, couple of Tuesdays ago I get a phone call from Rick – http://www.mairsbakehouse.co.uk/. Do I think he can hand mix 100 large loaves? 60? Rick & Maggie’s Bakehouse is getting on for a mile down a seriously rutted track from the road. A lot of people […]

Easter 2016

Brioche Provencale and Brioche aux Chocolat: Six hours fermentation at room temperature + two refrigerated; overnight prove in the fridge + one at room temperature. Ten minutes at 210C + forty at 180C. And all we get is the little Provencale (preserved fruits) …

Evolution

I set out to convert a yeasted recipe from my last student Jeff to sourdough. But the thing has taken on a life of its own and is evolving into a different bread. Here’s the latest version so you have something to be going on with:

& the rye

… the rye looks quite healthy tooo

Are You Sitting Down?

I just ordered a book by Paul Hollywood. It’s only costing me £1.90 (and my reputation) but I thought you might be a bit surprised. In my defence let me say that I’m only doing it in the interests of research. Last weekend I ran an Intro to Sourdough course for a guy called Jeff. […]

Real Bread

This is my idea of bread: Two kilos, 40+ hours fermentation/prove, 87% hydration, 100% wholemeal. The rest is confetti. Next I’m going to sprout me some grain. (Logs courtesy of Jay & Gill)

5 O’Clock Lunch

Weak excuses for a drink: Beautiful if freezing sunny day yesterday. Our good neighbour Steffi toiling away in her garden. Do you fancy a Mojito about 1.00p.m.? We’ve got too much mint. So I’m prepping lunch for about 2.00p.m. We gather at 1.00p.m. as arranged and sip a leisurely 2oz cocktail. Anyone fancy another? I […]

Lavash

This is sort of a response to the diabetes thing – how to cut down on the volume of bread without cutting down on bread. Gives me an excuse to look again at flatbreads and crackers: When I’ve needed lavash previously I’ve just toasted split pita breads – never seen them custom made before. But […]