Arcachon 15 007

Sorry Ben but the rest of the brioche dough came out of the fridge this morning and became two burger buns and a brioche aux jambon so I’m going to have to knock up another dough for the pizza. This is what I love about France – a simple plate of totally refreshing crudites as […]

Arcachon 15 006

This is Ben’s fault for mentioning brioche. Put the local fresh figs to good use in a Brioche aux Figues et Chevre. What can you say other than yum? Just the brioche burger buns to come plus a try-out as a pizza base.

Arcachon 15 005

The remaining dough from the Fig & Serrano batch after having been in the fridge for a further 24 hours. I’m doing this to wind up my friend Rick. On his website Mairs Bakehouse he says this: “We never use refrigeration to elongate our bread making process. This method we feel only increases the ‘sour’ […]

Arcachon 15 004

We don’t seem to treat holidays like other people. For a start off we don’t regard them as holidays: they are periods of time when you live somewhere else, get all the crap out of your head and try to regain your sanity – and possibly a little creative energy. For us France is a […]

Arcachon 15 003

Second bread – same dough:That’s a bit miraculous. After I removed enough dough for the pizzas the remainder went back in the fridge for another 24 hours. Late yesterday afternoon it came out of the fridge had a rough-and-ready shape and was in the oven ten minutes later. It actually rose: And, for your in […]

Arcachon 15 002

And the first bread out of the oven is …….. pizza!! Ran up some 80% hydration dough using T65 flour and wacked it in the fridge for a couple of days. Another year, another oven – a second nasty little microwave/convection oven. So, trying to improve on last year’s efforts I did the bases in […]

Arcachon 15 001

Here we are back in our French hideaway for four weeks trying to regain a bit of sanity and R&R. Arrived late Saturday afternoon in time to buy a bit of pasta to get through to Sunday which is … Market Day!! Well Arcachon has a market every day except Monday but M. Brion only […]

Grunkern-Karrottenbrot

Some of you will remember Nils Schoener and his curiously named ye olde bread blog which sadly hasn’t been updated for about four years. He very generously used to post his bread recipes there and I used to steal them and to learn about rye from him. But, as a minor piece of compensation, I […]

Me and Lady C

Stig, long time baker from the start of Bethesdabakin’, was in touch to say that her daughter, Eve, had a part in the BBC’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover broadcast last Sunday. Eve seems to be on the way to being a successful actor – she is also in Ibsen’s Little Eyolf at London’s Almeida Theatre from […]

Breaking the Rules

Look at this then: Pain de Campagne you say. Seen it before. So what … This weekend was my Mom’s 94th birthday so Sue and I went to celebrate with her. Saturday morning refreshed my starter and put it in the fridge – normally it lives on the countertop. Had two days trying to keep […]