The Perks of the Job

Sometimes you get feedback that really makes the effort worthwhile. A guy called Mark contacted me from an airbase in Turkey asking about the books, in particular the pdf’s. It took about four exchanges of emails and each time it took a couple of weeks. I started to think he was taking the piss (I […]

Bijoux Bake Illustrated

A few photos from our weekend in Caernarfon. It was a weekend of experimentation, six bakers trying things out and, more often than not, saying it wasn’t quite right. And the first shall be last: Stig did a rescue job on a couple of barms, one beer, one from the dregs of Jay’s most excellent […]

Bijoux Bake

Who’s the only person who would invent a raspberry dough containing a chocolate egg – and be sure the formula would actually work? Yes, Joe Firebeard is in attendance here at the first ever bethesdabakinbijoux in Caernarfon. It’s Sunday morning and the troups are looking a little battle-weary, to be perfectly honest, and it’s not […]

Bethesdabakinbijoux

Heard the one about the barrister, the charity CEO and the tree surgeon? Since Albert Smith let slip he had done a course with me on the Food Programme we’ve had hundreds of new readers hitting the blog. Some of you won’t be familiar with Bethesdabakin’ the annual baking weekend we started in 2007. This […]

Microbakery – BBC Food Programme (2)

So what do I think having listened to it carefully twice? A whole 28 minutes of the esteemed BBC Food Programme devoted to microbakery! When I started Bethesdabakers in 2007, the word microbakery wasn’t even in current use; I started to call it that on D. Lepard’s forum a few months later and wondered if […]

Microbakery – BBC Food Programme (1)

Do a two day Microbakery Course with me and become a radio star!! At the end of 2001 Albert Smith was a virtually unknown baker wanting to start a small business and naturally came to me to learn how to set up and run a Microbakery. Today, just over two years later, he was featured […]

Pizza (dough) Again

So I tried the same method with a much wetter pizza dough that had been in the fridge 3 or 4 days. It works!

Pide Again

This week Gert is doing Turkish therefore it has to be Pide. The brilliant thing about baking for Gert is he not only gets you devising new breads, he has you revisiting old favourites. That’s when you find out, like last week with the Cistercian, that your notes aren’t as comprehensive as you thought they […]

Me & Jeffrey Hamelman

Bet you never realised that Jeffrey Hamelman and I are really close. It’s a long story but I just rejoined the Bread Bakers Guild of America after a lot of years, paid my $110, checked out my membership details, and who’s there next to me alphabetically? Maestro Hamelman! That might take a bit of living […]

Cistercianed!

Well, it was going to be a poor week anyway – just baking four loaves for Gert who is doing a Welsh booze menu this week. But it’s so long since I did Cistercian I forgot the method. Basically it’s stuffed full of grain soaked in beer. This time I used pot barley which truly […]