Introducing … the Bakerlaureate

As you might have seen, the Real Bread Campagne, in an attempt to bring (shock, horror) RESPECTABILITY to the world of modern baking, is working with the School of Artisan Food (the very name makes me feel queasy) to develop new qualifications for Real Bakers. This may or may not be useful for some people […]

Congratulations and Jubilations

I have often wondered what is this support offered by the Real Bread Campagne to bakers. Now with their latest email comes the answer, “I wanted to give a nod to all of the pro bakers amongst you who’ve been wrestling to keep dough under control in the recent heatwave. We salute you!“. It’s obviously […]

Scraps

So by the time I got very bored with Gert’s 60g pizza bases (73) and made 2 x 200g pizzas for lunch, on Saturday morning I still had about 2.8K of dough left in the fridge where it had been since Wednesday evening. The solution: It’s quite a big boy: Had to phone round a […]

The Hollow Crown

It’s always difficult to devise a commemorative bread for a negative occasion. I mean it’s easy to make a Thanksgiving bread or to celebrate Wales winning the Grand Slam but, Thatcher’s death? So this week with our sycophantic press wetting themselves over the birth of another royal sponger I present my world champion giant couronne: […]

It’s a Garage …

It’s a bakery … Do I get some good gigs? So we’re sitting in Bristol Airport on our way to France for five weeks in the usual in( )termina(b)l(e) wait for the flight and I’m trying to get the hang of my new Blackberry tablet when in zooms an email from someone called Vickie who […]

Anyone Want a Bakery?

My bête noire has raised its ugly head again. You will inevitably have heard me moan on about how several years ago I took an idea to the local probation service about establishing a bakery that would act as a project for getting ex-offenders into work. They said we should involve an established voluntary organisation […]

Bread Course

Yeah, I know I’ve been a bit quiet but there’s a lot going on and I might be coming back to life and you’ll wish I’d shut up again. Anyway, anyone up for a two-day sourdough course in Bethesda, Monday/Tuesday 29/30 July? Just two places up for grabs. 01248 600387

Cymraeg

At last, at great personal expense, Bethesdabasics has been translated into Welsh and is available as a pdf for a mere £10: If there’s enough interest in this unique publication I’ll order a print-run.

Pizza – even more

Same dough (you have been following this series, haven’t you?) which had been in the fridge two days – even gave it a few folds just to demonstrate my knowledge of techniques.Made a basic tomato sauce. Fried an onion, a little celery, some mushrooms, diced left-over cooked lamb, jalapenos. Added some creme fraiche and cooked […]

Snaps III

Madames, Messieurs – Voila! Starter in fridge five and a half weeks, refreshed Monday, returned from my hospital bed to refresh a second time Tuesday, hand mixed dough Wednesday, three short kneads, no folds, four hours fermentation, shaped, three and a half hours prove, baked 65 minutes at 210C – a pretty perfect 2 Kilo […]