Happy Birthday to moi, Happy Birthday to moi …

Official 65th Birthday photo by Sue Wilson. Original Casey Jones hat by Jeremy Shapiro. 65 embroidered badge ripped from birthday card from my sister Anne & partner Andrew “Mick” bread by Marcus Row (what a Star!).

Mothers Pride

I think you should all check out this article I reckon Anthony Gormley should be made one of Real Bread Campaign’s Bread Ambassadors forthwith.

Pizza (2)

Second attempt. Same dough as Pizza (1) but after a few hours fermentation, scaled at 150g, shaped into balls, placed in oiled box and into the fridge overnight. After a pretty neat seafood risotto made two pizzas – toppings from Cheese Board again: Aubergine & Red Pepper; Corn, Onion & Courgette with Coriander & Lime […]

Greggzed

Bangor City Council have come up with a novel way of filling empty shop units on the High Street: Some councils have turned empty shops into art galleries. Since just before Christmas we have had bread-substitute (BS) vendors Greggs. It’s only taken me four years decent bread supply to achieve this. That’s probably about as […]

Yeasted “Sourdough”

You all know my views on adding commercial yeast to sourdough. Add yeast and its not sourdough any more. When I was teaching people for an employment project some years backI experimented with hybrids and they most definitely inferior to naturally leavened loaves. When you try to find out the reasons bakers add yeast they […]

Pizza (1)

So, to start a new life. In less than two weeks I officially become an Old Age Pensioner and the microbakery becomes history. Big party to plan. Once that’s out of the way, finish my second book and run more bread courses. Just when I think I can unpack my deckchair I get a call […]

January

Hello Chums Sorry about the lack of blog input. I’ve been self-employed for the past 27 years but still, every January, I am paralysed by the idea of income tax returns. Anything to do with finance scares me. So I piss about for weeks shuffling receipts. Plus I’ve been planning a gourmet sourdough weekend baking […]

Weight a bit!

First, Happy New Year to everyone. I hope you all thrive in the coming months (without recourse to commercial yeast). You know me: tend to go my own way and ignore advice to spray ovens, use a baking stone, bake in pots, do the window pane test, etc., etc. Never worried too much about recipe […]

Waitrose Essentials

Or what you might call Magi-mix. Got about thirty to mix tomorrow. Then there’s all those biscotti to make: And then there’s the regular bake on Thursday Never mind. Soon be Christmas.

Baby Jesus Time

Couple of years ago, Klimentini, one of our most enthusiastic customers, gave us her family recipe for Christmas bread. Her brother used to send her one from Greece but last time it arrived weeks late in small pieces because Homeland Security, or whatever we call it, thought the astonishingly strong spices were there to disguise […]