Not sure I really want to get involved in this. Halloween is an American thing that has been imported into the UK to provide yet another of the commercial Feast Days our economy has come to depend on now that we don’t produce things anymore – except for acres of black plastic tat and pumpkins […]

Grrrr… Brrrrd will bite your bum! Oat & Honey – Black Olive & Caramelised Onion Focaccia Never mind the Rofco – Bake your bread!

I “inherited” a pile of Brefu Bach from Carrie Rimes maker of superb ewes cheese – Cosyn Cymru. She had some that were turning blue so she suggested I used them in breads for the local bank holiday food fair. I made cheese and grape foccaccia and packaged them in quarters, £1.00 a time. What’s […]

Yes, you do recognise the face lurking behind the focaccia. It’s Rick, in Bethesda, last Friday. The 14th annual Bethesdabakin’ weekend should have taken place at Rick & Maggie’s 17th of last month. But, of course, Covid … Sue and I have been self-isolating, Rick and Maggie have been self-isolating, we absolutely trust each other […]

Some of yesterday’s bread. Straight 100% Wholemeal Wheat (if you exclude the white starter). Don’t think you can beat basic breads. Oat & Honey. One of the stars of the repertoire. Focaccia Yr Ardd Fadarch (The Mushroom Garden). The star of the show – I honestly think this is my best bread ever. Cynan’s fabulous […]

A photo record of today’s bake which of course takes more than one day to achieve. The focaccia dough has already been in the fridge for two days. This seemingly innocent picture is perhaps the most important of all. It’s called prepping. Yesterday the butternut squash was gently roast with olive oil and a scattering […]

Suddenly, at this late stage in my baking career, I find myself in need of extra 500g proving baskets. You think flour is hard to get hold of in the midst of the pandemic? You want to try proving baskets. After the best part of a day chasing round the net trying to find baskets […]

This is mainly aimed at users of the Sourdough UK Facebook group many of whom are new-comers to sourdough and are clearly confused by conflicting advice. This is a Pain de Campagne (white sourdough) I baked yesterday. It is the simplest but most perfect of breads. The method: I fed my starter the night before. […]

Deep pan pizza or focaccia? Don’t really care. It’s fun to play around with. You can even eat it. I tend to knock up 1600g of 80% hydration dough and put it in the fridge for at least a couple of days. Then I have pizza dough available when I want it and the rest […]

I used to bake for our good friend, Gert, who very unfairly died last year back in the Netherlands (full story here). One reason he was fun to work with was every week his menus changed countries and even continents and the bread was supposed to reflect that week’s culture. Amongst his papers he found […]