Last of my entries: “Marcus Row’s Dark Wheat Beer & Red Onion Bread nestling in the Spring primroses. Slowly fried red onions finished in simmering wheat beer cooled and incorporated into an overnight leaven sponge. Using dark beer deepens the flavours. This is the bread formula I most wish I’d developed myself.”  

Other people can do what they like but personally I wonder about the current trend towards highly decorated breads. What could be more effective than these simple slashes on this week’s Medbred – an olive oil bread with red onion and herbs?

Torth Caradog!  A 2K loaf containing a whole bottle of Caradog, the bottled beer of Bethesda’s new brewery Cwrw Ogwen. Bursting with whole grain.

Mom 96 yesterday eager for the cab to take her to lunch. Had to quieten her down with a small prosecco …

Off to Brum tomorrow with a Brioche Provencal under my arm and a frozen fish pie in my bag. Mom’s 96th birthday on Thursday.

Seem to be busy with courses just now. Here’s Elaine from Ruthin appropriately with a Big G Cherry Tomato Focaccia – appropriately because I got this from Gareth Roberts aka the Corwen Kid and Ruthin is pretty close to Corwen. Really enjoyable course – Elaine was a Gold Star Student, learned quickly and was very […]

“First they overran the School of Psychology, Bangor University, North Wales and then moved inland in search of good bread. American academics infiltrated my customer list. And over the best part of ten years they have been such good customers I repaid them by developing a Thanksgiving Bread. A deep mixture of strong white, wholemeal […]

Run out of bottles

“Customers bring life to baking. Every winter Klimentini’s brother sent her loaves of the family’s Christmas bread from Greece. For the past two years it had arrived late and broken up as if the Customs suspected the strong spices of masking something more sinister. Could I recreate it for her? The hand-written recipe started off […]

Even bakers need holidays. The crazy ones pack their starter. Brioche au Fromage de Brebis aux Figues (brioche with ewes cheese and figs) above the Bassin d’Arcachon, South West France.