Torth Nadolig

Don’t worry, Christmas will soon be out of the way.  But, this week is festive bread week and the customers will be getting a choice of three: Torth Nadolig, Christopsomo and a brioche with crystalised fruits. Torth Nadolig is a very, very traditional Welsh Christmas bread that I invented last year – wheat, oats, rye, […]

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Quark Stollen 2

Here’s a sourdough version. (Final Dough is bakers percentage; Starter & Soaker are straight percentages of the totals in the Final Dough) Final Dough Strong White Flour 100% Starter 118.5% Butter 45% Salt 0.7% Sugar 4.5% Soaker 82.4% Starter Starter 27% Milk 27% Quark 19% Strong White Flour 27% Soaker Currents 15.4% Raisins 21% Candied […]

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Quark Stollen 1

My chum, Marcus, asked for a recipe for Quark Stollen so I thought, why not enter into the Christmas spirit and put it on the blog so anyone can have a go. I think this first recipe was put on the Australian Sourdough site by someone called Carla several years ago. It’s a nice, straightforward […]

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Scraps #146

You remember last week’s excess of Thanksgiving bread? Well, after Hilspils came round and traded preserves for bread (she’s not the local  drugs dealer, she’s a pharmacist) there were still more loaves left, so … I just invented the Cranberry and Pecan Biscotti. And … how about the Tomato and Cheese Twist … made from […]

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Dutch Cheese Bread

“What’s on the menu next week?” I yell at Gert as he drives past. “Dutch” he calls back through the car window. “What bread?” “Cheese” “OK” We have an easy relationship – he knows the sort of thing he wants but trusts me to get it right. It usually works. Some time back he gave […]

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Human Error

Winter’s here and I just had a nasty attack of human error.  It’s festive bread time: this week was Thanksgiving Bread for all my American psychologists and, before you know it, it’ll be Christmas all the way. If you’re not baking it you’re planning and buying in stock. Anyway, Thanksgiving Bread – all those expensive […]

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Burgers

I know we’ve been here before but, last week I made near perfect burgers. I reckon that a lot more skill goes into fast foods like fish & chips, pizzas and hamburgers than turning out something long-in-the-cooking like coq au vin. With burgers all the individual elements, the bun, the patty, the garnishes (not to […]

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