Dutch Banana Bread

Gert, one of my commercial customers, translated a bunch of Dutch sourdough recipes for me some time back which was very kind of him but now, of course, it’s payback time. I’ve already been called on to make him sauerkraut bread; this time it was banana. The politest way of describing the style of the […]

A Kitchen Drawer

There is something about Bethesda Rugby Club that is just beyond description. You could say it was tatty, even scruffy but that tells you nothing. It’s a huge rectangular single storey building that you feel is standing up better in some places than others – part of the ceiling over the pool table collapsed recently […]

Dead Thatcher Bread

It’s a problem ain’t it. It’s easy enough to create a bread for a special occasion: St David’s Day, St Patrick, The first Barack Obama Inauguration, Wales Grand Slam last year. But what do you do when someone like Thatcher dies? Never mind the fact that no one’s going to buy Dead Thatcher Bread, or […]

Potato, Rosemary & Black Onion Seed

Potato, Rosemary and Black Onion Seed has been in the repertoire for at least five years. I’ve tracked it back to Dan Lepard’s “Baking With Passion”. He says that, while the recipe came from Erez Komarovshy who has a bakery in Tel Aviv, the bread is identifiably that of Baker and Spice for whom Dan […]

Summer?

Waddya mean what is it? It’s Pain Nicoise of course. Gert and I are trying to bring a bit summer to our customers in this freezing March. He’s doing a Mediterranean menu so it has to be Pain Nicoise to go with the bouillabaisse. Olives, sundried tomatoes, figs, onions, garlic, herbs, olive oil. I’d buy […]

Spring?

The view from the bakery webcam this morning: Shivering with snow low down on the mountain but that little shimmery yellow/green of the trees says Spring will come. See the slate waste tip 1st left on the photo? That’s the bottom base for Zipworld what they claim is the longest zip wire “in the Northern […]

Sunday 17 March

So, what day is it on Sunday? Where are we going tomorrow? OK, tomorrow we are off to Paddy’s Land for the day, Dun Laoghaire to be exact, to have lunch with our good friend (and illustrator of Bethesdabasics) Wendy. And the loaves on the left are Bethesdabakers’ latest traditional creation, St Patrick’s Treacle Bread. […]

A Little Experiment

“Keep you overheads low and your values high”. Yes, I had a bath again this morning, and, while soaking in the hot water, these words of wisdom came to me. Must do it more often. But high values don’t necessarily mean complicated methods and for my own survival as a microbaker I have tried to […]

Finnish Pulla

So Gert says, can you do me something Scandiwegian next week? Well actually he said Nordic but we’re not purists here. Gert, who is not lacking in imagination, is doing a Nordic St David’s Day menu. Oh no, I say, not Swedish Spiced Laputabrot again. It might be immensely popular but I have never understood […]

A Shock for Mom

“Mick Hartley is a warm and entrepreneurial man from South Wales.” This is going to come as a bit of a surprise particularly to my Mom back in our home city of Birmingham but also to friends who think of me as being a spiky chancer currently living in North Wales. Few weeks back a […]