Cheesey

You don’t need to taste this one, Marcus – just sniff the photo: Gert wanted Cheese Bread to go with a Swiss menu so I did a version of Ben’s. Isle of Man cheddar is not exactly authentic but I did spread the grated cheese on the dough and roll it up like a […]

Still on the Shelf

I thought I might as well cut it:

On the Shelf

When the Bethesda quarrymen built this little house in the 1840s they very conveniently included a shelf in the slate porch around the front door for taking bread shots even though the camera was only just about being born at that time and bakers’ yeast hadn’t been developed. It is most convenient on baking days […]

Paris, France

Just back from a few days in Paris. North Wales would have been proud of the rainfall there last weekend. Interesting question. We all (well I certainly did) grew up in awe of the great French boulangers. I can remember my little heart thumping the first time I walked up the rue du Cherche Midi […]

River Festival

It’s a bit of a knackering and nerve-wracking time for an old chap like myself. The book arrived back from the printers on Thursday and it looks great – but that doesn’t stop it being scary. Plus this weekend was the Gwyl Afon Ogwen River Festival organised by Pam and Jeremy, official artists in residence […]

Wholemeal & Honey

That Marcus, he’s not a bad lad, but he can’t break his yeast habit After he baked his Wheat Beer & Red Onion for customers when he did a course with me I appropriated it straight into the repertoire. And as he had seemed pretty pleased with his wholemeal & honey recipe I thought that […]

A Present from Legs

You remember Legs Lazarus, Bethesdabakers own Homeland Security: Well, Legs has been doing her job protecting the borders and this morning presented us with this: A baby rat. Not sure why this made me think of Marcus but here is yesterday’s Wheat Beer (although it was actually proper Czech Budweiser) and Red Onion bread: Two […]

The Biking Baker

Hey, guess who came to do a microbakery course last week? It was Ben the Biker! Which raises an interesting philosophical question. How do you run a course for someone who’s a better baker than you are? Well, he wanted to know how to set up and run a microbakery not how to make bread. […]

Microbakin’!!!

If you think I’ve been a bit quiet for a while it’s because I took a couple of weeks out to get my next book finished. And, bar the proof reading, finished it was at about 7.30 last night. Should have it printed within a couple of weeks and then it’ll be time for all […]

Coca

Finally got round to buying Claudia Roden’s Food of Spain. Don’t need a new cook book but she’s too good to ignore. Especially when I heard she’d got coca recipes in it. Coca is one of those mysterious breads that I never quite believe I have got right because I’ve never seen an authentic one. […]