Bara Surgeirch

I’m doing a little series of Welsh related breads for my customers this Autumn. The first one was Nina’s Watermill Loaf which I suppose is Danish given that Nina’s Danish. But she put it together in Bethesda using flours from Felin Ganol so that counts. This week is Bara Surgeirch – Sour Oatmeal Bread: – […]

It’s For You-ooooooo!

It’s the last bake of the day. The scent of courgette & parmesan flatbreads in a hot oven is giving the taste-buds a going over. The phone rings. “Hello”. I’ve been developing this terse, not-very-friendly “hello” implying that I was just on the brink of finding the Lost Chord when the phone shattered my concentration, […]

Focaccia Dewi Sant

This is the sort of thing you won’t get from other bakers – Focaccia Dewi Sant. Being baked today for my customers, nearest bake to St David’s Day. Leek focaccia with a single red chile to represent the Welsh dragon. I bill it as a “traditional” Welsh focaccia (made up a couple of years back).

A Birthday Present from Phil Joy

“Want a recipe for Apple, Cheddar and Guinness Soda Bread, Mick?” said Phil at my birthday bash in The Old Harkers, Chester, last Saturday. “Is pork chops greasy?” I replied, even though I was still on my first pint of Old Rosie. What a birthday present!

A Glimmer of Light

The famous Oat & Honey. Yesterday for the first time this year sunlight featured in a photograph. This morning it’s grey and wet.

2nd Generation

This will worry some of you. There are two of us. The bread bug has spread to the next generation. This is one of my nephews, Tobias, who was bought a copy of Bethesdabasics by my youngest sister, Helen, and is now producing sourdough. Might have some way to go but not bad for a […]

Mixing It

It’s a paradox. Because I’m basically a lazy person I do lots of hand kneading. I have a spiral mixer which is pretty good with 14K of dough but not so good with 4K. It’s got a fixed bowl and at the end of the day I hate getting down to clean the thing. In […]

Must be Autumn …

In our rather overrun garden we have a solitary apple tree, a Cox’s Orange Pippin, that I bought for Sue’s birthday a number of years ago. Never been sprayed but not certified organic. Once, or sometimes twice a year, that means Pain des Pommes. I used to oven-dry a load of apples and rehydrate them […]

Phil Joy’s Roast Potato & Onion Bread

Sorry – I’ve been neglecting the blog – there’s just too much going on. Fantastic weekend a couple of week’s back at the Dales Dough Do – not only are there a lot of good bakers around, they’re good company too. Joe, Martin and Caroline did an excellent job of organising. Made a new friend […]

Repertoire

Not the full list but this is most of the repertoire I use for Bethesdabakers customers: Regulars Pain de Campagne (& baguettes) Mick’s Classic Sourdough Wholemeal 5 Seed with Spelt Multigrain Specials Apple & Sesame Bread Bara CK Bread Black Bean with Herbs & Jalepeños Black Olive Bread Butternut Squash, Sunflower Seed & Chile Cassis/Currant […]