Meanwhile (Pizza 4) …

The beauty of sourdough is that life continues while your dough is fermenting in the fridge. Coming out of the fridge was the remains of pizza dough. While Sue’s shoulder of lamb is in one oven, a very thin pizza is about to go in the other oven to nibble while the lamb cooks: Pizza […]

87% Wholemeal Day 2 Morning

Day 1? Well the camera wouldn’t have survived. Wholemeal dough at 87% hydration would be perfect for mud wrestling but this isn’t that sort of blog. My kneading technique with very wet doughs is to push it away and scoop it back in a circular motion – the mixture never leaves the work surface or […]

From the Primeval Ooze

… that’s how it feels. Emerging from the tyranny of four years of baking to order. During that time the emphasis had to be on ease of production. Virtually every dough had to fit into the same routine and time frame so that the order was ready to time and of a saleable quality. I […]

The Bakery Cat

You might have noticed that skinny little kitten that sometimes features in Jeremy’s Stir the Pots blog. Well here’s a a real serious bakery cat in full chocolate box pose: Not only do we have a vermin free bakery – look at those claws. No need for a docker, just let her wander across your […]

ImprovBread

By tonight (Tuesday) I need about six-and-a-half kilos of starter for the week’s mix. I start my build Monday morning. Yesterday morning I found I had 400g of flat, watery looking starter that had been neglected for at least 48 hours. I needed about 150g of this to produce a little over 700g of starter […]

Biscuits

You see Rick, us OAPs are so poor we have to bake our own biscuits – no Hobnobs for us mate. Fortunately we have the wonderful Nina to rely on (recipe)

Le Pain Quotidien

This week: Black Olive Bread Sue says it’s good with marmalade … That’s ridiculous, it’s great with marmite.

Cake

Thursday evening, knock at the door. Funny, I thought, didn’t think Mormons stayed out after dark. But it wasn’t the Mormons, it was worse. It was Herman the Friendship Cake. Now, don’t get me wrong, it was a lovely gesture on the part of my neighbour to bring round a cake, the recipe and about […]

Gonna be fire …erhm… last time

It’s getting kinda biblical round here. Last week the mountains were on fire, this week: Plague of frogs next week? While the power went on and off we baked: Oat & Honey!

Boston Brown Bread …

… or Essential Waitrose II. If you complain about the length of time it takes to make sourdough don’t try this – it takes a week to get through the coffee for a single loaf. Of course we have the Royal branch of Waitrose in Menai Bridge where Kate shops when hubby is flying helicopters […]