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 […]

Microbakery Courses

Just finished running the first of my new style two-day, individual courses for people who want to set up a microbakery at home. New style because now I’m “retired”. “Retired” means that instead of having 9 varieties of bread in a number of different weights and knocking out around 90 loaves, I select one dough […]

Buns 2 [(Scraps 3) Pizza 7]

Same pizza dough, 24 hrs in the fridge. Tipped the dough onto well floured surface carefully keeping rectangular shape. Cut off half and divided half in two to form two pizzas. Floured the other half, carefully divided into eight with floured scraper (no weighing, no shaping). Baked immediately in hot oven about 12/13 minutes: Not […]

Doughflow2

The overnight cascading dough became 26 large Potato, Rosemary & Black Onion Seed loaves (Dan Lepard if I remember correctly) of which these are two:

Doughflow

I remember years ago someone on a bread forum asking if covering a proving dough with a tea towel would impede it’s rising. Ho, ho, ho!: This sight can be a bit scary early in the morning the first time it happens. These dough boxes were less than half full when they went in the […]

Bread Tasting

All roads lead to Bethesda as the Druids used to say. And so it was that Rick and Maggie Coldman – Mair’s Bakehouse – came to lunch en route from Hamburg to Cwmduad bearing a big bag of goodies from German bakeries. The pastries got scoffed for breakfast before the camera came out but look […]

Scraps (Pizza No 5)

I’ve settled down to a formula of Flour 100%, Water 78.2%, Starter 25%. Salt 1.5%. So 700g dough = Flour 342g, Water 268g, Starter 86g, Salt 5g. Few short kneads, into oiled box for 2-3 hours with the odd hourly stretch. Then into fridge for at least 24 hours. In the domestic fridge was arfachickenbreast, […]

Another way of Looking

What the bread in the last post “Retirement” means to me is (1) a new waterproof jacket to take to the storm-prone Bay of Biscay tomorrow; (2) a steak dinner from M&S to celebrate the start of the holiday; (3) a little in the bank because the Laputabrot will be paid by invoice. One of […]

Retirement

I was trying to construct a link along the lines of retirement/bed/couche, but never mind. Instead of starting at 5.00 a.m. I saunter out of bed at 6.00 a.m. 6.50 a.m. ten large tomato breads with sundried tomato in the couche. 7.50 a.m. twenty in the couche: 8.50 a.m. twenty four in the couche and […]

For the Doctor (Pizza 5)

drfugawe With the last of the pizza dough, another skinny pizza to eat in the kitchen while the main course is being prepared: Not only was the dough in the fridge, there was left-over tomato sauce. No mozzarella, a scrap of cheddar, and some basil from the windowsill.