Super simple to make and bake, and such fun to decorate, you can get your kids to help.
The Easter Egg Bread combines two traditional baking techniques, from the Harvest Wheat Sheaf and the Korovai Wedding Bread.
The main part of the loaf is an absolutely plain white yeasted dough, no sweetener and no chocolate involved, so ideal for those who find the sugary side of Easter a bit too much.
The decorations are made using a ‘dead’ white dough. It’s called dead because it’s made without yeast, which prevents the shapes puffing up and deforming in the oven
Ingredients main dough:
1000g strong white bread flour
10g instant yeast
20g salt
650g warm water
Ingredients decorating dough:
200g strong white bread flour
30g double cream (or plant cream)
70g water
pinch salt
1 egg, separated into yolk and white
Method:
Mix the main dough together and knead for five minutes until smooth.
Cover and leave to rise in a warm place for one hour
Meanwhile, make the decorating dough by combing all the ingredients in a small bowl. It will be very stiff, so knead it well, then cover and leave to hydrate.
Make your design. Draw a large egg shape on a piece of baking paper, to fit your largest oven tray.
Line your tray with baking paper.
Use a pencil to draw your desired design on the paper egg shape. This will help you later.
Once the main dough has risen, take about 3/4 of it, and pat it out to an egg shape, using your template as a guide.
Lift main dough onto your lined baking tray.
With the remaining 1/4 of the main dough, make thin and thick plaits for decorations.
Brush the dough egg with egg yolk thinned with a little water.
Position the plaits on the dough egg and brush them with egg wash too.
Heat oven to 210 C.
While oven is heating, roll the decorating dough out and use your cookie cutters/ icing moulds to shape flowers, hearts etc. Set to one side – you’re not using these yet.
Once oven is hot, give the main dough another coat of egg wash then slide the tray into the oven. Bake for 15 minutes.
Take the loaf out of the oven and then use the egg white to attach the decorations. Just brush the hot loaf with the egg white and put them in position.
Return the loaf to the oven for another 10 minutes (total 25 minutes).
Don’t forget to turn the loaf around a couple of times while baking, to ensure even colouring all over.
Cool on a rack and enjoy!
Tip: to draw such a large egg shape, I started by drawing around a medium mixing bowl, then extending the sides upwards to an oval. Fold the paper in half lengthwise when you are cutting it out, so that both sides are exactly symmetrical.
Part two in our mini-series on bakers and microbakers
In February 2020, Tamara Smith flew across the Atlantic to join us for a week in Sparkwell, learning to ‘think like a baker’ and becoming our dear, life-long friend. Here, in her own words, she shares the story of her baking journey, and how she and her husband – The Baker’s Man – are making a baking dream come true in the town of Northport, WA.
“They say that sourdough is the gateway drug that lures the home baker into back yard chickens, milk goats and spotted small pigs! And it’s true.
These pictures preserve my blossoming romance with the ancient tradition of sourdough baking. They were taken in 2019.
We were homesteading on 4 acres with 5 kids and a whole lot of critters. Every moment was a learning opportunity and seemingly every flat surface in my home was littered with various versions of “hobby farming how-to’s” and “back to the basics” books. It was lovely. It was hard work. It was worth all of it. Simple. Slow. Intentional. Connected to tradition. Basically good. It was sourdough that caught my attention. What is this thing that has lasted eons? It enticed me and held fast to the desires in my heart. And so it began…
From Spokane to Sparkwell
Saving my small profits from selling these sourdough loaves to neighbors and providing fresh goat milk to mamas with newborn babies, I reached out to Penny and Dragan at The Artisan Bakery School in Sparkwell, England. Our email correspondence resulted in a 6-day crash course on “everything they know” about bread. I wanted ancient knowledge. Timeless techniques. History. Philosophy. And I wanted heart. I wanted to be in the presence of the master. And that is what I got! Plus so much more!
I departed Spokane Airport on Valentine’s Day 2020, and returned home February 26th while the world literally shut down behind me (Covid). I had a ball of sourdough starter (named ‘Sparkwell’) tucked safely in my carry on bag. And my mind was whirling with all the knowledge and resources made available to me. But my heart. Sigh… my heart was aching for having left a small piece of it at the Olde Home Cotttage at the end of the lane. That ache in my heart has been a constant, quiet reminder that I know things about real bread and I must share this with my community. It also comforts me, because when there is grief, there must have been love. Where there is love, there is belonging. And I belong in Sparkwell. Just as I belong in my little town of Northport. This sourdough thing is much more than a hobby or a job or something I am good at doing. It’s a purpose. A calling. A mission. A song I must sing. A canvas I must paint. A dance I must allow. I simply cannot ignore it.
The following months of 2020 were full of unrest in the world around us but things on the home front were exciting.
I baked my little heart out, trying all my new recipes from Sparkwell. In the midst of horrifying home haircuts, family-only birthday parties and squirmy little piglets arriving right on time, my kitchen was flooded with sourdough! I situated my fermenting dough in and amongst the family refrigerator at night and I baked 2 loaves at a time in my Dutch ovens. It took me 12 hours of baking to produce 14 loaves!
The Baker’s Man has replaced my propane kitchen stove 5 times since then. I suppose 500 degrees for extended periods of time is a bit much for the old girls. Those days are gone but not forgotten in the least. The interest around me grew and I was soon providing loaves regularly for a few close friends. It was fun to think about the meals being planned to accompany these fresh loaves each week. I made just enough money to buy more flour after each bake.
I have yet to see anything but a smile when I share this bread with another person. Big or small. Young or old. You all smile. And then I smile. Smiling is light and soft and open. It lifts up and allows. It is contagious and simple to do. Perhaps you find yourself smiling while you read this? I am smiling as I write it, for sure. How fun it was to bake bread that I could share with others and produce such happiness. Even if it wasn’t perfect. And my ovens were burning up. And my fridge was over crowded. And my kitchen was covered lovingly in a thin layer of white flour dust. Even if it was hard… it prepared me for this time right now.
The Break Up
Like any love story worth telling, there was a break up. It was the old “it’s not you, it’s me” line. And, to be honest, there was another lover. Hog raising, animal husbandry and meat processing caught my attention. The science of slow cure and dry aging was my particular crush. And I loved it! I scooted my trusty starter further and further back in my refrigerator and barely tended to its basic need for survival. And I mean barely. I was preoccupied with this intriguing concept of farm to table and my sourdough flame flickered in the dark. The kids were only getting bigger and more involved in the world around us and I simply did not make time for much else. I did coax a rather disgruntled loaf or two out of my starter once in a while. Even in the midst of neglect and outright rejection.. the life was always there in that starter. How lucky I am to have had such unwavering gallantry in a jar … in my fridge… just waiting….
Life is Art
My thoughts began untangling during my next phase of life. I took more time for sunsets or a calm fall afternoon. We hand-cranked sausage links from antique cast iron. I cooked with the kids using ingredients from our own barn yard. My sourdough spoke to me, it whispered and invitation to create art. To slow down and make it pretty. Simply for pretty’s sake. I learned to calm my mind while I mixed the dough. I listened more than I spoke and really, really liked what I began to hear. I got my first tattoo of the kids playing on the beach of the Columbia River. A river that had washed away so many of my ears and brought with it abundant life! I had the word ‘namaste’ inscribed below the silhouette of my darlings. The light in me was beginning to see the light in you. And my sourdough was responding! Life is art. We are creators of our own destiny. I began dreaming and longing again. What was it that I really, truly wanted… And could I actually have it?
Stepping Out
I began feeling most fulfilled when I was in service to others. It brought deep and lasting satisfaction. We catered weddings, put the kids in sports, attended local events and gatherings and began putting ourselves out there. I was hired on at Bull Hill Guest Ranch as a cook and my creativity and culinary expressions were not reined in on that mountain. Man, we had fun! Less time pouring over that stack of homesteading books and more time face to face with the world around us. And it felt good. Sourdough was forever near. And I began regularly mixing and shaping and baking and selling again …
Let it Be
I’ve heard it said that what we aren’t changing, we are choosing. So I changed everything. I said goodbye. I let go. I allowed and I wondered about what I really wanted. I made our new place a home. I made my new neighbors my friends and I waited. I fed and nurtured my starter and the first loaves I baked in our new home were beautiful, round sunflower loaves! Then I dreamed up this idea of opening a little bakery in town….
Listening
It was the early morning of my 44th birthday (12-02-22) when my deceased mother visited me in a dream. In the dream, she was excited to see my new building, and old rundown house on Center Avenue in Northport. So I showed her the house and she walked through the front room and turned to look at me from the kitchen. With a twinkle in her eye and a knowing look on her face, she said, “You know just bought your bakery, don’t you?” I woke up that winter morning to a fresh blanket of snow and a house full of sick teenagers. They weren’t really sick, just crabby, lay-around-the-house kind of sick. So I took off to Rossland BC, just across the border. As I strolled the magical wonderland of that darling little town, I was struck by the long line of people I saw. My curious eyes followed the chatting and excited line of folks all bundled up and waiting. Waiting for what? For whom? Then I saw it. The blue and white iconic sign for Hoopers Bakery. It opened at noon and the time was 11.25 am. The dream from earlier that morning came sweeping back through my mind and this time it landed somewhere very deep in my heart. A bakery. In Northport. A line of happy people waiting for my fresh, sourdough loaves. This was it. This was what I had been looking for. Or had it been looking for me, all along ….?
In Over My Head
Before I could blink, I found my little self in meetings with property owners, business guys, real-estate brokers, loan officers, bank managers and financial advisors. My head was spinning with business plans, projected sales, permits and inspection. Negotiations and offers and price points and bottom lines filled my inbox. Down payments. Collateral. Refinancing. Lease agreements and law offices. Title companies and insurance agents. I was so far in over my head, I found myself holding my breath. But there is no life without breath. I needed help. I needed guidance, counsel and expertise. I needed wisdom and encouragement and friendship. I needed someone to remind me of the goal and my “why”. And so, the right people showed up at the exact right time and I learned to breathe. I learned to breathe underwater… and you know, it’s pretty fantastic. I found a measure of peace deep inside as I witnessed this dynamic team of people form around me. Inspections were passed. Agreements were made. Resources were available. Contracts were signed. All as a result of taking that breath. Staying under water. Trusting the journey and allowing.
Ain’t She Purdy?
Then I knew I had to have an oven. A real bread oven. The Baker’s Man had replaced 5 kitchen ovens for me so far and this madness had to end. During a long day of monotonous tasks at work, I hatched a brilliant plan. It was St Patty’s Day last year that I sent emails to about 60 of my closest friends, family and bread lovers. I opened a membership plan called The BreadWinners 2023. The fee was $100 and the benefit was a year’s worth of reduced bread and purchases once I was baking weekly with my new oven! I raised $4,800 in 8 days! Just a couple hundred more than I need to order my first Pico Plus Chandley Oven! What a lucky girl I am! I was elated and we turned the house upside down with new wiring and install. Thanks, men! My bread production jumped from 2 loaves every 45 minutes to 22 loaves every ½ hour. I cried. I danced. I laughed. I fell in love with this oven. I name her Purdy, because ain’t she? Word got out and there was no looking back to the Dutch ovens in my home kitchen.
SBSD – Small Batch SOURDough- Was Born
It was a comfort to know that I didn’t have to do it all myself. I now had a team and I could start really working on my part. My part was the dough. Both the kind we like to have in our pockets and the soft, bubbly, bouncy kind that magically turns into bread after applied heat. And holy moley, did I have fun! My logo was designed and I started a notebook of recipes, formulas, notes, ideas, mistakes and questions. If I wasn’t stretching and folding, I was sure thinking about it. The customer list just kept growing and the joy in my heart did too! I have likened the entire process to the experience of being pregnant. This part felt like finding out for certain that there was a baby on the way. (I’m quite happy this is a beautiful analogy and NOT my actual reality at this point in my life lol). It was thrilling. The sheer joy and curiosity and wonder was compelling, like a force of energy charging ahead through the unknown. Absolute blissful fearlessness…
Every time I saw Small Batch SOURdough in print, my heart fluttered. It still does today. This dream was coming to life. My customer base grew beyond my little town as I was able to organize online orders and deliveries. Some of you picked up in alley ways, parking lots and off my tailgate on your lunchbreak. Lol fun times! We closed on the property on 06-22-2023 and things got dirty. Literally dirty. So much dirt and rocks and concrete and mud. The loaves kept comin’ as The Baker’s Man broke ground.
My baking days were the most happy I had been in quite some time. My recipes were coming together. I was trying new ideas and creative combinations. I could hardly eat a meal without wondering if, somehow, this could be a loaf. Reuben Sandwich. Ham and Cheese. Olive Oil and Red Pepper. Berries and Cream. Zucchini Bread. Pears and Walnut. Apples and Pepper Jack. Roasted Garlic and Sun-dried Tomato. Huckleberry and White Chocolate. Yellow Raisins and Coconut. Pecans and Apricots. Feta and Dill. Sausage and Black Olives. Cherries and Lavender. Cranberries and Orange. Lemon and Poppyseed. Green Olives and Herbs. The creation was endless. It was as if there were no bottom to that barrel. I worked on collecting the perfect sized bins for the perfect amount of dough. I studied that use of cold temperatures and warm environments and how it challenged my dough. I experimented with an abundant amount of flours. I spent a lot of time with Purdy. It became quite clear that one oven was no longer adequate.
Interior walls started going up. Boards were painted and run through a planer. Ceiling tiles were installed. The trim. Oh, dear Lord, the trim. So. Much. Black. Trim. Miles and piles and loads of labor went into the following months. It was all hands on deck only all the hands had lots of other decks they were managing at the same time. Early mornings, late evenings, weekends and a growing belief in our own dream motivated every single effort. Plus, we had good company and cold beers. We made progress every day. Some more than others, but we were on our way…
Purdy Number 2!
As colder weather began approaching, the demand for these loaves of sourdough increased massively. All the soups and the crockpot meals were hitting kitchens around my community and they needed the bread. Every week I’d look around my kitchen after filling all the orders and think “I really need another oven.” So I opened my membership again. This time, it took about a month, but we raised half the amount of the second oven and Small Batch was able to match it. Purdy Number 2 was on her way…
Horses & Carts
If I were to jump into another project like this (which I am sure I will!), I would have been more realistic about the time and skilled labor it was all going to take. The cart got hurried out in front of the horse on several occasions and it slowed down the progress quite a bit. Somehow we managed to stay on task and have a bit of fun along the way. A large wall was built to divide the space between the coffee shop and the salon. All the plumbing and wiring went into the wall as well. The old walk-in cooler space out back was renovated for an office. And the hallway to the second exit door and the bathroom was in place. My home kitchen was overrun with Pumpkin Swirl Bread and Holiday Dinner Rolls! I hand-shaped and baked 2,880 rolls during the holiday season. Y’all LUV-D them! I was able to hire on my niece for some part-time help and she was a delightful game-changer to Small Batch! Two ovens, two sets of hands, two thousand pounds of flour and we were killin’ it.
Here Come the Holidays!
We finally signed papers on our loan for the remodel. Every penny invested to that point had been our very own and it was a stretch. We had a flooring party on my 45th birthday and two days later The Baker’s Man and I sent our oldest girl off to basic training for the Air Force. The future was simultaneously foreboding and outrageously bright! We didn’t sleep much that month. The weight of so many things seemed to prop itself up on my chest as I laid down in my warm bed. I fought some internal battles and let some things truly go… the sun always comes up. Nothing lasts for ever. We all made it through December (and most of January).
The Northport Corner Shoppe
I named the building The Northport Corner Shoppe back in January 2023 when I opened the LLC (Limited Company). The building is on a busy corner in town so the name made sense and would be easily remembered. I also love the old black and white film “Shoppe Around The Corner”. So I played on some words and came up with the name. I think it suits the location and the building well. Throughout time the businesses will like change configurations inside, but the name will remain. Colville Sign printed out the logo and The Baker’s Man built a frame. We recruited the help of our boys to hang her up on an icy, snowy day. We just couldn’t wait! Hanging the sign felt important and final.
It’s funny how you can be “all in” on a project and then one small part will stand out with more significance than the rest.
The old sign was carefully removed and disassembled and will be used in new business ventures elsewhere. It stood faithfully and proudly for many years, as did the people in this town that supported the business it represented. I love hearing the stories and creating a space where the memories can be shared of time spent at Marylou’s Café and The News Café and the Mustang Grill. Some of you can recall walking in as a small child when it was the US Customs and Immigration Office. History is important. Memories are crucial to preserving and carrying on traditions. Your memories and stories of time spent in this old building deepens the meaning and brings richness to our mission of service to the community. So keep coming in. And keep sharing those stories!
Christmas was full of mini loaves and gift boxes. Reels of ribbon and stickers. Gift cards and order forms. Receiving and giving. Dirty bread pas and stack of empty flour sacks. Nice bottles of wine. Holiday treats. Old movies and a brand new vinyl record of Andre Bocelli. I carved out a little time before the ball dropped, to express my deepest gratitude to 2023. It was the most fantastic, unearthing, exhilarating and terrifyingly wonderful year! 2024 is shaping up to go even further.
Now that the salon was open and the coffee shop was well on their way, we turned our focus on the bakery. The commercial kitchen space is a little less than 400 square feet. So we have every inch, nook and cranny accounted for as usable space. We removed the old wall coverings, finished up the plumbing and electrical and started gathering equipment! I’ve witnessed more genius engineering with forklifts, ratchet straps and determined men than I care to admit.
Bakery equipment is nothing but heavy. Sinks, refrigerators, mixers, slicers, ovens and cooling racks were being bought, loaded, hauled and then laid in waiting with anticipation. The new wall covering parts and pieces were on sight and a small stack of laminate flooring was piled next to it. New light fixtures were picked up and the swinging saloon doors finally arrived! But we had to put it all hold. We had things to celebrate in Texas as our girl made her way triumphantly past the finish line of Basic Training in the United States Air Force! After filling 300 orders, I closed down all bread baking. After working 80 hours a week, The Baker’s Man set down his tools. And we headed south for 5 days. I am glad we did! Our kids are a part of this life journey and we needed that pause. We needed to remember.
Just gonna build the wall
As southern and charming as The Baker’s Man may seem, his heart has some heavy metal rock n’ roll in it. He knows all the albums. All the dates. All the stats on all the bands. And so does our oldest daughter. This metal wall covering install is daunting on some levels, but it also makes him feel right at home. Sharp edges. Loud grinders. Drill bits. Rivet guns. Just gonna build the wall….
21st February 2024
Not much on my camera roll to report this morning, but things are moving along for Small Batch SOURdough. Some days we just dig our roots in deeper. We reach further down than ever before. Looking for the tether. Searching for the grounding rod. We get more clear. More settled. We breathe and reimagine the dream.
The strength and support is always there. It’s under all the conventional thinking. The programming. The common sense and the cultural way. The support is in pause. In the stillness. In the compassion and service to others. It’s always in us. It is us.“
Mardi Gras mean ‘Fat Tuesday’, but there’s no need to panic 🙂 Did you know you can use your sourdough starter or leaven to make fantastically healthy and super-fluffy pancakes?
The recipe couldn’t be easier.
400g leaven or starter (even straight from the fridge)
1/2 tsp bicarbonate soda
Pinch salt
2 eggs (or 100g aquafaba if vegan)
Whisk them all together in a bowl, then fry in spoonfuls in a medium hot pan.
If you like a more crepe-style pancake, simply add water to thin out the mix.
Since most of the mixture is already fermented, you can consider this the world’s gut-friendliest pancake!
Even better news, it works just as well with gluten-free sourdough starter or leaven. Just follow the recipe above.
Shrove Tuesday is Tuesday 13th February this year, but now you know how good these can be, you’ll be making them more than once a year, so…
Penny & Adhy with sourdoughs, ryes and sourdough crackers.
A year ago, we received an enquiry from a remarkable young woman about our Microbakery Course.
” I am Adityaa (Adhy) from India. I have been living in Sydney, Australia for the past few years and moved back to India in the year 2021. I had a fascination for breads when I lived in Australia but I was not sure which are the healthy breads. My husband loves sourdough and I tasted a commercial one he bought and it created a negative image on sourdough at that time. After some time I got to taste a real sourdough and started loving them. I learned how healthy breads can be when I started to do a little research about it. I also have a disappointment that in India, people do not have exposure to healthy breads, but people in India love having breads quite often.
With this it raised a question in me, why not learn authentic artisan breads and provide them to people in my community? So, I have planned to start a cafe selling traditional breads majorly, along with coffee and some good food to go with breads.
I am really passionate about breads and I am keen to learn traditional baking of breads from teachers like you. I started my search to find traditional and authentic bread baking schools and ended up at The Artisan Bakery School in Devon.
I would like to travel to Devon from India to learn everything possible from you both about breads. I will be able to travel to the UK during the mid of this year. I have gone through all the courses you offer and I would like to customise my course with you to learn about Patisserie, Viennoiserie, Laminated breads, Wedding bread collection, sourdough, Rye, Brioche, traditional Pizza dough and everything possible. In short,I would like to do a micro bakery and micro Pizzeria course including all the breads and wedding collection breads. I will be able to spend a week to a month at Devon to learn them all.
I kindly request you to consider this email as an application to study in your remarkable Artisan Bakery School.”
This is just the sort of project Dragan and I love to be involved with, so we swiftly put together a Summer School programme for Adhy, and in no time at all she had arranged her flights to join us in August.
Emails flew back and forth between Devon and Coimbatore in India’s southernmost state, as we discussed preparations for Adhy’s visit. And suddenly, there she was, on Day 1 of an eight-day programme. To prove it really is a small world, a fellow student on her first day turned out to be another visitor from Tamil Nadu, which made us feel very international for a small Devon village!
First day bakesSourdough & some laminated cheese straws.Focaccia artIndian elephant stencil!Busy in the bakeryA gifted bakerPlump and soft brioche bunsJewel-like petit foursThree friendsA delicate touch with patisserieWell-earned lunchKorovai and dovesWood fired pizzaTreacle tarts (GF); millet salad, guacamole, pitta breads, hummus, tuna pate, beetroot hummus …etc.Victorious Viennoiserie!
All too soon, the programme was over and Adhy flew home to her lovely family, taking her precious ‘Chimo’ starter with her. But the teaching/learning didn’t just stop there.
3rd September from Adhy
“I have been really missing my days in UK especially at the Artisan bakery school a lot. I have ordered flours from Josef Marc and waiting for the active dry yeast to be delivered. I am planning to do pizza as my kids are very excited to try the pizzas first. Already bought flour, good quality mozzarella and cheddar for the pizzas, kids keep peeping in the fridge everyday to see if I have made something with the cheese for pizza. I wanted to let you know that, Chimo is doing well, she became very sour and acidic so I have refreshed her again. Hoping to create another starter after finding a good rye flour.
Today being an auspicious day according to our Tamil calendar, People usually start their new venture or get married or anything good on such a day. I initiated my beginning as well, I fed Chimo with a simple ritual in front of the idol. I have attached some pictures for you to have a look. I also placed my newly bought scale, Chimo, my apron and gloves that you gave me as a souvenir in front of the idol, as a symbolic gesture of including my gurus (teachers) in my new beginning.
Dragan and I were very touched to discover this, a ritual which reminds me that bakers here and in Europe revere St Honoratus (in the 6th century AD, when he was made bishop in France, green shoots sprouted from the end of a wooden baker’s peel held by his old nurse, and it was deemed a miracle).
7th September from Adhy
Dear Penny and Dragan,
I now understand that we should just not rely on recipes but adapt accordingly to the variables.
The pizzas I made yesterday were my master last evening. I understood where I went wrong, not having a simple prover box made a huge difference while shaping pizzas… What I understood is I need proper equipments even if it’s a scraper and also a lot of practice with shaping ….Thank you for guiding me with my questions. It helped me huge.
20th October 2023
Finally a stall, and Sold Out!
Dear Penny and Dragan,
Hope you are well.
Finally I put forth a stall in my kids’ school event that happened on Friday. I made yeasted bread, basic white. I made few mistakes and it was a great learning. Please find the picture attached with this email for the menu I made. Although I made lot of mistakes, the breads were sold out. The slices were so thick that I couldn’t make sandwiches so I named it open sandwich and topped the bread with the sandwich filling. People really loved them to my surprise. I got the push to make more.
28th November 2023
I made Croissants yesterday and it was a big hit. I was rushing to roll and fold the dough along with the butter, considering the hot weather in the supposedly cold weather. It was total fun to do the croissants waiting for it to be chilled, rolling it into three different folds and finally shaping Croissants. Please find attached the pictures of Croissants I made. For 600g of Flour and 250 g of butter, I was able to make 12 Croissants.
Thursday 30th November
The emmer wheat arrived today and I tried making a starter from it….
Friday 1st December
Hi Penny and Dragan,
I really couldn’t resist myself from sending this Day-2 picture of my new starter (I named them Dream)
16th January 2024
Dear Penny and Dragan,
I am very happy today and want to share with you the bread I made today. It came out so well, perfect crust, perfect crumb, wonderful ear on top.
Can’t be happier than how I am today!
Baker Adhy, we wish you every possible success with your Sourdough Bakery Cafe; your community is fortunate to have you. Your baking is beautiful, and you will only get better at it as the years go by. Look at us! Thank you for all the lovely emails and letters, the parting gifts and the knowledge that we have a friend in India, as you surely have here.
Because it made you smile, here is our last photo for you.
The French term for ‘wand’ is ‘baguette magique‘, something that has been making me smile ever since I met my real-life, magician-baker husband Dragan, nearly twenty years ago.
The combination of talents and skills required to perform as a teacher, or as a magician, are in fact rather similar. You need knowledge, experience, insight, patience, the wit to improvise, and, above all, humour. Same goes for being a good baker. Getting up at 3 am to bake for the village, you need good coffee and a few dark jokes to keep you going!
The rewards for getting it right are unmistakeable. Beautiful, authentically artisan loaves, crafted by happy students who leave inspired to repeat their own performance on a regular basis.
Here’s the recipe for Dragan’s most recent magic wands:
Ingredients (for one large or two small baguettes)
Mix the dough and knead for 5 minutes (20 to 30 rock n rolls)
First fermentation 3-4 hours. Aim to maintain dough temperature at 25 or 30 C. The heat helps develop the gluten.
Shape baguettes and prove on the baguette tray for 1 to 2 hours, until it springs back half way when poked.
Bake, using steam if possible, at 250 C for 10 minutes, reducing to 210 C for 11 minutes (21 mins total)
Et voilà!
P.S. If all (or any of) this seems a bit daunting, how about joining one of our live or online classes? Good for beginners, refreshers, improvers and even the odd superstar!
There’s a lot to love about Christmas baking. The scents of nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger and cloves, the kick of rum or brandy, the silky indulgences of chocolate and cream in truffles and trifles. It’s fabulous, but, let’s face it, it’s pretty expensive too! Something cheap & cheerful, and preferably charming too, is very much in order.
With prices rising even as we queue at the till, the idea of some more budget-friendly baking has a great deal of appeal.
This is especially true when we’re baking with younger children, who probably don’t yet appreciate the allure of all that pricey spice. The answer is simple: bake bread! It’s as cheap as flour and water, and if you bake little rolls, they’ll be done in under 20 minutes in the oven.
Baking bread from scratch is always a rewarding experience, but turning ordinary dough into adorable hedgehog-shaped buns takes it to a whole new level of fun! This whimsical baking project is perfect for a cosy weekend activity, especially if you have little helpers in the kitchen.
The process begins with a simple yeast dough, kneaded until smooth and elastic. This is a great opportunity to get the kids involved – they’ll love the hands-on experience of kneading the dough! Once the dough has risen, the real creativity begins.
Shaping the dough into small oval buns is the first step in bringing our hedgehogs to life. For the hedgehogs’ prickly backs, snip the dough with scissors to create little spikes. This part is not only fun but also helps kids develop their fine motor skills.
The final touch is adding two tiny raisins or black peppercorns for the eyes, giving each hedgehog its own unique personality.
Serving these charming hedgehog buns is sure to bring smiles. They’re not just a treat to eat but also a wonderful way to spark creativity in the kitchen. So why not turn the school Christmas holidays – or Christmas morning?! – into a cosy adventure with these cute and tasty hedgehog bread buns? 🦔🍞🌟
Here’s our recipe for “Tiggywinkles” – aka Hedgehog Rolls.
Ingredients:
500g white bread flour
5g quick yeast (we use Doves Farm)
10g salt
325g warm water
Method:
Weigh flour into a medium mixing bowl
Add yeast and salt
Add warm water
Mix into a soft, warm dough with your / the children’s hands
Knead until smooth and a bit stretchy
Cover and leave to rise for 60 minutes
Now take the dough out of the bowl and divide it into 12 pieces weighing 70g each.
Shape into balls, then pull the snout outwards. Press a raisin in each side to make the eyes.
Use scissors to snip prickles!
Leave to puff up for about 20 minutes, then bake at 180C for 17 minutes, until golden.
Do you want to bake stunning stollen, exquisitely edible garlands and perfect petit fours, all in time to wrap for Christmas? We invite you to two special, festive workshops on Sunday 10th & Sunday 17th December, 10 am to 2 pm.
Stollen is a traditional, German Christmas bread: an enriched, yeasted dough stuffed with rum-soaked, spiced fruits and home-made almond paste (or hazelnut paste for anyone who hates marzipan!). Baked and coated in melted butter then dusted with icing sugar, the artisan version is softer, fresher, plumper and infinitely more luscious than anything you’ll find in a store. Making your own is much easier than you might think, and you can bake them in batches and wrap them as gifts.
If you’re thinking/baking gluten-free, don’t worry, we’ve got a super recipe for you too.
A baked Christmas wreath looks very pretty as an original, alternative decoration – or the centrepiece of a feast. We make a simple bread dough, and a special decorative dough, to make holly leaves or berries, sleigh bells or angels … or anything you want for Christmas. It can really cheer up that cheese board!
The petit fours are the almond and hazelnut treats we’ve featured in this blog before. They are gluten free and dairy free (just nuts, sugar and egg), and lend themselves to all kinds of decoration.
Bring a friend, enjoy a glass of mulled something with your lunch, and go home with a smile and your arms full of Christmas cheer.
Price: £185 per person, including lunch, refreshments, all ingredients and recipes. Arrival 10 am, wrap up by 2 pm. Please email us to book.
The joy we feel, pulling fresh bread from the oven, drawing everyone into the kitchen and filling our homes with that glorious aroma, is hard to beat.
But when gluten becomes a problem, there’s trouble all over paradise and a comfortless gap in your life where home-baked bread should be.
Of course, there is a choice. (Or rather, a compromise.) An industrial version of almost any kind of bread, baguette, wrap, crumpet, scone, bun or pizza base can now be found, pallid and shrouded in plastic, on the gluten free shelves of your supermarket. It’s convenient, for sure. But is it authentic? Is it food for the soul?
Obviously, my answers are going to be no and no.
My solution is miles more positive. Bake your own!
Your own, organic, naturally gluten free and delicious artisan breads – which can be as fluffy and golden or as dark and sourdough as you choose – are well within your reach.
Gluten free baking is not alchemy. It’s super simple.
It’s just mix, rise (once or twice) and bake. No kneading, no folding, no fuss. Ask anyone that’s attended one of our three workshops at the School, or anyone that’s done one of our six online courses, and they will tell you how surprised they were at the tips, techniques and tricks they learned to keep gluten free super simple.
Home baked bread is one of the best things about gluten freedom.
Leave the chemical additives where you left the gluten i.e. out of your diet
Nourish your body with the specific minerals, vitamins, enzymes etc. it craves; every gluten free flour offers something special and different. You can blend your own flours to suit yourself.
Support farmers growing crops that help the planet (not drenched with agrochemicals).
Wars have been fought over bread, but it also unites! Bring your whole family together around such beautifully delicious, artisan breads that even the “wheaters” (wheat-eaters) will all be begging for more.
Are there weird ingredients?
Define weird! It’s all a matter of education. There are around 20 different flours in our GF cupboards, plus four or five kinds of natural binders, cider vinegar, salt and various kinds of sugar. (The truly weird stuff is listed on those packets in the supermarket.)
We recommend making your own blends in bulk, stored in plastic tubs, so that you don’t have to get too many items out when you want to bake. If you like, you can weigh out and bag up all the dry ingredients for your own ‘instant’ bread. Let’s say, a two pizza mix, including salt, sugar and yeast, and then write on the label ‘just add Xg water, Yg olive oil, Zg vinegar’. The same goes for bagging up your ‘instant mix’ for a loaf or a brace of baguettes, or whatever you like to bake most often.
Are there tricky techniques?
The absence of gluten means the absence of hard work; there’s just no need to knead. There’s no need for a dough mixer either. It’s all so simple to mix the ingredients together in a bowl, and allow it to rise – either straight off, on your counter, or tucked away in your fridge until you’re ready to bake. You can make a big batch of dough on Monday, and bake off a few buns at a time every day until the weekend, if it suits you. The flavor gets more pronounced as the fermentation time lengthens, but this is good, and interesting.
What about sourdough?
Gluten free flours contain wild yeasts and lactobacillus bacteria, just like wheat. Sometimes, flours like brown rice or sorghum will ferment even more vigorously, and we have used brown rice starter to produce a wheat leaven on occasion!
How do you make it?
The process of making a GF starter is the same as making a wheat one, just mixing flour and water and adding to it at intervals until the colonies of wild yeast and lactobacillus produce visible bubbles. That’s CO2, which will raise your dough. It’s a fascinating process, very satisfying, and produces gluten free sourdough breads with amazing character, which are also an absolute gift to your gut microbiome.
Does it freeze?
Yes.
Isn’t it too much of a hassle?
No. Anyone can do it! Get yourself on a good course, pick just one bread you really like and then make baking it a weekly routine until you’re really good at it. Then branch out.
The real cost – and the true value – of baking your own.
Do you buy your gluten free bread, or do you bake it? In March this year, Coeliac UK published their Cost of Living Report, in which they stated that:
“A gluten free loaf of bread is on average 4.3 times more expensive than a standard gluten-containing loaf and there is even more disparity between the cheapest products, with the cheapest gluten free loaf of bread costing 7.2 times more than the cheapest gluten-containing loaf.”
The limited variety and budget options for all gluten free products puts a disproportionate burden on those with the lowest incomes, which can be even greater for families with more than one person diagnosed.
What the report did not cover was the difference in cost between buying gluten free bread, and baking it yourself.
Here at The Artisan Bakery School, we think baking your own bread is important for a whole bunch of significant reasons, but first let’s have a look at the costs.
Ingredients & Equipment
You don’t need any special equipment to bake your own gluten free bread, just all the same items as you’d use for regular bread. There is no point investing in a dough mixer, because all you will need to do is stir / combine the ingredients: no gluten = no kneading, yay!
Your ingredients can be as simple as you choose. The list of gluten free flours we frequently use at the School are below, with their current prices per kilo and links to our suppliers. The cost per kilo averaged out over those 25 different flours is £5.63, but if you avoid the pricier choices, such as chestnut flour or hemp, that average comes way down. The expensive flours are ones you would tend to use sparingly, anyway, e.g. hemp is fantastically nutritious, but you only need 10% in your flour blend, so you’d never buy a kilo unless you were baking in bulk.
The binders we use to mimic the effect of gluten in making the breads bouncier and chewier, are all natural plant materials: psyllium husks, linseed, chia seed and camelina seed. (We never use xanthan gum.) We are currently assessing the virtues of bamboo flour. The percentage of binder to flour and water dictates the firmness of your dough, which can be anything from a batter bread you rise in a tin, to daintily braided bread rolls and pizza.
All the binders are good dietary fibre and help you feel full for longer, so you will naturally eat less bread, and suffer fewer sugar spikes because the GI index is so low. Psyllium is our favourite binder, currently running at a whopping £24 per kilo, but you only need 20g per kilo of flour (48p) to make a batter bread with, so it is very economical.
The instant yeast we use is Doves Farm, and we occasionally use bicarbonate of soda to make soda bread, but our favourite gluten free is sourdough. We make and keep both brown rice, sorghum and buckwheat starters in our fridge, and we have courses devoted to mastering the art of sourdough fermentation.
The remaining ingredients – seeds, sugars (honey, agave, maple, brown rice syrup, date syrup, coconut sugar etc) organic cider vinegar and salt – are pretty much a matter of personal choice. You can splash out or economise; none of the quantities are very big, the sugars being there to optimise yeast function, not to sweeten the dough.
Talking money
The specific cost for a kilo of our House White or House Brown Blends, as taught on all our gluten free courses, is currently £2.98 for White and £3.36 for Brown.
House White Blend per kilo
500g white rice £1.00
250g oat* £0.72
125g tapioca £0.38
125g potato £0.40
20g psyllium £0.48
Total: £2.98
*or sorghum £0.73
Classic White Loaf
550g House White flour £1.64
11g salt £0.02
6g yeast £0.10
400g milk £0.48 (organic= £1.25 per litre)
30g brown rice syrup £0.36 (£1.23 per 100g)
20g cider vinegar £0.12 (59p per 100 ml)
2 large eggs £1.16 (free range organic 58p each)
Electricity £0.10
Total: £3.98
The cost of making two small, Classic White Loaves (dough weight 558g, baked weight 500g approx. each), including 10p for baking in an electric oven, is £3.98, or £1.99 each. The cost for the vegan option using homemade aquafaba and plant milk would be slightly lower.
For ease of comparison, we’ve worked out the costs per 100g of bread:
The value of baking your own gluten free bread, however, goes far beyond the price on the ticket.
All your flours and other ingredients are, or can be, organic, reducing your personal intake of residual pesticides/herbicides, and supporting farmers who are pursuing soil-friendly, gut-friendly, eco-friendly farming methods. Organic flours are also crucial for sourdough cultures.
The list of ingredients in your own bread is shorter than the lists on industrially produced loaves of gluten free. What you’re leaving out is just as significant to your health as what you’re putting in. When manufacturers boast of ’more than 27 ingredients’ in a single loaf of bread, you know something must be up. Chemicals, additives, preservatives…it’s gut-wrenching reading.
Personalised nutrition; baking yourself better.
Apart from the sheer pleasure of ditching industrial ‘bread’ and baking your own, filling your home with such heart-warming aromas, there are the benefits of learning to bake with the kinds of flour that will nurture your personal health. Minerals, vitamins, proteins, phytonutrients; nature’s pharmacy is right there in the toast on your table. It’s not so much about leaving gluten out, as putting good stuff in. Our Guide to Gluten Free Flours(available on our courses) gives a useful overview of what they contain, and how to use them.
A toast to perfection; customising crumb and crust.
On your journey towards the most nutritious loaf for you, you will discover just how versatile gluten free bread can be. Try pizza, pitta, pancakes, baguettes, batards and boules, breakfast rolls, white, brown, gold, red, green (hello pea flour) and even a wickedly dark teff-cacao chocolate bread. The style and finish of your gluten free breads will be a glorious assertion of individuality that makes the sliced white from the gluten free factory look about as delicious as the plastic it’s wrapped in.
Baking your own gluten free breads, pizzas and pastries is good for your pocket and great for your health.
Healthiest of all is your gluten free sourdough artisan bread. All that fermentation of the dough means you can say goodbye for good to bloat and fatigue, and enjoy better bioavailability of flour nutrients. You can control the amounts of sugar and salt you add in, you can choose flours to compensate for things your body lacks, you bake your breads vegan and you can make them so pretty, it’s mood-enhancing just to look at them.
In the long term, baking your own breads at home, whether gluten free or not, is about taking your health and longevity into your own hands, and feeling happier for it. To rephrase a very old saying, “Better pay the miller than the doctor”.
Gluten sensitive and feeling sidelined at Harvest time? Don’t be.
Make your own, beautiful corn cob bread from maize and red lentil flours, complete with traditional braid and field mice.
In our strange world of a-seasonal availability, with strawberries in December and blackberries in May, the notion of celebrating the Harvest at summer’s end has lost some of its grip on our collective imagination. Unless we’re farmers … or bakers. In pagan times, Harvest Festival used to be a wild, drunken and raucous party to celebrate the end of all the epic hard work of getting the wheat from the fields into the barns, an effort that involved the whole village.
Then the Church came along and tidied it up a bit, adding some helpful customs about donating surplus food to hungry parishioners, and prettifying the party with artistic displays of vegetables and breads.
Wild or mild, harvesters still like to drink cider at the end of a long, hot, itchy day in the fields. And many still love tucking in to a good old harvest loaf; I bake a few for the local schools and churches every year.
It’s not all about the wheat.
But traditions can be shy little creatures. Ignore them for too long and they fade away. So I wanted to point out that Harvest is still essential, still something to be grateful for, wherever we are, whoever we are, and, what’s more, it is not restricted to those who eat wheat. Of course, there are plenty of other crops grown in the fields that we celebrate, but they tend not to feature as centrepieces at harvest suppers. So, for a twist on the traditional Harvest Tide this year, and following on all the gluten free course creation we’ve been doing, I’ve invented a gluten free bread celebrating the harvest of maize, which can be seen growing all over the country these days, and is apparently a great favourite with field mice.
I hope you like it as much as I do!
The Recipe
Ingredients
Gold Dough
120g maize flour
60g white rice flour
45g tapioca flour/starch
45g potato flour/starch
4g salt
10g agave syrup
5g instant yeast
12g psyllium husk
12g organic apple cider vinegar
15g olive oil
240g warm water
Red Dough
120g red lentil flour
60g white rice flour
45g tapioca flour/starch
45g potato flour/starch
4g salt
10g agave syrup
5g instant yeast
12g psyllium husk
12g organic apple cider vinegar
15g olive oil
240g warm water
Method
Weigh all the dry ingredients for the Gold dough into a medium bowl and swish together briefly with your hand.
Pour warm water into a jug and stir in the vinegar, oil and syrup.
Pour the mixture into the bowl of flours and beat until smooth.
Repeat with the Red dough.
Leave both bowls of dough to rest for an hour.
To form the corn cob:
Line your largest tray with baking paper.
Take 2/3 of the red dough and shape into the long base of the corn cob on the paper.
Add a stalk using some yellow dough.
Roll the rest of the red dough into long strands, then snip off small pieces to roll into balls. These will be your niblets.
Leftovers can be used to make a decorative plait for the stalk, as in traditional wheat sheaf bread, and to make the all-important mice.
Take the yellow dough and roll it out to about 5mm thick.
Cut out 6 long, wavy leaves to form the husk. I used three on the left, one tiny one behind the tip of the cob, and three on the right, one of which was long enough to fold over.
Arrange the yellow leaves on the red base.
Now add the niblets in straight rows, making sure to tuck some under your leaves for a more 3-D effect.
Shape the mice, using peppercorns for their eyes and position them on the husk, or wherever looks cute to you. I make tiny wedges of dough, and add finely rolled strings for the tails. Once you push the peppercorns in, they look surprisingly micey!
Glaze everything very carefully with beaten egg. If you want to create a more colourful impression in the niblets, you can brush some of them with smoked paprika, or even make some of them using the yellow dough too.
Bake in a pre-heated oven at 175 C/ 347 F for 21 minutes, turning half way through, and turning down to 150 C / 302 F if it’s browning too fast.
Allow to cool in the tray. It won’t be as rigid as a wheat loaf, so be careful how you handle it.
If you prefer not to use egg wash, I suggest baking it naked and then brushing it with olive oil before serving. If you use anything sweet (honey/agave) it will burn and your loaf will be too dark.
