I hope you have all had a great start to the new year, and that you are keeping the bugs at bay. Dragan’s sourdough culture, Bread Astaire, whom some of you have already met, needed a bit of ‘intensive care’ this week, so I knitted him a little hat and scarf. I don’t know about him, but it was certainly very therapeutic for me!
We are busy putting the finishing touches to a brand new course on Udemy, ‘Sourdough Starters & Leavens‘, so look out for our announcement on this very soon. (Bread Astaire makes a compelling cameo appearance in the movie, well worth the watch!) The course is 100% focused on making, managing and really understanding the different kinds of sourdough cultures, and how using young, mature or old starters / leavens makes a significant difference to your breads. Watch this space!
…especially when I’m proving croissants to bake for breakfast.
Croissants make me optimistic. That’s really why I bake them; for the sweet, buttery smell of fresh hope and possibility in the kitchen. When you open the oven door and get that first waft of warm pastry, it’s so uplifting, you feel you could (almost) love the whole world. And then of course there’s the colour; all that delicate gilding of the pastry layers, shading into coppers and burnished bronze, and fitting so serendipitously with my chrysanthemums and favourite wicker baskets.
For Viennoiserie class dates click here. £175 gets you a whole day of baking and a beautiful box of croissants, brioche and pastries to take home.
The aroma of a sourdough croissant is most alluring of all, infinitely worth all the patience required to prepare leaven and poolish overnight, and steadily build up the laminations over the next day by turning and folding the dough in a beguiling series of letter folds and book folds. I leave the detrempe (laminated dough) overnight in the fridge again, then roll it out early in the morning, to form the croissants, egg wash them, prove them and bake them for breakfast.
Once you have mastered the dough, there are endless ways of using it to make sweet or savoury pastries, galettes and tarts. But nothing beats a warm, fresh-baked croissant enjoyed with nothing more than a large cafe au lait!
Just time to announce a new programme for 2020, for all those of you who tell us you love bread but can’t tolerate industrial rubbish. Many of you are choosing gluten free bread from the supermarket, but you worry because this is also loaded with additives, especially xanthan gum. Some people just want to bake their own real, artisan breads using naturally gluten free flours and NO JUNK. Others find that if they switch to genuine sourdough made with heritage flour, their tolerance actually improves.
This 4-day course offers the opportunity to explore all those options. It is not for coeliacs or people with gluten allergies, but it offers exciting potential for people with sensitivities who miss great bread!
What does it cover?
Day 1: Deliciously Gluten Free Artisan Breads
Learn all about the huge range of naturally gluten free flours and binders and the Four Pillars of gluten free baking. Bake rustic breads and top class pizza for lunch.
Day 2: Naturally Gluten Free Sourdough Breads
Learn how to make a range of naturally gluten free sourdough starters from scratch, plus how to keep them alive in your fridge and how to turn them into leaven for making a range of spectacular GF sourdough breads.
Day 3: Heritage Sourdough Breads Part 1
Discover the history of ancient wheats and the part they can play in a healthier modern diet. Get hands on with the basics of sourdough bread making using spelt, rye and einkorn
Day 4: Heritage Sourdough Breads Part 2
Explore heritage flours from smaller producers , and learn how to combine techniques from the gluten free method with classic sourdough baking to create outstanding breads of your own.
What does it cost?
The 4-day course costs £750 (including all ingredients, course books, refreshments, lunches and lots of gorgeous artisan breads to take away). For residential students, we also offer dinner, bed and breakfast at £110 per night. (The total package for a 5-night stay with 4 days tuition comes to £1300)
We can offer dates during the second half of January, the first week in February, or later in the year. Just let us know if you’re interested!
Many people suffering gluten intolerance/sensitivity find that their tolerance improves when they eat a) real sourdough bread and b) sourdough bread made from heritage flours (wheat, spelt, rye, einkorn, emmer).
Naturally GF Apple Cider Sourdough Sourdough Buckwheat & Chestnut Bread
Online courses on all subjects are becoming more and more popular, and we are very happy to see how many students we are reaching all around the world (currently over 1,800 and counting). Following the launch of the Naturally Gluten Free Sourdough online course in June, we were thrilled last week to finally launch Know Your Dough– another project we’ve been working on for over a year. It’s a major course, designed to offer a classic foundation for novices, solid development for enthusiasts and inspiration for the more experienced baker. And, it’s just got its first 5-star review:
” This course inspired me to become a better, more professional baker. Can’t thank you enough.”
Peter Gaunce, Udemy student
We are now working on completing the Know Your Dough book. We hope to have it out in time for Christmas. Watch this space!
Celebrate the small, independent bakeries that bake genuine sourdough
Help people to say no to sourfaux and avoid paying a premium for something that simply isn’t the real deal
Encourage people to join and/or donate to the Real Bread Campaign
To help promote sourdough, we are offering 20% OFF any course booked by 30th September 2019. Please quote Sourdough September when booking.
The benefits of real sourdough for body and soul.
Hand-made sourdough is a healthier choice because of the absence of additives, the organic choice of flour and the very slow fermentation, the length of time it takes for the dough to ripen. Compare sixty seconds for a factory loaf to rise with sixty + hours for a sourdough. And the longer the dough matures, the better it is for the taste, the texture and your digestion.
The benefits of sourdough bread:
1. Thanks to the lactic and acetic acids, the gluten is made far more digestible, and the flour nutrients more bio-available
2. Sourdough bread satisfies hunger, rather than provoking it
3. It releases sugars more slowl (low GI), avoiding the spike/crash effect
5. The taste is richer, more complex and more enjoyable, while the crumb is chewier and the crust is crisper
6. Sourdough loaves are soothing to make and always look fabulous – they’re good for the soul!
7. Sourdough naturally lasts longer due to its natural acids acting as preservatives
Contrary to popular myth, baking real sourdough breads need not take hours away from your day. With a little bit of forward planning, it need take only a few minutes hands-on. It does take time to ferment (slowly, in your fridge), but you can sleep, work, play and generally ignore the dough for days on end so long as it is in a cold enough place. It will quietly continue its life, patiently waiting for you to come back, shape it, and bake it.
You’ve definitely got this. Just book a course before September 30th!
Alec Sr. and Saree, all the way from Johannesburg. S.A.
A family reunion on a baking break.
In 2017, school teacher Alec Waldeck Jr joined us for a fabulous weekend of baking sourdough breads and some memorable hot cross buns. Last week, he brought his mum and dad all the way from South Africa to join us! In fact, the family are on a once-in-a-lifetime, five-week tour of Europe, but we were very delighted that they chose to start the experience down here in Devon.
On the first day, we were joined by lovely Sue from South Brent, diving right into sourdough and rye breads. It was one of those magical classes where strangers hit it off right away, and we were all in stitches before the first cup of coffee. Then Alec Sr., 79, who used to bake his own bread at night to help cope with insomnia, revealed a startling appetite for raw dough, which made us laugh even as we valiantly struggled to guard what we were kneading…
L-R: Dragan, Saree, Alec Jr and Sue from South Brent!Baguette shaping .. and nibbling?A selection of sourdough & rye breads.
After a well-earned nap, we all enjoyed a three-course supper of Flowery Quails Egg Salad, Salmon Parcels with Samphire, Asparagus & New Potatoes, and Chocolate Mousse with Hazelnut Petit Fours for dessert. And some lovely wine!
Day two was Viennoiserie, just for the Waldecks. This is a very full day, and we were amazed at how well everyone coped with all the rolling, folding, turning, shaping and…. well, a little bit more dough-nibbling, alongside mandatory quality control of the creme patissiere, the almond paste and the chocolate.
Pocket and half-pocket pastries made with lean croissant dough.
Penny & Saree with brioche burger buns to bake for lunch.
Croissants taking shape.
Almond paste butterflies in enriched dough scented with cardamom and lemon zest.
If you’d like to join us on a residential baking break, just drop us a line!
Breakfast on the final day.One big, happy, floury family!
If you have leftover leaven, these delicate sourdough crackers make a subtle and very moreish nibble to accompany that vital evening glass of chilled rose wine.
The recipe is 200% leaven, 100% white spelt, 50% olive oil and 3% salt. I mix the dough very briefly, because most of the development has happened already in the leaven, then leave it for an hour to rest (while the wine chills in the fridge), before rolling out between sheets of oiled baking parchment.
Decorate with edible flowers (Sainsbury’s sell some), and fresh herbs (I used dill and thyme), then replace the top sheet of baking parchment and roll again to press the flowers into the dough. Score lightly and bake at 200 C for 7 minutes, watching like a hawk to ensure even colour.
This song by John Denver / James Oppenheim was inspired by a speech given in 1910 by textile striker Helen Todd, who wanted work to mean more than mere subsistence. She believed that the abundance of the world belongs to all, not just a privileged few. It rings truer than ever today, with all the unfairness and unrest in the world. I feel very blessed to have a garden in which to grow my roses, and an oven in which to bake bread.
Bread and Roses
As we go marching, marching
In the beauty of the day
A million darkened kitchens
A thousand mill lofts grey
Are touched with all the radiance
That a sudden sun discloses
For the people hear us singing Bread and roses, bread and roses
As we go marching, marching
We battle too for men
For they are women’s children
And we mother them again
Our lives shall not be sweetened
From birth until life closes
Hearts starve as well as bodies Give us bread, but give us roses
As we go marching, marching
We bring the greater days
For the rising of the women
Means the rising of the race
No more the drudge and idler
Ten that toil where one reposes
But the sharing of life’s glories Bread and roses, bread and roses
Okay, I know this summer is a bit of dampener, especially compared to the Sizzler of 2018, but that’s no reason we can’t all get together with our friends for feasting in the garden. Or in the living room, looking out at the garden…
So I thought I’d post our recipe for Stuffed Focaccia here. It’s dead easy to make, and only takes 2 hours from mixing the dough to pulling it out of the oven.
Stuffed Foccacia
500g organic white bread flour
350g tepid water
5g instant yeast
10g salt
60g olive oil
1 Tbsp chopped fresh rosemary
1 Tbsp minced fresh garlic
Filling
Pesto / kalamata olives / chorizo / pepperoni /mozzarella / other tasty bits from the fridge
Method
Weigh flour, salt, yeast, rosemary and garlic into a medium sized bowl. Mix together. Add water and olive oil. Mix into a soft, wet dough. Knead in the bowl, pulling the dough upwards until it stretches twice as high as the beginning. Cover and leave to rise in a warm place for 1 hour. Pour the dough onto a baking sheet lined with oiled baking paper. Spread out the dough with oily fingers. Spread pesto onto one half of the dough, leaving 2cm margin. Add fillings. Lift the paper to help you fold the dough in half. Cut with scissors, as per photo, and decorate with halved tomatoes and sea salt. Leave to prove for 30 minutes. Bake at 190 C for 25 minutes. Brush with olive oil and decorate with fresh basil leaves. Enjoy!
For more recipes like this, check out our e-book, Party Breads! (£1.99 on Amazon)
We are very happy to tell you that the GFSD (Gluten Free Sourdough Course) we’ve been working on so hard is actually available online now. And if you click here before 10th June, you can download it for ONLY £10.99 (worth £39.99). That’s it: short and sweet!
