Wild FermentationLe Pain – l’envers du décorArtisan Baking Across AmericaSmall cakes – From Fondant Fancies to FlorentinesThe Bread BuildersOpening up the crumbCrisp, golden, light, salty & oilyA baguette by any other name……Bake class: cookie cravings
Australia: Melbourne: bakeries
When I want to make a sourdough loaf, all I do is take a nugget of frozen sourdough from the freezer like this, soften it in some warm water, stir in flour and leave it for a day or so. This is the method I’ve been using for the past few years, the one I [...]
I drank my first real coffee in Italy. It was back in 1979, I was 15, in Milan on my own, sitting in the grand apartment of Anna Piaggi and Vern Lambert in Via San Martino. Books and beautiful objects seemed to fill every shelf and table, and watercolour illustrations by Antonio Lopez were set [...]
Wholemeal flour, the whole grain milled as finely as possible with all of the outer bran and inner germ intact, is one of the best white flour improvers I know of. If you want a rich wheat flavour, or a slight moistness in the crumb, or a richer colour to the crust, then spooning in [...]
When I write recipes, I do my best to limit the number of ingredients used and keep using the same basic ingredients (plain flour, unsalted butter, caster sugar) so you don’t have a cupboard full of barely used ingredients. Though I sometimes think, “you know, you could get an even better result using XXX”, I [...]
On bags of flour in UK supermarkets the words “strong white” and “plain” – and occasionally the ridiculous “strong plain” label courtesy of Waitrose, doing their bit to discourage all home baking – is emblazoned on the packs as if it meant something. Now when I write a recipe and in the ingredients ask for [...]
There is the undeniable truth that if you consume a diet that’s very heavy in carbohydrates (flour and sugar primarily) and fats (butter and oil) you’ll find it nearly impossible to keep your weight down and the belly fat off unless you can burn off all the calories like a Olympic champion.
You will have experienced the same thing at some time, whether it’s from a bakery or a supermarket. That feeling that surely someone in the company is having a joke.
I’ve been experimenting with a bread machine, a Panasonic, trying to work out whether it’s a dependable piece of essential kitchen equipment or if it’s another gadget like the juicer and the yoghurt maker that sounds like a good idea at first - “just imagine, fresh bread in the morning” – but actually becomes another [...]
