Fame and festivities

Now, I have never been one to shy away from the limelight, so this month has been a lot of fun for me. Aside from all the excitement of Christmas coming and getting to bake some of my favourite festive breads, I've been let out of my kitchen to spread the word about Hels' Bakehouse and my passion for bread making.  In the eyes of my 5 year old son this pretty much takes me to the same level as Paul Hollywood & Mary Berry, so I have been enjoying my 5 minutes of fame whilst they last.

First up, I had a brilliant time at the Edenmill Food Festival, where I gave a bread demo to visitors to this great local event.   The farm had been transformed into a pop up restaurant, festive market, Santas grotto and Christmas tree emporium and it was a pleasure to be a part of it all.  My aim was to show people how simple it is to make some great tasting bread for Christmas from a simple white dough, so there were lemon & black pepper rolls to go with some smoked salmon, and tasty cheese straws to soak up the festive spirit, as well as a plain loaf and Sourdough to compare & contrast.  I discovered it's quite tricky trying to make bread, maintain eye contact and talk at the same time, but luckily I had some little elves at hand to help me knead the dough and pass round the samples.  Here's a pic of me in action!

Next up was an interview with for BBC Radio Scotland's Out of Doors programme, where I had the opportunity to let out my evangelical side and spread the message about Real Bread to the masses - at least the ones who were up at 6.30am on a Saturday morning!  You can hear the inteview online through the following link for the next few days - so be quick if you want to enjoy my moment in the spotlight and cringe at my dodgy bread jokes.

Out of Doors programme

Finally, my little elves were back in force to help me with my last two events of the year, the Strathblane Primary School Christmas Fair and the Killearn Christmas market.  Both events were great opportunities to get the Christmas party started and chat to all the lovely people in the community that we are lucky to live with.  I came away with empty bread baskets, full Christmas order lists and a warm feeling in my heart. I'm unlikely to manage another blog post before the big Ho Ho Ho so I just wanted to take this opportunity to say a big thank you to everyone who has supported the Bakehouse over the year.  I have made a lot of bread and a lot of friends and I've loved every minute.  There's more fun to come in the new year with plans to introduce courses for people who want to learn how to make their own bread at home and some tasty new loaves to bake, so bring on 2014.

Merry Christmas from Hels xx

Me and an elf

It's time to get Festive!

This blog post is a mission statement, advert and general catch all communication for anyone who is interested in what Hels' Bakehouse is up to for Christmas!

I'm not normally one for planning ahead, but it occurred to me that as a business owner I might be expected to be more organised this year. So here's the plan:

1st December - 2pm Bread making demo at Edenmill Food Festival. Come along and find out how to make great Real Bread and test some of our favourite loaves. Then pay a visit to Santa and buy some great local produce!

A selection of breads and Christmas gift jars of festive granhohohola will be on sale at:

7th December - Strathblane Primary School Christmas Fair (6.30-9.00pm)

14th December - Killearn Christmas Market (10am-3pm)

The last Bread Club day of the year will be on Friday 20th December but I'll also be doing some special extra baking days on the 22nd & 23rd December.  These are open to all and you will be able to pre-order the following delicious Christmas treats from me for collection only:

Apricot & Walnut Couronne - a very special Christmas showstopper, filled with marzipan, apricots and nuts and finished with a sticky icing.  £8.50

Pain de Glengoyne - Whisky soaked raisins in delicious malty rye bread. Bye bye Miss American Pie, those good old boys would like this one with some thick cut marmalade for a very merry breakfast. £4.00

Cranberry & Pecan bread - a Bakehouse thanksgiving special. Wholemeal bread packed with the most festive of fruit and nuts. £3.50

Sourdough - Hels' Bakehouse's signature bread. Tastes delicious, good for the digestion and will see you through the festivities as it keeps well for toasting. £3.75

Blue cheese, Honey & Walnut bread - This one is like a ready made Cheese board. Yum! £3.00

Sage & onion bread - Pop this one in the freezer and bring it out to make an amazing boxing day sandwich with your left overs. £2.50

Croissants - Rich, buttery, flaky, fresh croissants available in packs of 4. Enough said! £3.20

Festive granhohohola - a Christmassy take on our original granola, this one is festively spiced and packed with pecans, cranberries and crystalised ginger. Available in 250g packs at £3.00 or our special Christmas gift jar £10.00

Availability will be limited so you'll need to get your name in fast. We'll be taking orders at the Christmas fairs or you can email me at info@helsbakehouse.com. The deadline for getting your orders in will be Monday 16th December.

Collection will be at Hels' Bakehouse HQ, 13 Blane Crescent, Blanefield between 4-6pm on each special baking day with mince pies and mulled wine waiting for all. All of my lovely loyal Bread Club customers are invited to drop in too as a thank you for your excellent support and bread eating skills over what has been an amazing year.

After that the McGougan sleigh will be heading down to Wiltshire to see the relatives with baking for the Bread Club starting again on 10th January.

It's almost enough to start making me feel Christmassy. Where's the sherry?

Back to school - Welcome to Sourdough September

So my wee boy has started school at last and life seems to be returning to some kind of version of normality. Am I the only one that already needs another holiday though?

Now that everyone is back from their jols the Bread Club seems busier than ever and for the first time I have had to split up Sourdough week so that my starter, oven and sanity can cope with the demand. With Edenmill Farm getting busier, more granola orders & Killearn market also going well I'm beginning to have regular dreams about owning a proper commercial oven. Well, I would be dreaming of one if I actually had time for any sleep!

It's all good fun though and I'm still finding time to try new things (see croissant pic) and loving making so many new friends through the medium of bread.

Next up on the big list of things to do is to spread the love of Real Bread further and set up a couple of dates for a bread class as well as start giving some serious bread making thought to the 'C' word that rhymes with 'Bhristmas'.

But first, it's time to enjoy Sourdough September and with cooler weather, a happy starter and a quieter house I intend to do just that! If you've never tried making or eating Sourdough before its time to give it a go. All you need is a large tupperware, some flour and water and with a bit of commitment and nurture you can soon be making your own great real bread.

Here's how to do it:

Mix 125g flour (any kind will do but I like rye flour) with about 200ml of water, whisk for 10 minutes to get all the lovely wild yeast in from the air around you. When it is frothy and thickened to the consistency of thick paint, pour it into a sealable container with plenty of room for the starter to grow. Glass jars look prettier but have a tendency to explode, so I use a big tall Tupperware that fits in the fridge door. For the first week you will need to feed your starter every day by pouring half off and repeating the steps above. After that you can feed it once a week. After a few weeks of this it should start to smell sweetly sour - mine smells a bit like apples and vinegar. When it gets to this stage and bubbles up quickly every time you feed it you are ready to start baking.

But that is another story...

Hot bread in a hot kitchen

Now it's been a while since I have blogged and my excuses are long and varied, but it's mostly because life has been manic and so many blogging subjects had come and gone that I was beginning to lose heart. I've decided, however, to get back on the band wagon so here is a whistle stop tour of what's been going on in the Bakehouse.

1. I've upped my game with more people in the Bread Club and a couple of Farmers markets under my belt at Edenmill Farm & Killearn country market. It's been hard going in a small kitchen with one domestic oven, but I've managed it and I absolutely loved spending time meeting and chatting to customers. Now I just need to work out how to do it in a more time and cost effective manner!

2. I've experimented. There's been Orkney beer bread, Isle of Mull & apple bread, brioche, ciabatta, burger buns, bagels, cinnamon whirls and a new line of gluten free granola added to my repertoire to name but a few. It's great to be using local produce and responding to both the seasons and what my customers want and I wish I could find more time to try out more.

3. It got warm, then it got hot, then it got unbearable! I've swapped my baking hours around for the last few weeks to avoid the worst of the heat but last week's sourdough disaster lead me to start dreaming of a nice cool breeze and a bit of Scottish dampness like we're used to most summers. On the other hand I have a nice tan and now understand why hot countries favour the fast make & bake flat bread!

In summary, there's a lot to think about in the business, with a mountain of things to plan, review and do, but it's been going for over 6 months now and I think that's a great position to be in. First though I will be taking a bit more time off to wash the flour out of my hair and enjoy the sunshine whilst it lasts.

Celebrating Sourdough

One of the things that has surprised me most about starting Hels' Bakehouse has been the number of people who say "I'm not sure if I could get through a whole loaf." Perhaps I am just very greedy but my problem has always been more like, "I'm not sure if I can stop myself eating a whole loaf in one go!"

Anyway, last week there were a couple of unsold Sourdough's from Edenmill Farm Shop, so I decided that to tie in with Real Bread week (11th-17th May) that I would do a special blog post all about the mighty Sourdough loaf; how it is made, what makes it special and how you can make sure you use it all up.

Sourdoughs tend to be more expensive then your average loaf, which I think probably puts people off unless you have tried it before, but there are some very good reasons for this:

1. A good one will take around 24hrs to make from start to finish, whilst your average yeasted loaf takes just 3. This is because sourdoughs are made using a fermented starter, and therefore take much longer to rise and much more effort on the part of the baker to make something that looks like a loaf.

2. They tend to be larger and keep really well, so you don't need to worry about them going stale after a day or so. Make sure you store your bread in a cotton bag so it can breathe. It won't go mouldy and should be useable for up to a week.

3. They taste amazing! The texture of a good Sourdough should have a thick crust and a chewy flavoursome crumb. The flavour comes from using a starter of fermented flour and water which will have been lovingly fed and nurtured for many weeks, months and if not years. Google them and be amazed at how much you can sell some prized starer for!

4. They are good for you. Not only are the natural yeasts developed in the dough full of friendly bacteria, but the long fermentation process also makes the bread easier to digest. Sourdough is therefore a great choice for people who want to avoid that bloating feeling without giving up bread. People with mild wheat intolerances may also want to give Sourdough a go for these reasons as many have reported they find it much easier to tolerate. It's not gluten free though!

5. A little goes a long way - not only will this bread make the most delicious toast, it is the bread that keeps on giving! From dunking in soups to Italian salads or being the soup itself (I first ate Sourdough in San Francisco where they turn it into bread bowls for their famous clam chowder). This week I transformed my 4 & 5 day old Sourdough into the following delicious meals:

Bread & vegetable stew with white wine, chickpeas, fennel and home made basil pesto - an Ottolenghi recipe from The Guardian website:

Panzanella salad with oven toasted sourdough soaked in a tomato, red wine vinegar & garlic dressing with cucumber, capers, basil and black olives. This particular recipe comes from Rick Stein's Food Heroes book but there are loads out there:

I also attempted to capture the 12 step Sourdough making process on Twitter this week in my real time Life of a Bakehouse Sourdough photo diary. Check it out and find out what it takes to get from here...

to here...

to here!

If you fancy having a go at making Sourdough yourself then there is plenty of information out there about how to get started or you could sign up for a bread class with your local friendly Real Bread maker. Personally, I first went on a one day course with the wonderful Lesley Martin of Lesley's Kitchen and have never looked back (Tip: her cakes and welcome are as good as her bread!).

In conclusion, if you haven't tried it before give some Sourdough a chance this week and help to celebrate Real Bread by supporting local artisan bakers. Think of it as a bread investment and enjoy a great bread, made with love and packed as much with good feeling as it is flavour.

Springtime Community Fever

Hello blog, remember me? Time seems to be on fast forward at the moment and with the clocks going forward, the sun shining and the lambs in the fields it feels like the world is waking up again. Here on the west coast of Scotland we have quietly been enjoying a blue skied hiatus in the weather whilst the wind from the east blows unseasonable Siberian chill and random blizzards over the rest of the country. On some days I have even detected something I believe is known as 'warmth' in the suns rays and generally have been feeling cheerier as a result.

My 'power of two' plan, where I try to buy two things each week from local businesses and producers, also seems to be working and over the last few weeks I've enjoyed: bacon & black pudding from Edenmill Farm, honey & jam from Heather Hills Farm, hot chocolate from Cup in Glasgow, cheese from the Blanefield Deli, rapeseed oil from Stark, and a bag of delights including shortbread, yoghurt, vegetables, olives and fish from various local businesses at the Killearn monthly Country market.

The market runs on the first Saturday of every month and is a proper community venture, set up by locals to support local businesses and bring local produce to people in the village and surrounding areas. By the time I arrived after my post-baking nap at 12pm the hall was buzzing with people and the stall holders were smiling as most of their produce had already been snapped up. Better yet, for £2.50 you could sit down for a cup of tea and all you can eat home made cake with profits going back into the community to support the village tennis club. I came away feeling re-motivated about the idea of living locally and inspired by the people in the community who work so hard to make sure it happens.

Over Easter I had a little taste of that myself when I ran the first Hels' Bakehouse pop up shop in the Blanefield Village Club on Good Friday. The hot cross bun sale was a sell out and I was touched to see so many people taking an interest in what I was doing and coming along to buy some buns and find out more. People were full of ideas about how to build the business and really interested in the whole concept. It's always good to have some reassurance that you are onto a good thing and I'm looking forward to the next opportunity to do something similar. May is Real Bread month so I think some kind of event will be in order, but first I think I will just sit back and enjoy the fact that Spring is in the air and that local life is good!

Farm shops, food guilt and a good idea.

First for the exciting news on the bread front; I'm now supplying Edenmill farm with bread every weekend and they are stocking my granola too. Edenmill are the farm at the top of the hill, and their meat is sold at farmers markets across the west coast as well as through their shop. They're branching out their catering services at the moment and are also on a mission to support more local suppliers through their shop off the Stockiemuir road near Strathblane, which is great news for people like me.
If you know of a local food hero that deserves a wider audience, let Chris at Edenmill know, especially if it's some local butter to go with my bread!

Anyway, this weekend is week two of the Saturday early morning bake. I'm making small batches of a variety of loaves each week for people to try and it seems to be going well so far.

I've also been having a few guilty moments of late as the time and financial pressures of my new juggling lifestyle take hold and I've not had as much time or money to go on the hunt for quality local produce. I'm having nightmares about getting caught sneaking out of the supermarket with a bag of shopping from the evil empire but have decided that needs must and that I need to find a new way of supporting the independents without having to go out in disguise to buy some emergency bagels.

My idea is, therefore, to instigate a 'power of two' rule where each week I will make sure I buy at least two things from an independent business. It might be a cup of coffee, a pot of jam or some fresh fish, but I reckon that can't be too hard or expensive to try and if everyone was to do the same each week it would make a massive difference. I'll tweet what I buy each week, and who knows, maybe I'll start a trend?

This weeks buys will be some produce from Edenmill for a cooked breakfast with friends on Sunday, and some honey for next week's spelt bread from Heather Hills Farm in Perthshire who hand bottle all the honey their bees can make.

Feeling better already!