Hels' Bakehouse Annual Review

So this week see's the first birthday of Hels' Bakehouse, and what a year it has been. I've baked over 1200 loaves and made an awful of a lot of granola in my little home oven. I've also made some great friends along the way. The high points include the Hot cross bun pop up shop, baking with the Strathblane Guides, the bread demonstration at Edenmill Food Festival, monthly fun at Killearn country market and spreading the Real Bread message of 'true loaf'' throughout the local community.  There have been lows too; realising I hadn't got enough ingredients at four in the morning (several times), nearly burning the house down when I fell asleep in a bread coma, attempting to bake sourdough in a heatwave...

It's all been great though. I've learnt a lot and I've loved every minute.

So what now?

Well, I'm taking a break from farmers markets for a little while and concentrating on getting more beauty sleep, indulging in my other passion for yoga through my alter ego of MLH Yoga, and passing on my love of baking to others with 'Bread courses from Hels'. The first 'Introduction to Bread Making' course runs on Monday 17th February at Killearn Village Hall, with a Sourdough course scheduled for the 31st March and Italian breads on the 28th April.  The Bread Club continues to be very popular, and I'll be working on some new recipes to keep my bread clubbers hungry for their weekly loaf, whilst bringing back some old favourites from the past year.  As part of my birthday celebrations I asked the bread club members to let me know what these were and promised to make some of them again over the next month. Here's the list so far:

Potato & Rosemary

Apple & cider

Fig & fennel

Chollah

Beer bread

Orange & mint

Sage & Onion

Malted brown

Rye & Raisin

Spelt & honey

Cheese & apple

Poppy seed

Looks like I am going to be busy, and I wouldn't have it any other way! Thanks to everyone for your support over the last year, it has been a pleasure baking for you.

Hels xx

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...

A little bit of cake bakery

It's national bread week this week and Real Bread month is coming up in May, which means all things bread related have been getting lots of media coverage. There have been recipes in the Daily Mail, some great articles on the rise of artisan bread and the return of British millers in the Independent, and a one hour special on Scottish bakers on BBC Scotland's The Kitchen Cafe. All great news for Real Bread lovers and bakers everywhere.

Meanwhile, never one to miss a good marketing opportunity, I have been busy making cake! I like cakes. I like making them and eating them, but I'm not great at decorating them. I don't have the steady hand and nerves of steel required for it but once people know you can bake they tend to ask you to make things for them. Simple cakes like banana bread are my forte but I like to give more ambitious things a go from time to time with often amusing results.

This week I was commissioned to make a cake to celebrate a 10 year anniversary at work. I warmed up by making a massive pile of delicious gooey River Cottage chocolate and beetroot brownies to sustain me, then got to work.

My cake of choice was Edd Kimber's Bakewell homage; a three tiered almond sponge, with raspberry frosting which I pimped up with some icing and shiny hand painted stars. Now mine didn't look quite as beautiful as Edd's version on the BBC Food site, more like a slightly messy version of the Disney cake in Sleeping Beauty that I used to fantasise about as a child, but I was quite proud of myself none the less.

The downside to all these baking commissions are that you don't get to taste the finished result, so I've no idea if it was edible but judging by the amount of drink flowing in the room I
have a feeling the party goers may not have been that discerning by the time they got to cutting it! It was great fun to make and if a good time is had by all then I think that is all that a cake really should be.

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!

Going public

Last weekend I took the plunge and decided to let the good people of Strathblanefield know about Hels' Bakehouse. A quick post on the community Facebook page and the word was out. I took a stroll up to our fabulous local deli, Pestle & Mortar, to reveal my secret identity 48 hours later and sure enough the jungle drums had already done the work for me!

Yesterday was therefore the first day of Hels' Bakehouse proper, with three local ladies taking the plunge and giving Real Bread a chance. On the menu was oat, apricot and walnut bread and it felt great to get baking and start delivering to people in the community.

Taking this community spirit further I've taken inspiration from the local area and been developing some Glengoyne whisky based Rye bread as a signature loaf. The first attempt, christened Pain de Glengoyne, made great tasting, good looking bread but didn't carry the flavour of the whisky particularly well, so taking advice from my product development team (my Dad) the second attempt featured raisins soaked in Glengoyne. The result was still subtle but delicious, and I drove up to the distillery to pick up more supplies and leave a loaf with the brand heritage team to sample.

I've also been selling granola to my growing band of addicts and sorting out all the boring bits of admin that I'd been putting off and it now seems I have a real business to develop all of my very own. Such a great feeling.

Finally, for the romantic amongst you, I leave you with a picture of the valentines biscuits baked by my husband and I as surprise treats for each other. Proof if ever it were needed that great minds (and gluttons) think alike.