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.

Going green

I have been on a health kick. It's not my usual style and I suspect it may not last long, but whilst I've been in the right frame of mind I've been going for it. My main driver for this has been the yoga teacher training course that I am now nearly half way through (how did that happen). In yogaland, if not in the real world, it's been spring time and I have decided that if I am ever going to embrace the yogi lifestyle it should probably be now.

Spring is all about cleansing: getting rid of the winter love handles, clearing out your house, planning for the future, and giving your body a stretch and some much needed respite from the every day excesses that usually get me from 9 to 5 and beyond. Feeling inspired, I set to work. The cupboards have been emptied and ebayed, I've done my home yoga practice and meditation like a good girl most days, and I've been trying to cut back on caffeine, alcohol and any processed food whilst getting lots of green onto my plate to alkalise my diet which is supposed to be the best way to energise your life.

The most extreme part of all this has been a 7 day juice detox, where I drank 5 freshly squeezed fruit and veg juices every day, and nothing else (apart from the odd home made lemon or fennel tea). Most of them were spiked with spirulina (a blue green algae superfood) or wheatgrass and were various shades of yummy greenness apart from the odd vibrant carroty orange or bloodred beetroot.

It was hard.

The first few days were full of aches and pains as my body went cold turkey on all its usual stimulants, and even though I wasn't hungry I spent a lot of time fantaising about eating Greggs pasties and Chinese all you can eat buffets, which is strange because I really don't like either much. However, I did it and at the end of the week I felt great; full of energy and just a little bit smug! Since then I've kept up the caffeine free life (apart from the odd square or two of dark chocolate) and I've been juicing each morning and keeping up the effort to make sure my plate has much more healthy green  stuff on it then anything else. The wine, however, is back although in a much more restrained style.

For all the difficult bits, I would do it again, and it certainly taught me some things about myself that I wasn't fully aprreciative of before:

1.  I have much stronger will power then I thought I did
2.  I love cooking and eating food with my family and friends much more than I thought I did.

The planning, preparation and consumption of good food is a sociable, relaxing and enjoyable part of my every day life and I really missed it.  Fortunately, springtime is also about having fun and being a social animal, so without further ado I am off to open a bottle and sit in the sunshine with an Italian inspired feast to celebrate the important things in life and the fact that my shorts from last year, now that I've finally got a chance to wear them again, are significantly less snug then I remember them. Cheers to that!

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.

Breaducating Strathblanefield

So Real Bread week is but a stones throw away, but I decided to get the party started early in Strathblanefield with my first foray into Breaducation: teaching 25 Girl Guides how to make their own bread. We knew it would be messy, we knew it would be fun, but would any of them get the baking bug or would it all end in a sticky, yeasty mess? The answer of course is yes to both!

With only an hour and a half to get them baking I did a 'Blue Peter' and had prepared dough in different stages before hand so they could see each bit of the process before making their own in teams of three, which then got divided and bagged to take home, prove overnight in the fridge and bake the next day. They were then tasked with sending me a picture of their creations to be in with a chance of winning some Hels' Bakehouse goodies. Here's what they made:

First prize went to Iona Campbell for her amazing plaited loaf (second from top, puts mine to shame!), whilst Eilidh Jones picked up the runners up award for her well risen and nicely fired mini loaf  (top). Vivienne, was disqualified despite making multiple beautiful loaves (bottom picture), as she is one of the leaders!

I for one needed a large glass of wine and a long sleep to recover, and I did feel slightly guilty about the amount of dough stuck to clothes, hands, hair, tables and the floor, but it was great fun and brilliant to see all the Guides having fun and getting involved in their bread making efforts.

Hopefully it will not be the last time I venture into the world of bread making education, but for now I will enjoy the relative serenity & cleanliness of the Hels' Bakehouse kitchen at 5am with renewed appreciation!

Well done to everyone who took part and thank you for inviting me to share my enthusisam for Real Bread with you!

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!

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!