No bread is an island

...entire of itself. (With apologies to John Donne!)
I live and breathe breadmaking. I’m an evangelist who would like everyone to make his or her own bread. I want to demystify breadmaking and show it as the easy everyday craft that it is. To this end I endeavour to make my recipes as simple and as foolproof as I possibly can.

I call my blog 'No bread is an island' because every bread is connected to another bread. So a spicy fruit bun with a cross on top is a hot cross bun. This fruit dough will also make a fruit loaf - or Chelsea buns or a Swedish tea ring...
I'm also a vegan, so I have lots of vegan recipes on here - and I'm adding more all the time.

Tuesday 6 December 2011

Williton Nov 2011 Breadmaking made easy

Tuesday 6th December.
Seeded bread and Chelsea buns:









Tuesday 29th November.
7 students today, making pizzas, sizzlers, jam doughnuts and chocolate and banana loaf:

2 chocolate and banana loaves (one round and one folded calzone style) and some jam doughnuts 

Chocolate and banana bread and jam doughnuts

Cheese and tomato pizza, sizzlers and chocolate and banana bread (you can see the effect of the two elements on the top of the loaf(




Tuesday 22nd November.
Only six students today - the only man on the course, Joe, is on holiday and no new students turned up - which takes the pressure off a bit.

Focaccia, iced buns and pain au chocolat were on the menu - since I only have a few trays with a rim (necessary when baking focaccias with olive oil on top) - half the group did the loaf whilst the others did the sweet buns.

Already - only two weeks in, it's clear that everyone is becoming quite accomplished. Which is great for me - all I have to do now is to pass on a few tips and hints plus the odd technique. :)

However, I failed in a couple of aspects of these classes:
1. The session was marred by me singeing/burning Anne’s pain au chocolat and iced buns. She took it in good part, but I must pay more attention to the ovens. I’ve got 4 ovens in a row – what happens sometimes is that I’ll check the first 3, then get distracted and fail to check the fourth!

 2. And, once again I forgot to take pics! Until right at the end, when I managed to catch Jane, Anna and Mary before they'd completely packed everything away. Not sure which is Jane's and which is Anna's:

Iced buns, pain au chocolat and a rosemary and herb focaccia...

...as above, except it's a plain focaccia

Just caught these as Mary was packing them away in her cardboard box
Next week, chocolate and banana bread, jam doughnuts, sizzlers and pizza! And maybe a new student!

Tuesday 15th November.
7 students for the first session (there were 9 in the register - one was on holiday, not sure what happened to the other one) all making soda bread and fancy dinner rolls.

Had a minor hiccup in that one of the ovens ceased to work halfway through, so we were juggling  a bit to get everything baked - but we managed it. (I take 4 small ovens around with me, which enable me to turn any classroom into a kitchen. When I brought the offending oven home and tried it again, it was back in working order.)

But I've got another lovely bunch - I shall enjoy the next few weeks.

I'm going to try and take a pic of every bread the students make, but I didn't quite manage it this time.

One fancy dinner roll and 5 blind mice! 
Fancy dinner rolls and a fruit soda bread

And another fruit soda bread
Trouble is, I always think of it too late - when the students have mostly packed their bread away.

I'll try and do better next time.

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