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.

Monday 25 July 2016

BREADMAKING AT THE PLANET CAFE, (Taunton's newest vegan cafe)

Tuesday 26th July 2016 - 5th session
No pics this time - phone failure, I'm afraid.

Parathas and pasties and Swedish tea ring

Pasty filling:

Potatoes/onion/mushroom/red kidney bean

Potatoes/broccoli/onion/peas/celery/carrot

Red lentils, potatoes, onion

Hi folks,

Ingredients for the last session - 26th July.

We’re making a Swedish tea ring and paratha/pasties, so:
Sultanas
Sugar
Cinnamon
Flaked almonds
Icing sugar

You will need to prepare a pasty filling - my favourite is curried lentils and potato hash:

But these combinations are also good:
Potatoes/onion/mushroom/red kidney bean
Potatoes/broccoli/onion/peas/celery/carrot

(Basically, anything cooked ‘en croute’ enhances the filling every time.)


Plus the usual flour/yeast/olive oil/salt


Tuesday 19th July 2016 - 4th session
Croissants and choice of Rye bread or ciabatta.

Michele had been asking about rye bread - which I make very infrequently, if at all. Since rye on its own can be quite tricky, I thought it best if she were to make it with a mixture of rye flour and wholemeal. Janet made a similar loaf whilst the others went for ciabatta.

Here are some of the ciabattas:







Ciabattas - all looking pretty good! 


I thought later on that I would have liked to have looked at the crumb of some of these loaves.

And some croissant pics:

I know this is Sarah's bread - and she had made 6 croissants! :)


Tuesday 12th July 2016 - 3rd session
Chelsea buns and focaccia:

Mike with his Chelsea buns and rosemary focaccia

Janet's focaccia

Not sure whose these Chelseas are...

...or this focaccia


Tuesday 5th July 2016 - 2nd session
Pizzas and petit pain au chocolat today - and I did remember to take pics! (Well, some!)

Pizzas being put to prove:

Wendy's homemade vegan mozzarella is the star of these pizzas








In line with the vegan ethos of the course, Wendy made everyone some Mozzarella cheese, which was well received. We also had a taste of some vegan feta and Cheddar - these have certainly opened my eyes to vegan cheese possibilities!

Next week we're making focaccia and Chelsea buns.

[More to come]


Tuesday 28th June 2016 - 1st session
8 students turned up, which is exactly the number I was hoping for when I began planning for the course. I was expecting 7 women and 1 man, so when a second man arrived, I was a little surprised. 

However, 'Priscilla' turned out to be Mike, who'd been given the course as a present from his partner.  :)

The session went pretty much to plan - everyone made a soda bread and a batch of bread rolls, and also took away a batch of 'high-hydration' dough to bake at home.

One thing I neglected to do - and this often happens - I didn't take any photo's of the lovely breads that were produced by the students.

A call went out to the students to take pics of any bread they hadn't yet eaten - and, of course, the loaf they had made at home.

Sarah responded with this pic:

Sarah's soda bread at the front, with the high-hydration loaf behind

Thanks, Sarah!

I'd recommended that the students bake their dough the same night, but Michele thought she'd prefer to leave it until the morning. I hadn't done this myself for a while, so I persuaded her to bake it that same night.

I'd made a demonstration batch myself, and I thought I'd better leave this until the morning.

Here's the result:

It took a good couple of hours to rise 
I proved it by using the microwave as a proving cabinet, placing a mug of boiling water alongside the loaftin in the microwave.

The Vegan Breadmaking made Easy course starts Tues 28th June 6-8. A 5wk course-making 10 or so different breads.

Intros/labels/register - icebreaker - expectations - what’s going to happen tonight.

My planning:
  1. Demo of a fruit soda bread and a plain one - Students follow suit - bread goes in oven
2.  Demo of high-hydration loaf - Students follow suit - put to one side
3. FDRs - students make 6 rolls - put to prove (check soda breads)
4. Re-visit HH dough - knead it using olive oil
Demo of shaping HH loaf. Oil plastic bags for dough

Bake FDRs

1.
Whiteboard: soda breads: 1 cup flour; 1.5 tsp bp;
either: 1/4 tsp salt Or: 1 tsp sugar, 1 tsp m/spice, 1 cup sultanas
1/3rd cup cold water and splash of olive oil
2.
Three cups flour (either all white or 2 w/m to 1 white), tsp salt, 1.5 cups lukewarm water with 1 teaspoon yeast + olive oil
3.
FDRs - 1 cup flour - 1/4 tsp salt - 1/3rd cup l/warm water - 1 tsp yeast

My aim is to change students' attitude to breadmaking - to bring it into their comfort zone. 

Over the next 4 weeks we can make at least another 8 different breads/cakes/

 - and I’d like to spend half a session on GF

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