BREADMAKING IN STOGUMBER

Sunday, 11th March
Reflections on the day - once again these are at the foot of the post (plus pics!).


Friday, 9th March.

My planning is now pretty much complete and I've added it further down this post.

Stogumber is a lovely little village tucked away on the side of the Quantocks in Somerset. Some little while ago a friend of mine who lives in the village (my old university teacher) suggested we get together with a group of friends and spend the day breadmaking. 

Here's the story:

First the letter I sent out to all the students, informing them of what to expect on the day - and what to bring. This went out to them on Monday the 5th March:

Dear Student,

Breadmaking Made Easy Workshop, 10.00am - 4.00pm 10th March 2012

Stogumber Village Hall

This letter sets out what I intend will happen on the day and includes a list of ingredients and utensils which you will need to bring. If you are new to breadmaking, let me reassure you that it is much easier than you have been led to believe.

The session will begin in a relaxed fashion – the first thing you need to do is to find somewhere to park all the stuff that I ask you to bring, get yourself a drink and somewhere to sit down.

Before we start breadmaking I’d like to spend some time finding out what you expect to get out of the day’s session so that I can hopefully meet all your requirements.

The breads we will be making will include a basic loaf of bread – which can be anything from a tinned loaf or a cottage loaf to a focaccia – and a batch of fancy dinner rolls. But we’ll also be making a range of savoury or sweet breads.

Here are my suggestions, with the breads grouped together:

Fruited bread:

Chelsea buns (This recipe includes the undercover method - but you can just bake them normally)

Hot cross buns

Apfel kuchen (German apple cake)

Swedish tea ring

Schiacciatta con l’uva (2 harvest bread – or 3 if you soak the fruit in wine!) 

Sweet buns:

Jam doughnuts and petit pain au chocolat

Iced buns

Layered breads:

Croissants and Danish pastries

Yum yums

Savoury bread:

Cheese and tomato pizza (plus any toppings you wish to add)

Cheese and tomato sizzlers (or mushroom or onion)

Soda breads – both plain and sweet

Pikelets and pancakes

We’ll be making as many of these as we can – maybe not all, but most of them.

Also:

If you wish, you can prepare a batch of ‘no-knead, overnight’ bread to take away and bake at home. If you want to do this, bring along an extra 500g of flour and a plastic food-storer, with a snap-top lid. The one I use has a capacity of 2.8ltrs.

My aim is to turn you into a competent home baker (if you’re not already!) able to bake any bread you fancy.

For lunch we’ll have a couple of the sizzlers – you just need to bring something to fill them with. The kettle is always on for a mug of tea or coffee.

Bring a large basket or cardboard box to carry all your equipment and ingredients - and the finished products to take home with you!

I want to reassure all those students new to breadmaking that my first aim for this workshop is for everyone to enjoy their learning – I always delight in these sessions, and it’s my job to see that everyone else does. Breadmaking is an easy, everyday craft – as you’ll come to realise!

If you have a particular variety of bread you'd like to make instead of one of the breads on offer, I'd be very happy for you to do that. Get in touch if this idea appeals to you and we will see how we could fit it in to the programme. Or if you have any questions, doubts, suggestions at all, please don’t hesitate to ring or email me.

Finally, I’d like to draw your attention to the word ‘Companion’. The ‘com’ part means together – as in community – and the ‘pan’ part of the word means bread. So the word ‘Companion’ can be taken to mean, ‘Someone who makes bread with his or her friends’. Which is what we shall be doing!

I look forward to meeting you and welcoming you on the course.

Paul 

Ingredients:

Flour. Don't forget to specify strong flour, as this is sold especially for breadmaking. Own-brand flours are fine.

Yeast. The most convenient for our purposes is fresh baker’s yeast – I’ll bring enough yeast for everyone.

Olive oil. This is much cheaper these days, and it does improve the bread. Once again, buy the cheapest you can - £2.29 for 750ml at Lidl!

Shopping list:

1.5kg strong white flour

250ml olive oil

100g butter or margarine (for the layered bread)

100g sugar

Salt

50g fresh yeast if you can get some – or I'll have some for 20p

Sesame/poppy seeds

A bar of good eating chocolate (milk or plain)

100g sultanas or any dried fruit (soak them overnight – in wine if you like - and bring them in an old jam jar)

Mixed spice/cinnamon/nutmeg

Large Bramley-type apple – or a couple of eaters; Or: Slivered almonds for the Swedish tea ring

100g seedless grapes (either green or black)

Some lemon curd or a few tinned apricots for the Danish

100g grated Cheddar

Tomato sauce of your choice for the pizza

Dried oregano if you have it

Black pepper

Some tomatoes/mushrooms/onions/peppers for the sizzlers and pizza

You will also need to bring:

An apron

A couple of tea towels, both to cover your dough whilst it's proving and to wrap any warm bread in to take home.

A couple of food-quality plastic bags for proving the dough (I use clean bin bags – which I afterwards use for rubbish!)

Plus you’ll need one to place the croissant dough in whilst it is in the fridge

Baking parchment or paper (this is unlike greaseproof paper as it contains silicon)

Something to carry away the finished products (a large basket or cardboard box lined with tea towels would be ideal)

Sharp knife

You can also bring the following items – but they’re not essential:

Set of measuring spoons

Any favourite cooking utensil

Your favourite baking tray

We’ll be measuring with mugs, but, if you’d rather use scales, bring them along

Running order:

(Put butter/marg, etc, in fridge)

Welcome and intro’s (name labels) – fire exits - safety generally - icebreaker (what experience do people have? No experience? Do you like to cook, and if so, what? No experience cooking? What do you like to eat?) – expectations – what’s going to happen today – my failings as a tutor. I burn the bread, don’t read my notes, sound as if I’m telling you off (I’m not!), if I talk too fast, tell me to slow down and relax, this is a fun session!

Any Qs at any time - I never mind repeating myself. Emphasise fun aspect. Kettle is on at all times for coffee/teas, etc. (Courtesy of Ken – you might want to make a contribution.)

Discuss how we’ll use the ovens – two domestic, plus my 3 small ovens - need to maximise their use. Check with me if your bread is risen enough to be baked. It will be your responsibility to watch your bread in the oven.

First dough – loaf of bread Or: fancy dinner rolls – 2 mugs or 400g flour, salt, yeast, 2/3rds water and olive oil. Plus extra water. I’ll  demonstrate how I mix a dough – students follow suit. Put to one side   [400g]

Pizza dough – 1 1/2 mugs or 300g flour, salt, some water, 1 teaspoon yeast – add enough water to make a handleable dough        [300g]

Shaping - divide in two and make 1 pizza and 3 sizzlers. Roll out one large circle and four small circles, etc. Add toppings, etc, and put to prove (This is going to be our lunch) Place an initial, made from dough, on top of your bread to identify it

Knead the first dough for about 20 seconds

Demo and explanation of no-knead, overnight bread. I'll shape my rolls and put them to prove.

Dough for croissants, etc – 1 mug flour, etc. Layer with hard fat, fold, and place in fridge [200g]

Knead first dough again

Fruit dough – 1 1/2 mugs flour or 300g flour, fruit, spice, sugar, yeast water and olive oil.  [300g]

Divide in two and make Chelsea and hot cross buns with one half, and either the apfel kuchen, the Swedish tea ring or the schiaccatta con l’uva with the other.

Take out the croissant dough and fold once more – put back in the fridge

Knead the first dough again – should be drying out by now

Make the sweet dough and shape the doughnuts/pain au chocolat/iced buns etc. [200g]

Lunch              (could be earlier). Hand out the knowledge and attitude checklists 

Knead dough and fold croissant dough – place back in fridge

After demo from me, shape loaves with first dough - suggested breads, focaccia, plait, cottage, bloomer (just demonstrate a tinned loaf) and put to prove

Another demo – decide what layered breads are to be made by each student. Squares for Danish and yum yums – long strip for croissants        

Shape and put to prove.

Any time left, make a soda bread and or pancakes or pikelets.

[All through the day we'll be putting bread to prove - checking it, baking it and watching it in the oven.]

Summary:

What have we learned today?

Feedback checklists to students

Homework

Any results from that homework - would be nice if you could email me any pics or stories of how you've passed on your newly acquired skills. I can then post them on here.

Reflections on the day:
On a beautiful spring-like morning I drove the 16 or so miles to Stogumber, through some of the loveliest countryside in England, to Stogumber Village Hall.

11 students turned up (Ken, Russell, Gill, Penny, Joe, Daphne, Mike, Sue, Alan, Mel, Dennis) - some with a lot of experience, a couple with none and a few in between, including several with bread machines. Unusually, in my experience, there were more men than women - 7 to 4.

We stuck with the programme pretty much, in the early stages - but one thing we hadn't bargained on was a problem with the ovens. There were two ovens, alright, but one was a good size, whilst the other was very narrow, so only a few of the oven trays we'd brought would fit it.

This meant that, at times, we built up a backlog of proving bread. I should, at this stage, have reduced the programme somewhat. In the event, students had to take home the last dough they shaped - the croissant dough - to bake.

Here are some pics - not as many as I would have liked, but I just never remember to get round to it!

Russell, Penny, Joe, Daphne, Mike and Sue. Hard at work; or relaxing! 

Alan's  poppy seed plait, rosemary focaccia and bloomer - all from one batch of dough

 Penny drizzling olive oil on her focaccia

Penny's Danish pastries

Those are probably Gill's croissants and Danish pastries

 Gill also took some photo's:

Alan, Mel and Dennis waiting for the fun to start. 

Me, pontificating - as I'm wont to do! 

Looks like Ken's feeling the pressure - and we haven't even started yet!

Several finished pizzas in the kitchen 

Some students working hard - others, not!

Penny adding rosemary to her focaccia

Rosemary focaccia and white rolls

Someone's bloomer - not sure who's.

Gill's granary loaf - which she made at home after the course.

Joe shaping his rolls

Me - just checking!

FAMILY BREADMAKING AT CASTLE CARY

A brilliant (not my word) Family Learning session at the far end of Somerset this morning! Up at the crack of dawn (7.15 - well it is for me!) and out of the house at 7.45 for the 35 mile trip to Castle Cary primary school, where I had up to 15 families waiting to make bread.

In the event, there turned out to be 12 children and 10 parents in the session. One or two of the mothers had made bread, with varying rates of success, and there were a couple of students with experience of bread machines, and that was it. Lots of cooking going on, most making cakes with their children, but very little bread.

One of the students was a French chef, who managed a local eaterie - even he had never made bread!

After a demo from me, they all made a batch of dough, with the youngsters showing quite a bit of competence (these were year 2 children, aged 6 and 7). Then they divided the dough into 2 pieces, one large and one small. The large piece was turned into 4 or so rolls of varying shapes while the other bit was to be a pizza.

I'd taken my four small ovens along, but it was still nice to see a domestic oven in the small kitchen adjoining the "Hive" as the activities room was called.

Here's the setup - with 2 shelves in each of the small ovens and 3 in the large one. 11 in all - but with 2 trays each holding 2 batches, there was room for all the batches of bread at one time.

One of my small ovens in action

The batch on the right was hopelessly burnt, so I gave the family the bread I'd made for the demo - on the right

Each batch was numbered - that's number 5 on the left, not sure about the other one!

Another batch

One of the youngsters breaking off a bit of bread from his roll

More shapes and another taster for someone!

Pizzas proving

More pizzas

Proving and baking

Ready to eat...

And pretty well all gone!

The hardest thing for the adults in these classes is - not doing it for their children! The breadmaking is easy - keeping your hands out and letting the children get on with it is difficult for the adults. But I delight in showing them just how competent their children can be, when given a chance.

Before I left I gave them all some homework - to find someone who doesn't know how to make bread and teach them what they've learned today. Not only will this spread some breadmaking ripples around, but the students themselves will enhance their own breadmaking skills.

The feedback was universally positive - they all loved it and would like some more of these sessions!

One comment I particularly liked, when asked what the parent had enjoyed about the session, was:
"Sitting back and watching my child do baking and not needing any help. You never know what your child can do."

I must add, in conclusion, that I had great support from the course organiser, Maureen, and the class teacher, Emma. Thanks, guys!

Autolyse - an investigation

Sunday 4th March,

Here we go again! :-)


Beginning at 9.15am (bit more organised this time!) I combined 450g wholemeal flour and 500g of water into a sloppy dough, covered it with a dry teatowel and left it on the worktop.

2.00pm: Added 5g fresh yeast and 30g (ml) cold water and gave the gloopy mix a vigorous mixing for about thirty seconds, to ensure the yeast properly reaches all parts. My 'D-shaped spatula with handle' is  particularly useful for this:

Just flour and water at this stage

By 6.15pm it looked like this:

Now it's bursting with life - the yeast is doing its work

Now I added the rest of the ingredients - 150g strong white flour, 90g ground flaxseeds, 7g salt and 54g olive oil - and mixed into a shaggy mass:

Doesn't look much, does it?

Now I shall give it several short kneadings at intervals over a period - and eventually, after I'd got it to the stage where it could be left to prove for an hour or so, I realised I'd done it again! I'd missed out 100g of wholemeal. I added 150 to 450 and got 700! :( And me with an 'O' level in maths!

This is always a sticky dough, and this was pretty sticky - it was taking me longer than usual (more short kneadings than is normally the case) to get it to a stage where it could be shaped. But eventually, after I'd reached that stage, I realised what I'd done.

So I added the 100g wholemeal, with 60g of water and another 5g of yeast (it was getting late and I was up against the clock) and kneaded it all together. Eventually I was happy with it and shaped it into rolls.

I've decided to reduce the size of my rolls, somewhat, so I divided the dough into 14 instead of 12 and shaped into rolls:

Need to huddle them together somewhat so that they would fit under my roasting tray - using the 'undercover' method

Eventually I baked them off, finishing about 1.45am!

They were weighed off at approximately 104g each - and, after baking and cooling they weighed between 84 and 98g. The ones in the middle, of course, lost the most moisture.

I've had a couple of these rolls today, and there's no doubt they're very tasty. But then, my rolls always are. The only difference I can see is that, once again, they seem to be a tad lighter than my usual rolls.

The next batch I make, after freezing, I'll take, along with one from this batch, to a group of friends and do a blind tasting with them.

Hopefully, I'll get my maths right next time!



[More to come]


Saturday 18th February
Had to make some more rolls today, so I thought I'd have another go at an autolyse.

Starting at 7.10 in the evening I mixed 550g Dove's wholemeal with 485ml of water and left it for a couple of hours.

Later than I meant to, around 9 o'clock I added 8g of salt, 60g of flax seeds and the rest of the liquid - 55ml which included 10g of fresh yeast, plus 50g EVOO.

I couldn't understand why it was so wet - for over an hour I was giving it a short knead, leaving it for ten minutes, kneading again, etc, and eventually I thought, "I'll have to go with this." To test if it was OK once moulded, I shaped a roll and left it for ten minutes. It was fine.

I then started weighing out the rolls - divide the dough into six pieces, weigh them around 220g then divide each piece into two before shaping. Puzzlingly, I found I was about 100g light??

Only then did I realise that I hadn't added the usual 150g of white flour I was supposed to add, to give me a hydration of 70% (700g flour + 60g ground flaxseeds to 535ml water).

Stupidly, instead of working out that I needed around 60g flour and 40g water, I added some white flour without measuring it - so then I had to keep adding water to achieve a workable dough. Eventually,  after much faffing about I got it to my liking.

The mix ended up about 60g heavier than my usual, so my rolls will be bigger by an extra 5g.

I then went ahead and proved and baked them - under cover as is my wont - and I'll check them tomorrow to see if there is any difference in flavour.

I didn't come back as I intended - but I have to report that, while I could detect no difference in flavour, they did seem to be a tad bigger and lighter than my usual rolls. However, since there are so many variables (especially the way I mishandled the ingredients) that I can't say it was down to the autolyse process. More work to be done!

Friday, 9th December
In a recent conversation on the BBC Food message board about the effects of adding salt to a dough and when you should add it, the subject of the autolyse method of making bread came up.

I first have to say that, experienced bread baker as I am, I’ve not looked closely at this method of preparing a bread dough before.

Reading about the explosive increase  of flavour experienced by users of method I knew I’d have to investigate further – which meant a side by side trial!:(

(I have to say the bloke who’s method I’m following – perhaps mistakenly – is full of contradictions. We’ll come to them later.)

So: needing to make a side-by-side trial, whilst making a batch of rolls to take up to my daughter for my weekend trip to London, I divided my dough in two.

Batch A:

300g wholemeal

50g white

30g of ground flaxseeds (this is how I get my Omegas)

all mixed together – 50g of the mix set aside with 4g of salt added (the handful the author describes)

To the remainder I added:

269g of yeast liquid – including 4g fresh yeast

25g EVOO

Batch B:

300g wholemeal

50g white

30g of ground flaxseeds

4g salt

all mixed together – 50g of the mix set aside

To the remainder I added:

266g of yeast liquid – including 4g fresh yeast

25g EVOO

I mixed each of these into a dough, then left them – for about 30 minutes. When I came to add the rest of the flour – in one case – and the flour and salt in another, I mixed the flour into the dough and left it. I have to say that the dough – despite using the same amount of water as I usually do – came together in a much less sticky dough.

I have to say I could find no difference in flavour between the two batches. The flavour overall is excellent - but then, it always is!

Here's another conversation where adding salt whilst autolysing doesn't seem to make any difference.

Tonight I'm comparing half a batch of rolls using the autolyse method with half using my usual 'several short kneadings' method of making bread.

Swedish tea ring

Made in by one of my students, Sarah

Ingredients:

200g (or 1 mugs) strong white flour

1 tablespoon sugar

1 tsp each mixed spice

100g (or 1/2 mug) dried fruit (currants, sultanas or raisins plus mixed peel)

1 dessertspoon fresh yeast or 1 teaspoon dried yeast

250ml (or 2/3rds mug) lukewarm water

2 dessertspoons olive oil (optional)

Topping:

Sprinkle with icing sugar

Method:

1. Measure the water and stir in the fresh yeast. Place the flour, sugar, spice and dried fruit into a mixing bowl, pour in the yeast liquid, then add the olive oil.

2. Have a little water to hand to add if necessary and begin to mix by stirring the ingredients together with the fingers of one hand. Squeeze the mixture together and keep turning it over and pressing it down to pick up the flour at the bottom of the bowl – but make sure it stays soft. Don’t be afraid to add more water to keep it soft! When all the flour has been mixed in, wipe the bowl around with the dough, turn it out onto the worktop and begin to knead.

3. Knead by flattening the dough out, folding it over and flattening it again. Knead until the dough becomes smooth – and then stop before you get fed up!

4. Leave to prove for about an hour on your worktop, covered with a dry tea towel. Or place in an oiled plastic bag until you are ready for step 5.

5. Roll the dough out into a rectangle, 30cm by 20cm. Brush with oil, sprinkle with the sugar and cinnamon and scatter 25g flaked almonds over. Roll up the dough along the long side, as you would a Swiss roll, and bring it to rest on the seam. Place it on a greased baking sheet (or one lined with baking parchment), and form it into a circle. Tuck one end into the other and pinch the join together.

6. Leave to rise appreciably. With a sharp knife, or a pair of scissors, slash the ring halfway through at intervals of 4-5cm.

7. Bake for approximately 20 minutes at 220C, 425F or gas mark 7. To check if it is done, lift one side with a palette knife; if it all lifts together, and there is colour across the base, it is done.

8. Place on cooling tray and dust with icing sugar.

Salt in bread

When I became a breadmaking tutor in the early 90s, one of my goals was to demystify breadmaking; to remove all the many myths that surround the whole procedure – which is, IMO, one of the simplest processes it’s possible to undertake in a kitchen – and show it for the simple craft that it is.


One of these myths is that ‘Salt is essential in breadmaking.


Not true! Bread only needs 3 ingredients - flour, water and yeast (either commercial or wild).


My dad had a small baker's shop, back in the 40s and 50s, and, every now and then, he would be asked by one of his customers to make a loaf without salt. These were, in the main, pregnant women with high blood pressure, who were told by their doctors to reduce their salt intake.


So I've never bought the 'Bread must include salt' line.


There is a whole region of Italy (where they know a thing or two about making bread) that doesn’t use salt in bread. Not at all! Haven’t done so for centuries – and yet the bread they produce is highly regarded. I’m talking about Tuscany


Salt, to me, is just like sugar in coffee – it’s very easy to train the palette to do without it.


When my first granddaughter started eating bread, about 10 years ago now, my daughter-in-law asked me to make bread without salt. I used Dove’s organic wholemeal (here in the UK) and found that, once I got used to it, the bread tasted fine – in fact it was full of flavor.


For myself I use 1% - or 1g per 100g of flour - about half the amount I used to use. I find that quite sufficient – but I can leave it out at any time.


The bottom line is that the amount of salt anyone uses is subjective – it’s entirely up to you how much you use.


24/2/2012
It's only today, after writing all this, that I realised I make bread without salt on a regular basis. I gave up using salt in my sweetened breads, over ten years ago - I didn't see the point of using salt and sugar in the same bread. I treat salt as just another ingredient, which I include or leave out as necessary.


The lack of salt in no way affects the dough - nor does it affect the flavour.


We make iced buns, for instance, regularly in my teaching sessions and no-one has ever tasted them and said they are lacking in flavour - yet almost every recipe I looked at on the net contains salt. I have to ask, "Why"?


The only conclusion I can come to is that, "Because it's always been done this way".

Marmalade

I've been making my own marmalade for a couple of years now, and although I say it myself, it's not bad! I like to use a variety of different fruits - and I include loads of ginger. Up until now I've added a glass of Cointreau just before bottling, but I since I don't have any left I shall use Benedictine.

Recipe:
1.6g citrus fruit - 1kg Seville oranges plus a grapefruit, 3 lemons (I couldn't buy just the one!) and a lime 
500g crystallised ginger
2.5kg sugar
1.75ltrs water  

So far I've spent about 40 minutes slicing up the fruit and removing the pips

Boiled for a couple of hours and ready to be cut into strips

I then boiled the chopped up the fruit for a couple of hours, and, when the mixture cooled, I spent another 40 or so minutes cutting the fruit into strips. 

Just needs the ginger and sugar

Both quite tedious jobs, but they have to be done.

(Updated, January 2013 to say that now, instead of cutting up the raw fruit, I've found that cooking it first makes it much easier to chop, and saves a heck of a lot of time!)

I've never used the pips wrapped in muslin method - I prefer to blitz the pips in the microwave and strain the liquid into the marmalade.

I've now got to chop up the ginger into smaller lumps - another job I'm not looking forward to!

Thursday evening - ginger all chopped up. However, whilst I was doing this I let the fruit catch on the bottom of the pan (it's not the greatest) and had to spend half an hour - or more - scrubbing the black off!

This marmalade task is dragging out, partly because I'm combining it with painting the bedroom! :)

Hope to finish it tomorrow!

Friday evening I managed to complete the task.

Once I got the marmalade to a rolling boil it took about half an hour and about 8 tests before I was satisfied. 

To sterilise the jars I placed about a centimetre of boiling water in each jar and boiled them for a few minutes in the microwave.

Once I'd filled all the bottles and put the lids on I turned them upside down to seal the tops. I also added 1 dessertspoon of Benedictine to 4 of the jars (the ones with a B on them), just to see how what it's like. (I've previously only used Cointreau, but I've run out!) If I like it, I'll add it to the other jars.

The gap remains at the bottom of the jars - as you can see with the one on the left

In total, I've now got 4.7 kilos of marmalade - should last me until the next Seville orange season. :-)

Wellington Children's Centre

I have been asked by Kelly, one of the organisers, to run a 3 week breadmaking course with their families, on Jan 25th, Feb 1st and Feb 8th. (Story starts at the foot of this post.)


Wednesday 29th February.
Finally, with three families having turned up, we ran the session this morning. These small sessions are often more intense - and cosy, I suppose

[More to come]


Wednesday 22nd February.
Unfortunately, as often happens after a break - and this was a break of 3 weeks - only one family turned up; so it was decided to try again next week.

Wednesday 8th February.
I couldn't make this date, and the 15th fell in the middle of half term so the 3rd session has been rescheduled for the 22nd.

Wednesday 1st February.
The word had obviously gone out, because we had 7 families (all mothers) today! 5 new families and 2 from last week. (Benjy and his dad couldn't make it.)

After a demo from me, everyone set to with a will - half of the mothers with babies on the lap were doing everything one-handed - and the dough was made and the pizzas almost finished before I remembered to take a picture. It was a busy, hectic, session - no-one (except for the two families from last week) had made bread before, so everything was all new.

The pizza dough was 1 mug flour, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1/3rd mug water and a teaspoon of yeast. This was quickly kneaded, rolled out into a circle and covered with tomato puree (made into a sauce with the addition of water) and grated cheese)

The initials on top of the pizza are to identify them - otherwise it would be impossible to reunite everyone with their own.

One of the mothers made a tiny pizza for her daughter - you can just see it next to the topmost pizza in the picture. An idea I think I might pinch for the next time I do a session with very young children. The pizza, being very small, cools down very quickly, so the child can get stuck in to 'her' pizza very quickly.


Wednesday 25th January
We only had a small group in the first session - 2 mums, one dad, two babies and a 3-year-old. It was a very relaxed session where each family made a batch of dough -  and made a variety of shapes. The three-year-old, Benjy, was a delight, taking to shaping the fancy dinner roll shapes with gusto! I've been promised some photos which I'll post when I get them. Next week we're making pizza - and the week after, petit pain au chocolat and jam doughnuts.