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.

Friday, 17 November 2017

BREADMAKING AT TAUNTON ASSOCIATION FOR THE HOMELESS (TAH)

Wednesday 15th November 2017
Peter came today, for the first time, and made these cheese and sausage wraps. Both the cheese and the sausage were vegan - I've decided I don't want any meat or dairy in my cooking. 

They were judged 'very tasty'. Peter also made some fruit pikelets, which he generously shared with some of the other hostel residents.
Violife pizza cheese 
Wednesday 8th November 2017
Andy came for the first time today - and made bread rolls. A baker himself he needed no guidance from me. However, they didn't turn out as well as they could have done, since we used self-raising flour, which was all we had at the time. I promised we'd have strong bread flour for the next time Andy came.

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Wednesday 25th Oct 2017
Oh dear, I'm such a lazy sod - combine that with my gadfly-like impulses and nothing appears to happen. I haven't stopped teaching at the TAH, I've just been too idle to post about it. Which is a shame because we've made some great stuff. 

I'm going to get in now with a New Year's Resolution (is this the earliest?) to update this blog every Wednesday - when I've something to report.

In the meantime, I'll see if I can't find some pics of the breads my students have made - which deserve to be celebrated!


Wednesday 11th Jan 2017

Starting another year breadmaking with the residents of TAH - but unfortunately, one this occasion, no-one came. This was partly due to the fact that there had been an Indian Cookery session just before I arrived - the two guys I spoke to both said they didn't want to do any more cooking.

Wednesday 18th Jan 2017
Never mind, back again today, and Richard agreed to join me. He made a plateful of fruit pikelets:


Self raising flour, a little sugar, water and sultanas
Whilst Richard was making the pikelets, I made a fruit soda bread in the frying pan:

These are about half the number of pieces from the loaf - the rest were a bit too crumbly
1 mug s/raising flour, 2 dessertspoons sugar, 2 teaspoons mixed spice and 1 mug sultanas, with 1/3rd mug water and a splash of olive oil.

Mixed to a dough, kneaded briefly, then rolled out to the size of the frying pan. 5 minutes, roughly, each side. I probably had the heat too high at one time - electric hobs are not very adjustable. But the bread tasted fine, as 4 smokers in the outside area testified. The rest were put on the dining room counter as an advert for my sessions.



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