Bakers

Dan’s Double Chocolate Lamingtons – too good for lamingtons (dairy-free, soya-free)

April 23, 2012
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The 4 year old asked for chocolate brownies yesterday and I made these instead, she calls herself the “brownie monster” and when I told her I was making chocolate lamingtons not brownies she made that pout face of disapproval but I converted her as soon as I let her try some of the sponge. It’s a moist [...]

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The Broken Relationship Between Farmer, Miller & Baker

March 11, 2012
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It appears the relationship between farmer, miller and baker is somewhat broken and I feel this relationship should be intrinsically bound. Reading last night the book Dan Lepard  recommended to me a month ago, Breads White And Brown – Their Place In History, by R A McCance and E M Widdowson,  the author mentions in early [...]

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Dan & Chad’s Levain, UK & US

February 13, 2012
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Last year I knew how to achieve a sour or mild tasting loaf from adjusting the proportions of how the levain (leaven) was fed.  I don’t mean using a liquid or stiff starter which is a well known way of controlling acidity in a dough, I mean within your liquid starter you can affect the [...]

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Roland Feuillas, Les Maîtres de mon Moulin

October 26, 2011
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Roland Feuillas runs courses on his ancient grains through his mill in Cucugnan, contact him, contact@farinesdemeule.com, 00 33 4 68 33 55 03 or via his website  here.  If passing that part of the world visit his bakery and taste the bread baked in his special wood-fire oven. Words I associate with Roland are; passion, mission, generosity, kind, [...]

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Baking with Roland in Cucugnan

October 24, 2011
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A week ago today I arrived in Cucugnan to bake with Roland Feuillas in his bakery  and learn about what this man so highly spoken of by Jean-Philippe de Tonnac was doing in a small village in the South West of France.  I didn’t have a clue what to expect since Jean-Philippe said very little [...]

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King of Wood Fired Ovens in Cucugnan

October 20, 2011
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In Roland’s small bakery  taking up most of the space is this monster wood fired oven.  You can see this is no-model-kit oven, it took 2 men at a time working on it who came from Spain, Ecuador and Colombia a year to build, it has something like 30 or 40 thousand kilos of clay. [...]

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Cucugnan Medieval Village, South of France

October 20, 2011
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Here I am, months after my first conversation back in June with Jean-Philippe de Tonnac  in Paris while searching for good bakeries, I’ve finally arrived in Cucugnan.  Back in Paris on pressing Jean-Philippe to tell me what his favourite bread was he had one name for me; Roland Feuillas. Roland embodies the purest form of [...]

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Paul Merry & Panary Baking Courses

October 10, 2011
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Paul runs baking courses on different style breads from beginners to courses aimed at professional bakers wanting to set up their own bakery.  He also runs wood fired oven workshops at Panary and sells them.  Contact details are on the Panary site here, or email him; info@panary.co.uk This is an easy post for me to [...]

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Dan Lepard and his new book: Short & Sweet

September 28, 2011
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It was a coincidence that Bikerboy and I met Dan and David at their home when the first copy of their new book, Short & Sweet  arrived in the country.  We had just finished lunch and Dan was showing the final draft of the book, explaining how they had to insist on the very specific [...]

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Dan Lepard Workshop at the Cookery School, London

September 28, 2011
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Last Saturday I attended Dan Lepard’s workshop on sourdough, held in the centrally located kitchen of the Cookery School in London.  It’s one of my favourite areas of London not because I know it so well having worked around there for years in a previous life but because it’s a stone’s throw away from John [...]

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Holtwhites Bakery in Enfield

September 2, 2011
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Richard and Kate are living my dream running a small artisan bakery, Holtwhites in North London Enfield.  Richard was a teacher who decided like many of us halfway through our working lives that life is too short and we should live the rest of it doing something we’re passionate about…while we’re still young enough.  After [...]

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Gregoire Michaud – Talented Chef, Good All-round Guy

July 28, 2011
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After knowing Gregoire for months through twitter and blogging I finally met him and his gorgeous family this afternoon as he was passing through London on the way to his holidaying home in Switzerland.  Gregoire is the pastry chef at the Four Season’s Hotel in Hong Kong, a cookery author and a blogger, his blog [...]

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Paris – In Search of Bakeries

June 23, 2011
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Yesterday I had a fantastic day in Paris visiting bakeries, a favourite pastime of mine and in the company of the charismatic Jean-Philippe de Tonnac.  What more can a girl like me ask for? Walking from Gard du Nord we started in a bakery in Montmartre called Coquelicot, where I tasted with my first coffee of the day one [...]

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