I'm very fortunate to live in an area that seems to have a lot of people who care passionately about food. Locally there are people that make cider, cheese, grow good livestock and a great butchers in the village. The butchers also sells fresh bread.
Now I bake bread most days but I still think it's great that there is fresh bread available just a mile from my door, when I have bought some it's been lovely and very different to what I bake; sour doughs, cider crumb, rye breads, ciabatta, etc.
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| Kneading techniques |
I saw on Facebook that the hotel in the village was having a 2 hour demonstration by Peter Cook, the man that bakes the bread and sells it to local shops around the area. He has quite a following in the village and everyone raves about his bread (rightly so) so I thought I'd go.
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| Showing some focciaca dough |
It was just £5 for 2 hours and I picked up so many tips and learnt that I'm doing quite a few things differently to him (some might say wrong but I still make good bread!). He made, but didn't cook, some Chelsea buns, a focciata and talked about his sour dough loaves. I'm planning on making some Chelsea buns for the school bake sale on Friday so hopefully I should make them even better this time round!
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| Rolled up ready to be cut into pieces to make Chelsea buns |
What really came across was this mans passion about what he did and that he believes in good local real food and real bread. His loaves are all made by hand and some of them are three days in the making, he even says that some gluten intolerant people can eat his loaves just due to the fermentation times that the yeasts have to work. He could name all his suppliers and even collected spring water from the Malverns to use in his sour doughs.
I think I might have to book on one of his day courses and do some more learning.
Anyone else have great local producers of food?
It's fun to watch someone with passion for good food. They make it all look so easy--and lucky are those that get to see them in action. Glad you picked up some tips you can use. Always nice to learn a few new tricks. Happy baking!
ReplyDeleteI would have enjoyed this class. I think many people with gluten sensitivities have trouble with store brought bread/products. Home based products are always best, in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteKen we have local bread artisans with a wood fired oven. It's heavenly but very dear. I buy as much as I can afford but they are competing with the evil empire, soyou know how that goes
ReplyDeleteAll of the local food producers I know are everyday friends working hard in their kitchens creating breads, baked good, jams and jellies and so on. Unfortunately I live in area that would never be able to support something that wonderful. We have a very busy Walmart.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great way to spend a couple hours. I have along way to go with my bread making but this winter I plan to nail it. Fortunately my husband is not picky and eats what I make. Mistakes and all.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great event to ho to, there are lots of food produces around here, they are very well supported locally, they dont call them artisans though, everything from dairy products, organic vegetables and meat products, there is a local young man who is looking to join us at the monthly market with his breads.
ReplyDeleteCertainly home made gluten free bread is far better than the horrible dry supermarket stuff. Yes, it is a little like a cross between cake and bread but a lovely flavour.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds wonderful and well worth the£5. Good luck with your Chelsea buns.
ReplyDeleteI'd love to be in an area that offers demonstrations like that!
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