Bed and Breakfast is now open

The perfect table to enjoy your sourdough toast &  Fairtrade pot of tea at in the morning  

Oh I am just so excited. It's been months of hard work, with electricians, roofers, tilers, plasters, decorators, carpet fitters and plumbers here .. but the newest Northamptonshire bed and breakfast is now ready to have guests.  

I've tried to think of every small detail.  From buying beautiful organic cotton bedding to sourcing British made fluffy white towels, to making sure all the furniture and crockery are all vintage so as to be as ethical as possible where ever possible, and we even found some 100% wool carpets, with no man made fibres.

I think that the piece of furniture I am most delighted with I bought from Sugden and Daughters - it's a French dough table which is so appropriate in the breakfast room not least because of the sourdough bread making courses I run here. 

We started the project in July and left the builders to it whilst we were in France, but this week has seen a run for it.  Just 4 days ago there were bare floorboards and now after a marathon three day put together marathon we are up and running just in time for Dan Lepard to stay as he will be teaching here on Friday. 

Thankfully we are ready!

For more details on how to book click here. 

Orange and Pecan Sourdough

The perfect start to Valentines Day 

For me the perfect Valentines day is breakfast in bed. A cup of tea, some fabulous hot buttered toast, with marmalade and a great book!

However I had no sourdough ready in time to make my bread in time for Valentines day as my starter was ruined.  It's a long story but the short version is my freezer defrosted and yet still had a light so 9 days later my frozen stuff was well and truly disgustingly defrosted.  With so little time I was stuck and so I called an amazing baker who inspired and helped me to make my own bread again years ago ( 2006!)  called Andrew Whitley who wrote Bread Matters. 


Andrew kindly sent me  some of his starter in the post.  Unfortunately my dog got hold of the packet and chewed one half of it .. but I cut away the un chewed part and managed to rescue it and get it going !

Ingredients

200g of unbleached flour strong bread flour

200g of wholemeal strong bread flour

200ml of tepid water

1 tps sea salt

Zest of one large orange

75 g of pecans

1 tbs of polenta for dusting

2 – 3 tbs of olive oil

1 To make the bread add one nugget of starter to 200ml of tepid water.  You might need another 10 ml. Mix the nugget of starter with the water until a paste is formed then add the flour. Leave for about 20 minutes.

2 Gently knead on a lightly oiled surface for 2 minutes.  Leave again for about an hour or so.

3 Knead again adding the salt, orange zest, and pecans. Shape into a ball and leave to prove in a breadbasket, covered with a damp cloth.  There is no need to knead it lots! I leave mine for about 5 – 6 hours, until it is half raised. Check that the bubbles are formed by cutting a small slit in the dough with a sharp knife.

4 Score the bread with a pattern of your choice and put it gently onto a baking sheet dusted with polenta and transfer into a hot oven 190 with a pan of water underneath.  The steam encourages a crusty crust.   It’s that simple.

5 After 30 minutes check the bread is cooked by tapping the base.  It should sound hollow.

To make a starter

Use a glass jar or a suitable vessel with a lid.

Blend I cup of warm water and I cup of unbleached strong flour

Place in jar and keep at between 28 and 32 degrees. Do not exceed 38 degrees.

This comes to life. Every 24 hours or so for up to seven days half the mix, throw away one half and add half a cup of flour and half a cup of water again, repeat for at least three days, it will start to cake and bubble. This is normal.

Really the longer you feed it for the better, but look after it! You can store it after the first week in the fridge, keep feeding though and make sure there is a hole for air to vent, if a brown liquid appears either pour off or stir in, stirring in will increase the sourness.

Then that’s it - you have the sponge.  What baker Dan Lepard taught me was to batch freeze nuggets of this about 45 – 50g to and use them, as you need them.  From one of these you can restart your sponge to make the next lot to freeze.  Use wholemeal flour to get the best results!


Anyway I must say that between Andrews starter and Bakery bits dome and Dan teaching me the bread was delicious!

La Cloche Bakery Dome

I was asked recently by Bakery Bits to review a new product called La Cloche  .. a bakery dome.  I love making my own bread.. especially sourdough and I worked in a bakery in the south west of France  .. gosh  .. erherm years ago, so the claims of how it could transform your bread really caught my eye.  I was somewhat sceptical about what I'd read when I was at a sourdough baking class with Dan Lepard at Little Portland Street I asked him what was so fabulous about it  ...



Of course Dan was right.  I will never go back .. now I have my dome.  There have been several things I  have noticed about my bread since I have started using it.  The bell traps the steam which  maintains an even baking temperature which mean the my bread had a superb crust and more importantly stayed fresh for an extra 24 hours.

Based on ancient Greek and Roman baking traditions, the La Cloche is made from Superstone®, which is a natural stoneware, fired at over 1000°C. It is oven and freezer proof and is easy to clean, requiring only to be soaked in warm water so that any baked on food may be scraped off.

So whilst I am not prepared to part with mine(!)  the good people at Bakery bits kindly offered me one to give away to one of my readers so to win a dome simply tell me what kind of bread you would like to bake. 

RULES

Please see competition Rules before entering. This giveaway is open to all readers over 18 with a UK mainland address.  The winner will be chosen using an online randomiser and announced on this page on 2nd March 2012 You need to have a profile the allow mw to get back in touch however please do not include your email in the actual comment as well.

This competition on behalf of Bakery Bits and they will be responsible for organizing the prize with the winner. Their decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into.

There is one main way to enter and there are 5 more chances to win .. . and you must leave a separate comment for each bonus entry otherwise they will not be counted. 

For a chance to win please comment below and tell me What kind of bread you would bake.

For a second chance to win please tweet this post using the button below and you MUST comment with your twitter ID telling me you have done so.

For a third chance to win please follow me @VanessaKimbell on Twitter and comment below to tell me you have done so.

For a fourth chance to win tweet me @VanessaKimbell and tell me what kind of bread you would bake

For a 5th Chance to win Follow @BakeryBits on Twitter

Sourdough Workshop with Dan Lepard

I’ve got back into baking sourdough, having discovered several years ago that I am not actually allergic to wheat, but I am intolerant of either commercial yeast or some of he preservatives or enzymes in commercially produced bread.  I have no idea which it is .. but I do know that my own sourdough is delicious, inexpensive and I have no problems digesting it. It's a huge relief to discover I can eat wheat again, especially as I spent years baking sourdough in the village I grew up in. ( in the Dordogne.) 

I've found baking in a domestic situation a challenge. It is easy in the bakery - it is always the same but in my domestic set up my loaves are not the exact texture I have been looking for.   Perhaps is the lack of a wood fired oven, or the flour, or the water?  It is frustrating, as translating commercial baking into my kitchen should be straight forward. 

I’m a huge fan of Dan Lepard’s work and it was his book the Hand Made loaf that really inspired me to start baking again. So when  Dan invited me to his mater class I took my eldest daughter with me and spent a happy day refining my own technique.

We were made so welcome with tea and muffins for breakfast and met the other lovely bakers attending. We got to have a good look at Dan's brilliant new book Short and Sweet and  I met a lovely lady called Azlia who wrote this account of her day here and a great chap called Chris chap from The real bread Campaign  who you can listen to below talking about the course.

Dan covered all the stages of making and keeping a healthy leaven, we all got he chance to talk individually about our loaves and baking with him and the course made everyone feel that they can make bread exactly how they want to. The explanations the Dan gives means that not only do you make the bread you can touch, feel, taste, smell and experience the dough in a way

We have the most fantastic day and left with two sourdoughs’ each.  My daughter loved every minute of it we have both been totally inspired by Dan.   She leant so much about making sourdough that I now let her make her own and  I refined my knowledge to the point where I am now turning out the best bread I have ever made in a domestic kitchen. Hurrah. 

I can’t recommend doing this course enough and of course you must take a look at Dan' new book Short and Sweet 

To find out about more about the next course on 26^th of November click here.

Mothers day Sourdough loaf

It’s mother’s day today and Thank goodness I am feeling in somewhat better health. So I for one shall be making my mothers day gift. It’s not a cake, nor is it chocolates or flowers. It’s much more down to earth. I’m making her a loaf of bread, but it’s not just any loaf. I’ve been inspired by a visit to Hambleton bakery ( more on this later in the week ) to make my own sourdough made with wild yeast and to find out more Jeremy Medley of Oundle Mill offered to share his recipe below and demonstrate his techniques with me.

Ingredients

About 1kg of flour ( or so )

2 tps Sea salt

2 tsps Sugar

Tepid water.

To start with you need a cure.

The starter cure “pet”

Use a glass jar or a suitable vessel with a lid if possible.

Blend I cup of warm water and I cup of unbleached strong flour

Place in jar and keep at between 28 and 32 degrees. Do not exceed 38 degrees.

This is the pet! So every 24 hours or so for up to seven days half the mix, throw away one half and add half a cup of flour and half a cup of water again, repeat for at least three days, it will start to cake and bubble. This is normal.

The longer you feed it for the better, but look after the pet! You can store it after the first there days in the fridge, keep feeding though and make sure there is a whole for air to vent, if a brown liquid appears either pour off or stir in, stirring in will increase the sourness. This is the fermented beer smelling liquid. (Don’t drink it!)

Then that’s it - you have the sponge.

To make the bread add one cup of starter and 3 cups of unbleached flour that has 2 teaspoons of salt and two teaspoons of sugar mixed in well. Mix this and knead to a smooth dough, adding a drop of tepid water as needed. This will make two medium sized ball loafs. It’s that simple.

The retained half of the sponge becomes your cure and you must re feed it again for your next batch and keep dividing. Remember you must feed with half water and flour as before. Clean and sterilise your container often. You only want the Pet growing - and nothing else. Leave your bread on the baking tray to prove in a warm environment covered in lightly oiled Clingfilm for about 8 hours. Remove the Clingfilm and pop your two loves into a preheated oven 190 gas mark 5 for about 30 minutes. Check the bread is cooked by tapping the base. It should sound hollow.

(Any cup is fine as long as you use the same cup each time. However I use an American cup, which hold 336 ml.)

You can listen to Making this sourdough recipe on www.prepped.co.uk or listen to BBC radio Northampton 104.2 FM 103.6 FM at 10am this Sunday Morning

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