No room in the freezer

On November 22, 2018 by battenburgbelle

I haven’t actually moved into Bread Ahead. I have been hanging out there a lot of late and I LOVE it. Recent adventures have included: New York bakery, Pretzels and Bagels, Scandinavian bakery and an enlightening gluten-free session. It’s hard to identify highlights – it’s all so good, the teachers, the range of classes and the tasty fruits of our labours. There really is very little room in my freezer right now, even though I recently invested in a larger one. This is somewhat hampering my ability to put my new skills into practice, but I’m plotting a little sourdough loaf later in the week.

New York Bakery

New York Bakery

On New York day, I was thrilled to be reunited with my sourdough chums Mary-Rose and Lucy. We started out making hot dog buns. I’m not a big fan of the frankfurter – and any words I have experimented with to express my feelings just sound smutty, so let’s just leave it at I don’t love them. I went for the veggie version and it was fine. However the buns themselves were stunning – light, fluffy and professional-looking. I popped some in the freezer (back when there was still room in there) and we had them with proper sausages for bonfire night. There was a lot of drooling going on round here.

bagel with smoked salmon and cream cheese

bagel with smoked salmon and cream cheese

We also made a rye loaf, a batch of bialys and some bagels. All delicious. I have since said out loud to several friends that I will never buy a bagel again, which I realise is setting myself up to fail, as I am hoping to get back to New York some time, but the point is, it is well worth the effort involved to make your own. Great with some smoked salmon and cream cheese for a quick breakfast. I had to rush away early from the class to rescue a dinner party for a friend (yes, I can help with that kind of thing for north London readers), so I only got half way through my pretzels. Luckily, I was already booked onto a separate pretzels and bagels morning, so I did get to try again. Similar technique to the bagels and highly entertaining to watch a group of learner bakers attempt to replicate the perfectly shaped pretzels our teacher Manuel was effortlessly fashioning, while chatting away about life, bread and stuff like that. Us beginners ended up with an interesting selection of shapes and sizes – but there’s plenty of time to perfect these and they tasted so good that I went out of my way to purchase a bottle of squeezy mustard on the way home to go with them. I just about managed to resist the temptation to make a spectacle of myself and tuck into them on the tube.

Scandi day at Bread Ahead

Scandi day at Bread Ahead

Scandi day was lots of fun too – I have to be honest, I don’t think I’ll be making the nutty, seedy loaf again, but I will be making more rye loaves and I will definitely be looking for reasons to fill the house with the gorgeous aroma of freshly baked cinnamon buns.

gluten-free delights

gluten-free delights

And finally (for now) – I went along to gluten-free baking day. No one in my family or the circle of friends on whom I experiment on a regular basis requires me to produce gluten-free goodies, but it’s good to have some tried and tested recipes in my repertoire. We made a chia and linseed loaf, which was easy to do and really tasty, plus some delicious cheese straws. As you can see, I went for an “artisan” look with these, a handy description covers a multitude of baking sins… And then there were these.

amaretti

amaretti

Amaretti biscuits – so so good. Missy B swiped one bag and took them straight up to her room. They also got a great review from a friend I happened to be meeting straight after class. If you’re on my Christmas list, you may receive a bag of these this festive season. And by way of a bonus, I discovered that my new Borrow My Doggy friend is, in fact, gluten-free, so now I have a captive  audience for these experiments. There were a couple of people on the course who are coeliac and it was really illuminating to hear how hard it is for them to find good quality alternatives to buy or bake and to hear how the world is now finally catching up. They bombarded our great teacher, Kevan, with suggestions for more courses to help them branch out.

There’s more baking to come – watch this space for reports of my forthcoming trips to Bread Ahead. And if you’re passing by my house, you’ll probably get a loaf of some sort to take home. It won’t be optional.

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