The Baker's Blog

A wheat flour-based sauce has been shown in trials to give a more pleasing flavour – what food tech people call mouth-feel – for savoury food, compared to sauces thickened with cornflour or other starches that are better suited to sweet dished. So that old-fashioned pan gravy my mother would make for Sunday roasts was the way to go, and still my favourite. By browning the butter ... Read more

Packed with flavour and a gentle flaky texture (not the super-high rise made with white flour) this is a very buttery rich pastry with a great wheaten flavour and a gentle honey sweetness. Perfect for savoury and sweet pies, pasties and sausage rolls. Freezes very well, just thaw in the refrigerator before rolling. makes enough to line and top 2 large pies, to fit our Pie Plate 9" (20.2cm)Method ... Read more

A classic, simple pie that is easy to adapt. Though it’s a roast chicken pie you can replace the chicken with cooked firm fish, or a vegetarian alternative like cooked Jerusalem artichokes and carrots, you can get very inventive here and still get a great pie. You’ll need one of our 20cm (9 inch) Chicago Metallic pie plates, plus our Stainless Steel Flour Dredger (for dusting the ... Read more

Very useful for pies, savoury Danish, on any pastry or dough that needs a layer of a creamy filling that won’t add too much fat or oil. I use it when I’m making cheese and leek croissants out of day-old baked plain croissants: split them in half lengthways, spread some of this sauce over the cut surface on both halves, then top with grated cheese and leek.Method Whisk the flour and ... Read more

There are times when want the heartiest, chewy, jaw-aching crust on my bread with a slightly waxy, vaguely dense crumb (open-texture optional), but other times…well, I like bread a little more insubstantial. In a world once filled with cotton-wool bread, in days gone by (ok, the 1990s), I used to long for the sturdy muscle of a great sourdough, laced with rye and wholewheat and felt sad ... Read more

These are great everyday soft rolls that taste perfectly plain and straight-up, nothing brioche-like about them, even with the small amounts of different ingredients added in. The extra ingredients beyond flour, water and yeast all help to somewhat imitate the “improvers” bigger bakeries add to get the same soft light result, but easier to get hold of for the kitchen or small bakery. ... Read more

Get one of our very sturdy finger roll tins, known as a USA Pans, Finger roll, Hot Dog, Bun tin, and make these great bread rolls extra-soft and light with just a smidgeon of cooked potato, cream, milk and butter. Makes ten large finger rollsMethod Have the cooked mashed potato ready and leave to one side. Put the water in a mixing bowl and whisk in the yeast until dissolved. Then beat in the ... Read more

A very simple, utterly delicious rich mocha chocolate cake with a great coffee flavour thanks to Brazier's Altitude House Blend coffee, and an intense chocolate flavour. I've baked this in our Chicago Metallic Unglazed Professional Sponge Cake Tin (20cm/8-inch diameter), especially good as it's 5cm (2 inches) deep so it can bake a generous thick layer of cake easily.Method Line the base of a deep ... Read more

Get the flour you want with a Mockmill Bespoke milling is the hottest must-do in artisan baking today, and a Mockmill - a home tabletop electric grain mill - allows you to mill exactly what you want when you want it, giving you the ultimate control over the final grains – what millers call the grist, as in the saying “grist for the mill” – that will become your flour. ... Read more

Hot-cross buns are a favourite of mine and although I like most Easter foods – Simnel Cake, Easter Eggs, and those chocolate crispy cakes with mini eggs on to – I am completely obsessed with hot-cross buns and bake these for an extended Easter period. Who know, perhaps even into Summer. A rich yeasty glazed bun that toasts to perfection, packed with flavour and amazing fruit, that just needs a ... Read more

Every month I’ll get a message from someone crying out in desperation “HELP, my sourdough starter isn’t working”. Or that’s not bubbly, and occasionally the worry that it might have died altogether. On the latter it’s fairly unlikely that you have every killed it, these yeast and bacteria that make your starter are pretty hardy and just need a few comforts in life to keep them happy. ... Read more

If you put wheat flour, water (and some salt, if you like) in a bowl, mix it well, roll pieces of it thin and cook it on a hot metal bakestone you’ll get one of the earliest forms of bread, what’s known as unleavened flatbread. Easy to make, utterly delicious: today there are many people who make and enjoy this bread pretty much the way it was made hundreds of years ago. Perhaps the flour ... Read more

Does this happen to you? You make a cake, or see a cake on a café menu, get very excited about what it will taste like… then drat, you find the cake flavour is underwhelming, lacking the spark and oomph you thought it would have based on its description. You, or the baker at the café, might have used the very best, finest, or dare I say it, most expensive ingredients but still it tasted flat. ... Read more

I’m always looking for ways to create Easter bakes that are big on flavour and a joy to eat but are a little healthier at the same time. Hot Cross Buns traditionally have added sugar but as dried fruit are intensely sweet, so you don’t need any extra. The dates in particular give a warm rich sugar hit. I’ve lived in various African countries and finding butter was often an issue. ... Read more

A baba is a small bread-like dessert "cake" that is soaked in a lightly flavoured sugar syrup, and served cold or at room temperature with big spoonful of slightly sweetened cream and a slosh of rum that gives it its name. As desserts go it’s very simple and unfussy, yet for people like myself who love it we class it as one of the classics of French patisserie. Under the hood this is based ... Read more

Quick to make, dairy-free and utterly rich, dark and delicious, this pound-cake style banana cake uses stoneground wholemeal rye flour and roasted barley malt flour to give a hearty texture and flavour. You can swap the walnuts for pecans if you like, or leave them out. Keeps very well, and freezes perfectly either as a whole cake or sliced. I've baked this in our BakeryBits Traditional 2lb or ... Read more

Though we read news stories of millions forced to flee their homes and the Ukraine for safety, that’s not the whole situation. Right now bakers, cooks, front-of-house people and others are working daily to provide food to their community but also hospitals, army, the poor and anyone in need. I spoke with Anna Makievska, founder of Bakehouse artisan bakery in Kyiv which - as part of the ... Read more

For some bakers this loaf is considered the King of Sourdough as it has a reputation for both an amazing flavour (which it does) and a complexity in getting it right. It has an intense sourdough tang to it, perfect when paired with strong-flavoured foods like pickled herrings or blue cheese. Though my favourite way of eating it is toasted and buttered with Seville marmalade. Using what’s ... Read more