Expert Advice

We are often asked whether a particular flour that we stock is bleached or unbleached. Bleaching is a chemical process to make what might be off-white flours whiter, for aesthetic reasons and also for some performance benefits. All European/UK flour is unbleached by law even though some might be labelled unbleached actually all of it is. Some countries (including US) do bleach flour but we will ... Read more

It’s common today for millers to tell you about the way grain is grown and the accreditation they have for making the claims they do – such as Soil Association, Organic Farmers & Growers, Red Tractor, for example – as many of us do care about how grain is grown, the pesticides and herbicides used, and how this affects agriculture, the land and biodiversity. Increasingly, the issue of ... 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

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

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

We're sometimes asked questions about rye flour, for example "what's the difference between dark rye and light rye?", and "is all rye flour wholemeal?". Hopefully we can quickly clear up any confusion you might have about rye flour and how it's sometimes labelled. Thanks to Andrew Wilkinson of Gilchester, and baking guru Dan Lepard for their input. Like wheat flours, rye can be classified by how ... Read more

There are several ways we can help the relief effort to support the Ukrainians who are fleeing the war in their country, as well as those staying at home to defend it. We also need to remember the many Ukrainian people working to bake and provide food for their communities, keeping everyday supplies flowing, even while missiles are firing above them... At BakeryBits, we’ve worked with companies... Read more

Brød & Taylor FAQ Answers to your questions about… the Brød & Taylor Bread Proofer. What is the Brød & Taylor Bread Proofer?? It’s a metal heating plate with a folding box that sits above it, holding the warmth or heat in. The lid has a clear Perspex-style window to you can look inside to reassure yourself what state your dough has risen to, though ... Read more

Tested: The Ankarsrum® Assistent Mixer, get the best price and find out more about it here. Summary: beautiful to look at and easy to use (no steep learning curve, no idea why some reviewers say this) Recipe tested: Dark Malt Focaccia Notable: straightforward mixing, quiet motor, very easy to add ingredients, cleaning the easiest ever. Opening the box The Ankarsrum Assistent arrived ... Read more

Be Inspired by South & East Asian Baking Happy Lunar New Year, bakers! At BakeryBits we wish you every success in what looks to be an auspicious and exciting year. We've got a super-packed newsletter for you this week, fantastic interviews with bakers around the world explaining Lunar New Year from their perspective. Plus a new recipe for a saffron garlic bread dough made using Asian baking ... Read more

The Best Bread to Eat With Marmalade It's toast-time at BakeryBits and we want you to get adventurous about the flours you use for the bread you bake: so many possibilities... As bakers we get very focused on what goes in our bread, wanting the best flour (BakeryBits probably has the best selection of great flour online), the finest sea salt (yes BakeryBits sells a range of salt too), but often ... Read more

Ankarsrum FAQ Answers to your questions about… the Ankarsrum mixer What is the Ankarsrum® Assistent? It’s one of the oldest kitchen mixers on the market, with a huge following the world over, due to Ankarsrum’s reliability, powerful motor, beautiful design and wide variety of attachments: from easy bread dough to pasta making, make fresh ice-cream, grind meat for your own... Read more

Here at BakeryBits we embrace vegan recipes whenever we can, and help veganise ("veganize" with US-spelling) recipes, as it allows us to put more of the world’s extraordinary vegetables, fruits, grains and seeds in our diet, rather than ever being denied great food. For many of us, our baking and cooking approach can get stuck in a groove. Food traditions are built on habit and to some ... Read more

Whether it's for Christmas, a birthday, a special thank-you or a first home gift, I've put together a list that will tickle the heart of that special baker, or baker-to-be, in your life. All prices are ex-postage/delivery costs, and correct at the time of writing (7/12/2021). Though under each price-point I've group things together you can buy for about that sum, I've left the list as single ... Read more