So I’ve read that 00 Italian flour is the best for bread and pizza, is that true?
Forse sì, forse no. That’s Italian for maybe yes, maybe no. With that phrase alone you can go a long way in Italy, and get into some very tricky situations. See, the thing is those zero numbers have nothing to do with the doughmaking characteristics of the flour, but really only tell how finely it... Read more
Confused about these numbers in the names of many French flours: from T45 up to T150? Then find out here just what the French T-system for grading flour is all about.Choose the flour that’s right for what you want to bake…ideal for baguettes:Matthews French T55 Belle BlancA great general-purpose baguette flour, with excellent elasticity and stretch with low stickiness. The wheat... Read more
What is a sourdough starter?
A sourdough starter is a slow-rising mixture of flour and water, containing both yeast and bacteria, that together produce gas bubbles, a sour flavour, and a bright acidic aroma. Using it gives the bread a distinctive flavour, an irregular aeration, and a slightly waxy appearance to the crumb.
The yeast and bacteria contained in the sourdough starter mostly come from... Read more
A slice of toasted wholegrain Pumpernickel-style sourdough, spread with butter and the best honey is one of my favourite ways to start the day. Add in hot coffee and I’m in heaven. Bake this delightful loaf in our 23cm USA Pan Pullman Pan - this is a square-sided bread tin with a slide on lid to make square slices.
If you don’t have white rye flour you can easily make it by taking one... Read more
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
A rich and gently-malted chocolate cake with a hint of stout beer and cinnamon. Plus, it uses a mix of white and stoneground wholemeal flour so the crumb has a slightly rough texture that tastes really good.
Makes 1 deep 7” diameter round cake (that can be sliced horizontally and filled), or 1 thinner 8” diameter round cake (for a layer of cake)Method
Butter the inside of a 7&rdquo... Read more
A great simple white-style sandwich bread that slices very smoothly, excellent for sandwiches if you’re making afternoon teas or lunches. And it toasts and grills quickly giving you that perfect mix of a golden outside and soft crumb inside, just what perfect toast should be.
The loaf mainly uses strong white flour with a little wholegrain spelt and rye giving it a more complex flavour and... Read more
Though it may seem strange to be using a bread flour in something as light and delicate as a scone, it really helps to give the crumb lightness. What’s known as “plain flour” can be made from any quality of grain, better suited to making soft cookies and brownies, whereas strong flour requires the millers to buy and mill high-quality wheat which is what cake makers and bread ... Read more
Here’s an idea: when you make these flavour-packed cheddar cheese scones, try to bring together ingredients from all over Britain, or wherever you live. At BakeryBits we’ve championed small British producers for over a decade, and in this recipe you get to show off the best that independent millers, farmers and artisans offer.
Because the scones have lots of wholegrain flour, cheese ... Read more
Get yourself our premium stainless steel dough cutter and make these very easy no-knead rolls. Great flavour and crust but the star is really Mulino Marino’s extra coarse cornmeal which adds these very visible flecks of golden corn through the door, and on top too if you like.
You can either make the dough in one go, will take about 3-4 hours, or leave the just-mixed dough overnight covered... Read more
Give me a box of homemade malted oatmeal cookies and I’m a happy camper. These are especially delicious as the special BakeryBits dark barley malt flour gives the cookies a rich dark colour and just a hint of malt flavour. Mixed with our BakeryBits Jumbo Rolled Oats, or Hodmedod’s Organic British-Grown Rolled Oats, and our omega-3 packed linseed and you will be full energy and a smile ... Read more
You get even more texture and crunch if you use our special knobbly crispbread rolling pin known in Sweden as a Kruskavel, the perfect easy-to-use tool for the very best crispbread.
Now there are three ways you can tweak this very easy recipe.
The first way used in the basic here uses baking powder and oil to give you a combination of speed, lightness and a tender crunch. And if you like, you ... Read more
A slab of golden bread dough, full of flavour, topped with an outrageously thick layer of meltingly soft onions, criss-crossed with anchovy fillets and olives. Now I’ve called it “classic” but let’s not get started on what that actually is. Some French cooks like the onions gently caramelised, some want them utterly blonde; some want the flavour kept pure and simple while ... 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
Here you have a rich butter cake recipe with a delicate soft crumb, suited to layers cakes and loaf cakes as the texture is somewhere between a pound cake and the more delicate genoise sponge. Very easy to make, and a great cake to wake up and suddenly choose to make as you don’t need to have butter at a soft room temperature. For more on the unusual technique used here see below at the end... Read more
Freshly-milled wholemeal flour - using our range of BakeryBits UK-grown grains and our Mockmill home tabletop flour mill - gives these pasties a brilliant bold flavour, one bite and I thought “this is the way a great pasty is meant to be”. More strictly a turnover than anything related to a Cornish pasty, the name has stuck over decades and - for this particular filling - the ... Read more
A classic pub-style hot meat pie, with chunks of beef and mushroom in an ale-rich pan gravy. The beef for the filling is tossed with a dry mix of spices, brown sugar, sliced onion and wholemeal flour, which holds all the rich juice from the meat as it cooks. Really important to bake it at a low temperature in a sealed container: my way is to wrap it in a non-stick paper, then in foil tightly, ... Read more
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 first... Read more
