A British Baker
Hello Everyone!
My name is Andrew.
Livng in the UK, Yorkshire to be precise. East yorkshire to be evan more precise
I am a trained, time served Baker. I had the good fortune to cut my bakery teeth in the scratch, craft sector. Not many of us left and I am so pleased I went down this route early on. Not many people are any good at hand molding these days !
I Stopped being a baker a few years ago, went into further education, as? A Bakery Lecturer of course! Then due to redundancy was gently forced into being a chef for a living. I now do agency cooking and supply teacherwork in Food Tech.
I have yeasty blood however, cant stay away from bread! I am very Pro traditional British baking. I think it is very underrated and love to talk about and demonstrate its virtues.
I absolutely love challenges, so anyone who has a bread quandry, please, please contact me
Hope to hear from you all soon.
Andrew S.
Welcome!
Its nice to see professionals visiting the site. I'm currently training to enter the industry and would be very interested if you could explain a few things about traditional British baking!
Also, what exactly do you mean by the craft sector?
I've always though putting a good dough together is relatively easy, but shaping a good loaf is quite difficult.
--Chausiubao
Hello All!
Hello Chausuibao.
First of all, a little bit of an apology, if the odd baker's or trade term is used. I really try not to and have a big dislike for such behaviour. Culinary snobbery in any discipline gets by back up Immediately! I do still say things like " I need to get my meez finished" though. Sorry again.
When I said craft sector, I was referring to comparitevely small scale, often family run bakeries. They tend to have very little mechanisation, the majority of product is made and handled manually. Better raw materials are generally used as competition on price with a mass product isnt viable, so quality wins out. The price, of course, reflects this. Another big difference is the level of skill, experience and individual knowledge of rthe staff. I was able to tell who had molded a dough piece or who slashed the dough prior to baking.
Hand molding is something difficult to get to do without practically trying it. Brirish molding styles are diferent from, French or Artisan styles with a large hydration %
I am planning to do a series on Traditional British fermented goods and if anyone has a favourite I would like to hear from you. My first will probably be Bloomers or cottage loaves as I have been asked for some crusty British breads.
Hope to hear from you soon.
Andrew S.
Thanks, like others I'll be looking forward to you describing the differences between British methods and the French methods we've become accustomed to.
--Chausiubao
Hi, Andrew.
Welcome to TFL!
Although there are a number of UK members, we don't hear a lot about traditional English breads. I'm looking forward to your contributions.
I'd love to see your cottage loaf and hear more about the differences between English and French techniques, from your vantage point.
David
Hello Andrew; always nice to see another Brit.
When I was growing up in London the Bloomer was the bread of choice closely followed by Hovis [usually on Sunday]. I particularly remember that Hovis used to produce a mini loaf, roll size, but it was an exact copy of the standard size loaf.
Cottage loaves were a bit of a rarity, but very nice when you could pick them up.
Peter
Hello Everyone!
Hello Peter.
Yes I know what you are referring to. They were traditionally called penny loaves.
I worked in a bakery on a farm called Tithe Farm, which is in North Ferriby, East Riding of Yorkshire. (The term Tithe, by the way refers to links with the church and landowners and is a corruption ot the word tenth. A tenth of the harvest wes given up to the landowner as payment.
Anyway, I baked these tiny loaves, not just Hovis but all my tin bread types. They were very popular for dinner parties and entertaining. I have a sneaky feeling that children and peckish mums claimed more than their fair "tithe" though!
I am trying to get hold of some tins right now. so I will keep you posted.
Back to Bloomers, Can you tell me if the crust was traditionally thin and crispy, or thick, crisp but chewy also? I always went for the satisfying chewy option but would love to know what the real London version was like.
Take care peter and thank you for the jolt to my memory!
Regards,
Andrew S.
Nice to "meet" you Andrew. =) I live in the UK, complete novice/home baker, but started baking my own bread after reading a bit about how commercial bread is produced. I read about something called the Chorleywood method, that can make use of low protein bread, combined with chemical improvers, and this is used to produce something like 80% of the UK's commercial bread? I realise you are/were involved in a very different area of baking, but wondered if you know much about this? I figured that baking our own bread, even from store brand flour (I grind my own wholewheat flour but use strong white bread flour with it) is much better for our family than store bought bread, because even the fresh bread in supermarket bakeries is made from mass produced dough. It seems to me this bread must have a significantly reduced nutritional value compared to home prepared bread (sourdough, no added commercial yeast) which has a long fermentation period and the presence of lactobacilli which partially digests the gluten and makes it more digestible for us. Do you have any thoughts on this?
Hello Everyone!
Hello Bakinbuff.
The Chorleywood Bread Process (CBP) isn't the monster it is sometimes portrayed to be.
Basically, it makes use of a High energy mixing input over a short period of time. An oxidiser, usually Ascorbic Acid. Vegetable oil or Fat at around 1% of flour weight also goes in the mix. Perhaps a bit of soya flour to emulsify and abit of vinegar, Acetic acid to inhibit moulds. All So good so far? Well yes really, the "inferior" wheats used for such production are easy for the farmer to grow, dont travel half way around the world and give us a cheap loaf to keep us all full and happy with
Downside? Well yes, chemicals, proprianates for shelf life are sometimes pumped in. A bad example of a budget sandwich loaf is as dire as can be. They will be almost devoid of aroma, lacking a crust and has very little flavour and please dont even try to compere with your breads.
Nutritionally, they are all very similar and our intestines can cope admirably on the whole with bread of any variety.
Whats the snag then? Obvious really, Bread addicts need to bake!!!! We control it all. The big joy of mixing, ingredient choice, the interest, research, smells, tastes. Who would want to buy a loaf? Not me or you for sure.
I eat shop bought bread without a bad mood hitting me. I am just reminded of the absolutely vast difference my own bread has to the commercial product.
As I have said before,
Go Forth And Bake.
Regards,
Andrew S
Well said, old chap! Cheers, Steve
Andrew,
The Bloomer we used to get was covered in poppy seeds and had a crisp firm crust, not what I'd call crunchy, just crisp.
Peter
Hello Everyone!
Hello Daisy A.
My first little tutorial will be Scotch Baps. I think this will be useful for a few reasons.
Hand mixing - It works better than you think
Single, Bulk fermantation - It tastes better than you think
Hand Molding - It is easier than you think
Room Temperature, Dry proof - It does have its benefits
It was the first bread I made as a Bakery Student. Still remember it vividly!
I will hopefully be doing and recording over the weekend. Please be patient with me!
Regards,
Andrew S.
Hi Andy
What dough would you recommend for a classic cottage loaf? And is there any foolproof method for stopping them toppling over?
Here are some I made last year following a happy weekend in West Wales with Rick of Mairs Bakehouse and friends, but I haven't tried since. And, I can't remember what sort of dough I used. (that's embarassing, and I have no notes) I always find the dough gets a bit tough in the middle around the area where the two balls are 'welded' together, is that just a characteristic and inevitable result of the shaping process do you think?
Zeb - an english home baker
Edit: I couldn't find this post again, so I started a blog on this forum. Hope that's ok? I've had another go at the cottages over the weekend and this time I used Elizabeth David's suggested yeast dough and baked from a cold oven, interesting as the top stayed much rounder and more even, not sure I like the crumb as much. Zeb