Yum,yum,in my tum!..my sons favourite.
Had a bit of a baking day using my recently delivered grains.
First a couple of bread loaves:
These are both the same, just used different bannetons. A blend of White Bread Flour, and freshly milled Wheat, Spelt and Rye flours at approx. 70% hydration.
Then I knocked up a quick batch of Rhubarb and Stem Ginger Muffins which also had raisins and cinnamon and some crystallised ginger sprinkled on top.
Didnāt have the proper muffin cases sadly. Definitely not going to win any prizes in the presentation stakes but they taste scrummy all the same.
They are made purely with freshly milled Spelt flour rather than the usual Plain baking flour and with 1/3rd of the sugar the recipe called for. Healthier this way.
They look perfect,Realist,ā¦another master baker I see!!.
Aha, itās the crystalized ginger I couldnāt figure out! Brilliant, Realist!
Your flour combination must make for a hearty and filling loaf. I imagine it doesnāt last long around there. Iāll take my slice lightly toasted, please!
Nice selection of bannetons you have there too!
The cake looks deliciousā¦I donāt bake Pauline mainly because Iām a greedy person and I know if that cake was in my house I couldnāt resist it 
Blimey realistā¦ you should open a shop
[quote=āsummer, post: 1641850ā]
The cake looks deliciousā¦I donāt bake Pauline mainly because Iām a greedy person and I know if that cake was in my house I couldnāt resist it.
I know exactly what you mean,summer,ā¦when did I bake this cake?..I have been home alone!..
ā¦mind you I deliberately go without proper food for a day,just to eat cake.
Kind of you to say Summer. In truth it was something I considered quite a while ago but quickly decided against it.
The clincher was volunteering to work in Artisan bakeries for a week.
I did one week in an Artisan Bakery in my city centre which was fun, but hard. They started at 4am each morning and worked solidly until 10am-11am. No breakfast other than a bit of toast and the odd 5 min break for a cup of tea. Place was small and pokey, not ideal and I found it really difficult standing up for 6 hours solid at a time (remember my past career was office chair based in IT).
Then I did another stint. At the time we had Masterchef and the Great British Menu on TV, there was also another series called Britainās Best Bakery on ITV. It was hosted/judges by Mich Turner and Peter Sidwell below:
http://tanlanbakery.co.uk/perch/resources/1354032144-best-bakery-presenters2-w640h480.jpg
The winning bakery from Series 1 was the Hambleton Bakery in Rutland. Consequently I wrote them a letter explaining my bread making enthusiasm and past experience and asked if I could volunteer for a week. They were pleased to take me on so I got a weekās experience in Britainās Best Artisan Bakery.
This was much harder than the previous one. They started at 3am in the pitch blackness of what was still night. Every morning we would create over 1000 loaves of bread and 1000 smaller bread rolls of differing shapes. ALL of these were shaped by hand. The only machines involved are the dough mixers and a machine that can cut the dough into the correct sizes (it would take forever cutting and weighing every piece by hand).
Volunteering for real bakeries in this way you quickly learn all the shaping techniques for boules, batards, baguettes and so on. Itās all really great fun and extremely satisfying.
BUT . . . doing that as a daily job, in such unsociable hours, is very hard work and definitely not for everyone. I really couldnāt do it.
Aside from that there is little to no money in bread itself. There is a limit to how much people will pay for a loaf of bread, even a really healthy well made one. So you find that pretty much all artisan bakeries are actually either cafes selling bread on the side or are bakers who get most of their profits from selling cakes, pastries and other treats.
Anyway, the outfall of all this is that Iām reasonably adept at making all manner of bread, from ordinary loaves to sourdoughs, baguettes, focaccia, ciabattas, French Fougasse and much more. I was able to grab the dough mix recipes from the bakeries I volunteered at which is a great bonus. Hambletons Bakery make THE best English Muffins and thatās now my most requested bready item from friends and family.
Hereās how they come out :
Right, time for some Tubby Toast !
Aha! Your volunteering and how you got your foot (or hands) through the door a fantastic endeavor, Realist! I was wondering how your breads were so exceptional.
They say that if you do something 10,000 times, you are a master. I suppose that you hit that mark just volunteering!
The early hours what would have gotten me in the end.
Get on it and send a care package of those muffins, would you!
Yes something like that. I seem to remember Bruce Lee also suggesting something similar. He said:
āI fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 timesā
To be fair Iād never thought about the numbers in that way but you are quite correct. We shaped 1000 loaves and 1000 rolls every morning for a week in that 2nd bakery. Shared between about 4 people though. Still, itās a lot of shaping !
I also learned a lot of technique from Youtube clips from master bakers shaping and scoring loaves and baguettes.
Tubby is what I would be if I got my hands on that yummy looking bread !
What a interesting experience Realist !
Meg,where would I get fresh yeast from?..your homemade loaves look so yummy,ā¦I can also tell how fresh they are,ā¦not now as they would be stale,
I have been looking through the thread,ā¦so many accomplished bakers on here!..
Has anyone here entered their baking into a small family village fete?..or maybe you have had a cake stall,ā¦I find homemade,cake,scones,etc,fly off the stall,I believe itās making a comeback as well.
You can buy fresh bakerās yeast from Sainsburyās at the bakery counter. Ask for 100g of yeast. It will cost about 70p.
Morrisons stores also used to sell yeast but it was in one of the shelved areas and often hard to find. They were presented in polystyrene trays with 4 foil wrapped cubes of yeast in them.
And of course you can buy dried yeast packets just about anywhere though personally I never use them. I find fresh yeast a much better product.
My lovely steak & kidney pie i made this afternoon has just gone in the oven.
It smells so great even the dogs are forming a disorderly queue.
Steak and kidney pie,sounds delicious,do you do a pastry crust on top or pastry top and bottom of pie?..as for the dogs,bless them!.
Always top and bottom Pauline or i canāt really call it a pie.
Chocolate Brownies today,just waiting for them,to cool down in the tin,then cut them into small squares,285g,of chocolate in these,I tasted a little from the edge of pan,scrummy!..you just canāt beat homemade.
Your chocolate brownies look delicious, Pauline.
This afternoon I am planning on making two batches of my homemade chocolate chip cookies. I havenāt made them this winter, but everyone love these cookies, so I will share them with a couple of neighbors. I love the smell of them baking in the oven. "Nothing says lovinā like something from the oven "(Pillsbury ad of long ago). 
Hi
Made Ice Cream Bread earlier with the littlies.
A recipe from Australian Masterchefā¦
Thanks RN,ā¦they look even better when cut into squares,ā¦those cookies sounds lovely,I do the same as you,share with neighbour and a friend,