No bread is an island

...entire of itself. (With apologies to John Donne!)
I live and breathe breadmaking. I’m an evangelist who would like everyone to make his or her own bread. I want to demystify breadmaking and show it as the easy everyday craft that it is. To this end I endeavour to make my recipes as simple and as foolproof as I possibly can.

I call my blog 'No bread is an island' because every bread is connected to another bread. So a spicy fruit bun with a cross on top is a hot cross bun. This fruit dough will also make a fruit loaf - or Chelsea buns or a Swedish tea ring...
I'm also a vegan, so I have lots of vegan recipes on here - and I'm adding more all the time.

Monday 7 February 2011

Teaching the homeless

I've just started a course teaching breadmaking to a group of homeless guys in a hostel.

Last week each student made 3 soda breads: plain, spicy fruited and cheese - one with curry powder and cheese.

The cheese and curry one was voted the tastiest!

This week (24/1/11) we made yeast-risen breads: A freeform loaf - done with 3 short kneadings with a rest in between (method B) - Chelsea buns and apfel kuchen.

Because we don't have a lot of time in these sessions the Chelsea buns and the AK were made from one batch of dough. The dough was rolled out, brushed with oil and sprinkled with sugar, then rolled up like a Swiss roll. Half of this was cut into Chelseas and the other half rolled out and covered with slices of apple which were sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon.
Here's some of the breads we made
And here's some more - in the form of Spongebob Squarepants!

(7/2/11 - 3rd session out of 8) Another good session today – made four breads, two sweet and two savoury.

One batch with a dessertspoon of sugar made 3 jam doughnuts and 4 petit pain au chocolat. Roll out the dough to around pizza size, cut out 6 circles - 3 bases and 3 tops - add the jam and squidge them together. Roll out the trimmings, divide into 4, push a piece of chocolate into the dough and, once again, squidge the dough around it. Once baked, the pain au chocolat gets a sugar glaze and the doughnuts get a sugar glaze plus a sprinkling of sugar.

The second batch had salt instead of sugar – this made two ‘white’ pizzas. One French – Tarte Alsace -  and one Swiss – Emmenthal bread (link to come).

These  guys are a real pleasure to teach - quick to learn, eager to please (apart from one who said he was allergic to washing up! However he did help to clean the tables.) and appreciative of any help.

No pics, I'm afraid - I had no battery left in my mobile.

Next session (in a fortnight) we're making Italian breads. Any suggestions will be very welcome.

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