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I am still doing some consulting work and am also baking with my clients!  Yes, team building and leadership development through bread.

I hope you enjoy my new site, are intrigued by my new business, get interested in bread and get in touch.

The Gingerbread Girl

Just letting you know the sourdough is on its way to Phil, so hopefully it will be getting to him some time this week. I finally got a chance to bake with it today, and it’s come out pretty well I think. It was really easy to make and it tastes amazing!

So give it a try!  Join the sourdough share save scheme and make your own bread.

Sadly, I had to cancel the scheme because too many people broke the chain and I spent my time running around after them and sending out dough.  So, I am very sorry.  However, if you refer to a post on Virtuousbread.com about making a starter you may find you would like to do that instead.  Jane

There is an old saying:  “Guests are like fish.  They go off after three days.”  Whilst that may be true in general, there are some guests who are such good guests that you can imagine moving them in and shipping your family out.  Similarly, there are some guests who go off after only a few hours.  For the host, the objective of having a guest is to enjoy the company of a new person, temporarily inserted into you home and your life, and to chalk up karmic points so that you too get invited to be a guest at some point in the future.  For the guest, the objective of staying with somebody is to enjoy their company and see into their lives a bit, to save the money that a hotel and eating out three times a day would cost, and to get invited back.  But, how does the guest achieve that?  What makes the perfect guest?

The perfect guest makes a positive contribution to the house in which they are staying.  To that end (and this is my short list after much thought) they are good company, appreciative, generous, and tidy.

Good company

A good guest is a cheerful, happy member of the household who is positive about absolutely everything, enjoys all of the food set in front of them and all of the activities that go on during the waking hours.  They make witty conversation, collect pamphlets and programmes from the places they visit and bring them back to the host.  They make an effort to join in, exchange pleasantries in the morning, the evening, and when they see the host after an absence (when either guest or host has been out all day, for example) and have exemplary table manners.  They take very short showers.

Appreciative

A good guest appreciates absolutely everything the host does to ensure their comfort.  They go overboard with please and thank you.  They compliment the host on the comfort of the bed, the softness of the towels, the heat of the water, the view from the window, the quality and quantity of the food and so on.  They make the host feel as if the effort it has taken to receive the guest and make them happy has been worth while.   They write a thank you letter when they return home, waxing lyrical about their stay and extolling the host’s virtues. 

Generous

A good guest is generous.  They bring a little gift when they arrive and, if it is a consumable (chocolates, wine, a piece of delicious cheese, jar of home made jam, or loaf of bread) they do not consume it unless it is offered to them, and even then they should say no.  If they are on an orgy of spending themselves, having not forked out for a hotel or three meels a day, they buy the host a little something to acknowledge the host’s role in the fact that they have more money than they otherwise would have and/or take them out for a meal and/or offer to provide and cook a meal at home.  A good guest is also generous in spirit.  They offer to help cook, wash up and tidy.  They do not wait to be asked to do so.  They do not hang up or fold their own laundry and leave everyone else’s in the machine or on the line.  Even if the host says no 50 times, they are relentless in their offers of help either in the home or in performing little errands for the host when they are out of the home (picking up milk, posting letters, taking laundry to the dry cleaners…).

Tidy

A good guest is tidy.  There should be almost no evidence that a guest is staying at all.  A good guest does not leave their belongings lying around the common areas of the house (not even in the bathroom unless it is for the express use of the guest in which case they leave it spotless).  A good guest tidies their room, puts things away, hangs things up and and makes their bed.  They do these things in the host’s house even if they do not do it at home because – get it – they are not at home.  They are a guest.

And their objective is to be invited back.

The great thing about rhubarb is that it is always good.  When it is young and pink it is good.  When it is a bit woody it is good.  Mix it with strawberries or gooseberries and make jam or pie.  Mix it with ginger or orange juice to make compote or crumble.  Boil it, add sugar and gelatine and make a beautiful pinky red jelly.  The list goes on and on (as does the rhubarb).  My favourite jam is rhubarb and grapefruit (1 lb sugar, 1 lb rhubarb, 1 grapefruit boil until set) and you can also make rhubarb chutney with apples and raisins and onions…..I think I need to go and do some cooking now!

Make the easiest and best carrot cake and cream cheese icing in the world by following the recipe here:  Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Icing.

A lovely request from Germany for the 1857 sourdough has been accompanied by a care package of sour dough!  I am sending off the 1857 to Stefan who has sent me some of his very own sourdough which he has dried!  He has also sent me instructions regarding how to refresh it, bake with it, and dry it for further use.  Very exciting!

Meanwhile, the backferment sourdough goes from strength to strength.  I am trying lots of different methods to refresh and bake with it, and they all seem to work out which is good.  Currently am trying the “fold fold fold” method:  refresh with flour and water and wait 12 hours; add more flour and water and wait 6 hours; add more flour, knead and fold; fold twice more after 30 minutes each; roll in flour and put in basket to rise for an hour; bake.  Watch and wait!

Sadly, I had to cancel the scheme because too many people broke the chain and I spent my time running around after them and sending out dough.  So, I am very sorry.  However, if you refer to a post on Virtuousbread.com about making a starter you may find you would like to do that instead.  Jane

Refresh and soak

The first stage was to refresh the sour dough and soak the crunchy and the muesli.  This is the key to adding oats, nuts, seeds, or fruit to bread:  soak them to they are juicy and squashy and bake into a juicy, delicious bread.  You will have to reduce the amount of water you normally add to the dough because of all the moisture in the soaked Jordan’s. 

spelt sour dough in rising baskets

wheat sour dough in rising baskets

 

The second stage was to pop the prepared dough into the rising baskets to rise.  This 12 hour process develops the flavour and does something magic and scientific to the bread so that when we eat it we absorb more of the nutrients than we do with a faster rising loaf.  The wheat flour is from Dove’s and the spelt is from Gilchester’s.

And now….ladies and gentlemen….what you have all been waiting for…the final product!

Sourdough wheat with muesli (M) and crunchy (C)Sourdough spelt with muelsi and crunchy

Sourdough spelt with muelsi and crunchy

I have it on good authority that all four loaves were devoured in the kitchen at Jordan’s.  If you want to experiment with using Jordan’s products in your bread making and want some help and advice please leave a comment!  Trust me, this is amazing bread…YUM!

Melt is a chocolate shop with which Louise is working.  Although rather reserved and soft spoken, I get the idea that what Louise does not know about chocolate is not worth knowing.  With an Austrian grandmother, a background as a pastry chef and a “nerdy” interest in chocolate this woman is informative and passionate beyond belief.  She wants to change the world one chocolate at a time, introducing people to the joys of good chocolate in an attempt to wean them off sugary, vegetable oil based chocolate like substances sold on the bottom few shelves of the supermarket aisles and at the news agent. 

The chocolate chef was there and was kind enough to let me sample the INCREDIBLE salt water caramel chocolates.  They are an all-in-one or you will make-a-mess chocolate:  pop them in whole, bite them and this wonderful salty sugary caramel comes pouring out of a crisp, delicious chocolate shell, as thin as an egg shell. 

If you want to buy some chocolates, look no further than Melt.  If you need a chocolate consultant, want to organise a chocolate-themed event (tastings, pairings, etc.), look no further than Louise.

YUM.

So, encourage your friends, colleagues, and family to join the SDSSS and get baking!

Sadly, I had to cancel the scheme because too many people broke the chain and I spent my time running around after them and sending out dough.  So, I am very sorry.  However, if you refer to a post on Virtuousbread.com about making a starter you may find you would like to do that instead.  Jane