Bread Ahead bakery at Borough Market

I made - Rye Bread, Chelsea Buns, Brioche (huge) and about a million croissants. 

I was rather excited when I received a full day voucher for Bread Ahead at Christmas. My main dilemma was which course to take! In the end, I went for the Enriched Dough workshop because it offered a range of recipes including the croissant, which I had tried to make once, and failed...badly.

I strolled over to the South side of London Bridge on a sunny but chilly Sunday morning and was greeted by the friendly staff. Our workshop was taken by Manuel, "a French person with a Spanish name" - his words. He was also sporting a beret just to make sure we didn't confuse his French accent with a Spanish one.

Where the magic happens

It was a thoroughly pleasant day. There was a mix of 12 people in the group all with varying degrees of baking experience and all different ages. Manuel and his assistants were very efficient with the change of equipment and cleaning round after us.

The actual bakery was extraordinary, I've never stepped into an industrial bakery before so it was just rather exciting for little old me seeing shelves and trolleys of bread. A mysterious room for proving the dough, the proper ovens through the doorway and even just the modern little ovens we used amongst all the wooden furniture.

Another use for shower caps

One great bit of usage was for the free shower caps you get at hotels - we used these for proving our dough - they fit perfectly round the mixing bowl and completely covered! Genius!

Overall, it was a fantastic day. It was hard work as everything we did was by hand but it was a great stress relief. It was so much fun and knowledgeable. Manuel was a great teacher and really helpful. We ran over slightly but they were very accommodating with the times to get our value for money. I would definitely recommend Bread Ahead for anyone who wants to learn, know or enhance their baking skills. I felt very comfortable and not at all intimidated. If you don't mind the tourists peeping in through the window that is.

Bread, bread and more bread

Lunch is also provided on the full day workshops, which they make themselves. In fact, I was really impressed that they hand-make everything themselves including the jam and lemon curd we got to try. Everything you get to taste on the day is from the baker's batch, everything you make, you get to take home...which is a lot!

The croissant by far takes the longest and needs the most patience, mine had some butter leakage but 100 times better than my first attempt. A great tip is to use French butter rather than English butter as that has less water content.

Homemade lasagne and delicious salad. An added bonus.

Brioche after proving. Bigger than my head.

Chelsea Buns in the making with cinnamon and raisins

Manuel in action 

Croissant cutting

Getting exciting now

It was a close call for favourite bake - I really enjoyed the Rye Bread but the brioche was delicious and lasted a number of days. 

Chelsea buns being glazed

A bit of leakage but still tasted great. Will definitely try this at home. Third time lucky...

All my goods again. It was so exciting.

Beyond Bread Gluten free bakery & cafe

Being 'gluten-free' seems to be a trend for the last few years, however there are some plus sides to this. Having friends who are genuinely on a gluten-free diet for medical reasons, more and more restaurants are creating separate menus (that aren't just omitting the bread or half a page menu) for Coeliacs - Dishoom has a great gluten-free menu I've been told. And here's another one to add:

Official opening: 5^th January 2015

2 Charlotte Place, Fitzrovia, London, W1T 1SB

Beyond Bread, a 100% gluten-free Bakery and Café, will open its doors to an eager and hungry crowd from 15^th December 2014. The Bakery is set to become the ultimate hangout for foodies and a gluten-free hot spot for Londoners.

Beyond Bread is a new culinary concept to create familiar tastes through gluten-free foods. Innovating and creating, leading and not following, the team is keen to promote gluten-free past any misconceptions of it being a passing fashion fad.

The new opening has already captured the attention of the gluten-free fraternity, as well as foodies and fans of delicious new British food ventures. The number of social media enquiries has been unprecedented and the team has worked tirelessly to get Beyond Bread ship-shape in time for a pre-Christmas opening.

The Food

Beyond Bread offers a tasty range of gluten-free products, many of which are also vegan, wheat-free, dairy-free and egg-free. Everything is clearly labelled and the team will always be on hand to answer your questions. Innovation, health and nutrition are intrinsic to recipe formulation at Beyond Bread. Input from customers will be vital to the development of the menu too. The healthiest, finest ingredients are selected to boost the flavour and health benefits of products such as lemon and chia muffins (right) and pastries packed with cocoa nibs.

Sandwiches will be freshly prepared daily, as well as breakfast goods, cakes, biscuits, quiches and pies, pastries and pasties and, of course, a range of delicious gluten-free breads.

Ginger and bread make biscuits?!

All you need to make 15-20 biscuits:

• 350g plain flour
• half teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 1 tablespoon ground ginger (or if like me you love a bit of the ginger flavour, add some ginger extract too)
• 125g butter
• 175g light brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 4 tablespoon of golden syrup
• cutters - I went for butterfly and teddy bear ones...just to be different

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius. 

Sift flour, bicarbonate of soda, ginger into a bowl (or if you have one, into the food processor bowl).  Add the butter until mixed, than add in the sugar.

Lightly beat the egg and syrup together, then add to the rest of the mixture until it makes a dough.  Leave to chill in the fridge for around 20 minutes.

Lightly flour the surface (and the rolling pin) and roll out the dough to half a cm thick, cut out.

Place them on a baking tray lined with baking paper and bake for 15 minutes.

Leave to cool.  

I must admit they tasted good but I made the mistake of not setting a timer...I was a bit too cocky and thought I could handle it...turns out I was wrong and ended over-doing the second batch which were the butterfly shapes, and probably only needed 12minutes really...Schoolboy. 

Product News: Joseph Joseph Adjustable Rolling Pin

So the Great British Bake Off has finished (with only a few more days to relive it on iplayer), and winter is well and truly here...but rest assured its certainly not the end of the baking season- it's only just begun! Not only is it the perfect season for pies; hot water crust pies, cornish pasties and of course mince pies its also great for winter biscuits. Try adding warming flavours such as cinnamon and nutmeg to your basic biscuit recipes for an autumn twist on a classic.

What better to help you in your pastry quests than this innovative Joseph Joseph adjustable rolling pin. This nifty kitchen gadget takes the guesswork out of preparing biscuit dough, pizza bases, pie tops, lasagne sheets and filo pastry. It comes with four sets of removable discs that raise the rolling surface by different amounts, to create exactly the required pastry thickness – either 2 mm, 4 mm, 6 mm or 10 mm. This ingenious device also ensures that pastry or dough is rolled to an even thickness throughout and to the exact size required, via measurements etched onto the surface of the rolling pin.

Great if you tend to be a little cavalier with your rolling out! This would also be great as a gift for keen bakers, and can also be found as part of a baking gift set which also includes the elevate pastry brush, elevate spatula pie timer.

RRP: £20 available from the Joseph Jospeph website.

Chinese Almond Cookies

• To make 24 cookies:
• 170g sifted all-purpose flour
• 100g white sugar
• 1g baking soda
• 2g salt
• 100g lard or margarine
• 1 egg
• 3ml (or to your liking) almond extract
• 24 almonds

1. Sift the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt together into a bowl. Cut in the lard or margarine (I used margarine in this instance) until mixture sticks. Add the egg (I ended up using the 1 whole egg and some water) and almond extract - I only put in 1 teaspoon, but on tasting, don't be scared to put a bit more. Mix well.
2. Roll dough into 1 inch balls. Set them 2 inches apart on a baking sheet. Place an almond on top of each cookie and press down to flatten slightly.
3. Bake in a pre-heated 325 degrees F (165 degrees C) oven for 15-18 minutes. They will seem like they are under-cooked when you take them out of the oven, but this gives a more chewy taste, leave in longer if you prefer a bit of a crunch.  Cool on rack.
4. Voila!  Scrumptious cookies to nibble at!

Emergency Cupcakes

A simple recipe to use the left over buttercream from Hayley's cake.

Taken from the BBC's Vanilla Cupcakes recipe. Makes 12.

Ingredients
- 110g/4oz butter or margarine, softened at room temperature
- 110g/4oz caster sugar (I used brown sugar just to see the difference, it gives a caramel flavour)
- 2 free-range eggs, lightly beaten
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 110g/4oz self-raising flour
- 1-2 tbsp milk
For the buttercream icing
- 140g/5oz butter, softened
- 280g/10oz icing sugar
- 1-2 tbsp milk
- a few drops food colouring

Method
1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4 and line a 12-hole muffin tin with paper cases.
2. Cream the butter and sugar together in a bowl until pale. Beat in the eggs a little at a time and stir in the vanilla extract.
3. Fold in the flour using a large metal spoon, adding a little milk until the mixture is of a dropping consistency. Spoon the mixture into the paper cases until they are half full.
4. Bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes, or until golden-brown on top and a skewer inserted into one of the cakes comes out clean. Set aside to cool for 10 minutes, then remove from the tin and cool on a wire rack.
5. For the buttercream icing, beat the butter in a large bowl until soft. Add half the icing sugar and beat until smooth.
6. Then add the remaining icing sugar with one tablespoon of the milk, adding more milk if necessary, until the mixture is smooth and creamy.
7. Add the food colouring and mix until well combined.
8. Spoon the icing into a piping bag with a star nozzle and pipe the icing using a spiralling motion onto the cup cakes in a large swirl.