Short & Sweet - adventures in bread

I purchased Dan Lepard's Short & Sweet for it's baking recipes, which are inspiring, interesting and offer variations for cakes and bakes that I really love. What I didn't realise is that there is a substantial chapter on baking bread. So, determined to master the art of baking bread at home, I sat myself down and read it. It's not simply a catalogue of great recipes. It offers an introduction to the art (and science) of baking bread at home. But don't fear, it's not complicated, in fact that's where Dan excels. He demystifies it. Explaining about flours, yeast, sugar and salt,  liquid, butter and oil as well as techniques like kneading - it covers absolutely everything. So armed with my new found knowledge, I set to baking some bread.

I have baked bread at home - with reasonable success in the past, both with a bread making machine and by hand. The only thing you really need to allow is time. It's not labour intensive as such, you just need to have time to knead the bread and allow it plenty of time to rise properly. I began (as you would) with the first and most simple recipe - Easy White Bread and yes it is. Easy, fairly quick and of course delicious. Once I had mastered this I felt ready to progress. I haven't gone through them methodically one by one. I have picked the most appealing and gone for it. My favourite so far has been the Multi-grain and honey loaf. This is seriously good bread. You make a "sponge" which is sort of like a starter and separately combine the "porridge" which is oats, honey, linseed and sunflower seeds with boiling water. Once ready you add the additional flours etc. It was wholesome, moist, tasted fabulous and made great sandwiches and toast.

I feel as though my bread adventure is just beginning and what a great start along this yellow brick road, led by Dan, the baking man.

Groove is in the Heart...

...at the Dee Light Bakery in Balham. I'd read about this exciting new business on Twitter thanks to a timely tweet by Dan Lepard (who writes a column for The Guardian). Dan has a lot of great things to say about baking, so if he recommends something, I usually want to check it out. So on a cold and sunny Saturday morning I headed off to Balham, South London to investigate. Bread, pastries and lots of lovely quiches are all baked on the premises by Dee and her team.  It was a hive of activity with locals popping in for a freshly baked loaf or a Flat White. The coffee is good and that's a key test in my book, so they won me over with that. They serve Vegemite - tick! And the bread is great. Tick! It's wholesome, substantial and isn't full of air. I also grabbed a Chelsea Bun to go with my coffee that was spicy with cinnamon with just the right amount of fruit and was perfect in every way. Dee Light opened just before Christmas 2011 and I believe in not only supporting local business, but supporting local bakeries (they are a dying breed). You can grab a drink, breakfast, brunch, sandwiches and lunch. The bread is REAL and tastes so, so much better than from a supermarket. It's got a lot going for it, so much so, that I simply has to shout about it. GO TO DEE LIGHT BAKERY!

14 Ritherdon Road, Balham, SW17 8QD

http://www.deelightbakery.com/