gone fishing
May 9, 2024
blog
I am about to head away so I won’t be baking bread for COGS until Saturday 15 June. What?!! But don’t worry, I’ll be checking out some panifici and
structure
May 7, 2024
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First go at a botanical and sesame loaf and I was really struck by the lattice like structure of the crumb
wet and wetter
May 5, 2024
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Last month I read Sarah Black’s excellent One Dough, Ten Breads: Making Great Bread by Hand (2016). Seems to me that it would be an ideal book for
normal delivery
May 1, 2024
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I will be delivering bread as usual to COGS at the Coventry Market this Satuday 4 May from 10am. Get in quick
Earlsdon festival
April 30, 2024
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On Monday 6 May I’m baking bread for Rachel Ward’s COGS stall at the Earlsdon Festival. Not sure yet what kinds of bread but definitely some
lactobacillus
April 29, 2024
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More from Eric Pallant’s Sourdough Culture: A History of Bread Making From Ancient to Modern Bakers For most people, Lactobacillus, the species of
away
April 23, 2024
blog
Sorry to say I won’t be baking bread for COGS this Saturday 27 April as have spent the week away for work. Business as usual on Saturday 4 May,
colouring of the crust
April 22, 2024
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Here’s Sarah Black from her book One Dough, Ten Breads: Making Great Bread by Hand on the colour of the crust: As the baking continues, the starch
spring festival
April 17, 2024
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This Saturday 20 April 2024 from about 11am I’ll be selling Merton bread at the Spring Festival in the bombed out Coventry Cathedral. I’m thinking
ear
April 16, 2024
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Have you ever wondered why that bit of the crust on a real loaf of bread is called the ear
photos from harvest
April 9, 2024
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I’ve been meaning for ages to post these few photos from last September’s Harvest Festival at Coventry Cathedral. They were taken by Marcin Sz. This
6000 years
April 8, 2024
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From Eric Pallant’s fabulous book Sourdough Culture A History of Bread Making from Ancient to Modern Bakers: A bread made with sourdough bears more
combo cooker and steam
March 28, 2024
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Many many years ago I stumbled across Chad Robertson’s first book Tartine. It was eye opening in many ways and in 2013 I spent time in San Francisco
rye scald
March 27, 2024
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Variations on a theme. Last week I scalded semolina flour and it turned out fabulously. This week it’s the turn of some organic wholemeal rye flour
friday not saturday
March 19, 2024
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I’ll be delivering loaves to Rachel at COGS of Coventry first thing on FRIDAY morning this week (22 March) and NOT on Saturday. Fair warning. It’s
Merton semolina scald
March 18, 2024
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One of my favourite loaves contains almond and oat porridge. The porridge gives the crumb incredible softness and moisture and the almonds a bit of
Merton rye 15
March 14, 2024
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Another week another new loaf. This is the Merton rye 15. It’s just 15% wholemeal organic rye flour but that’s enough to give a rich nutty flavour
Watch the dough
March 14, 2024
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From Addie Roberts’ book Secrets of Open Crumb: Watch the dough not the clock This is the best advice ever for making sourdough. Look for signs
Merton semolina and sesame
March 6, 2024
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Rachel at COGS tracked down some wholewheat semolina flour for me so I’ve made the Merton semolina and sesame. It’s 80% strong white bread flour and
Merton rice and rye
February 21, 2024
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Introducing Merton rice and rye. I’ve been trying to incorporate cooked brown rice into a loaf for some time now but this week I feel ready to share
communal oven
February 14, 2024
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I love this story from Villa San Sebastiano in Abruzzo (east of Rome) where Lucia Tellone has restarted the town’s communal oven. That bread looks
on sourdough workshops
February 12, 2024
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A few weeks ago I taught a sourdough workshop for beginners at the Hope Community Centre in Coventry. It was organised by COGS of Coventry’s Rachel
subscribe
February 10, 2024
blog
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more on costs
February 7, 2024
blog
Back in September I wrote a post about why Merton bread costs what it costs. A few things have changed since then so I thought I’d do a brief
sunflower experiments
February 6, 2024
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I’ve long loved the taste of sunflower seeds in bread so I thought I’d try and develop a wholemeal and sunflower seed loaf. For my experiment I used
Merton wholemeal extra
February 1, 2024
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And another new loaf this week: Merton wholemeal extra. It’s 40% organic strong white flour, 60% organic stoneground wholewheat flour, with an extra
Merton rye and wheat germ
January 25, 2024
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Another new loaf this week: Merton rye and wheat germ. It’s 15% organic stoneground rye flour, 85% organic strong white flour, 8% organic wheat germ
Merton cheese and pepper
January 12, 2024
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New year new loaf for Saturday 13 January 2024 at COGS. This is a take on the classic Roman dish cacio e pepe (literally “cheese and pepper”). It
festa
December 23, 2023
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I baked some raisin, chocolate chip and walnut loaves yesterday and this morning and they are/were available by order only from Rachel at COGS. The
sourdough in pencil
December 20, 2023
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From Molly Reeder’s Substack called Waxing and Weaving, here is one of her pencil drawings of a slice of sourdough. Reproduced without permission
botanical
December 13, 2023
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I mentioned last week that I’d had a go baking with Vanessa Kimbell’s Botanical Blend No.2 Meadow Blend from Hodmedod’s. I’ve since made a couple
experiments
December 5, 2023
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I ordered 3kg of Vanessa Kimbell’s Botanical Blend No.2 Meadow Blend and was very curious to bake with it. The flour looks and smells amazing. At
honey honey
December 1, 2023
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I’ve been experimenting for the last couple of weeks with a brown rice porridge loaf but I just can’t quite get them to look right. They taste
chickpea water
November 23, 2023
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I cooked a whole heap of chickpeas the other day in the pressure cooker. This means that I end up with a lot of chickpea water and rather than throw
wheat roots
November 23, 2023
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I stumbled across a small collection of drawings of wheat roots by Anne-Marie Culhane in the book Sheaf from 2022. Here’s one: Reproduced without
back
November 17, 2023
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Hi all. I’m back and was up early this morning fermenting bread ready to bake tomorrow morning. The bread (some Merton Simple, some Merton
be right back
October 13, 2023
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I’m away for work so sadly I won’t be baking bread for you all until Saturday 18 November. See you then
caught
October 1, 2023
blog
Regular readers of this site will know I experiment and tinker a lot with the bread I am making. Partly this is out of curiosity, but mostly it’s
simple saturdays
September 28, 2023
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I’ve got a pretty heavy couple of work weeks coming up so for this Saturday (30 September) and next (7 October) I’ll only be baking Merton simple
costing a loaf
September 24, 2023
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I often get asked about the economics of sourdough bread baking, and it’s not uncommon to hear people baulk at the price of a handmade loaf of
purple bread
September 21, 2023
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I made some oat porridge and almond bread for some friends the other day, except I didn’t have any almonds. I substituted in some pecans (and a few
bread 23 september
September 21, 2023
blog
This week at COGS (Saturday 23 September) there will Merton simple (£4.00) and Merton honey and rye (£4.00) available. For the honey rye loaves I’m
nothing special
September 17, 2023
blog
I spent the afternoon selling sourdough bread at the Harvest Festival yesterday. It was such a pleasure to meet and chat with customers. Some had
harvest festival
September 14, 2023
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This Saturday 16 September I won’t be baking for COGS as I have a wee stall at the Coventry Harvest Festival at Coventry Cathedral from 12pm to 5pm.
kimbell equation
September 8, 2023
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I love this: Flour, water & salt + Culture, warmth & time = Sourdough From Vanessa Kimbell’s The Sourdough School
bread 9 september
September 6, 2023
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This week at COGS (Saturday 9 September) there will Merton simple (£3.50) and Merton honey and rye (£4.00) available. Get in quick
wholewheat sesame
September 1, 2023
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If you are coming down to COGS tomorrow (Saturday 2 September) to buy some Merton sourdough I’m selling a wholewheat and sesame loaf for the first
boy with bread
August 30, 2023
blog
I was travelling recently and visited a small library in Trieste in the north of Italy. This photo was on the wall
no bread 19 and 26 august
August 14, 2023
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I’ve got some ‘work work’ commitments coming up over the coming weekends so won’t be able to bake bread to deliver to COGs of Coventry on 19 and 26
oat porridge and almond
August 6, 2023
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I’ve been experimenting with an almond and oat porridge loaf based on the Tartine recipe from their book Tartine 3. The recipe involves making some
wild yeast
July 31, 2023
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If a loaf of bread were a country the size of the Pitcairn Islands, then its population of wild yeast should be at least that of half the world,
honey rye
July 27, 2023
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I’ve been playing with a honey rye loaf based on a recipe posted by @SnooStrawberries2560 on the sourdough sub-reddit. My version is 15% organic rye
round
July 23, 2023
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When I started baking sourdough bread I always made a 1kg round or boule because, well, that was what the recipes asked me to do. These rounds also
no bread 8 and 15 july
July 5, 2023
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I’ve got some ‘work work’ commitments coming up over the coming weekends so won’t be able to bake bread to deliver to COGs of Coventry on 8 and 15
sesame
June 18, 2023
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I’ve been experimenting a lot these last weeks to create a sesame loaf. I was adding wheat germ to the dough before rolling the loaves in sesame
cooler
May 20, 2023
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If you’ve been looking around this site you’ll know that I work in a small domestic kitchen. This places all sorts of limits on how much bread I can
a strange moment
May 13, 2023
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I started baking regular yeast-based breads not so long after emigrating from Aotearoa New Zealand to the UK in 2006 (via a beautiful thirteen year
close up
May 12, 2023
blog
Merton simple
May 10, 2023
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Just flour (80% white, 15% wholewheat and 5% rye), salt and water. These loaves are hydrated at 73% (although I vary this a bit depending on