Artisan Breads Bandon West Cork Ireland

Carrageen Moss Spelt Bread

2010-04-10T13:14:00.000-07:00

My mother would sometimes say 'Yer man is too sweet to be wholesome.' and perhaps it is just my prejudices but this post sounds to wholesome to be sweet. However in recent weeks I have had my considerable prejudices challenged. This is thanks firstly to Richard Bertinet's wonderful Dough, a book outlining simple contemporary breads. I have one very minor criticism of Bertinet's book which I will just get off my chest quickly (in fact on reflection it is not even a criticism, more a observation). Bertinet's book doesn't explore the use of old doughs or sourdoughs. I am guessing that his subheading Simple Contemporary Breads suggests that he never intended to go into these areas. Fair enough! It is reasonable not to frighten off novices by explaining how we will ferment doughs for 48 hours.

Light and fluffy with a delicate flavour, that is how this particular bread turned out. We sold our first four loaves today at Bandon Farmers Market to a esoteric crowd.

The Carrageen Moss we used comes from Easkey in Co. Sligo. Zoe and I had the pleasure of living up there for a couple of months in 2007. While we were in Sligo we would spin out to Easkey regularly, to take in the scenery and marvel at the fossilised seaweed. Easkey castle provides a beautiful backdrop to the frequently choppy seas.

For this bread we are currently using the following proportions.

70% White spelt

30% Wholemeal spelt

60% Water

10% Spelt sourdough starter

1% Bakers yeast

2% Dried carrageen moss (dry weight)

For those of you not familiar with using percentages. Below is the receipt for a medium sized loaf in grams.

420g White spelt

180g Wholemeal spelt

360ml warm water

60ml spelt sourdough starter

6g bakers yeast

12g Dried carrageen moss (dry weight)

I have been intending for some time now to post a description of creating your own sourdough starters (it's not as painful as it sounds!)

Method:

Soak the seaweed for two hours in water. Take it out and chop it up. I prefer a rough chop, too fine and you lose the texture of the seaweed.

Weigh out your flours. Mix the yeast, warm water and sourdough together, making sure you don't have a clump of yeast at the bottom of your container (good decisions come from experience, experience comes from bad decisions).

Cover with a damp tea towel (or anything that stops the air creating a film on your dough) and leave aside for about an hour. The double in size rule is a reasonably useful rule of thumb.

Gently remove from the bowl and shape into your desired loaf. If you don't have a dough scraper, wet your hand and you will be able to handle the dough easier. Place on a greased tray or tin and set aside to prove for another 45 minute (covering with the same damp tea towel).

A useful tip for knowing if the dough is ready is push it with your finger, if it does not spring back then its ready for the oven.

Bake at 220 c for approximately 40 minutes. Another useful rule of thumb is if it sound hollow, it is likely to be done.

Perhaps it goes without saying that this kind of earthy bread goes particularly well with fish.

Caramelised Onions

2010-03-13T13:07:00.000-08:00

If the simple things in life are the best then caramelised onions are firmly in that camp. I even feel they would convert my lachanophobia suffering brother Ian. Truth is stranger than fiction and the truth is that lachanophobia is an irrational fear of vegetables! Ian's condition is so severe that one Christmas he 'lost the head' with me for putting onions in the potato crochets,

“You ruined Christmas , you bollocks!”

to quote him exactly.

Not only can this recipe heal the sick is it also cheap as chips and provides a neat way to preserve a glut of onions.

Ingredients:

1kg white onions

150g granulated sugar

Method:

The down size of this recipe is the chopping. But a good sharp knife, a large and stable chopping board and a little Alexey Stakhanov organisation can make the whole thing less of a ordeal. For this recipe we want our onions in slices rather that diced. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Eyc4AAF1zo so follow this guys instructions up until the point he goes to dice it, and slice it instead! If you want to cry less, don't chop into the root.

Tip the sliced onion into a large heavy sauce pan and toss the onions in your sugar. Now on a low heat gently simmer the onions for approximately 45 minutes. When they are done they will be a nice golden brown colour. That's it!

They never last long enough in our house to say firmly how long they will last. But given that they are a jammy consistency I am guessing they will have good properties of preservation.

Anton's and AlphaOmega get a mention in the New Bridgestone

2010-02-16T13:53:00.000-08:00

I was delighted to see that my old boss Anton (Fr. Griffin Rd. Galway) got a spot in the New Bridgestone Irish Food Guide. I have Anton (and his sister Kate) to thank, for teaching me a huge amount, while I was there and giving me the basic skills to build on.

The Bridgestone said, 'Anton's is a job well done, a classy neighbourhood space packed with regulars, with everyone a happy customer.' p. 243

We got a brief mention too as part of the Bandon Farmers Market Review. Last spring / summer was our first time striking out on our own, so it was particularly heartening to get the positive feedback.

We are looking forward to getting back to the market for this years season in the coming weeks. Our calendar will be updated with dates shortly.

Well done guys!

Trying to do our bit

2009-11-26T13:15:00.000-08:00

All profits from our next series of classes are going to local charities to support their work with victims of the floods. Any suggestion which charity? St Vincent De Paul seems like the obvious choice. Go to http://bit.ly/6DfiJp to book your place

Bread making in the new year

2009-11-21T05:37:00.000-08:00

Our next series of courses have been confirmed with Fionnuisce for the new year.

We'll be running our popular courses in February March and April.

Sunday 21st February 2009: Fundamentals of Yeast Bread This course also includes the use of wild yeast and sourdoughs.

11am till 3pm. Seasonal and locally sourced lunch included.

Sunday 21st March 2009: Italian classics - Pizza & Foccacio.

11am till 3pm. Seasonal and locally sourced lunch included.

Sunday 25th April 2009: Coming back home - Classic Irish sodas with a contemporary twist and scones.

11am till 3pm. Seasonal and locally sourced lunch included.

All of the classes are small and intimate, participants get the opportunity to make their own bread, these are not demonstration classes.

Each participant will receive individual tuition and take home the skills to make bread by hand at home without the use of expensive gadgets!

Website up and running

2009-10-31T14:32:00.000-07:00

Hello Bloggers!

Our website is launched and fully operational! Head on down to www.alphaomegabreads.com and have a peep. We are particular excited about the online booking feature for our bread making classes. A big thanks to pressplaydesign.com!

Three day coming soon

2009-10-05T11:53:00.000-07:00

We are looking to recuirt more bread evangists! Following the success of our first course we are running another 3 day bread making course, starting on the 18th October, continuing 8th November and finishing the 22nd November.

The courses are designed as stand alone days, so you can attend one or many.

Course content will follow the schedule set out in pervious posts. Briefly this is

Day 1. Fundamentals of yeast bread.

Day 2. The Itialians. Pizza and Foccacia

Day 3. Coming back home. Classic Irish sodas. With some unexpected history!

All courses will include seasonal local lunch and as much craic as we can muster!

We are currently having some technical difficulties with our website, so please phone Zoe 086 3164197 to book your place.

2009-07-23T12:37:00.000-07:00

Day 2 Italian favourites for your family

Sunday 27^th July 2009 11am to 3pm

Fionnuisce, Bandon

Group size: 6

On our second day we are going to get stuck straight into a basic pizza dough. Kneading first to a elastic dough. Once we have that a soft and springy ball, it will be set aside to prove.

Immediately after the pizza the focaccio will need to get itself together. It is going to be very similar to our pizza dough with the addition of fresh herbs (sage or rosemary or both). It will again be set aside to prove its worth.

Once the pizza dough has proved we will knock it back, roll it out, covered in a sieved tomato sauce, with fresh mozzarella, Parmigiano Reggiano and you guys will create your own original.

While our pizza is in the oven we will be shaping our focaccio and getting it ready for its second prove.

At this point the pizza will come out and be given a couple of minutes to rest. While we enjoy it for our lunch the focaccio will be in the oven.

Can’t wait!

2009-05-21T13:24:00.000-07:00

Mini white loaves Rocket Pesto loaf Multi-Seed Soda

2009-05-07T14:35:00.001-07:00

We are currently working on our website and should have a it up and running in the coming weeks. when it is up you will be able to find us at www.alphaomegabreads.com

Bread Making Course

2009-05-07T12:21:00.000-07:00

Day 1 The Fundamentals of Yeast Bread

Sunday 18th October 2009 11am to 3pm

Fionnuisce, Bandon

Group Size: 6 and perhaps 2 kids (over 8yrs)

On our first day we will begin by looking at the Bakers formula and getting the balance of flour, water, yeast and salt just right.

Once we have our quantities right we will get stuck in. The plan is for participants to take their basic dough in four different directions.

Loaf 1:

Oaty Wholemeal

Loaf 2:

Seeded Loaf

Loaf 3:

Buttermilk loaf

Loaf 4:

Wholemeal loaf

Now comes the kneading!

Once we have the dough, beautiful soft and elastic it will be ready to prove. This will give us a window to make our soup and cover some other important topics related to the humble loaf. Including some options to improve our bread further (sourdough, old dough and fresh yeast).

Our dough is now ready to knock back and shape. Handling dough at this stage is one of the biggest pleasure to making your own bread. It soft, warm and literally alive. Once shaped our loaves are now ready for their second proving.

We will use this time to have a look at some cook books which light the way in terms of further study;

Whitley, A. (2009) Bread Matters Why and How to Make your own. Fourth Estate. London.

Stevens, D. (2009) Bread River Cottage Handbook No.3. Bloombury. London.

Having had their last meal, our little yeast spores are ready for the oven.

While our bread is baking we will have time to absorb the beautiful smell and explore some of the factors related to the mass production of bread.

Finally we can enjoy some soup (we will be having something fresh, seasonal and as local as possible) and fresh bread together. We will have other fresh bread there, since you may want to bring home a complete loaf.

Our aim is to support the sharing of skills and knowledge about traditional methods of cookings. For this reason we have kept our prices as low possible.

Slow Food

2009-04-26T13:49:00.000-07:00

2009-04-23T13:24:00.000-07:00

Hope for better bread

2009-04-22T13:02:00.001-07:00

Andrew Whitley: Why Bread Needs Time? from The DO Lectures on Vimeo.

2009-04-12T13:07:00.000-07:00

Our current breads are . . .

Rosemary focaccio. A traditional Italian flatbread, which makes beautiful bruschetta and sandwiches. Made with organic strong white flour, rosemary, water, yeast and salt.
Sage focaccio. Like the rosemary focaccio, a classic italian bread. Made with organic strong white flour, sage, water, oil, yeast and salt.
Traditional white yeast bread. The old staple, so used and abused! But with a little TLC it can become a thing of beauty. Organic strong white flour, butter milk, water, salt & yeast. Move away from the dark side and come home to real bread.
Multi seed soda bread. We love this bread! Plain flour, organic bran, organic pinhead oatmeal, linseed, sunflower seeds, bread soda, treacle, butter milk, oil and salt.
Spelt bread made with organic Ballybrado flour. This ancient grain is making a fast come back, due the growing population with wheat intolerances. We use locally milled ballybrado organic spelt flour. Spelt flour, butter milk, water, oil, yeast and salt.
Spelt soda. This bread is yeast free, dairy free and wheat free. Made with organic spelt and rye flours, organic oatbran, organic pinhead oatmeal, linseed, sunflower seeds, bread soda, soya milk, oil and salt.
Raisin & marmalade bread. Organic strong white flour, butter milk, free range egg, water, raisins, sultanas, marmalade, salt, sugar, oil & yeast.
Banana bread with apricots, sultanas & lemons. Plain flour, real butter, sugar, apricots, sultanas, bananas, lemon rind, oil, free range eggs, butter.

Please post any comments or suggestions.