High time we had a little doughies roundup, and seeing as there’s only a few days till Christmas, let’s make it a Christmas roundup! In no particular order, here’s some snippets of news for interested bread-heads :-
Bread slicer & bread prover
We scored two pieces of new kit for the bakehouse. The first was a record delta bread slicer. The second was a mono dry bread proving cabinet. The slicer is great, and will allow us to bulk slice loaves of bread quickly and easily – great for freezer storage (sourdough toast anyone?) – the second will allow us to have an enclosed place to prove loaves in. With the addition of a heater & some moisture, it will help us get through those cold winter highland days (which we love!) when the dough is sluggish (the dough doesn’t enjoy them so much). We now just need somewhere to put our accumulation of baking equipment!
Scottish Waterways – a Banavie Bakehouse?
We contacted Scottish Waterways a while back (who own and operate the Caledonian Canal) about use of small shed to turn into a wee bakehouse. As it happened, there were plans afoot for the Banavie / Neptune’s staircase area (where we currently stay) to develop some old buildings. Our good friend attended a local event in the Moorings Hotel and put in a doughies word for us, and we are now in talks with Scottish Waterways about a bakehouse being part of their plans. I think it will take some time, but with community backing we think a local bakehouse in the Banavie area would be great both Banavie locals and visiting tourists (be they sailing, walking, cycling or canoeing!). Short term though our plan remains to convert one end of the soon to be built croft barn into a bakehouse, as people want bread and we want to bake.
Local Food Event
Following the local producer event we attended in Skye (blog post here), we got invited to join a local food and drink project run by the Highland Council up at the Rural Centre, Torlundy. Abi attended and networked for doughies – there are some more local events following which the Highland Council are due to write up their findings and recommendations. The ideas so far look promising, and strongly indicates that local food is on the rise (hooorah!).
Bake and Music Exchange
We did a small batch bake for Mary-Ann and Nick of Watercolour Music over at Ardgour. Me and Abi had a minor bake off which was fun; I (Adam) did Chad Robertson’s Tartine Sourdough recipe and Abi did Hamalman’s Vermont Sourdough recipe. They both used wet liquid wheat levain, but different time periods and levain ratios turn them into two very different breads. We did a Corran Ferry drop off and traded (due to our current lack of registered premises) sourdough for sweet-music which helped smooth our journey south for Christmas.
Well that’s about all just now – a very Merry Christmas to all, we hope some #realbread features on your Christmas menu 🙂
doughies 