Bread In Fife

The whole gang - Colin, Hilary, Jac and Louise

A couple of weekends ago I spent a fantastic day out with Jac from Tinned Tomatoes and her friend's Hilary and Louise.  We spent the day making bread under the tutelage of Colin Lindsay in his B&B which can be found in the very cute little Scottish Village of Freuchie, in Fife and just a quick 30 minute (ish) train ride from Edinburgh.  Jac, being the super organised yummy mummy that she is, has already posted her round up for the day complete with some wonderful photo's so please head over to her blog where Jac has paid the day far more justice than I can!

Shaping Oatcakes ... not too sure he'll
thank me for publishing this one!

Preparing the Rye Bread for baking

We started the day by sampling some of Colin's home made Oatcakes, which we later got the chance to make as a group.  I think these are going to be in the Christmas Hamper for the girl's this year, no more store bought oatcakes for them!  They seriously bought any oatcake you have ever tasted before to shame.  As a group we also made a Rye Loaf, the method for making this being a bit different to a 'regular' bread dough as it is far too gloopy to knead by hand.

Wholemeal dough proving in the banneton

The finished articles ...

And the tin baked version.

Then we got to work on some wholemeal loaves, one made in a tin and the other in banneton, which is a wicker proving basket.  My dough was made following the 'master recipe' while Hilary and Jac added 'Old Dough' or 'Mother Dough' to theirs and Colin and Louise added sourdough to theirs, to help vary the flavour and texture of each of the breads.

Griddling the Staffordshire Oatcakes

Heaven in prep mode!  Yum!

While the dough for the wholemeal loaves was proving, Colin made some Staffordshire Oatcakes, which I have to admit somewhat stole the show for me.  A-Mazing!!!  We tried them firstly with some honey drizzled over but the piece de resistance had to be eating them warm for lunch in the garden with ripe juicy tomatoes and parmesan cheese sprinkled over.  They were so good I've managed to track down a local supply of the Oatmeal Colin used so I can make them myself.

Top tip:  Press your thumb into the top of the shaped
rolls before baking to ensure an even rise while baking.

My finished babies!

After lunch we baked the wholemeal loaves and made bread rolls.  This was the one of the highlights of the day for me, previously my attempts at making bread rolls have been comical to say the least!  Colin taught us how to shape them into the perfect little rolls, all smooth and regular shaped with no unsightly seams to ruin their shape or rise.  Woo hoo!

We each used different flours in our rolls and then got to sample one of each at the end, my favourite bread rolls were made by Jac using Shipton Mills Three Malts and Sunflower Brown Flour, a rich earthy flavour with loads of texture from the three malts speckled through.

We came home with bags stuffed to the gunnel's with completed bread ... not to mention belly's stuffed full too!  I highly recommend this course to anybody in the area who maybe searching for some friendly tuition on the subject of bread making.  And if your not from the area then why not come for the weekend and stay at the B&B too!