White Cottage Bakery & Baking School

Today, in our series of substitutions, we have one of my favourites: Pane Pugliese. This recipe is a Southern Italian treasure. Pane Pugliese is made with either all or the greater part hard durum wheat – fine semolina or ‘semola rimacinata di grano duro’. The finest example of this is Pane di Altamura, now granted PDO (Protected Designation of Origin) status. The loaf is a beautiful pale gold in colour and has the characteristic crumb and crunchy crust of a semolina bread. It is utterly delicious and well worth a try. My recipe uses 1 part bread flour to 2 parts semolina, but this particular loaf was made with all semolina and came out of the oven golden and delicious - simply sub all the flour for fine semolina.
https://www.whitecottagebakery.com/…/pa ne-pugliese-semolina…

So for today's recipe, we've baked a delicious porridge loaf. For any of you with wanting to use your sourdough starter instead of yeast, sub the yeast for 100g refreshed starter per loaf and work your usual timings (ie long and slow - take your time!). You can use leftover porridge for this loaf, or follow the recipe to soak your oats in boiling water before including in the loaf. You can coat your loaf or rolls in extra oats, should you wish. I love the flavour of oats and a porridge loaf has that same subtly sweet flavour. Very moreish! You can find the recipe here: https://www.whitecottagebakery.com/blog/p orridge-bread #realbread

So, as you can see, we're busily developing recipes to reduce the flour needed in each loaf you bake. The Cottage Kitchen is a hive of activity. And we've put together a new page on the website that we're slowly filling with resources for you all baking at home. There are recipes and tips up there and we'll be sharing newly developed recipes and some of our regular workshop recipes over the next few weeks as many of you find yourself with both extra time to fill and the chall...enge of feeding a hungry household. We're always delighted to see pictures of your bakes we've helped to inspire, so do share. Let's bake together!
So, today's reduced flour recipe is for potato bread. There's lots of things we can use to replace some of the flour in a loaf of bread. Potato is particularly delicious. You can use leftover mash, if you have it but, if not, use the method as described so you can use the potato water for the dough. This starchy liquid is going to make your dough tender, light and fluffy as a cloud. If you want it with soup or savoury things, throw in some fresh rosemary (or even roast garlic), but it is quite simply delicious, as is. You'll wonder why you never tried it before. Recipe available here: https://www.whitecottagebakery.com/blog/p otato-bread
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OK. All the coming week, I will be posting about making do. Lots of 'How to's, eeking out scant ingredients. We'll explore flour and yeast substitutes. But don't forget, wild yeast is all around us, covering anything organic, including ourselves. It's so easy to harness. All you need is flour and water. The wild yeast is already in the flour, lying dormant, just waiting for some warmth and moisture to set it feeding and bring it to life. After 3 days feeding, I have a lively ...active starter ready to use.
How to: Make your own Sourdough Starter
Day 1: In a loosely sealed, clean pot or jar, mix 25g white flour with 25g warm water and leave somewhere warm (around 30-32C) . Day 2: Feed with another 25g flour and 25g warm water. Again leave somewhere warm. Day 3: Feed with 50g flour and 50g tepid water. Day 4: Feed with 100g flour and 100g tepid water. After 8 hours, your starter will be lively and raring to go. Test it by putting into a glass of water. If ready, it should float on the water.
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Recipe for quick and easy pitta breads (makes 12) Importantly, you can use plain flour if you can't get bread flour.
For the dough: 600g Strong white bread flour* ... 15g fresh yeast (or 7g instant dried) 2 tbsp olive oil 300g tepid water 10g fine sea salt *or substitute plain flour, if you don’t have bread flour.
Place the dry ingredients in your bowl, ensuring the salt is on one side, the yeast on the other. If you don’t have ready yeast, follow the instructions on the packet for activation. Now add the water and oil and, using a dough scraper or your hands, bring the mixture together into a rough dough. Take out of the bowl and need for about 10 minutes until you have a smooth and elastic dough. (Use a mixer with a dough hook if you have one, for less time). Place back in a lightly dusted bowl, cover and rest for 60-75 mins at room temperature.
Preheat your oven to 240-250°C, with a good quality baking sheet or baking stone in place to get super-hot.
After about an hour or so, remove the dough and divide into quarters. Take each quarter, squash it a little, then divide into 3 pieces and form each into a small ball with a tight seam underneath. Each piece should finish up as a smooth ball, with no edges or rough bits showing. Cover once more and leave to rest for a further 15 minutes.
Take the first 4 balls and roll out into ovals about 20cm long and even thickness. Place them on a lightly dusted peel, or onto a silicone sheet that can be slid straight into the oven. Slide into your oven and bake for about 5 minutes. They should puff up in the oven. Remove after 5 minutes and cover with a linen cloth whilst you cook the remaining two batches. Keep covered whilst they cool, so the pittas remain soft and pliable. If you don’t, they will dry and crisp up.
When cool, they can be kept in an airtight container for several days or frozen immediately.
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I know many of you have resorted to baking to keep your sanity over the coming weeks. For those of you who have some in the garden or are able to get to the shops, British rhubarb is wonderful right now. I don't currently have time to get this up on the blog, but there's a broad recipe over on Instagram if you're interested. https://www.instagram.com/p/B-Mhg3tJK--/? igshid=75n6owcm8rti

So, as you can see... Closed. For now. We've contacted all our students due to attend a workshop between now and May 1st to postpone their class until more certain times. Our classes bring together disparate people across the country (and occasionally, the world) in close proximity to learn together and from each other. That is their great joy, but for now, it is also their potential great risk to others.
We count ourselves blessed to be running a small business from home. O...ur overheads are contained. We will take a hit but it will be nothing compared to the small businesses in our community whose livelihoods are under threat. To all those small indies, who aren't sleeping at night and are desperately rethinking, regrouping, reorganising - our hearts go out to you. We will support you however we can.
Please support your small local businesses. Help them to keep their staff and support their families. Many are selling vouchers to help keep them in business. Perhaps this Mothers' Day, you could buy a voucher from a local indie (art shops, restaurants, local artisans...) that she will enjoy spending later in the year.
As for our plans... we've ordered in extra flour (and no, it hasn't come yet!). We'll be trialling new recipes to share with you (especially those that reduce food waste), we're planning some bake-along videos so you can make the most of extra time spent at home to learn new skills and we'll be going back to our roots to produce bread for our local community as the constraints on movement begin to bite.
This feels like a Planet Reset moment. Things will never be the same. But good things can and will come from this. We are reconnecting with community, we are supporting and caring for each other, we are learning new skills, we are learning resilience and self-reliance. Our increasingly isolationist society, in their isolation, are, once more, discovering the importance of others. We will be stronger when this is over.
Stay well. I know you'll be kind. I know you'll care for others. But if you can, remember the small businesses out there doing their level best to stay afloat. Wherever you can, choose local.
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We had some exciting news to share with you at the start of this week. But five days can change things dramatically in these uncertain times. I had planned to tell you that Ryan Riley from Life Kitchen would be joining us here at White Cottage for 3 dates over the summer. That we would be baking and cooking some exciting recipes together, that Ryan would be talking about the science behind the flavours that help those living with cancer enjoy food once more. I had planned to ...tell you that the classes are free and that you could sign up right now to a day of cooking, laughing, eating and straight-forward fun with us. But, right now, we have to save up our excitement. Life Kitchen have taken the sensible precaution of putting their classes on hold for now and as soon as they release bookable dates here in Cambridge again we'll be the first to let you know. In the meantime, you can get your foodie fix and flavour inspiration by watching Ryan in his debut on Saturday Kitchen this morning, BBC1 at 10am...
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Spotted this yesterday: Cambs Aga specialists @mandjabbs recently discovered local artist Naomi Davies 's picture of our kitchen Aga and it rather tickled them. No showroom Aga this! Its about 90 years old. Those of you who have visited us will recognise it. The baking cloths and tea towels are drying, the coffee cups are keeping warm, the kettle is waiting for the next brew...we use our Aga for dozens of jobs every day. The heat is on. Fuel is precious, so we use it. We'll b...e drying or airing, dehydrating food, sterilising jars, fermenting foods, melting chocolate or butter or honey, boiling, baking, roasting or griddling, we'll be slow-cooking pulses, baking bread or giving a boost to a last-minute proof. Oh, and it makes a fabulous tea-reheater when you've left yet another cuppa to get cold. I love that Naomi captured it in all its hard-working glory.
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It's Real Bread Week. Time to get your bake on.
Baking offers one of the best ways I know to relax. If you're having had a particularly stressful week, there's nothing better than throwing some dough down on a workbench to take out some of your frustration. And for those of us who are having a hard time with mental health, experiencing anxiety or trauma, breadmaking can be therapeutic and mindful. The rhythm of the process and concentration required helps take us out of ours...elves and brings us into the now. The moment. A place where there is just you and these simple few ingredients, making something fundamental and ancient.
So find time this week. Throw together some flour, water, yeast and salt and let your fingertips take you away from your concerns for the future and bring you back into the now. Make a loaf. Call a friend. Or visit a neighbour. Make a brew. And break bread together.
The Real Bread Campaign #RealBreadWeek2020
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Another in our occasional series of photography workshops coming up. Stella will be here on Monday May 4th (not a Bank Holiday this year, folks!). Bring along your smartphone or SLR & join us for a morning of inspiration & creativity 📷Stella Pereira https://www.whitecottagebakery.com/…/Fo od_Styling_%26_Photo…

Wonderful piece on the Castello di Potentino, capturing the authenticity of this beautiful and unspoiled part of Tuscany. Why don't you join us there this Autumn and bask in some late summer sunshine? We'll be foraging in the surrounding hills, cheese-making and pottering in the castle kitchen, as we bake traditional Italian recipes and learn from local artisans.

Behold the beautiful Castello di Potentino where we are holding our Bread and Baking Retreat this October. Each day we'll potter in the ancient castle kitchen and forage within these beautiful grounds. Those Tatler editors know a thing or two! Places on the retreat are filling up but there's still room for you to join us... https://www.whitecottagebakery.com/baking -retreat-tuscany-i…

Some beautiful pictures from our recent Food Styling and Photography workshop with Stella Pereira, taken by the warm and talented Jullianne Medeiros (Jullianne Medeiros Photography). A great morning in wonderful company - both professional and amateur - coming together to tell food stories and inspire each other. A new date in May is now up on the website. Come join us and recharge your creative batteries. https://www.whitecottagebakery.com/…/Fo od_Styling_%26_Photo…

If you can grab a morning off tomorrow, come and join Stella Pereira as she takes us through her photography and food styling techniques in a half day workshop. Working with the seasons, Stella uses storytelling to engage us and draw us into her beautiful imagery. Bring along your camera or smartphone and pick up some great tips for capturing the perfect picture, especially in these short winter days where we need to generate warmth and light. http://www.whitecottagebakery.com/…/Foo d_Styling_%26_Photog…

However grim and blustery January is, the year stretches before us, filled with exciting possibility! Announcing a new collaboration for 2020 (and the warmer weather!). For you natural wild yeast lovers, I give you... the Bread & Wine 3 day Residential Retreat with the fabulous Emily O'Hare.
Emily currently lives in Italy where she teaches WSET levels 1-3, runs wine retreats and writes about wine for Decanter and The Florentine. We are thrilled that she will be joining us he...re at White Cottage this May where we will be running workshops on making sourdough and deepening your knowledge and appreciation of wine to WSET level 1. And, naturally, we will be discussing the part played by wild yeast in both natural wine and sourdough making.
With the Baking School here at White Cottage around the corner from the delightful Kingston Barns, we are able to offer fabulous accommodation too! The weather will be warming up and, weather permitting, we look forward to making the most of the cottage gardens as well as dining 'Italian-style' at the Barns. All-in-all, it promises to be a fun, not to mention delicious, 3 days. Do check it out. We'd love to see some of you there... http://www.whitecottagebakery.com/bread-- wine-retreat-uk.ht…
Photo of Helen: Credit - Kalina Krawczyk
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If you haven't joined the Real Bread Campaign before, make 2020 the year you do! Some fab offers to members for discounts on equipment and ingredients, including from some of our top mills here in the UK. Real bread! Real ingredients! An honest crust!

We are delighted to announce another collaboration with the talented cook, stylist & photographer, Stella Pereira. Using seasonal ingredients, Stella will, this time, focus on that warm glow of light needed in the short winter days as we wait for the earth to wake up. We invite you to bring along your own equipment, be it smartphone or digital camera, to capture your very own food stories. Whether a food professional or an eager amateur with a keen eye in need of tips and dir...ection, Stella will guide you in both creating a narrative and capturing the light for that perfect picture. Places will be limited to 8 people. Check out Stella’s work and inspiring Instagram feed: @stellamarpereira. Booking link: We are delighted to announce another collaboration with the talented cook, stylist & photographer, Stella Pereira. Using seasonal ingredients, Stella will, this time, focus on that warm glow of light needed in the short winter days as we wait for the earth to wake up. We invite you to bring along your own equipment, be it smartphone or digital camera, to capture your very own food stories. Whether a food professional or an eager amateur with a keen eye in need of tips and direction, Stella will guide you in both creating a narrative and capturing the light for that perfect picture. Places will be limited to 8 people. Check out Stella’s work and inspiring Instagram feed: @stellamarpereira We hope you can join us!
Booking link here: https://www.whitecottagebakery.com/…/Fo od_Styling_%26_Photo…
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