Oh the weather outside is frightful...

In a bleak and exceedingly damp day we were up bright and early to prepare for our Covid safe, Christmas Loaf Coaching lesson. It's always a pleasure to turn on the ovens in winter.
It's a lovely aromatic place in the bakery on an ordinary day but at Christmas time all that fruit, spice and liquor adds a heady and extremely festive ambience to our somewhat humble premises.
As our student arrived (a repeat customer so we're doing something right) we launched into preferments and soakers and the necessity to have a large bowl of flour and a dough scraper to hand to unstick the stickier doughs. With these doughs, laden with soused fruits, less is definitely not more!
It was a lovely relaxed atmosphere with plenty of conversation and discussion about all things bread. It is wonderful to share our passion about food and ingredients with an avid student.
The damp weather didn't affect our spirits or the proving times (too much) and our wonderful student turned out some amazing breads and pastries! 12x perfect deep filled mince pies, 12x festive buns, 4x perfect little kletzenbrot cobbles and 2x impressive Stollen. I think this lady's family and friends are in for a treat this Yuletide!