Bread Sticks and Bloggers- Bread in Fife Part One

It's quite extraordinary the lengths that bloggers will go to meet up and bake. Between the three of us we made a 450 mile round trip to Freuchie in Fife, to learn how to bake Mediterranean Breads with Colin Lindsay at Bread in Fife

So who, you might ask, are the three bloggers baking bread?

Louise, Janice, Jacqueline

Louise (Lou) from Please Do Not Feed the Animals, Me and Jacqueline (Jac) from Tinned Tomatoes.

Colin

After some refreshments and a little discussion about our various bread making experience, we got down to business. Colin is testing the heat of the water  with his fingers.



We started off making an olive oil dough, all the ingredients were weighed, even the liquid.  I was very interested by the importance of the temperature, not only of the liquid, but also of the flour.  The ideal temperature for fermenting dough is 27C.  Colin gave us a formula to get the right temperature for both flour and water, double 27 = 54  minus the temperature of the flour = temperature of the water.  We used flour from  Shipton Mill and fresh yeast, but you could use dried yeast.


Once we had  incorporated all the liquid we started to knead our dough.




Colin showed us a variety of ways of kneading, including air kneading,  all of which is pretty physical, but the air kneading is really hard work.

 Here is Jac, checking whether her dough is ready by stretching it out paper thin, and if you can do that without it breaking, then the gluten has stretched enough and you are ready to prove your dough.  We set aside the olive oil dough to prove, in a converted plant propagator/mini greenhouse in Colin's porch.  It had a little heater in the bottom to keep the temperature even, of course you only need this sort of thing if you are proving a lot of dough, a warm room or airing cupboard will do just as well.

This 'beast of yeast' is a plain flour, yeast, salt and water dough that Colin had made before we arrived, so we would be able to continue baking while the olive oil dough proved.

 Bread Sticks

The first  thing we made were bread sticks, not the very thin brittle type of Grissini, you get on the table at Italian restaurants, these were more substantial.
Here are the 'toppings' that we had to choose from: olives, Parmesan cheese, sesame seeds and poppy seeds.

Colin showed us how to incorporate sesame seeds into our dough by folding the dough over the seeds, turning and folding again.
When you start to knead them into the dough, they rise to the surface.
By rolling and pushing the dough firmly in a circular motion against the table, the seeds start to go under the layer of dough.  Reading that back, I'm sure it makes not sense to anyone who hasn't seen it - you had to be there!

 Then you roll the dough flat and divide into strips.  Take each strip and roll it into a long sausage.
Place your chosen topping on a sheet of baking parchment on your baking tray, damp the bread stick with a little water from a spray bottle and roll in the topping.  You can also sprinkle with some flakes of sea salt.

These are Lou's lovely evenly rolled bread sticks.

These are my rather gnarly and unevenly rolled bread sticks - I think bread sticks can say a lot about your personality!

And here they are after baking.We tucked into them with a cuppa and discovered that you had to go easy on the salt, as some were a little oversalted, especially where we had used olives and parmesan!  However, they tasted great and we all agreed we would make them again.

We used the rest of the plain dough to make Fougasse, a traditional hearth bread, but with slashes cut into the flat breads.

These would be good with a bowl of soup, but as they are so plain, you really need something to go along with them.

The recipe for the bread sticks and the olive oil dough is on the Bread in Fife website, the Fougasse uses the same recipe as the bread sticks.

In Part Two I will show you about how we made pannini and the Focaccia featured at the top of the post.

Labels: Bread, Bread in Fife, bread sticks, dough, Fougasse, olive oil, Please Do Not Feed the Animals, Tinned Tomatoes

posted by Janice @ 20:24 10 Comments

Food Bloggers do Social Networking in Ayrshire

Chapter 2 - Food Bloggers do Social Networking with Colin Kelly

No Food Blogger Conference would be complete without a session on social media.  At the Taste of Ayrshire Food Bloggers Conference we were joined by Colin Kelly a journalist and social media trainer.   Here are a few key messages that Colin shared with us:

• Build a community
• Start a conversation
• Using You Tube increases your Google Score (because they own You Tube)
• People trust Twitter recommendations because people are accountable, they are on Twitter as themselves
• 55-65 year old females are the biggest growing demographic on social media
• 20 minutes a day is the most you should spend on social media (err I think I must be doing something wrong - ha ha!)
• Do you have a primary objective?
• It takes time
• Be human
• Give the audience a say over what you put on your blog e.g. what would you like me to cook, blog, bake?
• Have Facebook events
• Use the customisable tabs on Facebook to integrate your blog into Facebook
• Put yourself in your customers shoes
• Posts with pictures are 30% more engaging
• Finish your blog posts with newsletter sign up, follow by email etc
• Use Google + gives you an advantage in google ratings
• Create a consistent style/brand

 In the spirit of making the post more engaging here are some of the Food Bloggers at the conference.

And here are Jacqueline, Tinned Tomatoes and Louise, Please Don't Feed the Animals   you might want to visit their blogs to get a different perspective on the conference.  You may also recognise some of the photographs as we are a caring, sharing bunch :)

What are your tips for social networking/social media?

Chapter Three coming very soon (almost written)

Labels: Colin Kelly, Food Bloggers Conference, Please Do Not Feed the Animals, Social Networking Tips, Taste of Ayrshire, Tinned Tomatoes

posted by Janice @ 19:47 6 Comments

Food Bloggers go mad in Ayrshire

Chapter 1  - Sustainability, Seasonality and Ethical Purchasing

When an email from Taste of Ayrshire popped into my in-box in the middle of July, I jumped at the chance to meet up with other bloggers and learn more about the craft of blogging.  There was very little information about the programme, but I booked up anyway then got straight on to Twitter to let the blogging community know.  I'm not sure how many people were sent the email but I do know that there was a bit of a ripple effect from my tweets which reached Jacqueline at Tinned Tomatoes, Louise at Please Do Not Feed the Animals, Stuart at Mr CakeyBoi  and Kellie at Food to Glow.

It's always a pleasure to meet up with Jacqueline from Tinned Tomatoes (on the right) more photos of food bloggers in my next post, but as there is a lot of information to share, I am splitting this into 'chapters' expect 'lashings of ginger beer!'.



Our first speaker was Justin Galea, the Executive Chef at the Turnberry Hotel.  Justin is passionate about food and talked about three important aspects of showcase food: sustainability, seasonality and ethical purchasing.  He is able to buy excellent game, beef and vegetables from the local area around the hotel.  He also has access to fresh fish landed at Girvan and  quality seafood from the island of Arran on his door stop. Justin told us the story of a diner who asked for an asparagus omelette out of season and how he is prepared to 'say no' to customers on the grounds of seasonality, if the product is not in season it won't be on the menu.

Sustainability is only one aspect though, buying locally is only sustainable if the product is good and ethically produced.  There were more tales of local suppliers, some of whom were artisan producers farming using organic methods, but unable to get the accreditation.  As long as he was satisfied with that the production was of the highest quality and ethically produced he was willing to pay a premium.  Buying high quality produce locally means that the carbon footprint and environmental impact of the Hotel resort stays low.

It was news to me that the majority of foraged food for the top 50 restaurants comes from Scotland.   Justin is fortunate enough to be able to walk 200 yards from his kitchen into the woods behind the hotel and forage for ingredients which reach high prices in the markets in London.

Justin then moved on to talk about value for money. The Turnberry Hotel is an expensive place to eat, but from Justin's point of view, value for money is about the enjoyment received for the price paid, walking away with an experience.  I would agree, but would be unlikely to be prepared to pay £600 for a dinner for two!

We were also guided as to how to identify a good chef.  Justin recommended quizzing the waiters, they should be able to tell you everything about the dish you have ordered. Ask the name of the farmer who produced the main ingredient, and for meat like beef, ask whether it is grass fed or grain fed.  Was the fish farmed or line caught?  In a nutshell "Where has it come from and why?"

One of the questions asked of Justin was "who influences you and who do you follow online?"  The answer was an interesting one as Justin has been following his food heros, such as Alain Bourdin, since he was 10 years old, when there was no Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter.  He 'follows' them wherever he can find them, but also recommended You Tube as a rich source of inspiration citing Grant Achatz of the Alinea Restaurant and Ryan Clift  of the Tippling Club in Singapore as well worth watching.

Chapter 2 coming soon...

Labels: Alain Bourdin, Food to Glow, Grant Achatz, Justin Galea, Mr Cakey Boi, Please Do Not Feed the Animals, Ryan Clift, Taste Ayrshire, Tinned Tomatoes, Turnberry Hotel, Twitter

posted by Janice @ 22:21 12 Comments