Hello From England | The Fresh Loaf

Hi everyone,

I too have been looking at this site for quite a while, I have made some of the breads and am very impressed with the results and the level of support.

I've been making bread for several years, and recently started selling to work colleagues and neighbours, this site has given me some ideas and I feel tempted to share some of my creations, but am a bit aprehensive in such experienced company.

Hi, LimeyLoaf.

Welcome to TFL!

Temptation is your friend. Succumb! Do share your creations. We love to see what others are baking.

If you look around, you'll find TFL members ranging from active professional bakers and baking instructors to those who are just thinking about baking their first loaf. We appreciate having that whole range participating. We all learn from each other.

I, for one, have read some about traditional English breads, but have never attempted them. I'd love to hear about what you have been baking (and see photos).

David

Welcome Limeyloaf or from this side of the world its probably pommie loaf, indeed welcome and as David says do share with us your experiences good bad or indifferent we can all enjoy and learn as we go.I remember on a trip back to the old country and i was haveing a bake with the inlaws extended family i was asked to make a Lardycake, and it turned out sensational, i'm sure we would like to see that on TFL Regards Yozza.

Greetings, LimeLoaf!

If you are willing to share some recipes, do you have a good one for Bloomer? When we lived in an English village back in the '70s, we always got it at the little local baker and it was heavenly. It's heavier bodied than the French baguettes and with the most heavenly crunchy crust and flavorful crumb. We loved having a tea of bread and cheese with thick slices of bloomer bread spread and fresh English butter. My mouth waters thinking about it. Is is still a popular bread? I thought I was ready to just make a few favorite breads for a while, but now I want to try a bloomer if you have a good recipe.

Catherine

has the same texture and crust as the bloomers you remember. Try it.

Jeremy

Jeremy, Where can I find this recipe? Is she another bread book author or a member of this forum? Maybe I should do a search.

Catherine

I wrote a little about it on the forum and that links to a longer post at my personal blog. But I didn't post full details of the recipe. I can do that this evening if you cannot find it elsewhere on line.

Jeremy

Thanks for the coments, I mainly do flavoured rolls and focaccia, I will put a sample up if I can get a blog working, also I will try and find a good lardycake (Although I have never done one myself)

Richard

I've got some lardy cake recipes here, but I haven't made them yet.We're planning an English-style high tea at some stage, and it will happen then.

I'm from England and living and baking in Rome, and I can guarantee you'll get a warm welcome here.

Jeremy

Bloomer is the shape.......................

Bloomer refers to a bread shape that is cylindrical, with slightly tapered ends, but flat on the bottom with several diagonal slashes across the top.
To create a bloomer, roll out the dough (with a rolling pin) into the shape of rectangle with rounded corners. The longest dimension of the dough should be about 14 inches and the dough should be about 1 to 1Â½ inches thick.
Starting from one of the sides with the longest dimension, roll up the dough so that the final width of the loaf is about 4 or 5 inches. The ends should be tucked and smoothed.
Place the dough onto a lightly greased baking sheet, cover with a kitchen towel, and allow the dough to rise for the final time. Cut diagonal slashes across the top about 1Â½ inches apart (usually about 6 slashes) before placing the dough into the oven.

Looking forward to seeing your bakes and maybe share some of your recipes.

Sylvia in San Diego, CA

Thanks all for your encouragement, I will put the recipe for this one up tomorrow after I have resized the photo's,

Richard