Baker brought to book

Including my 20 years in Dorset, I have been a bread baker for 50 years and I truly love my craft, as well as writing about it. Over the years, my students at Panary have said they are taken with the way I write the notes and recipes that accompany my courses, Some have suggested I write a book and a few even urged me to do so!. I had built up a large collection of recipes and notes, so it seemed a good idea and a fairly simple process to compile them. 

Little did I realise that, as soon as I started thinking about what should be in my book, I was going to disappear down a rabbit hole. I suppose I should have known that I would leave no stone unturned, though I still couldn’t have expected to spend fifteen years examining and writing about every aspect of our craft and elements of its history. 

The past enriching the present

The result of this long process is The Dorset Baker, an instructional book concerning the endeavour of bread making, leavened by anecdotes from my baking life and regular excursions into the history of the craft.

Alongside the recipes I share my technical knowledge and survey various methods of breadmaking. I look at the origins of the cultivation of grains, explain the qualities of many different flours from various grains, the role of salt and yeasts in bread making, and the magical process of fermentation. I’m sure my enthusiasm shows in the text and the technical baking areas in which I have chosen to impart my knowledge and foster the reader’s skill.

I have enjoyed delving into these subjects. In these areas, particularly the history of the craft practised in Britain from the mediaeval era, there were times when I examined topics to satisfy my own whims in the hope that the reader will also find them interesting and informative. I have always held the belief that knowledge of what happened in the past can enrich how we set about making the best world to operate in today and the future. 

Much more than a job

When you are involved with a craft at the level of earning your living from it, it has a grip on your life that means it is much more than a job. A rich aspect of this situation is that you yearn to see your craft continue and do what you can to make it flourish and have continuity. In my case, I am driven by a need to help inspire the next generation of bakers by teaching, whether through running classes or taking on apprentices. 

Another means of teaching is producing an instructional book to leave a legacy of technical knowledge to help that next generation. I want my book to fire up their passion for creating good bread and engender a love of baking, whether professionally or for their own satisfaction. The nature of this book reflects how I have dedicated myself during my later working life to teaching baking courses and as often as possible to taking on an apprentice who would make a longer-term commitment to working with me.

The future

I hope that The Dorset Baker is informative, and I know it is beautifully illustrated with drawings by Sean Slater and photographs by Dorset-based Mark Cornwell. Hand skills can be acquired by following the illustrations. I’m confident that, by using this book, an enthusiastic amateur can become a capable baker, while an already competent professional baker can benefit from tips and perhaps a new perspective. I am proud to say that there are some features of my book that I have not encountered before in other books I have read, which purport to be manuals on bread baking.

 

*It turned out that this book became so large that my publishers recommended shelving off several sections to create a second volume to follow soon…

@panary_paul

The Dorset Baker, published by Riversmeet Productions on 27 June 2025.

See also

Paul Merry’s baguette recipe