Confessions of a home baker

If you remember BBC lifestyle programmes in the ‘eighties, you’ll probably recall one called Food and Drink. I was an avid viewer and loved trying the recipes. They didn’t always work out and sometimes the outcome was truly disastrous, but it was fun.

One of the things that the programme inspired me to do was to try making my own bread. Many of us have come across the mystique that used to, and sometimes still does, surround baking. It took ‘years to learn’, you needed ‘special ingredients’, you required ‘lots of equipment’. It was daunting. Then I discovered that a supermarket near where I lived in the north of England sold fresh yeast and that what you mainly needed was patience.  

Not as seen on TV

Sadly, my early efforts were less than stellar. The indigestible lumps coming out of the oven weren’t a bit like they looked on the telly. What was going wrong? The realisation soon dawned on me: you needed proper bread flour, not supermarket’s own-brand plain! I soon got distracted and gave up trying to be the new Richard Bertinet, or whoever the equivalent was back then.

Cut to the late ‘noughties, and I am living in Surrey. There seemed to be something in the air with this baking thing. People were particularlyinterested in what went into their daily loaf. One of the first things I did was to study the ingredients in commercial, massed-produced loaves. This was truly toe-curling. L-cysteine hydrochloride from poultry feathers, anyone?* 

Idly flicking through a magazine one day, I happened upon an article about Jane Mason, founder of Virtuous Bread and the Bread Angels network. I was inspired. Could it be possible, with the right ingredients, to bake bread that people would actually like?

Dough scrapers and dental checks

This time I was going to do it properly. This time I would know what I was doing, wouldn’t I? I found myself in various kitchen shops looking wistfully at bannetons. I acquired far too many dough-scrapers. Oh, and I really fancied those bamboo scales. But where to start? Then I tried one of Jane’s sourdough baking classes and never looked back. Here were other bakers doing the same thing as me. I was hooked.
Back at home, the first loaf out of the oven was met with all the trepidation of waiting for a dental checkup.  Would it be edible or another plain flour cowpat? No, this time it looked and tasted like Real Bread.  So there I was, baking bread that friends and family wanted to eat! 

Baking regularly, my confidence grew, and I started to try a bit more than a tin loaf. There were Parisian-style baguettes, bagels, my take on Pane di Genzano, pitta... 

Bread bites back

Some of my bread is made with baker’s yeast, some with a sourdough starter. I wish I could say that I have diligently kept a starter going since I began baking again. There have been one or two evacuations of Tupperware containers from the fridge and emergency resuscitations, but I have also started again from scratch. 

Baking builds your confidence and confidence lets you bake. Of course, just when you think you’ve mastered it, it bites you back. There are still occasional disaster days: I boil my bagels too long, the cuts in my fougasse heal up in the oven, and (my particular favourite) just as I’m cutting into an impeccably-crafted loaf, I realise that I forgot to add the salt! 

Healthy interest

I love that baking is now being used in mental health therapy. I know from experience that bread making has real therapeutic benefits. It’s helped me through some dark times. Baking makes me feel happy and creative. It can lift a ‘nothing’ day into something fulfilling. It’s the feeling I get from a loaf of bread that I’ve made. The way I felt when I baked baguettes for a charity event, which were bought by people that I didn’t even know, was on another level.

The benefits of home baking became acutely relevant for me in 2017, when my partner was diagnosed with oesophageal cancer. Thanks to an on-the-ball GP, it was caught relatively early and, after some gruelling months of chemotherapy and radiotherapy, she is now cancer-free. The after-effects mean that eating can be difficult, though. We’ve found that she’s able to eat my homemade bread, which I can tailor to her needs. Control over what we eat isn’t just nice to have anymore, it’s absolutely vital.

Baking is about love

I’m still inspired by other bakers. It’s why I like reading this magazine. The books that are out there now are more than just a list of recipes. They make me feel part of something good. Favourites have been Bread Revolution by Duncan Glendinning and Patrick Ryan and All You Knead Is Bread by Jane Mason.

Bread making isn’t just an occasional activity, it’s central to my life, my way of thinking.  For me baking is about love. I love baking good bread and I love that people eat it. My story isn’t particularly remarkable, but I hope it strikes a chord with people who’ve had a similar journey. More strength to the Real Bread Campaign and everyone fighting for a lasting change for good.

*Back 2009 and 2010, we found that additives of animal origin were being sold by companies in China and elsewhere. From our investigation, however, we concluded that it was highly unlikely that any UK industrial loaf fabricator would knowingly use them, instead choosing chemical and microbial sources. ed.

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Originally published in True Loaf magazine issue 56, October 2023.

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