Pump Street Bakery, Orford, Suffolk

Just after New Year I finally got to go along to Pump Street Bakery in Orford to try out what, after only a few weeks, seemed to be fast becoming Suffolk’s most talked of bakery and coffee shop.

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I went along to meet up with @Farctum and also @donna_de a couple of my Twitter chums.

And as well as great conversation I was delighted that Pump Street lived up to its advance billing.

In all respects. the building has been restored carefully and considerartely and the selection of goodies on offer is spot on.

The coffee beans are from Monmouth Coffee in London, and its fair to say I probably sampled too many cups!

I also had an Eccles cake with Kirkhams Lancashire, so good I took some Eccles cakes away with me.

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And I bought a lovely loaf of light rye….great crusty lovely texture and taste. 

I can’t wait for my next visit.

2011 bread experiments #1

So what was loaf one then and how did I select it? I used a random number generator which lead me to Dan Lepard’s The Handmade Loaf p161, which has a picture on…so i flipped forward to the first recipe after that to find on p163

WHITE LOAF WITH GRATED CHESTNUTS

Sounded yum. It uses the usual Dan Lepard low knead technique that I’m a big fan of and have written about here.

It was pretty easy to make and came out with a lovely soft crumb. It made fantastic cheese sandwiches and wonderful toast.

Definitely one to repeat.

I haven’t found the recipe online anywhere so just some pictures this time.

2011 bread experiments ‘the rules’

In my last post I talked about some of the bread I made in 2010 and said I was going to challenge myself to make a different loaf each week in 2011. To make its a bit more fun I decided to select two of my bread baking books and I’m going to bake my way through them both but in a RANDOM manner.

Here’s the rules I’ve set myself:

  1. I must select the bread to be baked randomly, using either a random number generator or by asking for numbers from people on Twitter.
  2. If the selected page doesn’t have a recipe on it then I moved forward in the book to the next nearest recipe.
  3. If the recipe is a sweet bread or bun I can skip in and do another random generated page number. WHY? because we eat so little sweet stuff I know it will get wasted.
  4. If the selection is something I’ve already made I do the next nearest recipe in the book moving forward page number wise.
  5. I blog each loaf at least with a picture and whether I think its a great recipe.

The two books are River Cottage Bread Handbook and The Handmade Loaf. I’ve used both a bit last year so I know they are good.

So what loaf is going to be first….

Rain, mud and some sunshine

So its been a little while since I did an update but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been out there doing some miles.

I have hit a few challenges though so I know I’m going to need better ways to get over those.

Here’s how its been going:

5 Jan: 3.36 miles locally round the roads near where I live. A reasonable but not exciting walk.

6 Jan: a very short canter round the block of .54 miles it was a rainy day mind you

7 Jan: horrid and rainy all day no walk

So I realised I needed a way to deal with rainy days….I don’t want to go out and get drenched but I want to do some activity even if I don’t count it to my challenge miles. Maybe rainy days are for strength and stretch training….

8 Jan: Nice walk incorporating Wanstead Park, bit muddy underfoot but some sunshine and 5.20 miles.

9 Jan: 4.59 miles across parts of Wanstead Flats and up to the edge of Walthamstow. Again muddy but a nice view to the city.

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(the picture doesn’t do the view justice, the teeny buildings in the distance are the city and look so much better in reality)

10 Jan: spurred on by a good weekend I walked to the shops to get a few things needed for dinner a 3.72 mile round trip.

11 &12 Jan: Business meetings meant slotting in walking was hard and I didn’t do any miles. hoped to catch up Thursday and Friday but….

13/14 Jan: Horrid rainy days, no chance for walks.

15 Jan: Grey weather but not raining so a walk out near Ware along the New River aqueduct and the River Lee Navigation, 4.7 miles, again a bit muddy.

So I’m a scary 19.75 miles off track :0

I need a rainy day strategy…I think indoor stretches or strength training or the clonky old exercise bike tho I’m not counting those to the target they will keep me active.

I need a busy day strategy….I’m going to try to find some 1.5 – 2 mile routes from home so I can try to do them when I’m busy as its seems a quick 1/2 hour is so more appealing if I’m busy.

And I must clean the mud off my boots….

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Oh my, what an amazing pork pie

I’ve mentioned Bray’s Cottage pork pies before (lots).

Because they are simply FAB.

I even worked on their stand at the NEC Good Food Show helping to introduce the Bray Co range of pies to the masses (naked, chorizo, onion marmelade and chill jelly)

But I’d never had a hot pork pie before. EVER.

Not a Bray Co one or anyone elses.

Last night I fixed that by baking this beauty.

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It’s a Brays Cottage 3lb pie. ‘Naked’ flavour (a bit like a traditional pork pie only miles better). Baked from frozen.

Eaten hot with piccalilli. 

Stunning.