I know, it’s been awhile, I’ve just been so busy…you know, sitting in my home like everyone else. What a strange time we find ourselves in. Like many of you, I’m still figuring this thing out, doing what I can to get through the days, weeks, months, for however long this lasts.
Being sheltered in place in New York City — my current home city and perfect hub for my worldwide travels — has created an awful conundrum for my goal of transforming this little blog into a bustling, electronic hub for my fellow world travelers. How do we even talk about travel in a time like this? Seems like such a tease…maybe even inappropriate, considering the awful risk one takes with travel versus the important task we have to keep each other safe. Ever the ardent traveler, though, I find myself needing to get out, to escape, to move beyond the walls of my Brooklyn apartment and see the world, engage its cultures, and soak these road-thirsty feet a few hours in the hot, bubbly bath of sweet, sweet escape.
Enter the internet! A real spark in my much-too-contained life has been the virtual sea of tutorials, tours, and performances currently flooding the internet and social media — all there for the taking; just hold on and let it whisk you away! And trust me, I am holding on for as long as I can! What’s a better use for social media than to actually bring us all together, when we’re forced to stay so far apart?
So for today’s entry, dear reader, I would like to introduce you to my daily escape pod; the intercontinental flight across the Atlantic to my favorite city (and my future home and hub to the world): London. This daily escape meets every day on Instagram Live, and it’s almost as thrilling as actually being in London…that’s entirely not true, but it’s still pretty damn great, and hey…no jet lag…so that’s something. I can’t think of a better way to “share the love” than to take you all with me on my daily adventures. Today, get comfortable: it’s the hunger-inducing, waist-expanding, live baking tutorials with Bread Ahead Bakery in Borough Market!
Anyone who’s talked to me (or, perhaps, has lived in the same apartment as me) the past 7 weeks, knows of my current obsession with baking tutorials. Right now, baking techniques are all the rage. Let’s be honest, what’s more comforting than freshly baked bread? With endless options, Bread Ahead has really struck a chord with me; they’re informative, incredibly patient (each day, receiving a barrage of questions from their captive audience), all while remaining engaged and entertaining.
A little backstory: Bread Ahead was founded by chef and baker Matthew Jones in 2013 to serve London’s Borough Market and the surrounding area. In 2014, they opened a baking school with workshops and have since expanded to 4 locations throughout London. Now, in these stressful times, they’ve chosen to generously give their time making quarantine a little easier and more pleasant for so many of us.
As for my personal history with them, I’ve been following them on the ‘gram and coveting those workshops for ages. You see, they have these indulgent doughnuts that are stuffed to the brim with sinfully rich fillings; a sweet tooth’s dream – highly-photogenic, decadent little pillows of joy!
Early in quarantine, I discovered they were going live on Instagram making sourdough starter for the world to watch and learn…so began my life as a bread baker; as did my boyfriend’s life as a sleuth, seeking out the ever elusive flour I needed to feed my new addic–uhhh…hobby.
What started as a nightly sourdough starter tutorial has since grown into a full time job for London’s Bread Ahead team, including daily afternoon tutorials (delectable chocolate chip cookies, scrumptious scones, and toasty bagels, to name only a few), question and answer sessions, E-bake cookbooks (best £5 I’ve spent), semi-private Zoom courses…and, thanks to their growing list of followers, there’s no end in sight! All the while, they’ve simultaneously kept the bakeries running, serving London their daily bread…and flour, jam, pastries…when do they have time to sleep?
It’s not just the baking that makes these tutorials appealing, it’s the human element and the feeling of community they’ve created. On any given day, you can find Matthew buzzing around his bakery, socially distancing his way through the streets of London, or making a cup of tea in his home kitchen, all captured delightfully by his wife Erika with cameos by their adorably precocious cats while people from all over the world join in to get a glimpse. After a month plus, I feel like I know them, like we’re all good friends.
A lot of what Matthew and Erika say, I’ve subscribed to myself in both my baking and cooking. One example: they are fierce proponents of not wasting food. He cleans his bowls like a champ, getting every last drop of goodness into the bake. And, he never discards any of his sourdough starter, which I love.
Since these tutorials have begun, I’ve made a point to watch every one of them. And there have been many. They’re available for 24 hours, so if you don’t get to the live feeds, there’s plenty of time to catch up. It’s like baking porn really, just a glimpse of Matthew’s chocolate cake with chocolate ganache or gooey brownies is more than enough to divert the mind and focus the energy on a quest for supplies. I can’t be the only person convinced pectin is an essential item…if only I could get my hands on some.
Don’t fret too much if you can’t find everything you need, we’ve all got enough to worry about these days, thankfully most of the recipes are adaptable to what you have on hand. For each recipe, they are incredibly helpful in offering alternatives to ingredients such as milk, flour, spices, as well as if adjustments for dietary restrictions like gluten are possible.
The most interesting tip I’ve learned which has also proven to be the biggest challenge, other than securing ingredients, is determining how personal and environmental variables affect the bake – the temperature of your home, how hot your oven gets, are you working with an electric or gas oven, the climate of your area…it’s all so scientific and fascinating. And, it all takes practice and, something I’ve never personally been in great supply of, patience.
Truth be told, I’ve wanted to make every single recipe I’ve seen but two people can only eat so much bread and sweets while trapped in a small NYC apartment. When quarantine is over though…watch out! My world…and if you’re lucky enough to know me, yours…will be filled with chocolate cake, cinnamon buns and amaretti for quite some time.
Thanks to these tutorials, so far I’ve made my first focaccia, giant chocolate chip cookies, a sourdough starter and my first loaf of sourdough bread with a second loaf proofing right now! Ideally, with some tweaks to my first go-around, this will be a huge success.
My big plans for the week – baking that loaf of sourdough bread, I’m tossing around the idea of homemade bagels and I’ve got a very special treat to look forward to – a doughnut workshop! Which as it happens, lands on my birthday. I can’t think of a sweeter way to spend a quarantine birthday.
All these baking tutorials on Instagram may be free but the experience has been absolutely priceless. I don’t know that I’ll ever properly express my gratitude to these lovely people. What I do know, when travel does resume, my first stop will be Bread Ahead Bakery to stock up on pastries, bread, the cookbook and maybe I’ll throw in a doughnut for good measure. It’s the least I can do.
As for the Bread Ahead schedule, the remainder of April and May are already filled with more captivating recipes. You can find the daily tutorials @breadaheadbakery. If you’ve always wanted to make sourdough, you can check out the daily visit to @thesourdoughhotel. I hope they bring you as much joy as they do me.
In the meantime, I’ll be back with another adventure from my couch soon. For now, this “Bread Aheader” has a sourdough starter to attend to. Until next time – stay well!
Adventures of a New Yorker traveling the world.
Adventures of a New Yorker traveling the world.
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