"baker" news and stories

A Suffolk town refused to give permission to build a Tesco superstore in their neighborhood in 1997 and, since that time, local businesses and agriculture have flourished. Despite an overall decrease in the number of smaller, independent stores throughout Britain, the number of businesses in town has remained the same and the number of local/regional food suppliers increased from 300 to 370, meeting the demand from local butchers, bakers and greengrocers. The local shops primarily source from local sources, and have not found themselves to be limited in what they can offer their customers. In fact, they have slowly been expanding into more diverse foods and vegetables as suppliers find people to grow them.

Over the past decade, many other store proposals from developers have been turned down and the locals' position gets stronger after each refusal. The hardest part is shaking the mindset that values convenience and sometimes price, over quality and belief. The locals would rather know where their food is coming from, who is selling it to them and that they are supporting quality food in their community, than save a few pennies on carrots from elsewhere in the world at Tesco.

Stores like Waitrose and Marks & Spencer have already put effort into sourcing more local ingredients, which has made customers and local business people alike very happy as well as demonstrating that local foods can be utilized on a larger scale. This is useful to note because it is not possible for the Suffolk strategy to work everywhere; some areas are simply not suited to agricultural purposes. What the Suffolk example does show is that the local food movement can still thrive in a modern environment as long as people are committed to it.

 

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Sara Lee has just released a new line of hot dog and hamburger buns in time for the summer grilling season. The buns are made along similar lines as their best-selling Soft & Smooth bread, which contains whole grains but has the same texture and flavor as white bread. The names of the buns are a mouthful -  Sara Lee Made With Whole Grain White Hot Dog and White Hamburger Buns - but if the success of their Soft & Smooth bread is anything to go on, it is a mouthful that consumers are eager to take.

How do they make these breads? Spencer Wise is a food scientist for Sara Lee who is credited with the creation of these breads and buns. They are about 24% whole grain, made using a "white whole wheat" flour developed by ConAgra to feel softer and look similar to white flour, and contain 6 grams of whole grains per bun. Wise says that while the basics like flour, oil and yeast are important, any baker could work them out, so "the real secret recipe lies in the amount of monoglycerides, enzymes and other additives, " the combination of which allows the bread to be made successfully on an industrial scale.

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Adding potato to bread doughs gives them a moist, but very light texture. Potatoes are on the bland side, though, so Gemma, the Part Time Pro-Bono Baker decided to add a little more flavor to her potato biscuits by adding cheddar cheese and topping them with poppy seeds for a bit of crunch. They take mere minutes to put together, and even though the potato needs to be cooked in advance, boiling one potato doesn't take much time. When I bake things that call for adding potato to the dough, I will often just use reconstituted potato flakes, which you can buy at the store. They turn out the same consistency in the finished product - and these biscuits are a finished product I wouldn't mind seeing on my table.

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Has your baking bug bit? Here's one way: take a peek in a vintage cookbook, especially one like Amy's beautiful Fleishmann's pamphlet. It makes me just want to head to the kitchen and bury my fingers in flower, butter, sugar and lots and lots of cinnamon. On my schedule for tonight's late-night baking fix: either orange-lemon bundt cake or toasted hazelnut cake from Patricia Wells' Trattoria (I'm in love with Patricia today). Hmm...

Are you inspired to bake in this gray, drizzly, cold days?

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Rose Levy Berenbaum has entered the blogosphere with her Real Baking with Rose website. Ms. Berenbaum is the author of such staple baking cookbooks as The Cake Bible and The Pie and Pastry Bible, in addition to six other books. On her blog, which is sponsored by General Mills, she will answer reader questions and help to troubleshoot recipes. She has been answering reader questions by mail for years and this is the first opportunity for everyone to read her responses. I'm thrilled to see her blog, not only because she posts very often, but because her insightful responses are helpful and interesting to read. Her blog is sure to become a great baking reference for anyone who has ever overbaked a batch of cookies or had a cake fail to rise in the oven.

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