I’m Rebecca Bishop of The Next Loaf Baking School in Wenhaston, Suffolk. If the kitchen is your happy place and your shelves are groaning under the weight of flour, sugar and butter then you’re in the right place! I teach small group hands-on baking classes that’ll leave you feeling inspired and eager to practise what you’ve learnt. I founded Two Magpies Bakery in 2013, and I’m still obsessed by sourdough bread and the craft of baking. I’m also the author of the baking book Two Magpies Bakery, published April 2023 – available from my website.
Follow me @thenextloaf
Focaccia with rosemary, olives & sea salt
This super-hydrated dough is full of bubbles and is light and airy. Gently press the simple ingredients over the surface of the dough for an easy accompaniment to a family-style meal.
Makes: 500g tray. Prep time: 45 minutes active time, with 3-4 hours proving.
Bake time: 30 minutes. You’ll need a 23cm x 23cm x 5cm metal tin, greased and lined
INGREDIENTS
Night before (preferment)
30g strong white bread flour
30g wholemeal flour
A pinch of active dried yeast
A pinch of fine sea salt
40g cold water
Bake day
270g strong white
bread flour
5g fine sea salt
Water 1, 200g @ 35 °C
5g active dried yeast
Water 2, 30g @ 35°C
50g extra virgin olive oil
Flaky sea salt
Fresh rosemary tips
Pitted black olives
METHOD
The night before, mix the ingredients for the preferment together in a bowl. Cover and leave at room temperature overnight.
The next day, weigh the flour and salt into a bowl. Weigh water 1, at the correct temperature, and add to the preferment, then add the yeast and stir to dissolve.
Add the flour to the bowl and use a dough scraper to fold and chop the dough until no dry flour lumps remain. Alternatively you can use a stand mixer, with a spiral dough hook, to briefly mix the dough for 2-3 minutes.
Trickle half the olive oil down the inside of the bowl and let it slide under the dough, encouraging it to lift from the bottom and ‘float’. Cover the dough and rest it for 30 minutes in a warm place. The ideal dough temperature is 25°C.
After 30 minutes, stretch and fold the dough from the sides of the bowl, pulling it up and folding it towards the middle. Continue for a minute or two until the dough feels strong and elastic, then gradually add the reserved water, continuing to stretch and fold the dough until all the liquid is absorbed. Allow the dough to rest for another 30 minutes before repeating the stretch and folds, then allow the dough to rest in the bowl in a warm place for 1 hour.
After 1 hour, pour the remaining olive oil into your baking tin and use your hands to coat all the surfaces. While your hands are oily, lift the dough into the tin and dimple the dough firmly all over with braced fingertips, pressing it into the corners of the tin. This may take several attempts with a rest in between as the gluten in the dough will tighten as you stretch it.
When the dough has filled the tin, sprinkle it with flaky sea salt and push the rosemary tips and pitted olives into it. Leave the dough to prove for 1-2 hours until it is bubbly and risen.
Preheat your oven to 220°C fan, placing a heavy baking tray on the middle shelf and a small roasting tin in the bottom of the oven. When your focaccia is ready to bake, place it on the hot baking tray and tip half a mug of water into the hot roasting tin. TAKE CARE – this will create a burst of steam! Shut the oven door quickly and bake the focaccia for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, remove the roasting tin and release the steam from the oven. Bake the focaccia for another 15 minutes until golden brown.
What I’m eating
Everyone is banging on about beans at the moment – and I’m happy to join the rallying cry! Beans are naturally high in fibre, something that 96 per cent of us aren’t eating enough of. They’re low in fat, a great source of protein, good for the planet due to their nitrogen fixing qualities and they’re much more affordable than animal protein. But until recently, inspiration from producers, chefs and recipe writers had been lacking compared to meat-based dishes, as has the variety and availability of beans.
If you’re wanting to start eating more beans, check out Hodmedods, a Suffolk-based company who describe itself as a pulse pioneer, offering a diverse range of beans and legumes including flamingo peas, UK-grown fava beans and olive-green lentils. If you’re not quite ready for soaking and boiling your beans, the Bold Bean Co make ready-to-eat jarred beans, including butter beans, queen black beans and smoked chilli baked beans.
Baking know-how
I slice a lot of bread in my line of work, so you can imagine I’ve been on the handle end of a fair number of bread knives. My pet peeves are knives where the blade is too thick and chunky (I find this squashes the loaf and compresses the crumb), knives that slip and slide instead of gripping the crust and knives that can’t cope with the bottom crust of a loaf.
Let me recommend a knife to you that I’ve been using for a few years. The Opinel Parallèle no. 116 is available from good kitchen shops and online from bakerybits.co.uk. The stainless-steel blade is sharp, so it won’t squash your loaf, and the serrated teeth grip the crust to produce even slices. It’s a good-looking knife too, lightweight, with an olivewood handle and a curved blade that makes for an easy cutting action, allowing you to get leverage on the crust at the bottom of sourdough bread and other crusty loaves. A fine addition to any kitchen!
What I’m reading
If you love sharing food with friends and family, but feel that the pleasure is often tempered by the stress of trying to appear relaxed whilst juggling a dinner menu, then Good Time Cooking is your new friend.
Rosie Mackean, experienced chef and creator of The Dinner Party Substack newsletter, describes her book as ‘a manual for both cooking and hosting’. It includes recipes for three or four-course dinners, ranging from intimate dinners for two to big, unstructured sharing meals.
Every menu has its own theme, not in a 1970s kitschy way, but in a way that fits with the demands of your life, such as when you’ve only got two hours’ notice that you’ve got a houseful coming over or you want a relaxing meal to enjoy whilst watching a film with friends. Each menu comes with its own ‘getting ahead’ timeplan, a mise-en-place list so you can organise yourself and tips to help style an inviting space for your guests..
Coming up at The Next Loaf baking school
Based in Wenhaston, our classes are small, so there’s lots of personal attention. They’re suitable for beginners or bakers looking for more consistency and challenge so we’ll be mixing, shaping and baking our way through an exciting range of baking classes including sourdough, Scandinavian, Easter, Italian, Christmas and sourdough pizza. Private classes at home for up to six people are also available.
Gift vouchers make a perfect present for the baker in your life! Available in a range of prices from thenextloaf.co.uk
Upcoming class dates:
June 10: Sourdough workshop
June 19: Wood-fired sourdough pizza
July 8: French baking
July 18: Scandi buns
August 5: Introduction to breadmaking
Christmas Baking classes now available for booking!
For booking, gift vouchers and to sign up to Rebecca’s newsletter, visit thenextloaf.co.uk
