We are taking part in a global research project into how sourdough works. Our 25 year old starter is now in Tuft University lab in the US, doing its stuff. To read more about it click on this link -


http://robdunnlab.com/projects/sourdough/

 early publicity for the May Bank Holiday New New Brighton Food and Drink Festival will see Little Eye on the chef's demo stage -

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/whats-on/food-drink-news/new-brighton-seaside-festival-food-12837986



Learn how to make sourdough bread with West Kirby's Little Eye Bakery

Home mills and local grains

The Grain Sheaf

On a trip down to the Welsh Borders, we were surprised and delighted to come across Jan Williams in Oswestry Market, with her start-up business The Grain Sheaf  http://www.thegrainsheaf.co.uk/

Jan has worked incredibly hard to source a real variety of grains grown in the Borders and adjacent areas - including oats and barkey and spelt alongside many strains of wheat.
And she sells home kitchen mills from Komo, the best and most beautiful kitchen top mills around.

She herself has a commercial version and can mill up to a sack of flour at once. Buit the smaller sizes are easily enough for home bakers. Have a look at her site - and admire her tenacity and commitment to fresh, local grain. Bravo Jan!

It was great to welcome back bakers from earlier classes to try some more fiddly recipes! We had a great day:

"Just wanted to say thanks for the excellent course it has inspired us to try new sourdough recipes, we have just made and eaten our first sourdough crumpets!" (Stu and Sarah)

We also made Stollen, and I am making 20 for the West Kirby Farmers Market on Dec 17th - and some extra for home consumption!

At a rough guess, we have made 10,000 loaves at Little Eye in the last 5 years. And supplied 5 shops, 3 farmers markets and several food fairs. And festivals.

Our oven is just a range-sized, single chamber electric oven. Today I am baking seeded rye, pain de campagne, seed breads and chourico rolls. And cleaning all my sourdough tubs - you can't put off keeping the sourdough clean and bubbly!

Feedback from our June class from Sarah and Stu:

Thank you for a wonderful day and and for sharing your skills and knowledge.  We really appreciate all the hard work and the preparation that went into making the course run smoothly today and for the wonderful lunch you provided.  It is inspiring to see your dedication to keeping alive the art of making real bread as it should be made using simple good quality ingredients:  sharing that with others is a gift.  We hope to be able to make at least a passable loaf!

  pictures from the June course, we carefully turn out the doughs we made in the morning onto a tray to bake the light pain de campagne

There won't be any more classes till October as we are away in September - but we will be back with our usual sourdough start-up, and a new enriched dough class in the autumn.

Islay Malt Loaf
For our Real Bread Week bake, we were on holiday on Islay in the inner Hebrides. There is an old rayburn there, so I experimented with an Islay Malt Loaf, a fruity, sticky, moist sourdough loaf. It worked out well - and was popular with visiting friends with a glass of local malt whisky.
We used fresh flours from Golspie Mill, the only mill I could find milling stoneground Scottish grain in Scotland.
We will have another run at it, in our home oven, and then maybe try it on the local market.