Ginni, Sophie and bread lovers everywhere

Ok, if you want to word it in the most appropriate way, i ll amend it and use your words. a sciency bit would be good too - how leaven is made, what actually "happens" to create it, and the science of the breadmaking itself would be fab. don't bang on too much though ?

oh, and do you want some? I can't really put your words on it without you trying it ;-)

Why not. Another thing for me to kill after the houseplants ?

Oh marvellous ?

Ooh excellent

I have to see how this compares to Jobe (oh yes, I named my leaven)

Jobe? ? that sounds slightly sinister, like Jobe is the psychopath in a horror movie, and grew up with a mother who punished him for wetting the bed ?

send to the mail ad on the blog and i ll happily send you some.

Ooh I'd love some leaven NickJ - I'll put my request in and have a go. ?

I like the blog very much. I also like good bread - I may have to train my toddler though as I'm not sure my skin will be up for it regularly but that's ok, I started making bread when I was 2 too.

Excellent.

at this rate i can see that come thursday night i m going to have a beery monster bulging out of the fridge ?

all done ?

and yes, his name is Jobe
he hangs out in the fridge smelling faintly of booze, and maybe a little bit of wee

Its like keeping a pet isnt it? ?

zeb, you muppet ? you ve left your address as a comment ? so, i wont approve it and show your address to the world ? - just send it to the email address on the main page

It is indeed a lot like having a pet, even down to arranging someone to come over and feed him when we're away ?

A leaven sitter. fab ?

did you know though that if you build it up and just before you leave put say, 250 grams of water and 300 grams of flour that she (he in your case) would be fine for a couple of weeks

He's got to be about 6-7 months old at least now, and luckily he's been ok for about a couple of weeks when I've been away or been ill recently, although I don't usually leave him this long as I'm baking bread pretty regularly now

It's good to know he's a robust little leaven, and I'll certainly go with the good feed just before leaving tip next time we go away at the same time as the leaven sitter

Gah, I realised the minute I did it - I meant to write something nice like what a fab blog but got distracted and wrote my address instead. That's what comes from having to type while fending off an enthusiastic small boy with a pink hairdryer...

Honesty compels me to point out that 100g of water is by definition the same as 100ml of water. Presumably you weigh for accuracy?

Yours Grumpy Pedant ?

Dear Grumpy Pedant,

I believe it is for accuracy (weighing over measuring by volume in a jug) but I didn't like to point this out in case I was refused leaven ?

Yours Grouchy Pedant

? that is THE most pedantic thing i have ever read ?

yes, for accuracy you twat ?

zeb, feel free to leave any nice comments you want, but look, dont leave your address on there ?

But you say "pour in 100 grams of room temperature water, (yes, GRAMS not millilitres)" and it's a bit hard to do grams and not millilitres ?

I know, it's picky. It really is a nice blog though.

I was also going to point that out, but couldn't be bothered ?

I will point this bit out though:

"Bread, Baking, no nonesense cooking, and no fannying around "

Careful now Grouch ?

(you likely to have any time for editing in next few weeks btw? No promises but possibility of some stuff. Will def try and get you on the books before forthcoming restructure just in case we can't do it afterwards)

I'm seriously considering giving this a go. I cannot stress what a shiit cook I am, but because I love bread and would quite happily live on it, I might just try.

Haven't read the thread yet, looks long!

Thanks Nick, what a nice bloke? I have most of the stuff you recommended now, off to Sainsburys for the flour tomorrow .

I'm following on twitter now, will ask for leaven later after I come back from Manchester next week.

Cheers,

Jo

Yes - bags of time - might even manage to get back to the oter thing I'm supposed to be editing ?

No rush ?

Your blog is rather funny Nick...I like the no nonsense approach ? I made pizza from scratch tonight, t'was delicious and I was proud of my first pizza dough. I used the fast action stuff though I'm afraid.

Ironically I've just put up a post about how to make pizza using leaven ?

Ooooh even better, will probably make a pizza then instead of bread, that'll go down very well in this house! Thanks again Nick! ?