Hello hello

Three most recent posts over at mertonbakery.com:

1. refined flour as the first fast food

2. a totally scrumptious thyme and (grated) potato loaf

3. fitting dough to a banneton

I’m baking elsewhere the next few weeks (hint: may contain pizza and focaccia) but back on track in Coventry in January 2026.

Hello

I’ve been in Italy the last couple of weeks and went old school baking some loaves in a Dutch Oven and, as you can imagine, testing out some Italian Type 2 farina.

If you live in Coventry I will only be baking for COGS on Saturday 8 and Saturday 22 November, but will be back baking in the new year.

As ever, if you’d like to order from me directly just send an email.

Hello from the gluten lab here in Earlsdon with a couple of new blog posts.

One on the value of bread compared with, say, coffee, the other on a first go at making a vegan brioche (tl:dr: holy hell it was good if a little underproved — can anyone spot how I know?)

I’ll be delivering a bike-load of Merton Simple tomorrow morning at 09:30 at COGs in Coventry Market but then will be off a few weeks; back again on Saturday 8 November.

Hello lovely people

In last week’s newsletter I mentioned the cinnamon sugar focaccia (an Ali Stafford recipe) so here’s a quick post post with the sweet lowdown.

I also made some loaves with khorosan wheat — what my nephew and his girlfriend call “pretentious flour”. I call it yum.

Even though I have been baking a lot I haven’t emailed in 4 months! Hard to imagine anyone complaining about not getting an email.

The summer was great. I got to hang out in Rome with some old friends, baked here at home with the same old friends, baked for a wedding and a BBQ, made a cinnamon sugar focaccia (heavenly).

I just uploaded a new post about making a 100% white wheat flour loaf: bianco. It gets into a bit of detail about using locally milled flour and just how awesome the flour is from Charlecote Mill.

I’m baking a gaggle of Merton Simple this week (as usual) for COGs. I’ll drop the loaves off at 09:30 Saturday (4/10) so if you in Coventry and are after some bread get down there early, or drop me a line and I’ll bake to order.

Hello

Been a long time between email updates and although I have been fermenting a lot of bread and blogging a lot over at mertonbakery.com I have not been sharing anything via email.

Here are three recent highlights:

• Visiting Charlecote Mill (it was incredible)

• rolling dough in things (including corn chips)

• roasted garlic and rosemary focaccia (to die for)

Hello from a very sunny morning in Coventry.

I think there are three things in my life in which I have reached a much-more-than-average level of skill: tennis, dancing and baking bread. At least, these are three activities that I chose to pursue directly, unlike editing text that is a big part of my proper job that I kind of fell into and that I guess I am now very good at.

But of these three things — I was a champion junior tennis player and a professional dancer (technically I still am, although very middle-aged) — it’s fermenting sourdough bread that has sneaked up on me the most. I started making bread out of frustration with the loaves I was able to buy here in the UK and then, very gradually, my skill and curiosity increased.

Fermenting sourdough is both a craft and a science. You can certainly get pretty heady with it: the calculations of hydration, quantities, scaling, and keeping spreadsheets of temperatures and results, etc. There’s quite a big part of my brain that is drawn to the science and technical aspects of fermenting sourdough.

Hello

It has been a while since I sent an update. Things have been a bit busy although I’ve been baking a lot of bread and also posting to the blog.

Here are some posts that might interest you:

• introducing you to an ancient wheat grain called Khorosan.

• I have been making a home blend mix of flours (etc) and this post describes my thinking.

• and in a bella bruciatura I write about baking the bread until it is nice and dark.

Hi there.

They say that beer is liquid bread and this week I’m scalding some rye flour in stout beer to create Merton Stout sourdough. They’ll be on sale at COGS on Saturday from 09:45am.

I hope you all have a safe holiday and thanks for reading.

Simon

Hello sourdough fiends.

Here’s a link to a short blog post about smoked sprouted rye grain bread which will be for sale at COGS of Coventry tomorrow (Saturday 14 December 2024) from 09:45am. This bread is out there but so so good. And, as usual, there will be a bunch of Merton Simple loaves as well

Have a fantastic weekend.

x Simon

Hello

I’ve been baking a lot this week – so much so that I haven’t had much time to write but will post about those experiments next week.

I’ll be selling Merton Wholemeal+Sunflower loaves at COGS tomorrow 7 December as well as a bunch of Merton Simples.

The loaves tend to go pretty quickly so I suggest getting there close to 10am if you can.

hi friends

Just a couple of posts this week:

1. Experimenting with sourdough focaccia (olive, lemon and thyme).

2. Making some 70% wholemeal loaves for COGS on Saturday (tomorrow). Also some Merton Simple. Message Rachel on her COGS Instagram if you’d like to reserve a loaf.

Thanks for reading.

Good morning

Three new posts this week on mertonbakery.com:

1. On glutenin and gliadin (my two favourite proteins)

2. The freshly baked bullshit in UK supermarkets

3. Introducing Merton Blend (on sale at COGS this Saturday)

Thanks for reading.

hello friends of Merton Bakery

Three posts:

1. Sharing baking skills and experiences in an open kitchen

2. Looking at the holes (alveoli) in sourdough

3. Give your bread a squeeze to see how good it is.

Excited to be back baking this week and will have a bunch of loaves at COGS of Coventry from 09:45am on Saturday 2 November.

Hello friend

Four new blog posts this week at Merton Bakery:

• a photo of a couple of sourdough starters

• a film from the 1940s showing some old timey harvesting

• last week’s pizza in teglia at COGS

• upcoming baking schedule

Until next time.

Hello all

This week on the Merton Bakery blog:

• an emmer whole grain flour variation that includes polenta and walnuts (for sale at COGS this week)

• finally Merton is on social

I’m away for some travel from Sunday so my carb lab experiments will slow down for a bit.

Hello

This week I’ve blogged about about using emmer flour, spelt flour and baking for this weekend’s Harvest Festival at Coventry Cathedral.

Cheers, yeasty hands Ellis.

P.S. I don’t know what wild goat grass is either.

Hello

This week at mertonbakery.com:

• Tara Jensen on making bread and making ourselves

• An experiment in pushing fermentation but getting frisbees

• Coming up at COGS this Saturday 7 September

Have a beautiful weekend.

hello

I’ve got some sourdough workshops coming up in autumn (intermediate) and in the new year (beginners). Let me know if you’re interested. I also tried out a sourdough discard granola which is so so tasty.

This coming week I’ll be doing some tests with flour freshly milled from Coventry’s local Charlecote Mill so I’ll let you know how that goes. I’ve also been reading a lot of sourdough recipes so have so many ideas for new adventures.

Lastly, no bread on Saturday 31 August at COGS as I have an inescapable appointment in London which seriously interferes with dough fermentation.

A brief post to let you know what I’m baking this week (24 August) for sale at COGS: Merton Simple, Merton Sunflower and Sesame and Merton Spelt. It’s the first time these last two loaves will be for sale.

x Simon