dirty hands
Dear friends One new post on the blog this week: dirty hands, prompted by a Gastropod episode on the history of white versus whole wheat bread. Steve Jones...
sifting around (and weekend baking)
Dear bread friends Two new posts on the Merton Bakery blog. Sifting is about making high extraction flour by hand – separating out some of the bran from...
baking this week and two new posts
Dear friends, Over on the blog there are two new posts: rye and walnut, from baking a few weeks back using toasted walnuts and a scald from freshly milled...
defining sourdough
Dear bread friends, No baking this weekend I'm afraid as I am away. I'll be back at it the weekend of 18 April and will let you know when orders are open...
easter weekend baking
Hello carb compadres I’m going to bake twice this long weekend: Saturday (4 April) and Monday (6 April): Merton Simple loaves Saturday and scalded Khorosan...
sunday baking
hello dear bread people I got back to the UK and am back baking. If you live near to Coventry and want a loaf I’ll be fermenting dough all day Saturday and...
last call
hi again Tomorrow (Saturday 14 Feb 2026) is the last call for bread at COGS at the Coventry Market (see last week for the lowdown). I’m then travelling a bit...
big change
Hello I’ve been baking a lot these last weeks, experimenting with deep pan pizza, vegan brioche and a lot of sourdough (the very opposite of industrialised...
back baby
I’m back fermenting some loaves to sell at COGS of Coventry tomorrow morning Saturday 17 January 2026 from 09:30am. Get in quick. A couple of new posts on...
herbs, whole grains and banneton fit
Hello hello Three most recent posts over at mertonbakery.com: refined flour as the first fast fooda totally scrumptious thyme and (grated) potato loaffitting...
old school
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...
gluten news
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...
pretentious flour
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...
bianco
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...
merton bakery: what's up?
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...
merton bakery: about craft
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:...
catching up
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...
beer + bread
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...
smoked sprouted rye
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...
sunflower
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...