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Author: Dan Lepard

Dan Lepard

Dan Lepard

BakeryBits baker and food writer

From working as a photographer in the early 90s he found pastry and breadmaking a much better fit.  His first book “Baking With Passion” (1999), won Guild of Food Writers’ Cookbook of the Year. His next, the breakthrough sourdough book “The Handmade Loaf” (2004) was awarded Observer Newspaper’s “20 best cookbooks" in the last two decades. Short & Sweet (2011), won Andre Simon Cookbook of the Year. He writes regularly for newspapers and magazines across the globe.

How to... get bigger holes in your bread

How to... get bigger holes in your bread
If you want holes in your bread then there are quite a few factors that affect how you exaggerate and enlarge them. So at BakeryBits we hope this discussion of the factors involved will help get you on the right track. But it's also fun and interesting when you get into it. You will see that many of these points conflict, so that’s where you have to decide what is more important to you. Do ... Read more

Recipe: Spelt, Carrot & Ginger Mini Loaves

Recipe: Spelt, Carrot & Ginger Mini Loaves
For Easter these mini carrot loaf cakes with ginger, dairy-free, are a great way of getting the family active helping you bake. The carrots are peeled, chopped, boiled, and pureed and this gives the cake texture a very seductive softness. Baked in our mini loaf tins they’re perfect as a snack or for a lunchbox treat. Makes 6-8 mini loaf tin cakes. Puree the cooked carrot and water until very ... Read more

Seeded Country-Style Tin Bread Recipe

Seeded Country-Style Tin Bread Recipe
A simple but delicious sandwich loaf full of seeds together with the flavour of stoneground flour. Very quick to make, and often this can cause the crumb to be drier, but here the seeds hold in some moisture – especially the linseed – and this creates a crumb that stays soft for days. Toasts very well, and perfect for a hearty sandwich. Makes one large tin loaf  Method Put the ... Read more

Pain Viennois, French-style soft milk bread

Pain Viennois, French-style soft milk bread
The perfect bread when you want something that’s a little sophisticated but still has a comforting soft white simplicity to it. The recipe uses an overnight method, so prepare the dough the day before you want to bake the bread. Pain Viennois is a classic bread from the French boulangerie repertoire – it’s one of the listed bread French bakery students need to know by heart when ... Read more

Classic Sourdough Bread using 100% Stoneground Flour

Classic Sourdough Bread using 100% Stoneground Flour - sliced through loaf showing the crumb and crust
When you move away from roller-milled flours from imported grain and start using stone milled flours, especially using grains grown in a variable and wetter climate with a mixture of wheat varieties, you’ll notice characteristics that both improve the flavour and colour but also give a different consistency to the dough that might puzzle you at first. This is my go-to method for handling these ... Read more

Recipe: Mixed wheat focaccia or naan-style bread

Recipe: Mixed wheat focaccia or naan-style bread
Get excited about Focaccianaan! A fantastic dough that combines Mulino Marino's Strong Wheat "Furia" Flour with their Sapori Antichi flour – a stone-ground organic blend of Farro (Spelt), Rye, Khorasan Kamut, and Einkorn wheat, plus Organic Italian Chickpea flour. This one dough can be used to make many differently shaped and baked breads. Shaping one dough into sticks, rolls, loaves, buns ... Read more

Recipe: Wholemeal Spelt (Farro Integrale) Sourdough

Recipe: Wholemeal Spelt (Farro Integrale) Sourdough
We’re a big fan of Italy’s legendary Mulino Marino flour mill and their excellent Organic Farro Integrale (Wholemeal Spelt) Flour. Packed with flavour, a beautiful honey colour to the crust and crumb, and easy to use if you follow a few tips here. The secret to getting a light 100% spelt or wholewheat loaf is somewhat connected to watching your expectations and not treating it exactly ... Read more

Pancakes for Pancake Day

Pancakes for Pancake Day
An old English Georgian-era recipe for a great Shrove Tuesday “Pancake Day” pancake, that flips really well without falling apart. If you want something more delicate and less flip’able you can add ½ tsp baking powder to lighten it. There’s a range of milk given: the smaller amount will give a slightly thicker pancake; the greater amount will create a much thinner ... Read more

Cheddar, garlic and potato filled oatcakes

Cheddar, garlic and potato filled oatcakes
These are 21st century Staffordshire oatcakes, filled with soft potato mixed with tarragon, cheese, garlic and shallot, and layered with ham and mustard. Rolled up, chopped into 2-3 pieces and sat cut-side up in a buttered baking dish, they turn into a crisp, utterly rich and delicious lunch or dinner. Perfect with a light salad or vegetables on the side. Serves 3-4Method Put the shallots, ... Read more

Staffordshire Oatcakes

Staffordshire Oatcakes
When is a pancake not a pancake? When it’s a Staffordshire Oatcake! If you’re unfamiliar with these you might think that oatcakes are always crisp round biscuits, but these oatcakes are soft and tender, and were once long ago much more common, with variations found all over England, Scotland and Wales.  Here I’m using a Welsh bakestone to make them, as a Staffordshire ... Read more

Extra light cream cheese frosting

Extra light cream cheese frosting
Whether for Easter, a birthday, or just a delicious cake for everyday, this smooth extra light frosting will be a great finish for you best cakes.Method 1. For the cream mixture, gently stir together the cream and the icing sugar until smooth, then leave to one side. Don't whisk it, it should remain liquid. 2. Beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Then beat in the cream ... Read more

Tiramisu Chocolate Carrot Cake

Tiramisu Chocolate Carrot Cake showing a slice
Our Tiramisu Chocolate Carrot Cake is a delicious and fun take on the usual Valentine’s Day dessert so loved around the world. I’ve left alcohol out of the recipe, but if you like you could spoon a little marsala and rum over the warm cake when it’s fresh from the oven, so it soaks in. Makes one 6” or 7” round cake.Method 1. Butter the inside of a 6” or 7" ... Read more

So what is flour fortification in the UK?

Flour being sprinkled through fingers
What is fortification? It’s when vitamins and/or minerals are added to foods in order to enhance or “fortify” the flour and give it heightened nutritional and health benefits. So what is flour fortification in the UK? Currently, in theory, all milled white and brown non-wholemeal wheat flour manufactured and sold in the UK has calcium, iron, thiamine and niacin added. This ... Read more

What is... couche linen?

What is... couche linen?
BakeryBits is the UK's leading online stockist of couche linen. Many of you have bought it already and we’re very happy that you like it so much. But there will be some of you who have no idea what it is, how it can improve your bread baking, and why so many bakers consider it essential. So here is a guide to buying and caring for your couche linen cloths.   Check out our full couche ... Read more

Recipe: Whoopie Pies

Recipe: Whoopie Pies
Whoopie pies had a moment of fame just when my book Short & Sweet was coming out, so I dedicated several pages to recipes for chocolate and vanilla versions, with maybe five or six other flavour variations as well: enough to stock a cake stall at the next village fete! If you want to try them all, you can buy the book HERE, but as a taster, this recipe which I wrote for Patrick at ... Read more

Recipe: Mince pies with a walnut whisky sugar crust

Recipe: Mince pies with a walnut whisky sugar crust
A crisp easy-to-roll rugged buttery shortcrust made with mix of dark rye and white bread flour, and a hint of real honey. Filled with your very best mincemeat. Then topped with a scotch whisky and walnut sugar crust. Giving you a very impressive Christmas mince pie with a knockout flavour too. And of course you can replace the whisky with rum (that's Faith at our BakeryBits HQ's preference), ... Read more

How to... use nibbed, pearl, and grain sugars in baking

How to... use nibbed, pearl, and grain sugars in baking
Using BakeryBits decorative sugars What are they? Not all white sugar is the same. You’re probably familiar with different brown and unrefined sugars, the coarse demerara sugar crystals and “coffee” sugar (even larger brown sugar crystals). But did you know that the same is true for white sugar? At BakeryBits we do a range of different white sugars especially made for baking, with ... Read more
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