Warren Lee Cohen

Monday I was warmly welcomed at work with a gift of a 2  1/2 kg  cotton sack of freshly milled, organic Red Fife wheat, a local variety that has been grown in Ontario since the 1840’s. This grain, originally brought over from the Ukraine, was successfully grown across the wheat belt of Canada until the early 1900’s when it was supplanted by other varietals. Renowned for heartiness, flavour and nutrition, Red Fife is experiencing a revival and is now sought after by artisan bakers. My first sponge is rising as I type this post. I look forward to feeling how this dough is to knead by hand and ultimately to savor its crust and crumb. Anson Mills has some helpful information about working with this high gluten wheat. Thanks Lucas!

More good feedback from my first sourdough bread baking workshop in Canada. Many kindergartens at the Toronto Waldorf School are now using natural leavening processes to make more nutritious and digestible breads for the young children. This is such an exciting outcome from a one day workshop.

I am pleased to announce my first baking workshop in Canada.  Come and join me if you can.

Jennifer Muller

Today at 6:20am
Hi Warren, I hope you are well. Your daughters look beautiful! I have been enjoying your bread cookbook but wanted to ask you a question about spelt. I used your recipe but cut out the white flour as I was trying to make it with just spelt. However, it wasn’t done on the inside when it should have been, and I noticed that the spelt just keeps taking in more and more water when kneading it. Do you have any suggestions for making just spelt bread with no other flour or do you always suggest using white or wheat with it? Thanks!

Today at 7:20pm
Hello jennifer,
Greetings to ol’ England. We are in sunny Canada and the girls are asleep – almost…
Always nice to talk about bread!
Baking with all spelt is nice and flavourful. As there is so little gluten to make the dough stiff, I tend to work it quite wet in the mixing bowl and kneed it as best I can in the bowl. it does not need as much kneading. then I put it in loaf tins and bake it as usual. If it is raw in the inside, then you could try baking it longe at a slightly cooler termperature.
Good Baking,
Warren

There was an  badly cracked, old bread oven in this magical play-garden. With the enthusiastic help of Nuno and Stewart , we recycled the clay from the old oven, added more sand and straw and rebuilt a new oven atop the same cotswold stone base. The shape developed as we worked the cob. After a few days working and contemplating a temple form seemed to emerge, a temple for the transformation of bread. This is now a vital part of the children’s play area

I want to offer special thanks to Shipton Mill who have generously donated organic flour for my workshops, classes and events. Quality ingredients make all the difference.

Just ran a bread workshop at Emerson College in Sussex called, “The Art of Bread.” It is a pleasure to be baking around a wood fired oven with others. We had such fun baking and singing, being both serious and silly in pursuit of a deeper understanding of bread. It reminded me, yet again, just how important joy is in the whole process of preparing and eating food. Without joy food is merely substance. With joy, food is transformed into life giving nourishment that feeds body, soul and spirit.
This is an essential element in creating “Real Food.”

Click here for more pictures of the workshop.

I fired up the bread oven the very next day after building it and baked with it for the next week hundreds, or more likely thousands, of loaves of pita bread. The children were so enthusiastic to roll and bake their loaves that neither driving rain nor swelling mud could dull their energy. They loved watching the magic of these loaves puffing up in the oven, transforming form raw dough to fresh pita bread in less than a minute. These fearless bakers devoured their creations and then made loaves for family and friends.

I just returned from an action packed day in which we sculpted a bread oven for the Hay on Wye Literature Festival. Aided by the very capable hands of Gavin Pond and many eager children, we mixed recycled clay, sand and straw, using first our feet and then our hands. We shaped this into loaf sized clumps that we pressed around a temporary sand form. The oven quickly took shape, leaving plenty of time for a chimney and some collaborative sculpting. Then to cap off the day we lit an inaugral fire to begin the process of drying the oven out.

For the next week I will be baking pita bread with children and sharing bread stories from Baking Bread with Children. What a nice way to work with others!

Baking Bread with Children has now been launched into the world with a proper and joy filled celebration. Leavened with bread poetry by Paul Matthews, bread eurythmy by Glenys Waters, a story told by Julie Swithers and lots of bread (Challah and Dragon Loaves) baked by the Early Year Education Students at Emerson College, the book launch filled my heart with warmth. Such good friends and so much cheer!