Live webchat and baking session with Dan Lepard, Fri 8 Jan, 12-2pm

[GeraldineMumsnet]

We've got a Mumsnet first this Friday - award-winning baker and food writer Dan Lepard is our guest for a bake day and live webchat. Should be just the thing to counter wintry gloom and warm up your kitchen.

Dan's involved with the World Marmalade Festival, which promotes all thing marmalade-y and supports the charity Hospice at Home. So he has chosen Ponymum's muffin recipe and given it a citrus-y twist. Full details, ingredients, plus all Dan's variations on the recipe are here.

Please choose the version that tickles your tastebuds and join us to bake along with Dan on Friday. He'll be online from noon.

While your (and our) culinary creations are cooking, Dan will answer questions and swap tips about baking, bread making, marmalade making and the like.

Once your muffins/pudding/traybake are out of the oven, please share a picture of the finished result on your profile. We'll put up pix of our efforts here.

And, of course, if you can't make it on Friday but have a question you'd like to ask Dan, please post here.

[BoysAreLikeDogs]

at sugar rush

[slng]

Cakes, breads and cookies in this house are his recipes. Am a great fan.

[midnightexpress]

Dan, I love your book The Handmade Loaf. But real yeast is difficult to find, natural leaven is a faff to keep going and I generally don't have the time needed to make lots of the lovely breads in the book.



So, whilst I appreciate that proper bread-making is a wonderful thing, what are your best tips/recipes for the harried bread baker?

[onebatmother]

Daa-aaan

Why does some packet (not fresh) yeast bubble and some not?

I make pizza not bread - is it necessary, thees bubbleeng?

[Birdly]

Crikey - I would LOVE a chat with Def Leppard!!!!

In the absence of the gods of rock, I guess the muffin man will do!

[NobodyKnowsIAmACat]

So how does this work then? Do we all just get on and bake or does Dan somehow talk us through it? How do I avoid getting flour on the laptop?

In terms of marmalade, now that the Sevilles have appeared, I'm planning to use David Lebovitz's recipe, with a little dash of Scotch (well, bourbon actually), and possibly sneaking in some vanilla beans at the end.

My question for Dan would be: I've been trying my hand at sourdough (though I need to resurrect my poor starter), but I've been trying to limit the amount of salt I use to make a lower salt loaf more suitable for my baby to eat. How can I improve the flavour of a basic white loaf without adding more salt? I've only been using approx 5g in what must be a 1kg loaf, which I believe is quite a small amount.

[GeraldineMumsnet]

Yes, we hope that anyone who wants to will bake at same time as Dan, and he'll answer questions as we go along.

Once they're in the oven, he'll answer more questions.

Clear as the driven sludge snow? Thankfully, Dan has done this type of live baking/webchatting thing before.

[NobodyKnowsIAmACat]

Ah, but is he any good at simultaneously baking, webchatting and breastfeeding? That's what I'll be doing, and I expect the same standards from my baker

[SoupDragon]

A baking session with Def Leppard [snort]

[GeraldineMumsnet]

Reckon Dan will have to bow to your superior multi-tasking skills

[MmeLindt]

I have a yeast question too. I have been using a bread recipe that requires quick yeast, which is handy and does not scare me as fresh yeast tends to do. Would my bread be so much better with fresh yeast?

[Ponymum]

I have just discovered that Dan Lepard chose my recipe for a bake along. I am swooning with pride and excitedness!

Also am a little embarassed as I realised that when I posted the recipe I listed the quanities as cups not weight which has confused a few people. I do apologise - shows my habit of using my useful little measuring cups instead of the scales. Would you believe that I actually intended to bake another batch this week and post the revised measurements on the recipe? Now wondering whether I can delay my baking until Friday so i can join in, though that may involve a sneaky adjustment to DD's sleep time which I'm not sure I can manage. I'll do my best.

Anyhoo, my question for you Dan (on behalf of DH who is the hardcore DL fan and breadmaker in this house) is: Ever since we moved house and inherited a not brilliant built in oven, DH is not having success with making bread. He is convinced it is because this oven simply won't get hot enough. Are there any tricks or tips to get successful bread out of a domestic oven that refuses to get really hot? He likes to use your pain blanc recipe from Baking with Passion.

[JulesJules]

I read it as Def Leppard too, and I am a Saturday Guardian reader.

Will Def Dan say "Pour Some Sugar On Me" ?

Arf

[personanongrata]

Dan, don't have your book, I'm afraid, and want to make sourdough bread (because tediously got to avoid yeast) as shop-bought sourdough while tasty is also pricey.

Can you point me to some failsafe recipes, please? And someone earlier said keeping sourdough leaven going is a faff. Is it? Are there any shortcuts?

Thank you.

[slng]

Dan,

I tried the sour rye bread and the sweet rye bread in The Handmade Loaf, but they both turned out to be like bricks (though my little boy loved it and continues to demand the "really hard" bread ). I used stoneground rye flour rather than fine rye flour. Would that be why? Where can you get fine rye flour? Shipton Mill which you recommend has "light rye flour". Is that it?

And just how do you make naan bread like you get in restaurants? Is it all in the oven? If so I'll give up now ...

[NomDePlume]

I keep thinking this is Def Leppard too.

[unoriginal emoticon]

Never 'eard of 'im but I'm sure his cakes are very nice

[DavidTennantAteMyHeart]

Can I ask about dumplings, please? I made this week's baked cheesy dumplings. Bear with me, as it was the first time I've made dumpling for about twenty years.

Some were lovely and light, and the taste was fantastic. Some were a bit stodgy. Why's this? Sloppy rubbing in? Could it be too much liquid in the casserole drowning some but not others? I didn't have any onion left (snow!) so I made them without the onion and a splash extra milk to help them bind together (less than 20ml).

I have to say it's a long time since I've seen my DH quite so happy after a weekday lunch so I will be making them again but I'd like them to be better!

[StarlightWonderStarlightBright]

Hi Dan,

Talk to me about Kneeding. Is it EVER worth the muscle pain? We just eat homemade bread REALLY dense because we can't stand the army drill. Is there a short cut. I tried a handheld kneeder but the bowl just wizzes around coz I'm not strong enough to hold it still

And, - I have been trying for anout 3 months to find a muffin tin. Where do they live?

[StarlightWonderStarlightBright]

Is there a recipe for no-kneeding, no rising, microwave bread btw?

[Birdly]

JulesJules - one lump or two?!

[Guimauve]

Starlight - have you tried Richard Bertinet's kneading method, of slapping down and folding the dough rather than old-school pummelling? I haven't tried it myself, thanks be to KitchenAid, but this blog post from Fig Jam and Lime Cordial describes it and has some video - might be worth a go?

[phdlife]

someone ask him about his soy and linseed loaf as printed in the grauniad that one time. I've tried it THREE times and every time it's come out about 1" tall. But I make lots of Andrew Whitley bread ("pulling" kneading) with the same yeast and that just turns out dandy.

starlight iirc Mr Lepard says bread doesn't need kneading. Some kind MNer pasted a long quote for me last time I was whingeing asking about the S&L loaf, you could search if you wanted. It's past bedtime here otherwise I'd do it for you

[phdlife]

oh anda for stealthsquiggle if she comes back.

[SoupDragon]

"Is there a recipe for no-kneeding, no rising, microwave bread btw?" Kind of, it's called a bread maker

[slng]

phdlife - could have been me who posted the long quote. I hope you studied it carefully. It's lunch time here otherwise I'd dig it out again.