Continuing my spelt baking series, here is a recipe for spelt shortcrust pastry. If you’re reading this, then you know why you’re here. Enjoy!
Spelt Plum Clafoutis – Dairy Free
I can’t write at the moment due to a heavy duty psychological blockage that I need to clear, even though my life is utterly fantastic currently. Perhaps that’s the problem, that it’s harder to accept praise than it is to be negative. Anyway, I’m going to let the pictures do the talking for this dairy free spelt plum clafoutis, but I will say one thing – it’s fucking delicious.
Take care
Gavin
x…come and read more…
McDonalds Adverts vs Reality
My local neighbourhood is plastered with McDonalds adverts. I pondered whether it’s an attempt to overcome the proliferation of chicken shop takeaways offering £1 kids meals, which are abundant in this part of East London. These chicken joints make McDonalds look positively expensive and have the added bonus of resepctfully calling their customers ‘bossman’.
This advertising is probably targeted near to the large drive-by McDonalds situated around the corner, in the hope that the sight of massive Big Mac on a bus shelter will cause people to enter a zombie-like state, marching tirelessly with rolled-back eyes until they reach the shiny touchscreen ordering altar of this global corporation, where their bloodlust for fast food can be sated.
McDonalds. The Truth.
Disliking McDonalds can be quite fashionable, especially in oh-so-virtuous middle class bubbles of foodie culture, but I’m not that person. As a…
Childhood Memories of Food – The YBFs 2017 Entry
Awards ceremonies, especially for bloggers, are often little more than a PR exercise for the organiser and main sponsor. Worse still are the public-vote events, a back slapping exercise amongst nominees and voters for those who work their social media the hardest during voting, getting vital coverage for that sponsor.
Because of this, I only enter competitions that are independently judged by people who I respect and require no publicity to garner votes, thereby avoiding the rather tiresome ‘LOOK AT ME, VOTE FOR ME’ nature of many blogger awards.
The YBFs
Earlier this year I entered the Young British Foodie ‘Fresh Voices in Writing’ competition, otherwise known as the YBFs. These awards are industry judged by well respected figures within the food world, so represent a great opportunity for recognition of high quality work. Sadly, my valiant effort fell short…come and read more…
Spelt Buns – Do I Need to Knead Spelt?
Throughout my blog, I’ve declared that there’s no need to knead spelt dough.
This pearl of wisdom originated several years ago from a source that I’ve entirely forgotten, yet, as I create more spelt recipes for my blog, I’ve begun to question it.
It’s all about the gluten
Roger Saul, in his Sharpham Park ‘Spelt’ book, says to knead spelt dough for 10 minutes in every recipe. I was surprised to read this, it seems excessive, however, I also realise that he grows the stuff and sells it in supermarkets, so I was interested to see what benefit this really has.
All varieties of wheat (including spelt) contain two proteins, gliaden and glutenin, which if combined with water and kneaded, create a complex protein known as gluten. Gluten is what gives dough it’s elasticity and stretchability, resulting…come and read more…
Yoast Readability vs 5 Titans of Literature
Yoast Readability
Upon completing the most spectacularly lucid section of prose that my fingers have ever battered into a keyboard, I look across to the Yoast box and see “Readability: Needs improvement’.
My heart drifts south into my belly as these words cut through my soul. A few amendments upgrade the rating to ‘OK’.
BUT I PUT EVERY FIBRE OF MY LITERARY SELF INTO THIS!!!
This phenomenon is all too common unless I pretend to write for a five year old, which seems to be the intellectual level of the internet these days.
To prove my point, I’ve taken excerpts from five titans of literature to see what they can achieve in Yoast readability scores. The utterly hilarious results are below…come and read more…