Remember the romance, the childhood joy of that advert depicting a boy dashing home along a cobbled street for Hovis?
Back in the 1960s pioneers such as Hovis had captured our attention in a way never previously imagined, and the idea of food by choice instead of food by necessity was quickly growing in our collective palate. 50 years on and we’re bombarded by bread from across the globe within easy reach on the supermarket shelves. We tend now to take these interesting breads as a given, with so much choice available we often forget just how lucky we are.
And yet even with this pancea of choice there is still something missing. If like me, you cook because you love those who receive it, you will know the satisfaction of working hard, nay, slaving over your culinary creations be it a weekday supper or a dinner party – it’s the feeling and emotion of what you’ve made that drives you to do more, try new things and buy N+1 cook books. Bread it seems either takes up too much time, or too much space. (We can’t all have Paul Collinwood levels of worktop dough rolling real estate!) We end up buying our par-bake ciabatta, light focaccia or intense rye breads.
Thankfully though a recent trip to Snaps & Rye changed my outlook on bread, and with thanks to Got to be Gourmet and Bake with Maria, it turns out creating heart poundingly good, happiness making bread is just a few easy steps away.
Snaps & Rye Golborne Road, Notting Hill W10 5NL
It's not a large place, but has more seating than you'd think as there a lovely seating area at the back too.
Maria had us sorted with all the required kit, and easy to follow recipes. She teaches people all the time so was well versed in prep, organisation and an easy going manner which helped us through the steps.
Certainly a worthy effort from us all, these loaves were packed with flavour, definitely worth doing again.
The lovely cafe is smartly dressed, with a clean, functional but beautifully different attire.
Even the walls are adorned with clean crisp design - the Danish influence is well represented.
These overnight rye rolls were so great, they've become a firm favourite at my house.
So much so in fact, I ended up making some more to go with home-made gravlax, dill mustard and beetroot starters - these are ever so popular, keep getting requests!
These lovely little rye rolls go well with some decent relish, butter and even a gorgeous egg. Talk about versatile!
Thanks to Maria and the ever so friendly Snaps & Rye for putting on such a great evening.
For bake with Maria courses see her site
