Rachel Allen’s “Bake!” TV show
February 22nd, 2009
Rachel Allen’s TV show “Bake!” was shown on BBC1 yesterday. What a wasted opportunity. She used sugar and warm water from the hot tap (Yuck! Water that has been sitting in a tank is not for cooking with!) to activate the yeast, then left the bread to ferment in a warm place for two hours before shaping and proving. Also, she slashed some of the loaves right after shaping, rather than just before they went into the oven, which is just wrong.
If you’ve read the main site you’ll know that the best tasting bread comes from a long, slow fermentation. Adding sugar, and putting the dough in a warm place just speed fermentation up, giving insufficient time for the flavour to develop.
There’s definitely a good TV series to be made by a real artisan bread baker … maybe Dan Lepard or Andrew Whitley? They may not be as pretty and smiley as Rachel Allen, but they know what they’re talking about when it comes to making good bread. Or if any TV producers would like to contact me … 
February 22nd, 2009 at 4:47 pm
I have no clue who Rachel Allen is, but it sounds like she was making what in these parts we call “Bimbo Bread”.
It’s not gender specific lingo, as you might think, but a reference to a popular bread marketed in Hispanic groceries (the trade name is Bimbo) in the US and all throughout Mexico. It is akin to the standard foam rubber supermarket bread.
Perhaps we should find a “Bimbo Bread” T-shirt and present this wretched woman with one.
March 23rd, 2009 at 10:31 pm
tap water is fine. even hertzberg + francois say it makes no discernable difference. stop being stupidly indignant over things that don’t matter, and perpetuating the idiocy that is bottled water these days. yeah i have a filter on my tap, but even if i didn’t, i’d still use it.
March 30th, 2009 at 1:09 am
I agree, tap water is fine - I use it in all my bread. I was complaining about her using water from the hot tap - this is not for use in cooking, it is for washing. Water for cooking and drinking should come fresh from the rising main, i.e. out of the cold tap. In many homes, the hot water system is fed by a tank in the loft space, which may easily be contaminated. I’ve edited the original post to make that a bit clearer, thanks for pointing that out.