Mark has a passion for making his own breads. For many years he baked bread daily as an executive chef on private yachts as he sailed around the Med in summer and the Caribbean in the winter. He now bakes daily for his own restaurant, Trawlers on the Quay in East Looe and many guests have admired the range of interesting breads on offer each evening. 

Mark held several Master Classes on Bread Making in the autumn of 2005, as part of the Taste South East Cornwall Food Festival, and has demonstrated at the SECTA Show and Mount Edgcumbe. Further Master Classes will be held at Trawlers in the spring of 2006, along with lunch - full details are posted on Trawlers website. Mark aims to take the mystique out of bread making and shows how easy it is for all of us to bake healthy and interesting bread at home, without using a ‘bread-making machine’, and with a wide range of seasonal added ingredients, many of which can be sourced from your garden.

This is Mark’s basic bread recipe for white bread
- it will make 2 med sized loaves or around 30 rolls

1kg/just over 2lbs of strong white flour - with a little extra for dusting
15gm/half an oz salt - more or less can be added to suit
625ml/just over one pint of warm water (blood temp)
30gm/I oz of Cornish clear honey - preferably honey, although you can use sugar
30gm/1oz fresh yeast - dried yeast can be substituted (but try your local baker or health food store for fresh yeast - you can always buy a larger block, cut up into 30gm/1oz portions and freeze until required)

The first thing to do is to dissolve the yeast, honey in the warm water - mix the ingredients in a bowl and leave in a warm spot in the kitchen for 15 minutes - you will see the yeast working almost immediately.

Next Mark uses a standard, but quality, food mixer with a dough hook. He puts in the flour and salt and adds the water, yeast and honey mixture. He turns on the mixer using a low setting, it gets to work immediately and the dough should be ready an about 5 minutes - it’s as easy as that.

The next stage of the process is ‘therapeutic kneading’. Make sure your surface and hands are well floured. Roll and fold the dough for about five minutes. This stretches and develops the gluten. You now need to ‘prove’ the dough by placing it in a bowl, cover with a damp cloth and put it in a warm, moist and draft free spot in your kitchen for about an hour. It should double in size - if it tries to escape the bowl you can just ‘knock’ it back ! Once proved, you still need to knock the air out of the dough by kneading it again for 5 minutes.

Now the fun starts - you have your basic bread dough and can make two loaves if you like - just shape and place onto a pre-oiled tray or into two bread tins. Or you can make Mark’s layered rolls. He describes this technique as a bit like making puff pastry. Roll the dough out on a lightly floured board until it is about half an inch thick. Dab butter or oil onto two thirds and add your ‘ingredients’ - in this case Mark suggests a good handful of fresh rocket, a sprinkling of toasted pine nuts, some chopped sun blushed tomatoes and a handful of chopped Cornish goats cheese. Fold the bottom third over the ‘ingredients’, crimp the edges to keep them in and roll out to the same size as before. Repeat the process a second time - you have now made a layered dough. Cut into strips of about one and a half inches lengthwise and cut again into the same size cubes. Place into individual wells in a greased cake tin with the cut ends pointing up wards. Prove again for around 20 minutes until they double in size (same for the loaves) Egg wash and bake in a preheated oven at 200C/400F/gas 6 for around 10 to 15 minutes (loaves 15 mins longer). Turn out onto cooling rack. Loaves and rolls can be served later after warming or can even be frozen - once defrosted and warmed they are excellent.

Mark’s Recipes for his Walnut and Olive Breads
Half kg/1lb of strong white flour
Same of Granary flour (we often use Matthews Cotswold Crunch)
15gm/half an oz of salt
240gm/8oz walnuts,
or for Olive Bread one tin or jar (340gm) each of Black and Green Pitted Olives

90gm/3oz clear Cornish honey for Walnut Bread 30gm/1oz of honey for Olive Bread
30gm/1oz dark brown sugar - Walnut only
30gm/1oz fresh yeast
30gm/1oz Extra Vigin Olive Oil - Olive bread only

Add the above ingredients and then ‘top up’ with warm water to make 625ml/ pint of liquid for Walnut Bread or 15 fluid oz for Olive Bread, as the Olives have a fair amount of water in them already.
Mix, prove twice, and bake as overleaf for a white dough loaf.

For more advice and ‘variations’ book a Trawlers Master Class!