Bara

So one of my many jobs at the moment is working up on a farm by Llyn y Fan Fach, and the farmer's wife runs a cafe in the farmyard.  She's after baps for making filled rolls, so I offered to make her some.  Made her some lovely rolls last week, and she said she loved them, but they were too much like the rolls she makes, and she wants something "lighter" -- in texture, not colour.  What she means is she wants something that tastes more commercial, without having to actually buy commercial rolls.  I am now trying a new recipe for ciabatta-type rolls, so I'll let you know tomorrow how it works out (sponge above) but it raises the question about how we have to adapt/modify what we eat to what we can make without resort to flour treatment agent, enzymes, etc...

I don't think I have a deprived diet at all -- I eat lots of fresh vegetables, local (delicious) cheeses, local meat produced by farmers I know, homemade bread -- but I do think about food in a different way than one does if one just goes into the supermarket and picks things off the shelf.  I have to think about what time of year it is -- in the summer I eat more salads and in the winter I eat mainly stews.  If you currently eat a supermarket ready-meal diet, it's not possible to simply switch to making things from scratch and have the end result be the same.  Personally, I think the end result is better, but I think that the farmer's wife is concerned that her customers want the bread to taste the way they are used to -- and I can see her rationale, and this is what stops me from opening my own restaurant -- because I would be too stubborn and I would lose customers -- but ultimately we do need to change the way we eat.  Is there an easier way to get there?