i bake bread with evan faull from knead

I spent a delightful morning recently with Evan Faull learning all about Knead and their traditional artisan bread-making techniques. It was wonderful to get stuck into the dough and see the process of making a loaf of ciabatta from start to finish.

Evan has condensed and simplified these time-honored bread-making techniques in his chapter ‘Breaducation’ in his fabulous new cookbook Cafe Food at Home.

Artisan: skilled crafter, artiste, authority, composer, craftperson, creator, expert, handcrafter, inventor, painter, virtuoso, whiz

So making an artisan loaf of bread is fairly complex, it cannot be hurried and certain techniques need to be mastered.  But like most crafts, with a little bit of understanding and a lot of practice, a skill can be acquired. This book breaks things down, making it more accessible to the home cook like myself.

I am totally besotted with baking but bread has always been a bit daunting to me.  After my morning with Evan and Douglas, I am feeling inspired to tackle yeast and flour and try to make a few of these loaves at home.

Knead is a bakery cafe that is inspired by the neighbourhoods they are in. They are places where people can feel at home and feel integrated into the baking and the kitchen. I’m so excited that they will be opening a new store in Kloof street soon, which will be my closest branch.

Local photographer Jon Meinking kindly came along to my baking session and took these incredible pictures.  You can contact him directly on: [email protected] for more info.

Jon is a photographer living and working in our beautiful city of Cape Town. He caters for clients who are in need of event/wedding/commercial/surf/food or fashion photography.

You can check out more of his work on his fb page Ishotimages

More about Knead on their website