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The last time my father was featured in my blog, he was baking beetroot and apple bread in his kitchen in Sturminster Newton, Dorset. This time he's getting his hands floury with master baker Mehmet Ali and his assistant Halil in the kitchen of Taş Fırın bakery on Turgutreis Street in Bodrum. In the winter, I buy my daily loaf from this oven and when I asked if my inquisitive dad could come in and see how they bake their bread they said "Any time". So we turned up at 3 pm for the afternoon baking. This bakery is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and turns out 2000 loaves per day. Each lump of dough is individually weighed by Halil at 310 grams and then hand-shaped by Mehmet Ali. All the bread in this bakery is made by the sour dough method. Mehmet Ali showed me us his drum of fermenting flour and water that harvests natural yeasts from the air creating a natural rising agent. As I'm used to paying a fortune for sour dough loaves in London, it had never occurred to me that the 1 Lira I pay in Bodrum was buying me a very trendy loaf.
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| A bakery from the past from Eski Bodrum |
When I first came to Bodrum, only crusty white bread baked in wood-fired ovens was available. Bought hot from the bakers, it was a challenge to get it home without devouring half on the way. Most families would consume several loaves in one day. In the last 15 years, wholemeal loaves have appeared and now corn, rye and oats are all used in bread making, sometime all at the same time.
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| Izzet in charge of the slicing machine |
Dad's beetroot and apple bread recipe
It sounds and looks wonderful, and I'm imagining the taste and tha'ts pretty wonderful too. Jx
ReplyDeleteWe do enjoy good bread in Turkey.
DeleteHello:
ReplyDeleteHow fortunate you are to be able to buy your bread from a very real bakery. We are amazed that it is open daily throughout the entire year, but how good is that!! Your father, we imagine, found his visit at the time of a baking to be a most worthwhile experience.
I worry at the amount of hours the staff put in - hours off are few and far between, but the fact that we can buy fresh bread anytime is fantastic
DeleteI remember your father's beetroot and apple loaf. I imagine he can't speak Turkish but probably speaks perfectly the international language of a master baker. So is that where you get your spirit of adventure?
ReplyDeleteMy father is much more adventurous than me. In his 88th year, he is still throwing himself off hillsides in search of the perfect flight. (with paraglider attached, I hasten to add)
DeleteYour father looks very well - my father turned 88 yesterday!
ReplyDeleteWe are also fortunate in having a baker two blocks down from our house. They are open every day, but not 24 hours. Sometimes it is difficult to predict when they will close. They have been doing quite a wide variety of bread recently, one with maize kernels in it and a brown loaf that certainly tastes like sourdough. Their simit are... just wonderful. The wood often blocks the road at the side of the shop.
Well, it's not actually a shop. There's a window where we locals queue up for the hot loaves but, mostly, the vans come round and do distribution to the bakkallar.
Your baker sounds more traditional than this one. I remember queuing at many a baker's window
ReplyDeleteHow funny. The Stone Oven Bakery gets a cameo role in the new book along what I've called 'Turkey Street.' We also picked up our bread and treats from there though we were never brave enough to knead with the pros!
ReplyDeleteFor 3 days I haven't been able to comment on my own blog - big sigh of relief today as I'm allowed back on.. Looking forward to reading about this in the new book.
DeleteHow nice of them to let your father join in!
ReplyDeleteVery nice of them
DeleteAh... have fond memories of the Taş Fırın on Turgutreis Street, I used to go there every morning. Great article, Annie.
ReplyDeleteShall I take in a photo of you for old time's sake,
DeleteBravo to your dad : ) I am with you, would eat half of the loaf from bakery to home in Turkey!
ReplyDeleteIt tastes much better on the hoof
DeleteIn most of the areas where we've lived there has been a bakery close by and I so enjoyed going to collect bread straight from the oven first thing in the morning. It's one of the things I really miss living out in this village, because by the time the bread is delivered to the shop it doesn't quite have the same appeal.
ReplyDeleteI bet your Dad really enjoyed himself x
Shame your village doesn't have it's own bakery.
DeleteAs a baker, I absolutely loved this story! I never thought to ask my small bakery in Beşiktaş if I could come watch the process. They also still had the wood-fired oven. Whenever i bought that still warm bread, i wished i had some village butter to slather all over it! :-)
ReplyDeleteNext time you are back, you should pop in.
DeleteLucky Dad! I would love to watch the baking process and sample the products. Sour dough is both fashionable and expensive here, so I keep meaning to try making it myself. Sadly I won't achieve your crust.
ReplyDelete