A dark golden crusty round loaf of bread with chunks of dark chocolate running through the crust.

Chocolate Brazil nut sourdough

Today’s post is in celebration of Real Bread Week! As you may know from looking at past posts here, I am a huge, huge fan of bread. I love it. I love everything about it, and for me, making bread is a mindful calming thing that fills me with a ridiculous amount of joy, and […]

A rustic , flour covered round loaf with a chunk torn from it.

Kelp bread

For a while now I’ve been increasingly interested by the idea of cooking with sea weed. So the other day, when inspiration struck, I gave it a try and made some whole wheat kelp bread. Going into it I had no idea what to expect and, I must say, I was thrilled with the results! […]

Seeded Wheat and Rye Bread

Seeded wheat and rye bread

The last couple of weeks have been weird. It started on the long weekend at the end of February. There were all kinds of things going on which made it one of those times which very much felt that the universe was at work, silently moving in our lives in mysterious and significant ways. There […]

IMGP9012

Pita bread

As a bit of a bread enthusiast (or mad fanatic), not only looking to learn the beautiful skill of bread making, but also to expand my repetoire of lunches beyond soup, I’ve been thinking for ages about having a go at making pita breads. I must admit that I’ve weirdly found the prospect a bit […]

IMGP8974

Cold-risen spelt bread

Today’s post is one that I’ve been particularly excited about as it involves Sourdough!! I absolutely love sourdough. I love the texture and the flavour of the bread, but equally I love the lore and traditions involved, and the care and…well…love, that sourdough bakers put into their bread. With care a sourdough starter can live […]

IMGP8596

Barley honey flat-breads

Today is one of the most important and anticipated days in Shetland’s calendar. This is the day to celebrate a proud Viking heritage, and to burn away the cold of winter with a rip-roaring fire festival. Today is Up Helly Aa! Up Helly Aa is a mad, raucous, and jaw-droppingly remarkable celebration, and one that […]

IMGP7669-001

Whole wheat raisin bread

Hello!! At long last I’ve got the blog up and running once again under its shiny new name Roots and Wren! I am very excited to be getting back to it. The whole moving to a new name thing has been a bit more of an adventure than I had anticipated to say the very […]

IMGP6224

Oat bread

I’ve been baking for a few years now, but for the longest time my baking was all pretty conventional. I used a lot of white flour, sugar and butter and baked some very lovely things. It’s only pretty recently, when I decided to cut down a bit on the amount of processed stuff in my […]

IMGP5742

Tattie scones

The first time I came to Shetland was in January of 2010. It was terrifying and exciting and thrilling. Buddy and I had been living on a tall ship since the spring of 2008, and had just got engaged in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia before Christmas. Coming to Shetland was coming to his home, not only […]