Not all toast is created equal. Not according to the Baker Brothers at least. The fifth generation of a family of bakers, Tom and Henry Herbert are on a mission to redefine bread. Persuading customers to trash the “phoney, plastic wrapped bread that proliferates,” is just the first step. Next, they say, you should bake your own. Bake? Bread? At home? Admittedly, it does seem unnervingly bohemian. Not to mention positively Flintstone-ian. After all we live in an age of luxurious excesses. And bread, the most basic of staple foods, is always available at the corner store just down the road.
Well, not the kind of bread Tim and Henry bake. Or the kind they want you to start making. Based in Chipping Sodbury in Gloucestershire, (which is south-west England) from where he runs Hobbs House Bakery, Tom is a master baker. His brother Henry, a chef-turned-butcher, runs the Hobbs House Butchery next door. Together, they’re The Fabulous Baker Brothers , with a popular television show that aims to demonstrate how, with good ingredients and a little patience, anyone can make high-quality, artisan bread at home.
“I think people find it that if you have been sitting in an office all day — there’s nothing quite as therapeutic as working with your hands once you get home,” says Tom in a telephone interview, adding, “It smells amazing. And you can share the results with your family so it’s also very rewarding.” Henry, who is also on the phone line adds, “I think people love the satisfaction you get from pulling a warm loaf out of the oven. It looks a lot more impressive than it really is… Besides, people like to share bread they have made themselves with friends and neighbours…”
Of course to do this, your bread needs to be better than what’s available at the supermarket. That shouldn’t be difficult, according to the brothers who have been waging a campaign against ‘cheap mass produced food’ from the time they began to bake. Their products, for instance, are made using wheat, rye and spelt grain that has been ground for them by local mills. “Our bread contains organic Somerset spelt flour, Cotswold’s spring water, and Cornish sea salt,” says Tom. “It’s handmade using old recipes. We take time to make it so it tastes delicious and is also easy to digest.”
“Our great-grandfather baked bread,” says Henry, “and one of my favourite loaves is the Sherston Overnight loaf, a white bread with a crust that makes fantastic toast.” The recipe has been the same since the 1920s, when yeast was expensive. Hence their great-grandfather came up with a recipe that used half the yeast, but took a long time to rise. He would leave it in a dough bin overnight. “He used to sleep by dough,” says Tom, “So when it rose in the morning, it would wake him up.”
Generations later the brothers still don’t get much sleep. “Well, we both have young children so we’re up early any way,” chuckles Tom. (He reportedly wooed his wife Anna with hot cross buns piped with hearts when they were in catering college. Henry, on the other hand, chose freshly baked croissants to impress his wife.) “A bakery is a 24-hour operation. So I see it as a way of life. Not a full time job.”
It does make breakfast more interesting for sure. “We have a full English breakfast at home,” says Tom. There’s porridge. And there’s always a loaf of Sherston Overnight loaf, so we can have toast…. After all, who doesn’t love toast?”
The Fabulous Baker Brothers is telecast every Monday and Tuesday, on TLC.
