My Favourite Season by The Doorstep Baker

Something different on my blog this week! Those who regularly read my posts will know that I went on a course in April 2024 to learn how to make sour dough bread and other baked goodies. I am still making a loaf of sour dough bread every week! So, I am delighted to welcome Cath, The Doorstep Baker, who ran the course, to my blog this week to tell readers about her newly published book …

Hello everyone. Thanks for inviting me to write a guest blog, for November, Morton. I run a micro bakery, from my home kitchen, in Bewdley, Worcestershire called, The Doorstep Baker. I’ve recently independently published my first bread baking recipe book. I also offer baking workshops in small groups.

One of my favourite seasons is Autumn. The chill in the air, the falling of the multi coloured leaves, the hypnotic open fire and the smoky, misty air. There’s so much variety of elements and abundance of produce. I find it an inspiring time to get baking more. The welcome of a warm oven heating the kitchen, whilst I busy myself making something from seemingly nothing, is incredibly enticing and relaxing to me.

And what is my favourite ingredient to use? One of them has to be ginger. I love spreading ginger and cinnamon into the buttery centre of the cinnamon buns I make. I adore the scent of ginger, baking into gingerbread biscuits and parkin. And the warming glow I taste and feel as I take a bite of baked treats, like these, is an experience of warm memories and a welcome feeling. An enormous mug of tea, to accompany these treats, is my favourite way to indulge in the moment.

Indulgence is something we are often steered away from. But I prefer not to view foods as ‘good’ or ‘bad’. I enjoy bakes in variety and moderation along with fresh vegetables, fruits, and proteins. That way we can experience many quality foods and have a healthier, more balanced diet.

We can also adjust what we make, to cater for food allergies and intolerances. That’s why making bread from scratch is important to me. It means I know what ingredients are going in and that I will appreciate the quality over quantity. You can find me adding subtle Autumn suited spices to the breads and doughs I write about in my recipe book. Apricot and cinnamon sourdough is an unsweetened bread to enjoy at breakfast or with a cheese selection. And my Leicester style fruit bread includes nutmeg to further enhance the delicious flavour in my Grandmother’s recipe from the 1930s.

Baking, running a small business and writing recipes can keep me in the house for a large amount of time. While I like to enjoy being absorbed in these activities, I can often notice that being in the same environment restricts creativity and connections. Local produce markets are a place I like to frequent with my own products and to discover others. It is here I meet all kinds of characters and creatives. In the cool of the Autumn, as we step side to side on cold floors and hug warm mugs, I learn the life stories from the makers themselves. And each person’s experiences, through life, is covertly conveyed in the food, drink or craft product displayed before customers.

In between baking and business efforts, I like to keep active. A walk or an attempt at a jog is more delightful in the Autumn, through the cooler days and crunchy leaves. It helps me to absorb more precious daylight on shorter days. Each week I make time to enjoy Pilates classes. As we hold difficult poses to give our bodies strength, I welcome the meditation it offers. In Pilates I find the comfort of a warm, dry studio can also be the place where I truly switch off. I find I put deadlines and family responsibilities into perspective. I open my mind to what really matters. I am reminded not to take myself too seriously and to look inward to decide on choices that help forward motion, in ways that respect my little world.

I also find Autumn is a time to reflect and contemplate about what has gone before. This cannot always be comfortable for us, but sometimes it is necessary. I’ve discovered reading poetry a comfort, when I feel that way. And I sometimes find myself writing little poems, that can arrive so quickly, it’s a rush to get the words down before they escape my awareness.

This time last Autumn, grief was a big part of our lives. My father and my partner’s father, passed away within 7 days of each other. I was grateful of my sourdough and bread making learnings at that time. I found, with baking, I could lose myself from the thoughts of what had happened and what was to come, by following my recipes and feeling the process. Weighing, mixing, checking, preparing, baking and then marvelling at these unique creations. In between, I would hand write or type my recipes, whilst recalling memories of my baking journey through life. Memories of my father and father-in-law, weaving in between. The thought of sharing this rewarding pastime gave me much to look forward to.

On reflection, grief through last Autumn has taught me we have a finite time to try things out in our lives, while we are fit and able enough. I’m so glad I took the time to write a recipe book and publish it as an independent author. This was a dream project and now it is reality. Success, to me, means having faith in acting on your own inner voice. Being willing to try, whether you fail or not, is a form of wealth and freedom, to me.

I am reassured that on these Autumn days and into the Winter, it will be a pleasure to, yet again, enter my sanctuary of memories related to recipes I want to share. There are sweet stuff book ideas and a soup and savoury book in me yet. The solitude of book writing, in the colder months, is helping me to find a more peaceful balance to the busy and bombarding world we find ourselves in.

Before we know it, the seasons will bring us Winter and Spring, as we expect it to. The creative fuel we choose to stock up on now may bring new adventures come March or April. This fuel may look like many things including, learning a new skill or having little outings. It may look like finding creative ways to survive what life throws at us. It may be absorbing fresh ideas, until time for creativity in our lives is possible. Whichever it is, there is always hope, in the seasons, that a new abundance of life and produce will rise up and begin the cycle again, every year. Amazing! Then I will be baking, showing, sharing and going to markets, hopefully! Mouths will be hoovering up deliciously spiced, hot cross buns, homely cakes, and small batch bread loaves, that always disappear as swiftly as they can be baked. Maybe I’ll have another bundle of recipes written. I hope to see you there, with the reward of what’s been fuelling you through Autumn and Winter.

About The Doorstep Baker

Cath Lloyd-Williams was born in 1977 in Somerset. She earned a BSc Hons in social sciences with the Open University, before becoming a family support practitioner. Cath has spent most of her life enjoying cooking and baking whilst raising two sons.

In 2011, one of Cath’s sons was diagnosed with a life-threatening allergy to peanuts and tree nuts, and diagnosed with asthma. Cath then changed her career to cooking and baking in local café’s, gaining experience and insight into producing food for all kinds of dietary requirements.

In 2019, Cath launched her own homemade food delivery business, The Doorstep Baker. She taught herself bread and sourdough baking and made every item without peanuts or tree nuts.

In 2023, Cath won a Gold award at the Free From Food Awards for her classic sourdough loaf in the nut and peanut free category. She now spends her time offering baking workshops, writing recipes and selling her bakes at local farmers markets in Worcestershire, where she lives. Her debut recipe book ‘The Doorstep Baker: You can make all sorts of bread’ has been published independently by Cath, using recipes in her baking workshops.

To connect with Cath you can use the following links:-

Website – www.thedoorstepbaker.com

Facebook – @thedoorstepbaker

Instagram – @thedoorstepbaker

LinkedIn – www.linkedin.com/in/catherine-lloyd-williams-b0238b27a

About the Book

How do you bake bread and enjoy doing it? And how do you adapt it for a vegan or free from diet, without heaps of additives? Can a sourdough made at home taste as good as one you buy at an artisan bakery? What about if you’ve never baked before? Does that mean you can’t start making bread? Follow Cath’s passion for baking as she takes you step by step through each recipe. Through her own trials and errors, she shares what she’s learned and provides an experience of baking bread like she’s next to you in the kitchen.

This recipe book shows how making tasty bread can become an achievable hobby in our busy lives. It invites you to take time for yourself by trying new recipes and to keep trying. This is bread baking that encourages you to make all sorts of bread and feel comfortable to experiment with the ingredients you require. All of this whilst learning a new skill you can develop throughout the rest of your life. And hopefully Cath’s shared experiences will inspire fun, calmness and resilience in your own baking.

Book buying links

Wyre Forest Books, 54 Load Street Bewdley, DY12 2AP, 01299 488400 Wyre Forest Books Bookshop UK

Scripthaven Ltd, 104 High Street Worcester, WR1 2HW, 07923 001202 Script Haven Ltd – the safe home for words old & new

Amazon The Doorstep Baker: You can make all sorts of bread: Amazon.co.uk: Lloyd-Williams, Catherine: 9781399992329: Books