‘Would you come to Norway and help me get baking with my new oven?’ was the question (and opportunity) I definitely couldn’t refuse when I met fellow baker Danae Ringelmann last year. Danae runs Huso Lodge, located in Hemsedal, Norway and is keen to get sourdough baking for her lucky guests using local wheat and lots of whole grains. So, in late April, I sandwiched my week of bread making (see what I did there?!) with visits to Bergen, Flam and Oslo.

I flew into beautiful Bergen, known for its high year round rainfall, and was lucky enough to enjoy sunshine for my entire stay. It’s a diminutive city, very walkable, and picture perfect with its painted wooden clad houses and cobbled streets. The UNESCO quayside old town, known as Bryggen, was once the fish processing dock - now a higgledy piggedly maze of wooden buildings housing artisan workshops and shops selling the ubiquitous Norwegian knitted jumpers. I ate reindeer hot dogs, brown cheese sandwiches on delicious seeded rye ( Godt Brød bakery ) and walked up Mount Floyen - snow still covering the upper slopes - to experience a birds Eye view of the city tucked between endless pine covered mountains and silvery fjords.

From Bergen I took the train through the mountains , warmly clad skiers hopping on and off as the train pulled into increasingly desolate stops. The snow, seen from my cosy train carriage window, lay very deep and the few houses seemed submerged under the weight. At Myrdal I changed trains to join ‘the world’s most beautiful railway’ to Flam. The train ride, only 20km long, has an incline of 55% with dark tunnels slicing through icy mountains and waterfalls cascading on either side. Snow was replaced with bursts of green, wild flowers and blossom as we approached Flam, situated at the head of Nærøyfjord along with a noticeable rise in temperature. I spent the next couple of days walking in the mountains, jumping into the fjord from the floating sauna , buying one of the eye wateringly expensive above mentioned Norwegian jumpers (my resistance was futile!) and keeping my strength up with pistachio sockebuller pastries from the lovely Flam Bakeri.

From Flam I took the electric fjord cruise to Gudvangen (wonderfully silent) before taking the train onwards to Gol then Huso lodge. I was no longer just consuming baked goods - I was making them!

Danae and I baked tirelessly over the next week - experimenting with new flour, travelling to visit the organic mill where we bought a variety of wholegrains to grind for our bread (Ollands and Dala Lantvete to name a few) and test baking in her brand new RM2020 rack master oven - students from my classes will recognise it as the same oven I have in the baking school. We made bread for a viking feast hosted at one of their thatched lodge houses - the snow falling through the open window space in the roof as we feasted on spit roasted lamb reared on their farm and I tried my hand at dog sledding - standing up holding the leading reins whilst sliding at speed across frozen lakes felt like a scene from Narnia!

I took the train onwards to Oslo and spent a couple of days enjoying city life in 17°C sunshine - hard to know what clothes to pack when just carrying a 10kg rucksack! In Oslo I experienced my bakery highlight of the trip - a deeply caramelised cardamon swirl from bakeri Kveitemjol, Fjordalléen 10 - I highly recommend this beautiful contemporary artisan bakery in a bustling quayside upmarket part of the city.

All good things come to an end but as I headed home my head was filed with scenes of snowy wilderness, icy fjords and recipe development plans to recreate that delicious pastry!

Scandinavian style sweet bakes

If you fancy learning to bake some Scandinavian pastries and sweet treats there are still a couple of places on my ‘Fika’ baking class on the 2nd of July 2024. If you're not familiar with ‘Fika’, a Scandinavian concept, it refers to a morning or afternoon break to enjoy coffee (or tea) and something sweet such as a cardamon knot or cinnamon bun. Almost ritualistic in nature, Fika isn’t just about eating and drinking but also marks a daily celebration of the simple pleasures of taking a break and savouring a moment of enjoyment – very much like joining a baking class and creating lots of delicious bakes to share with friends and family.  

Click here for more information and to sign up for this class.

Desert island baking - the top ten 10 tools I always have at hand!

If you could choose just 10 baking tools to take to a mythical desert island (with a climate of your choosing) what would they be? Each month I’ll be sharing my favourites with you. It would be great to hear yours - let me know in the comments section.

No.2: Dough scoring knife.

No, this isn’t for scoring your loaf out of 10 to judge its worth – though this way could be a fun activity! Scoring your dough with a sharp knife, technically called a lame or grignette, enables your loaf to reach its full expansion potential as it bakes. Learning to use this knife is an important part of artisan bread making. To mix a dough, flour and water are combined with either bakers or sourdough yeast. As the dry flour is hydrated the yeast microbes are activated and start feeding on the available starch and sugars. This is known as fermentation and a by-products is carbon dioxide bubbles, a gas that expands the loaf as it proves. When the dough is placed in the oven these bubbles expand rapidly in size and so does your loaf. When you score (cut) your loaf just before placing it in the oven the dough can expand in a controlled manner in the part of the loaf you have chosen – rather than a uncontrolled burst. A Lame knife is usually very sharp, often using a disposable razor blade, and can cut through the dough cleanly and quickly to score your loaf just before baking.

What I’m reading

This month I’m excited to tell you about ‘Piglet’, the childhood name of the food writing gourmand at the heart of this novel. Piglet works as a food editor and, just like me, her world revolves around food. Unlike me (!) we see her embarking on marriage and a new home as the story unfolds with mouth-watering descriptions of the dinner party she throws for friends amidst the chaos of a recent house move. Whilst most people would be reaching for the takeaway menu, Piglet roasts chicken (‘because a house doesn’t feel like a home until you’ve roasted a chicken’) and serves it with tender new potatoes, bowls of buttery steamed vegetables and a coffee custard semi freddo with shards of hazelnut praline to finish. With mouth-watering descriptions of menus, food and cooking the novel follows a daily timeline through the month before her wedding during which time a secret is revealed (no spoiler alert) and we watch in fascinated (often hungry) horror as her life unravels with food remaining front and central to the drama. Highly recommended.

Upcoming classes

Sourdough pizza class using a wood fired oven: 15th June, 22nd June, 3rd August

Introduction to Baking: 18th June

Fika - Scandinavian sweet baking: 2nd July