14. New Places, Faces and Lots of Cookies

Welcome to Oxford...

Hello,

Welcome to this month’s edition of Roll With It. Thank you for joining me. 

It’s the first newsletter of the year and there’s already so much to fill you in on. 

This month I’m writing to you from a new location - Oxford. I’ve been here for around 3 weeks now. ‘Why Oxford?’ You might be thinking. Well, late last year I was lucky enough to land myself a job at Hamblin Bread - a neighbourhood bakery in East Oxford. 

The bakery is renowned for using 100% stoneground, directly traded grain from the local area. For Kate and Hugo (the owners) this small supply chain is at the heart of their business and evident through their lovingly nurtured supplier and community relationships. It’s not often you get to have a cup of coffee with the person who mills your flour (all hail David the miller) or chat to customers who pop their heads into the hustle and bustle of the kitchen to say hello. The focus here is less on the aesthetics (although every bun, loaf and hand wrapped hunk of cheese looks effortlessly incredible) but more on how delicious each ingredient is and how and why it landed into the bakery. If you want to know more, this interview with Kate and Hugo is well worth the read. 

As you can tell from this small insight, the bakery is very much one of a kind. Not just for what it sells but also because of its small tight knit team that helps it run so smoothly. In the very short time I’ve been here, I feel very fortunate that I’ve been welcomed into the bakery family quite seamlessly. I think it helped that my birthday fell on my first week. I was unexpectedly spoiled rotten with some very thoughtful gifts, as well as a masterpiece of a cake made by Zoltan. I think eating a slice of cake together is really all you need to break the ice! Although, there is of course, the inevitable new kitchen initiation. This happens to everyone. It usually involves learning how to choreograph new dance moves so that you can effortlessly move through the kitchen without bumping into someone, finding everything’s rightful home without seeming clueless (almost always in the ‘open your eyes’ section), how best to stack things in the dishwasher and most importantly learning how to avoid everyone’s pet peeves. If you know, you know.

Outside of the floury walls, I’m also trying to find my feet. I moved to Dublin in 2019 in similar circumstances - to start a new job at a bakery, in a place I’d never lived before and where I didn’t know anyone. Five years on and I still have similar feelings; of adventure and excitement, sprinkled with some pangs of anxiety and loneliness. However, if living in Dublin is anything to go by then I know everything’s going to be more than ok if I just give it some time. Luckily, Oxford is an architecturally beautiful City, which means most meanderings are full of wide eyed amazement as I get to see things for the first time. And the expansive blue skies that melt into burnt orange nights haven’t been so bad either!

In case you live in Oxford (or are visiting) and happen to read this, please stop by the bakery. Not only to try everything on offer but to say hi! Getting to know some new friendly faces would make me very happy. And if that doesn’t entice you enough, here is a recipe from the bakery. This chocolate chip and hazelnut shortbread cookie made with Bare Bones chocolate chunks, roasted hazelnuts and wholewheat flour has been making us all a little crazy the past few weeks. Any leftover crumbs are fought over and then gone within seconds! Lucky for you, you can enjoy your own secret stash without having to share.

Hope to see you soon.

Much love,

Cissy … xo 

---

Chocolate & Hazelnut Shortbread

Just a little note before you get started. Firstly, this is a classic shortbread recipe which follows the general rule 1:2:3 for sugar:butter:flour. Since there are very few ingredients here, it really is worth buying the best quality ingredients you can. With flour being the largest proportion here, getting your hands on an especially delicious stoneground flour is really going to elevate these cookies. Bakery Bits or a local independent shop will be your best bet. 

Secondly, it’s quite cold at the moment, so it’s worth leaving your butter out at room temp overnight before making. This will help with the creaming process. 

Equipment

• Handheld electric beaters, stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment or a large bowl, a spoon and some arm muscles

• Baking sheet lined with parchment

• Serrated bread knife 

• Chopping board

• Ruler (if you want to be precise)

Ingredients

Yields 16 - 18 shortbread cookies

• 375g plain or wholegrain flour 

• 250g unsalted butter, cubed, room temp 

• 125g unrefined caster sugar

• 60g dark or milk chocolate, roughly chopped

• 60g roasted hazelnuts, roughly chopped

• 2g fine sea salt 

Method

• Beat together the butter, sugar and salt for around 5 minutes, or until it is light and fluffy. A good way to test when this is done is to rub the butter between your fingers. It should no longer feel grainy as the sugar will have started to dissolve. (This might take a little longer if you are following the old school method of beating by hand). 

• Add in the flour and mix gently until a dough begins to form. Around 1 - 2 minutes. You don’t want to over mix here, otherwise you risk overworking the gluten in the flour, which will make the shortbread less short and crumbly. 

• Add in the chopped chocolate and hazelnuts. Mix gently until incorporated. Around 30 seconds to a minute. 

• Tip the dough onto your work surface and use your hands to bring it together into a log shaped dough. Around 8 inches in length and 3 inches in diameter. You don’t have to be specific here but bear in mind that if you roll out a skinny, long log you will yield more cookies which will bake in less time and vice versa. 

• Wrap the log in cling film or place in a lidded container and rest overnight in the fridge. (If you can’t wait, freeze for 1 hour then continue).  

• Preheat the oven to 160c (fan). 

• Once the dough has chilled use a serrated bread knife to cut the log into 16 - 18 equal biscuits, about a 1/2 inch thick and around 50g each.

• Place each cookie onto a prepared baking sheet, leaving space between them. (If you don’t want to bake all the cookies at once, place the cut biscuits into a zip lock bag and freeze. They can be baked from frozen at a later date). 

• Bake for 16 - 18 mins or until the edges start to colour. 

• Leave to cool before scoffing.