Two Magpies Bakery

SDC Off Road Parking Scheme is a mini success

Southwold has become so popular at weekends that Southwold District Council has introduced a 'one-way' system on both sides of the high street to deal with high volumes of pedestrian traffic. 

Later in the year they, SDC, plan to pedestrianise the whole high street, from dawn til dusk, giving power to people rather than cars and lorries. 

Many locals have given up shopping at the weekend having been forced or should that be shouldered once too often, into the gutter by a spotty 'Sebastian' or pre-pubescent 'Jemima' who has decided to go off in a tiff, forgetting that eighty year-olds don't bounce like they used to.

What No Queue?!

Buying tickets to a Rolling Stones concert is probably easier than trying to find a seat at Two Magpies Bakery. 

This artisan bakery, patisserie and coffee house has been going from strength to strength since it was opened a couple of years ago by Jim and Rebecca Bishop. Jim, an army bomb disposal expert for many years and Rebecca a teacher in a previous life. Jim, learned his trade with stints at various artisan bakeries throughout the UK including Pump Street Bakery another delicious Suffolk baker. 

Business has certainly not bombed (sorry) having seen the queue for bread at 9am on Easter Sunday winding its way down the high street. It reminded me of the days when people used to queue for butter buns at the other end of Southwold high street many years ago.

I'm not sure Jim and Rebecca could have found a narrower shop in which to build their business. Designed by Paul Croft Studios of London, they have used a magpie's nest and douglas fir as their inspiration. Being narrow means you are close to the action and if you are at the right height a cake in the face is not impossible! Handcrafted breads made using flour from Marriages, Essex, also looked amazing. I'm sure we will be back to sample a few loaves later in the year. Coffee also has that artisan feel and sure enough they buy their beans from Allpress a coffee roaster in Shoreditch, London.

The team are young and well trained with plenty of smiles and almost 'lusty' with their enthusiasm for their patisserie delights. It certainly has a London feel and the informal communal seating is reminiscent of places such as

NOTES of Soho and Monmouth of Borough Market. 

As the place was packed we had a takeaway of Salted Caramel Brownies, Mixed Fruit Muffins and Hot Cross Buns. All were delicious, however, the jewel in the crown were the Hot Cross Buns which were sublime. Pricey yes, but, when you consider the offerings available in other shops I for one would gladly pay a few pence more for quality.

One for sorrow, two for joy certainly rings true at Two Magpies Bakery. One Hot Cross bun wasn't enough! 

Psst, the bit about the pedestrianisation of the high street was just wishful thinking.....

Oooh! Chocolate Blueberry Brownie

Not having a computer is akin to losing my hairdrier!  Girls, I'm sure you understand what I'm talking about and empathise with my predicament.  For the past two weeks I've managed to fudge my way through without a Desktop. Fortunately, the clever people who produced the Cloud have helped to maintain my sanity!  Good news, the computer is finally in for repair so there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Feeling in need of something delicious and moreish I thought I'd have a go at a BBC Good Food recipe, produced by Sarah Cook. I've substituted raspberries with blueberries as my local store was out of stock. A word of warning, this recipe is not remotely slimming and I'm sure it will only be good for my soul rather than my waistline.  Arteries beware - brownie on the way!

Method:

1. Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Line a 20 x 30CM baking tray with baking parchment. Put the chocolate, butter and sugar into a pan and gently melt, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon. Do not over stir as the sugar will crystalise. Remove from the heat.
2. You can either stir the eggs in one by one or take my advice and beat four whole eggs in a bowl and add then add a 1/4 of the mixture at a time to the melted chocolate, folding the eggs in on each occasion. This will stop the egg whites cooking faster than the yolks and ending up with a chocolate omelette!
3. Sieve over the flour and cocoa, and stir in. Stir in half the blueberries, scrape into the tray, then scatter over the remaining blueberies.
4. Bake on the middle shelf for 30 minutes, 35 minutes for a firmer texture. However, I used a 23CM square tin and had to cook it for 50 minutes.
5. Cool before slicing if you have the will power!
   

Ingredients:

200g dark chocolate, broken into small chunks. I used a dark chocolate from Peru, 64% cocoa.
100g milk chocolate, broken into chunks. I used a milk chocolate from Venezuela, 43% cocoa.
250g pack of salted butter
400g soft light brown sugar
4 large eggs
140g plain flour
50g cocoa powder
200g blueberries

Preperation Time: 10 minutes
Cooking Time: 50 minutes (based on my tray size)
Easy: but don't over stir the chocolate, butter and sugar!

Overall a great receipe...delicious soft centre and plump, unctious blueberries. Weightwatchers wouldn't approve!

Sea Salted Caramel Pecan Brownie

A few days ago I unexpectedly came across Paul A Young's chocolate shop in Wardour Street and discovered a chocolate emporium that made even the stylish Hotel Chocolat look brassy and almost slightly down at heel.  Which is not true as they've been spending a lot of money on their shops recently. There are now a total of three shops in his growing chocolate empire, including Camden Passage, Royal Exchange and Wardour Street, and I found this particular shop to be his best so far. 

Obviously, the colour purple covers nearly every surface and provides a striking backdrop to the chocolates which are arranged in the centre of the shop on a superb dining table.  As the picture shows the chocolates are not covered which some people may find off putting. However, I think this method of presentation shows them off at their best. I may be wrong but I couldn't see any prices which is probably a good thing!  
Chocolate bars and brownies are situated around the edge of the room. With my retail hat on Paul's team were very professional, approachable and were obviously enthused by the products they were selling. 

Mast chocolates bars from New York were also on sale at a staggering £9.00 a bar!  Unfortunately, having not won the lottery that weekend I had to partake of more simple fair and opted for a good old chocolate brownie at £3.75! We could have stayed for hours oohing and cooing at the rows and rows of different chocolates but sometimes you just have to get out before your credit card goes into melt down!

I opted for the Sea Salted Carmel Pecan Brownie which is a hunky piece of chocolate and certainly not for the feint hearted. The brownie itself contains a variety of delicious ingredients including, cocoa solids 70%, organic golden caster sugar, free range eggs, golden syrup, plain flour, unsalted French butter, Maldon sea salt, caramel, milk chocolate and pecans.

This brownie should be shared as it is just too much for one person! The brownie is made up of three distinct layers, a topping of pecans, a thin layer of what I'd call cake and a base of pure chocolate ganache. I'm certainly not a brownie connoisseur and therefore I'm not sure what the exact proportions should be for the perfect brownie. However, the salt and crunchy pecans work perfectly with the dark chocolate to produce what can only be described as an unctuous confection. My only criticism would be that there wasn't enough 'cake' which meant the base was a ever so slightly wet.  I would be interested to know what others think about this.  

Overall this was deliciously moreish and irresistible, 9/10!