Croissant Podcast Tickets!
Only 40 spots (some sold already!) and you're all the next to see the live link. Plus delicious things happening this weekend in London and Norfolk and some great pizza and cake recently.
Can you tell I’m excited?
The idea of having so many croissants from great bakeries in one spot! And getting to chat with
and about them!I really hope you can come.
I’m also really excited about the online Mystery Chocolate Tasting next Wednesday which has been quite a process to pack. 😵💫 I’m looking forward to seeing some of you next week!
Here’s the overview of …
THIS WEEK’S DELICIOUS THINGS
The Croissant Podcast ticket sales are live!
The beautiful opening of Quince
Incredible pizza at a London bakery
Highlights from Suffolk
The imminent opening of a Norfolk bakery by a baker who used to work at Lille in Copenhagen and at Popham’s.
Where to try
‘s Rhubarbmisu without having to make it yourselfA donation-of-your-choice online class with
this Sunday.A beautiful new baking book to add to your shelf
My hit list map for London and Suffolk (paid subscribers only)
There are even more places opening later in the year but I’ll tell you about those closer to the time!
For paid subscribers, I’m sharing my list of places I’ve bookmarked to visit and a link to a Google Map of them.
These aren’t necessarily places I’d recommend, but ones I’ve not yet been to (or not for specific things) and that I’m hoping to get to in coming weeks.
Hopefully the map will be useful to you as well ☺️
Also, next Monday is our monthly live AMA (ask me anything) at 8pm.
You can reserve your spot at the inaugural live The Next Delicious Thing podcast!
I cannot tell you how excited I am for this. I’ve been working on a spreadsheet of bakeries in London and nearby.
Did you know there are MORE THAN 65 bakeries in London making genuinely great products?!
And that doesn’t include the additional branches some have.
I’m trying to get in touch with all of the ones making croissants and asking them to share with me how they make theirs. Let me tell you, it is FASCINATING (well, it is to me).
I’m going to be chatting all about it with
and on Saturday 23rd March. We will be tasting quite a few that are different in some way from the others and each of the 40 tickets will include two with the option to add on more.📌 Toklas Bakery, 9 Surrey St, Temple, London WC2R 2ND
NEAREST STATION: Temple
If you enjoy listening to the crackle of croissants then please do check out my teaser video on Instagram or TikTok.
Plus, a market!
If you can’t make the podcast recording there will be a small market from 12 midday that’s open to everyone.
There will be 4-5 businesses there that make great croissants but will mostly be selling other things (so there’s a variety!).
Pump Street Chocolate will be there selling eggs just in time for Easter!
Quince is here and she’s a beauty
I already want to go back, not least because Anna just posted this week’s menu and there are hot cross buns plus the cake I loved last week now has chocolate in it (Pump Street)!
I’m hoping at some point the swinging shelves in the window might be replaced by a bar and some stools, but for now there’s no seating.
I posted a video on Instagram and TikTok.
Here are some pictures:
📌 267 New N Rd, London N1 7AA
NEAREST STATIONS: Essex Road, Angel, Haggerston
Incredible pizza at a London bakery
I went back to Tarn Bakery recently and tried both their vegan and their vegetarian pizza offerings (by the slice) and they were some of the best pizza I’ve had in a long, long time. Gorgeous thin and crispy bases and really flavourful toppings.
They’re making sandwiches, too.
📌 83 Hazellville Rd, London N19 3NB
NEAREST STATIONS: Crouch Hill / Archway
Chocolate & Bakery Highlights from Suffolk
If you follow my personal Instagram you might have seen me share this “Brookie” from Pinch, more famous for their Crullers.
It was a thing fallen from heaven. It reminded me of these cookies I used to bake fairly regularly (yes, the recipe calls for 450 grams of chocolate and says it makes 12 cookies 🤣, I definitely dividied the mixture into more than 12, but nothing to say you shouldn’t stick to the recipe), before I started buying from bakeries as frequently as I do now to keep up with all of the new launches.
Pinch are expanding into a larger space across the carpark and planning to serve pizza in the summer, alongside the gelato they already sell.
The adjacent farm shop looked great, too. I’m definitely going to return after they open the new space in May.
📌 Maple Farm, East Green, Kelsale, Saxmundham IP17 2PL
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We lucked out that Tosier were hosting a tasting event the weekend we visited and we got to try Henrietta of Wakelyn’s cocoa nib bread spread with melted 70% chocolate, and some of their other chocolate alongside Adnam’s whisky.
I bought a brownie, also made by Henrietta, with chocolate from Tosier.
We also made friends with Richard and Scarlett Curtis’ family dog, so that was fun.
📌 Reckford Farm, Leiston Rd, Saxmundham IP17 3NS
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I loved the comforting cheese toastie at Pump Street Bakery and the pain au chocolat (a proper amount of chocolate), but I fell most in love with their hot chocolate made with chocolate using Balinese beans (which I had with a blend of water and oat milk). It was made by co-founder Jo herself and it was so rich and satisfying. So much that my daughter was actually happy to share it, as she couldn’t manage it all.
📌 1 Pump St, Orford, Woodbridge IP12 2LZ
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I’ve got a list of places I want to eat dinner at next time I visit the area (my meal out for our one night there was disappointing, a sad reminder than chefs can change and restaurants can become less good after a recommendation has been given).
I’ll share this list with paid subscribers, further down, along with my map of London locations to hit.
Mabel by Lille and Popham’s former head baker
Opening this Saturday!
I’ve already been looking at hotels and Airbnb’s for near-future weekends. Though in theory I could go up and back from London in one day…
it’s about two hours by car. And is just 1.5 hours from King’s Cross by train.
I loved Lille and I obviously love Popham’s, so I think this one will be special. It’s run by Dan Frazer and Lucy Peacock.
📌 11 Market Place, Downham Market PE38 9DF
Where to try Rosie Birkett‘s Rhubarbmisu
Soho pasta restaurant Pastaio’s head chef asked
if she’d collaborate on a dessert with him and this is the result:“The rhubarbmisu consists of layers of squishy roasted rhubarb with roasting syrup soaked sponge fingers, floofy, creamy, gorgeous Marsala zabaglione and a crush of pistachios, cardamom and - the Pastaio flourish - a shock of bright pink raspberry powder. It will be available for the remainder of forced rhubarb season, and now for the best bit - £1 from every portion sold will be donated to @chooselove - a charity doing crucial work to support refugees and displaced people.”
📌 19 Ganton St, Carnaby, London W1F 9BN
NEAREST STATION: Oxford Circus
An online dumpling class with Olia Hercules
This Sunday, March 3rd, 19:00 UK time Olia will be leading a varenyky workshop which is free but with requested donations.
Olia has been an incredible force for good since Russia invaded Ukraine again two years ago and she continues to raise awareness and money, alongside her work in food.
From Olia:
Dear friends, I keep raising money for @legacyofwarfoundation This Sunday in association with @umcontario and @svi.toronto I am doing a two hour Zoom workshop. We will make varenyky dough, filling and I will teach you a couple of different ways to fold them, we will also make pelustka (cabbage and beetroot ferment). The workshop is free (you just need to register and the ingredient list will be sent to you, link in stories) but if you can donate, even as little as £2 in exchange for my time to @legacyofwarfoundation (we will provide the link) we would be massively grateful.
Here is the link to register: https://www.umcontario.com/events2024/2024/3/3/culinary-workshop-with-ukrainian-chef-and-master-storyteller-olia-hercules
And here is the link to donate: https://donorbox.org/wfrb-ukraine
Vareniki / Varenyky
I’m sure Olia will tell all of this much better than me but I’ll give it a go:
Vareniki / varenyky are half moon-shaped dumplings, essentially the same as Polish pierogi.
They’re a staple dish in Russian and Ukrainian cuisine, but they were invented by a Ukrainian.
They are the traditional Christmas eve meal.
They’re also often served as Sunday lunch, traditionally the whole family would make the dough, roll it out, cut in circles with a glass, fill and fold, sealing with cold water.
They can have either sweet or savoury fillings, are typically boiled in salted water and served with sour cream on top.
Savoury ones will often also be served with butter and fried onions.
The most common filling is potato (hooray for double carbs!).
Sweet ones served for dessert are filled with fruit and/or soft cheese.
They have a place in the cultural history of Ukraine, to encourage bountiful harvests, for one.
The dough contains flour, eggs, milk, oil and salt. It must be rolled very thinly.
When they’re finished cooking they rise to the surface.
A beautiful new baking book to preorder
“I’ll bring dessert” is Benjamina Ebeuhi’s fourth book and it looks as beautiful as her others. It’ll be out on 11th April.
Get it from Amazon here or from Bookshop.org here.
Where’s on my hit list
I’m constantly researching and taking note of where people have had interesting things or where I’ve walked past that looks interesting (if I don’t have time to go in straight away).
I thought I’d share some of these places I’m planning to visit (or revisit for specific things) in the next few weeks or later in the year (in the case of Suffolk and Norfolk.
I’ve made notes on each that you’ll be able to see, too.