ANGELA RUTTLEDGEdiscovers three different approaches to baking bread and cakes that have three things in common – value, taste, and an aversion to additives

BLAZING SALADS

“I trained myself, trying out recipes with basic ingredients,” says Joe Fitzmaurice, explaining how he ended up being the bread-making expert in the Fitzmaurice family’s wholefood vegetarian food company, Blazing Salad.

He adds that “people in the industry are usually quite open and willing to share” because of their mutual interest in the growth of the artisan bread movement.

On being in the family business, he says: “It works because we know each other so well. We each have defined roles and we trust each other to do what we say we will do. We are also willing to take on things that mightn’t work in other businesses.”

Having just about settled into a new bakery in Clonshaugh, Co Dublin, Fitzmaurice is ready for further challenges, and wants to go national, and to launch some new breads.

“I have a picture in my head of what the finished product is going to look like. Then I need to factor in the scale of our production, and the timescale, seeing if we can make it work with the bakers’ shifts.

“Using organics makes it more expensive, but weight by weight our product is cheaper than comparable products. It’s also denser and people tend to eat less of it.”

He is currently working on an Irish soda bread made only with Irish ingredients, organic buttermilk and wheat flour.

The 2009 Blas na hÉireann Irish Food Awards took place recently, during the Dingle Peninsula Food and Wine Festival, and Blazing Salads’ Rosemary and Olive Oil Sourdough earned a gold award, while their boule, a crusty sourdough loaf baked in a beehive-shaped wicker basket, tied for third place. “It’s a blind tasting competition – I like that,” Fitzmaurice says.

He gives me a boule to bring home, but, with no breakfast and following a guided tour of the bakery, I’m famished. In a reckless but inevitable manoeuvre, I break open the bread approaching the Darndale roundabout. I get so engrossed in the flavour (no butter or cuppa required), that I ended up in a Malahide Road loop, missing my turn twice.

Blazing Salads breads are available in Dublin at Morton’s of Ranelagh, Donnybrook Fair, the Food Room and Nolan’s Supermarket in Clontarf, SuperValu in Killester, Listons on Camden Street, and Fallon Byrne on Exchequer Street, as well as from the Blazing Salads deli on Drury Street and online at www.absolutelyorganic.ie.

• Blazing Salads, 42 Drury Street, Dublin 2, 01-6719552, www.blazingsalads.com

DONNELLY’S

Mrs Donnelly opened her bread shop on Philipsburgh Avenue in Marino, Dublin 3, in 1956. It was a good little business that she eventually sold to an employee, Helen Molloy. In 2002, Molloy in turn sold the bakery to her young assistant, Lisa Fitzpatrick. “I was only 24! Helen really helped me take over the business,” says Fitzpatrick, who had completed her apprenticeship at the Dublin Institute of Technology on Kevin Street. She has plans to install a new oven, and is hoping to update the bakery a little bit, but is afraid her customers won’t like the changes.

An old-fashioned store in the nicest sense, this is the type of place where, if you want, you can tell the shop assistant your life story and she’ll listen to you and serve the more hurried customers at the same time.

“Our best seller is the brown soda. I think people are a bit afraid to eat white bread now. We sell them whole or in quarters and halves – some of the older customers come every day to get a quarter and have a chat. We also have a new multiseed bread that’s popular.”

My own favourite traditional bread is the little milk pan – a miniature loaf with a flaky crust, soft on the inside. One is the right size for two decent Tayto crisp and cheddar sandwiches. Three at a push. And there are sweets, too (just don’t mention the word “cupcake”). So what’s the most popular cake; surely those toffee slices are the fastest walkers? “No,” she says, “it’s the cream doughnuts and the Swiss rolls.”

• Donnelly's Home Bakery, Philipsburgh Avenue, Marino, Dublin 3, 01-8375585

IL VALENTINO

“I expected an Italian,” I say when I meet Owen Doorly, proprietor of Il Valentino, a bakery and coffee shop on Pearse Street at Charlotte Quay, Dublin 2. Doorly defends himself: “My wife is Italian, and you could say she is the driving force.”

Doorly met his wife Valentina in Italy, where he was working in the coffee business. Travelling regularly, he explored coffee bars in different countries. He liked the mix of fresh bread and coffee, which he notes is a model you don’t see here too often.

Like Fitzmaurice and Fitzpatrick, Doorly has an aversion to emulsifiers, preservatives and enzymes: “There are four simple ingredients in bread; you have to ask what the other ones are there for. We have been concentrating on Italian breads, characteristically crusty on the outside, softer on the inside. We have an Italian country loaf, a bread made with semolina flour, ciabatta and grisini (bread sticks), rye bread, focaccia . . . Next, we are going to add a line of French breads.”

Il Valentino opened in December 2007, just as the recession was about to get under way, but the economic climate doesn’t ruffle Doorly. “It stands out more that way, people were looking for some good news, and we are selling good comfort food.”

He explains the approach of the bakery: “Everything has a special feature – the scones, for instance, are made with buttermilk and Italian flour. Our product is not supposed to be a luxury, people should be able to afford it. A loaf of bread costs around €2.80. We are selling ricottino and ricciarelli for €1.” The ricottino are light buns that remind me of the Spanish magdalenas, but are made with ricotta and spotted with Belgian chocolate.

Doorly suggests I bring some of the marzipan ricciarelli home. Just one is a perfectly sized, almondy accompaniment to my glass of red wine at the end of a tough day of sampling.

Il Valentino, 5 Gallery Quay, Grand Canal Harbour, Dublin 2, www.ilvalentino.ie

A Knead-to-know Basis

DIT's School of Bakerywas originally established by the Baker's Union in 1935. Derek O'Brien, head of the school, says the part-time course started in 2000, and at one point it attracted nearly 500 students a year. Now the bread-making course has been scaled back and is available to 12 students, costing €650 for nine weeks. There is a long waiting list.

“We consider ourselves the professionals,” says O’Brien. “Our teaching philosophy is to give students a recipe which, if they follow exactly, will work every time.”

See www.dit.ie/study/parttime/programmes

Cooks Academy'sbread-making workshops are very popular, and the next one takes place on November 14th. The school is at 2 Charlemont Terrace, Crofton Road, Dún Laoghaire, Co Dublin, 01-2145002, www.cooksacademy.com.

In Cork, it's hard to top the four-night courses run by Declan Ryan's Arbutus Bread. The courses are hands-on, held over four consecutive Wednesday nights.

Ryan starts off with the quick breads, and then, during the second week, he moves on to white yeast and sourdoughs. The third session is the buttery one – croissants, pain au chocolat and brioche.

For the final session, Ryan brings in a third-generation Turkish baker to teach speciality breads, such as Turkish pide and focaccia. Unit 2B, Mayfield Industrial Estate, Mayfield, Cork, www.arbutusbread.com

At the International Baking Academyin Weinheim, Germany, a six-week course on German baking runs from January 25th to March 4th, 2010. The course will be given through English. www.akademie-weinheim.de