Good afternoon everyone, Today, a Hamblin exclusive. Many of you may have seen the strikingly beautiful ears of heritage corn hanging from the lights in the bakery window. Corn of this kind is not commonly grown in the U.K. and these ears are in fact the result of 8 years of work by the usual suspect, Mr John Letts. On a mission to grow a multi-purpose corn suitable for fine and coarse milling as well as distilling, John collected samples from gene banks, from Japan to Canada to Peru. Once grown, he painstakingly selected kernels for two properties; those which fell into the category of 'flint corn', which is hard and slightly translucent and also ripened early, crucial for thriving in...
Good afternoon everyone, We'll keep this one short and very sweet. Ice cream sandwich season is upon us, with the forecast looking glorious for next weekend. So get ready for the best-sourced cookie dough ice cream of your life, made with organic Guernsey cream, Cacklebean eggs and pieces of our classic choc chip, sandwiched between a rye & Pump Street chocolate brownie. Just something to mull over... For those looking for something a little lighter, the first of the strawberries came in yesterday and they are already tasting wonderful, so we'll have punnets galore coming in on Saturday. Lastly, following requests we've started stocking 1 litre bottles of the incredible organic whole milk we use from Berkeley Farm dairy in Wroughton, so...
Good afternoon everyone, As much as we adore brown in all its hues on the counter - the mahogany of the Stockholm, the fawn of a cinnamon bun, the burnished gold of a sausage roll - with the changing weather comes the option of injecting some real colour via seasonal fruit. The first of the apricots have arrived from our Sicilian supplier, La Sovrana, still slightly tart but perfect for poaching and topping our almond financiers. You'll find these online. We'll also be experimenting with a rhubarb bakewell tart next weekend, made with beautiful stalks from Elder Stubbs, plus there's rumours swirling of rhubarb swiss roll returning. English strawberries are due any day now, the excitement palpable. As outdoor asparagus reaches it's peak...
Good afternoon everyone, One of the great pleasures of running Hamblin is visiting our suppliers. These opportunities have been limited in recent years but in the last few weeks we've been making up for lost time. Over Easter we went to Bare Bones chocolate factory in a converted railway arch in Glasgow and were treated to a full tour and explanation of the bean-to-bar process (with a hot chocolate thrown in). There was also a fair amount of tasting, with their new Philippines bar being a particular highlight - with tasting notes of pecan pie and creme brûlée, it might just be our favourite and is now available to order. This week, our travels took us to Bermondsey and our...
Good afternoon everyone, We are heading back into the bakery this week, feeling refreshed and ready to open on Thursday. Look out for the vanilla buns on the sweet counter - a Stockholm classic and one of Kate's favourites. We have just proudly purchased another three tonnes of organic rye grain from Mark and Liz at Green Acres Farm in Shropshire. To celebrate this, we are adding the small rye bread to the online shop. Our Danish style rye bread with toasted barley flakes, linseeds and sunflower seeds has a small but devoted following. For those who haven't tried it yet, we urge you to give the smaller size a go. Enjoy with Kirkham's Lancashire cheese, tasting particularly good at the moment,...
