[1] Big Love Organic Chocolate Bar £7, JME [2] Les Severeux Pasta Jar, £12.25, Lavender and Sage [3] Cake and cheese dome £39 John Lewis

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Truly epic poster art from James Brown. He makes everything feel vintage and tingly and magical and loud and fun – how does he do it?!

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Last week ceramist Mia Blanche shared a day in her life with us, and amidst her routine of taking her children to school in the snow, creating in her studio and picking up supplies for school trips, we saw her making the time to wake up and bake ‘Poolish’ bread every morning!

Intrigued and thinking it must be a great recipe if she managed to fit it into her busy routine, we asked her to share it with us. In my opinion there is nothing like the smell of fresh bread wafting through the house on a cold morning to make me feel ready to embrace the day. Nothing says ‘wake up’ than good, warm and crusty bread spread thickly with just butter and a pot of coffee…

Here is Mia’s recipe for ‘Freshly baked Poolish Bread’ accompanied by her wonderful pictures. Louise x

Mia’s Freshly Baked Poolish Bread

‘Poolish’ is an amazing bread that be made with a miniscule amount of bakers yeast. It is the one dough that can’t be kneaded by hand – it’s just too wet and sticky, so this is a great recipe for a busy person it just takes some preparation beforehand. It’s the wet dough that results in a nice crusty holey bread. Poolish bread also has some of the lovely flavours of sourdough so is really tasty eaten on it’s own with butter.

Ingredients

Makes 3 Loaves

250g flour
5g yeast
650g Lukewarm Water
850 g flour
100 g wholeflour
13g yeast
10 g salt

The evening before baking… mix 300g of lukewarm water, 250g flour, 5g yeast and leave it covered with clingfilm at room temperature for a few hours.

Before you go to bed, add the following to the mix, 350g of lukewarm water, 600g flour, 100g whole-flour, 8g yeast.

Lastly add 10g of salt then mix.

Mix till the dough is worked well and looks full of threads.

Let it grow for overnight in an airtight container. Actually I use a big plastic box with a top that you can lock.

In the morning - divide the dough into three portions and but beat it for a few minutes to take away the bubbles. This will help the dough grow again.

Put the dough into 3 breadforms – I find it grows better in forms.

Let grow about for about an hour or until it doubles in size. Before they go in the oven I cut along the top of each bread with a knife. This will make them grow better in the oven. It is actually very important! Don’t be scared of doing it… : )

Bake for 30 min in a 225 degrees oven till crusty. Test it is done by sliding a knife in to check the dough is dry. Enjoy your warm crusty Poolish with your morning brew.

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I love coming across homes in historic East London, I feel as though Dickensian areas like Whitechapel, Spitalfields and Aldgate still hold an aura of mystery and intrigue. To me this simply furnished Georgian house lives and breathes it’s colourful history within each of it’s pale walls.

Far from being cold and museum like – this home has so much warmth and charm – I just want to snuggle up on that big bed with a book and listen out for the sounds of old London…

Images courtesy of Light Locations

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