I’ll be honest — some weekends remind you exactly why you do this job. Last weekend at the Nonsuch Town & Country Show in Surrey was one of them.

The Nonsuch Show draws a brilliant crowd. Families, foodies, curious kids, and people who’ve always thought bread baking is “too complicated.” Spoiler: it absolutely isn’t. And that’s precisely what I set out to prove.

Sharing the tent with Claudio Bincoletto

I was thrilled to share the demo tent with the wonderfully talented Claudio Bincoletto, an Italian chef who brought serious skill, warmth, and — crucially — some outstanding dips and salads to proceedings. Watching bread and Italian flavour come together in front of a live crowd is something I never get tired of.

What I made on the day

Back to basics: four-ingredient yeast dough

This is the demo that always gets the biggest reaction. I stripped bread baking right back to its essentials — flour, water, yeast, and salt. Nothing else. The moment people see (and smell) a dough coming to life in front of them, any fear of yeast tends to quietly disappear.

Sweet and savoury focaccia

Once you’ve got a solid yeast dough, focaccia is one of the most joyful things you can make with it. I showed both a sweet and a savoury version — same foundation, very different results depending on what goes into the top. All that dimpling and olive oil drizzling is deeply satisfying to watch, and even better to eat.

Oven-baked, fruit-filled doughnuts

Fried doughnuts are a weekend project. Oven-baked ones? Completely doable on a Tuesday evening. I showed how to get that pillowy, pull-apart texture without a deep fryer in sight, and the fruit filling kept things feeling — just about — virtuous.

Pita pockets with Claudio’s dips and salads

This one always draws a crowd. Pita is one of those breads that feels almost magical — you watch it puff up and people genuinely gasp. I filled ours with Claudio’s incredible dips and salads, and what started as a bread demo turned into something that felt very much like an excellent lunch.

The four-ingredient yeast dough recipe

Makes: 1 large loaf or 12-14 rolls | Prep: 20 mins + 1–2 hrs proving | Bake: 25–30 mins

Ingredients

600g strong white bread flour, plus extra for dusting
6g fast-action dried yeast (approx 8g in one standard sachet)
12g fine salt
400ml warm water (roughly body temperature — not hot)

Method

Combine the dry ingredients. Tip the flour into a large bowl. Add the yeast to one side of the bowl and the salt to the other — keep them apart initially, as salt can slow yeast activation.
Add the water gradually. Make a well in the centre and pour in about three-quarters of the water. Mix with your fingers or a dough scraper until a rough dough forms, adding more water as needed. You want a dough that’s slightly tacky but not sticky.
Leave for 10 minutes. You’re developing the gluten here, which gives bread its structure. The dough should become smooth, elastic, and spring back when you poke it.
Add a 3 or 4 stretches in the bowl. Leave again for around 10 mins.
Repeat once more. Test readiness using the window pane test.
First prove. Shape the dough into a ball, place it back into a lightly oiled bowl, cover with a clean tea towel or cling film, and leave in a warm spot for around 1–1.5 hours, or until doubled in size. Test readiness by looking at the sideways bubbles, the surface and the poke test.
Pre-shape. Tip dough out onto a lightly dusted worktop (or bench), divide into 2 x 500 g pieces (or rolls) and gently form into rough rounds.
Shape. Pat the air gently out of the dough, shape it into a loaf or rolls. Place on a lined baking tray.
Second proof. Cover loosely and leave for another 30–45 minutes while you preheat your oven to 220°C / 200°C fan / Gas 7. Test readiness using the nudge test.
Bake. For a loaf, bake for 25–30 minutes until deep golden and hollow-sounding when tapped on the base. Or measure the core temp using a fast-acting thermometer, which should be at least 92 degrees Celsius. Rolls take around 15–20 minutes. Cool on a wire rack before slicing — I know it’s tempting, but it matters.

A note on yeast: Don’t be scared of it. Fast-action dried yeast is incredibly forgiving. The main thing to avoid is water that’s too hot (above 40°C), which can kill it. Warm tap water is usually about right.

The conversations that stayed with me

Between demos, I had some brilliant chats. Quite a few people asked about one-to-one bread baking sessions — wanting to learn properly, at their own pace. And several enquiries came in about school workshops, which is something I’m really passionate about. As a mobile bakery, I travel to schools across the UK — and if you’re in London or the South East, I’m particularly well placed to come to you.

If a workshop or 1:1 session sounds interesting, drop me a message — I’d love to hear from you.

A big thank you to everyone at the Nonsuch Town & Country Show for a brilliantly run event, and to Claudio for being such a generous and talented collaborator on the day.