Friday Feature - Breadren Cooking Classes

Bread. It’s perhaps one of our favourite comfort carbs not only at The Amazing Blog but for most of us, and the Breadren Cooking Class will teach you how to make it but with an artisan twist. You can learn how to make artisan bread from the comfort of your own home, which sounds fantastic to us. You will be taught by the bread-master Baker Max Tobias at the London-based artisan bakery, Breadren. Breadren, is holding cooking classes with dietary restrictions in mind. They understand the daily struggle if you’re gluten-free, vegan or even vegetarian, and they’re here to broaden your horizons. Their ethos is to promote natural, unpretentious food. You won't learn just how to bake, however, as some of their star recipes include roasted cauliflower with tahini, quinoa with roasted brussel sprouts, crispy kale & fresh pomegranate, Vietnamese-style summer rolls, charred sprouting broccoli with harissa, and matcha and coconut mochi cake.

We’ve often pined for the baking abilities of those we see on the British Bake Off, and now the abilty to shape round loaves, rolls and batards, to knead and proof dough, and manipulating temperatures for the ultimate loaf is at our fingertips. Both sweet and savoury baked goods are incorporated into the classes, and both naughty and nice recipes! You needn’t be trapped by trendy food fads and uninspired ‘free from’ diets. Their recipes naturally forego ingredients like eggs, sugar, wheat or dairy so you can keep to your diet restrictions if necessary, whilst cooking and eating some tasty food.

Vegan Cornbread

There are classes once a month throughout the year, ranging from ‘Vegan Seasonal Cooking and Baking’ to ‘Seasoning & Spice’ classes. However, if you prefer cooking around your loved ones you can book a private cooking class on everyday cooking or a themed cooking class for you and your friends and enjoy the experience. Breadren uses local and seasonal ingredients wherever possible, sourcing primarily from London and the South East, an added bonus.

You can book a cooking class here from £55, and book a private cooking tutorial here for a small group of 2-5 persons for £60 per person.

Coconut Water Juices by Coldpress

Coldpress’ idea that “life is sweeter with less sugar” is something that we at The Amazing Blog can get behind. We love trying delicious new beverages, so we jumped at the opportunity to try Coldpress' new Coconut Waters. Coldpress throws out traditional methods of fruit juice production by pasteurisation and instead favour pioneering cold-pressed technology. This means that the juices retain substantially more taste and goodness than pasteurised juices.  If you’re looking to get more taste, nutrients and vitamins out of your fruit juice with the bonus of less added sugar, then look no further than Coldpress juices!

Coldpress' new Coconut Water is the latest addition to their delicious range of juices and smoothies. They’re currently available in two flavours; Blood Orange Mandarin Coconut Water and Raspberry Lemon Apple Coconut Water. For anyone jumping late onto the coconut water hype, or dislike the taste of unflavoured coconut water, the Coldpress Coconut Water is a great option to try. Coconut water is high in electrolytes, such as potassium, making them an excellent way to stay hydrated. As Coldpress combines coconut water with their cold-pressed fruit juices, the Coconut Water provides nutrients, vitamins and minerals in addition to the electrolytes from the coconut water.

As with the whole range, Coldpress Coconut Water is bottled in their unique hexagonal bottle, showcasing the originality of the product inside. Coldpress Coconut Water is available in Blood Orange Mandarin and Raspberry Lemon Apple flavours.

The 750ml bottles are available for purchase, in cases of eight, directly from their website here from £7.56

London Cocktail Week

London is perhaps one of the best places for cocktails, with the endless trendy and quirky bars on offer in this cosmopolitan city. London Cocktail Week is celebrating this fabulous cocktail scene, together with 250 of the city’s best bars, to serve discounted drinks to the London masses. During Cocktail Week there will be a cocktail village at Old Spitalfields Market, where you can immerse yourself in a maze of pop-up cocktail bars and food stalls.

The bartenders can make your cocktail dreams a reality. There is no doubt that the array of ingredients and recipes will be abundant, but do not fret if you don’t drink alcohol! Mocktail lovers are welcome too. London Cocktail week isn’t just about gathering around and consuming alcohol though! There will be a whole host of fun events going on, including masterclasses, distillery tours, tastings and paired meals. Ever wanted to learn exactly how vodka is made? Hint: it's from potatoes. How to tune your palette to tasting nuances of flavours within a drink? Or maybe you just want to gather around and meet some Londoners with some drinks. We don’t blame you.

The week runs from Monday 2nd October to Sunday 8th October. All you need to do is purchase a Digital Pass to receive London Cocktail Week special offers, including unlimited £6 cocktails in more than 250 venues across the week and exclusive discounts in bars, restaurants and events.

Celebrating our gorgeous city’s vibrant cocktail scene is our kind of fun, so we’ll see you there! You can purchase the Digital Pass here for £10.

Black Garlic Ketchup from Hawkshead Relish

If you are anything like us at The Amazing Blog, then you have been heading to one barbeque and garden party after another. As fun, sunny and boozy as they can be, they can also be quite repetitive. The same drinks, the same food, the same flavours. It can all get a little bit dull, and this is precisely when Hawkshead Relish steps in with their reinvigorating Black Garlic Ketchup. 

To give this condiment it’s brazen flavour, black garlic bulbs are crushed and combined with tomatoes, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, spices and Anglesey Sea Salt.  This sauce is a great addition to red meats, chicken and scallops; to be honest, it goes with everything.  The flavour is rich and smooth as the balsamic sweetness cuts through the garlic, preventing it from overpowering the flavours. Hawkshead Realish hand makes the product in the Lake District using only the best ingredients. The sauce has no added colours, is Gluten Free, suitable for vegans and is GMO-free, meaning that everyone can enjoy it – that’s assuming you’ll want to share it with anybody. 

So go forth and revolutionise your next barbeque, click here to purchase a bottle of Hawkshead’s Black Garlic Ketchup for £4.99

Butterscotch, Mixed Nut Brittle and Salted Caramel by Fudge Kitchen

All of us at The Amazing Blog are huge fans of Fudge Kitchen and their addictively sweet treats. Having never previously reviewed their products before, we leapt at the opportunity when it finally came around. Fudge Kitchen very kindly sent us three of their products, including some Salted Caramel, Butterscotch and Mixed Nut Brittle. 

Fudge Kitchen has been making hand-crafted treats for over 30 years, using traditional techniques to make new sweet treats. Each piece of confectionery is hand decorated in a small batch, and contain only natural ingredients. The Salted Caramel is utterly delectable; sweet caramel is topped with thick milk chocolate and pink Himalayan rock salt crystals. It had a rich, sweet and salty flavour that left us wanting more. The Butterscotch is a relatively new product for Fudge Kitchen. Creamy Gourmet Butterscotch is smothered in milk chocolate, combining an iconic British favourite with the velvety texture of smooth milk chocolate. The butterscotch is vegetarian-friendly and contains no gluten so everyone can enjoy this. The mixed nut brittle was the perfect snack to bring to work for when we needed a sugar boost. The thick caramel brittle is infused and filled with mixed nuts adding extra texture, flavour and snap.  This snack is also gluten-free and vegetarian-friendly.

We cannot wait to try Fudge Kitchen again and hope to do so soon. If you want to try these delicious treats then click here for the Butterscotch which will cost £6.50, the Mixed Nut Brittle is available here for £6.00 and the Salted Caramel here for £6.50