It has been walnut season here for a couple of weeks, and we've been merrily cracking them at every opportunity. That, and glowing plaudits at The Fresh Loaf, persuaded me to try Dan Lepard's Walnut Loaf. Dan is rapidly becoming one of my favourite bread mavens (Santa knows this) and after the stunn...

I may just have died and gone to heaven. Over at another place where bakers hang out I was extolling the virtue's of Dan Lepard's Black Pepper Rye and my tiny difficulty with the recipe when who should pop up but Mr Lepard hisself. Among other things, he said "It's very good toasted with peanut butter".

The Main Squeeze spotted this recipe on the same page as the Saffron Couscous, Chickpea and Lentil Salad she was making, ripped out of The Guardian Weekend magazine for 19 September 2009. It looked good. And it contained something I've never seen before in a bread recipe: a kind of roux, flour boile...

I have tasted the past, and it was good. Hard to describe, of course; I'm not very good at that sort of thing. But in a word, more banana-y. At breakfast this morning, I took a banana with some other bits of fruit. The Boss, a top banana, piped up "You know that's a Gros Michel you've got there?"

"No, I didn't" I squeaked back.

Having recently overindulged in roast asparagus (and is there any other way?) two odd stories came to mind.