Brilliant bakes for the bank holiday
Make the most of an extra day off work with these mouth-watering treats. Star baker Kitty Tait shares some of her favourite recipes
For 16-year-old Kitty Tait, the morning routine is a little different to that of her peers. Rather than hitting the snooze button before school, Tait rises before the sun to knead and prove kilos of sourdough ready for the steady stream of customers who form a daily queue outside The Orange Bakery: the joint venture run by Tait and her father Alex in their hometown of Watlington, Oxfordshire.
Today, the bakery is closed for refurbishments, so Tait is using the time to work on her viennoiserie skills – again, not a typical past-time for a mid-teen.
“I’m trying to perfect my croissant dough, so I’m planning to make a croissant loaf later today,” she says. “We’ll see how it turns out!” Tait’s love of experimenting has earned her a loyal fan club on Instagram and at the bakery, where patient customers are offered her famous “queue snacks”: fresh bakes (her latest creations), often flavoured with chocolate, cheese or – her favourite ingredient – Marmite. “We’ve found that it’s a great way to get feedback straightaway. Last week we made a batch of frangipanefilled buns that were so popular we’ve started selling them in the bakery. A lot of queue snacks become regular bakes.”
Having first opened its doors in 2019, the bakery provided a lifeline to the local community during lockdowns. “We went into overdrive, going from a five-day week to a seven-day one,” says Tait, who is homeschooled alongside running the bakery. “People were buying four loaves at a time to keep their freezers stocked up, and they needed a treat to keep their spirits up too.”
Now, Tait and her father continue apace and are also making the finishing touches to their first cookbook, called Breadsong, due to be published by Bloomsbury next year. The creations keep on coming – including favourites from the test kitchen shared here for bakers of all ages to make.
Perfect for a bank holiday project with seriously delicious results.