My name is Bronagh Duffin and I founded my small Bakehouse cookery school in the countryside near the village of Bellaghy in 2017. As a registered theatre nurse it was a big step to follow my dreams, turning my baking and cooking hobby into a career by opening my own small “at home” cookery school to share my passion with others and help them learn new skills. My desire is to cook delicious, simple, nourishing, locally sourced, seasonal, home-made food and make this available for everyone to learn. We offer classes in baking, cooking and foraging or a combination of all three, depending on your interests.
Some of my oldest memories are around food and baking. Whether it was helping my mummy or Granny bake as a child, or eating my Grannies freshly baked soda bread, dripping in butter and feeling happy and content. As a child I loved to read cookery books dreaming of how I would love to cook these amazing dishes. I believe such strong memories are associated with food, making it so important and a mere taste or delicious smell can take us home. It has the power to nourish the body and mind and transport us home to a place of contentment and happiness, no matter where we are.
At Bakehouse we are a small family business passionate about food, our local beautiful countryside and produce. We love to turn our fabulous local, seasonal ingredients into delicious dishes and to share these skills in a fun, learning experience. In particular, foraging for our delicious local food such as blackberries or sloes is an amazing opportunity to get outside and bring the tastes and scents into the kitchen table. We believe the process of cooking and eating is one of life’s pleasures, which nourishes the body, sooths the mind and creates a great experience of community and fun. Our workshops are relaxing, fun experiences in which you can take time out for yourself, maybe make a few new friends and surprise yourself with a new skill while producing something tasty, nutritious and simple that you can recreate at home in your own kitchen.
Some examples of our classes include making traditional Irish soda bread on a griddle, making your own afternoon tea or foraging for seasonal ingredients to make wonderful drinks and desserts. We do get very excited about Autumn and winter which totally gives us an excuse to have cosy afternoon slice of cake, scone or bread baking classes with the fire cracking, baking the sort of cakes which give you a hug. A bit of Autumn blackberry foraging develops an appetite in the fresh air, before making jam and scones or foraging for sloes to make a delicious Christmas Sloe Gin. In springtime there is nothing more delicious than foraging for wild garlic to create a delicious wild garlic bread which you can even cook outdoors in this outdoor experience. When Summer finally arrives we love elderflower foraging to create delicious cordials to add to deserts or drinks.
Children’s classes run all year round, focusing on healthy eating, basic baking and cooking classes such as pizza, bread making, cake or cupcake decorating or cookie making. I have shared our afternoon tea making class. In this experience which is perfect for a group of up to 10, the group create their own afternoon tea from my recipes of scones and sweet treats. Following the baking and cooking the creations are served up in a sumptuous afternoon tea on a beautifully dressed table. Hopefully you find a class or experience you might be interested in doing at Bakehouse. We can’t wait to meet you and “Bake new memories”
Bronagh
