“Spontaneity is one of my favourite ingredients.” Mike Owen

“Most bread is made to a time-honoured recipe, which is often about as basic as it comes, but I like to rise to the challenge of taking the plain and simple beyond the simple and plain.

Although I often repeat a basic dough recipe, I find it hard not to look for a new angle on form and presentation. I’m continually experimenting and playing with the look of my loaves.

I once took two coiled snakes of dough and arranged them symmetrically in a square tin. The baked result at first reminded me of a kind of Hepworthesque ‘two figures’ stone sculpture. Then I imagined my loaf as an ancient Amazonian tribal artefact from an Indiana Jones movie.

Spontaneity is one of my favourite ingredients. I might start with a basic bread recipe, and nothing really changes until I get to just before it goes in the oven. What I then do to the proven dough with a pair of scissors is often a last-minute incision decision.

Making the same loaf more than once always seems like a missed opportunity to explore, and there’s something about the challenge and reward of a new bake day being a new school day that I really like.

For me, there is much pleasure in the process. I often think that you might make a cake to please others, whereas you’ll often make bread to please yourself.”

Follow Mike’s work via his Instagram account, The Broadstreet Baker.