Ingram - Flour and Stone

FOR MY GRANDFATHER, WHO MISSED THE FLOUR AND STONE PART OF MY LIFE.

I have admired Nadines baking ever since I made the fortunate discovery that Flour and Stone had just opened in my neighbourhood. Her cakes have graced my dinner table at home on many occasions when I havent had the time to prepare a dessert and are always a hit.

Who doesnt love someone who bakes beautiful cakes and pastries with abundance? For that someone to share her expertise and immense knowledge is an act of love in itself. Flour and Stone has become a Sydney institution, a shop that has introduced avid fans to a wealth of deliciousness arranged seductively on the counter, vying for attention and begging to be devoured.

Like so many, I am bewitched by her Panna cotta lamingtons, Canel and Rocky road. I have been known to swoop into the shop for a sneaky cinnamon morning bun on my way to a meeting. Wicked and addictive, of course but never evil.

In the decadent world of baking, Nadines voice brings a focused energy and freshness. Hers is a manifesto for brilliant baking. She gives us a glimpse at the frenetic workload of daily preparations behind the scenes, and she nurtures with precise and thorough instruction so there is no second guessing. Encouraged by Nadines confident voice and supreme authority, we can step out of our comfort zone and commit to some adventurous baking. She invites us to share in her pleasurable, creative and sensual world where there are no shortcuts and every recipe screams flavour the alchemy is palpable.

This collection of recipes is Nadines legacy to us all, her lucky recipients. The pages ooze with a love for her craft, essential to any aspiring home cook or chef with a serious commitment to the heady world of flavoursome baking.

Christine Manfield

F lour and Stone is named for my two daughters Poppy and Ruby, and the name is written in my Grandmothers script above the front door. I am both inspired and grounded by all of these women, but it is the combined force of my grandparents influence that gave me the courage and tenacity to believe I could build a bakery like Flour and Stone.

My grandparents lived on a farm that boasted three orchards full of peach, plum and apricot trees, as well as fields of watermelons, rockmelons, corn and pumpkins. In summer, we would sit on the farmhouse verandah with half a watermelon each and a spoon. My grandfather was best known for his tomatoes though, and we would sell them on the side of the road near their property on the Putty-Windsor Rd. Now that Im a market stallholder at Eveleigh (though a million miles from the lush valley of Milbrodale) I often think of my childhood days talking to motorists and holiday makers who were thrilled to find vegetables like my grandfathers, that hadnt been sprayed and tasted as they should.

Both Nanny and Poppy were 75 when they decided to sell the farm. Life on the land wasnt getting any easier crops were becoming harder to manage organically and the prices that cattle fetched at the sale yards seemed to be dwindling. They were both born and raised on the land. It was hard but they loved it, and for a great many years we loved visiting them there too.

The house they bought in town had the most beautiful rose garden that I used to snip stems from to put in the window at Flour and Stone. Their house was humble and out of place amongst all the renovated and modernised houses surrounding it and stood in the shadows, preserved in an architectural bubble of the past. Despite being at the premium end of the street amid the well-to-do neighbours, my grandfather told me once that he and Nanny always felt like a couple of goats in the cabbage patch he felt that their station in life was rightfully at the other end of the street with the working class.

My grandparents helped to raise me and bless them, they tried to make a simple, plain girl out of me, but alas I wanted grander things. Thanks to them, I knew the country life well and I understood its virtues but I never felt it was me.

I needed to find the things that I thought were important so I moved to London where I instantly felt I could be myself. I met a Pom, fell in love and swiftly married him. That was the best decision I ever made and he is the best person I know.

Perhaps its no surprise that my grandparents unpretentious outlook has permeated my life. Even when Flour and Stone was just a twinkle in my eye, it was critical to me that any success I achieved would be underpinned by these values. Along with my husband, I have been blessed to find a group of people who are excited about helping me realise my vision and along the way they have been the ones responsible for creating the fibre of the bakery. The personality, the values and the standard of what we do has been shaped by them.

The days, months and years spent at Flour and Stone have imparted all sorts of lessons to us and this book is full of the extraordinary routines that make up our working week. Each chapter here represents a day in the life of the bakery. I hope this book will give you an insight into the endurance, love and focus of our world and make you feel as though you are behind the scenes and amongst the banter with us.

Nadine Ingram

This book brings together recipes from my professional life and my home life growing up in the country. Some of the more complicated recipes might seem to derive from a professional world that is unfamiliar to you but back then it was to me too. Ive done the hard yards in those kitchens and Im both enlightened and downtrodden by that experience, but let me tell you, these recipes are the best bits and they are now the repertoire of Flour and Stone. All the recipes have been tested in home kitchens in various ovens with every detail considered so that you can delve into them with confidence accompanied by a little handholding on my part. I have done the calculations for you on a range of tin sizes because we dont all have the same tins in our kitchens and we arent always cooking for a crowd. I hope my recipes will encourage you to step out of your comfort zone and bake a cake that looks a little more tricky because I have written them for adventurous home bakers.

Anyone can bake. I really mean that. Its not rocket science. This might seem flippant coming from a professional baker with nearly 30 years of experience but it is this experience that enables me to say there are a only a few things you need to be truly successful.

1. Facts and figures

When I go to see my accountant I think about how much training he needed to be good at his job. Almost certainly there was a natural affinity for numbers involved, but on the whole he probably worked really hard to get to where he is. What if I told you that to bake a cake successfully all you need to do is follow the recipe, the facts and figures? My recipes have been written in detail and do not withhold any information you need to bake something as we would at Flour and Stone. You dont need a degree; all you need to do is read the recipe thoroughly, twice. Have faith that everything you need is here.