I offer an inclusive range of sourdoughs, flavoured sourdoughs, baguettes, tin loaves, sweet bakes and loaves without gluten at market pop ups. I also offer bread baking workshops and baking without gluten workshops from my home kitchen, where there are no tree nuts or peanuts. Please speak up for allergies every time. And If you’d like to try out recipes at home, tailored to your peanut, tree nut and dairy free life, give my recipe book a go, ‘The Doorstep Baker: You can make all sorts of bread‘, Catherine Lloyd-Williams, 2024. Available from me at a market or workshop or on Amazon and from some independent shops local to me, from October 2024.
‘The Doorstep Baker: You can make all sorts of bread by Catherine Lloyd-Williams is an inclusive, supportive, encouraging and scrupulously clear recipe book by a Gold award winner of the Free From Food Awards 2023. Motivated to bring her recipes to ordinary people, having gathered many through her career as caterer, baker, and home baker, she writes with confidence and even includes a section called ‘Baking Motivation’ for those who may quail before the task! Lloyd-Williams firmly holds the reader’s hand through the introductory pages and beyond, leading the apprehensive or sceptical with agility and reassurance along the cliff edge of allergen-aware baking.
She strikes the perfect balance to appeal to novice and established baker, incorporating skilled bread making, free from baking and any non-proficiency in the kitchen: writing how I imagine she would speak, her writing quickly becomes a guide. The fly-leaf quote, presumably about her dad to whom the book is dedicated, sums up the approach of The Doorstep Baker: “It’s not about being perfect. It’s about enjoying your creations with others.’ Cressida Langlands, CEO, Free From Food Awards, 2024.
Ingredients
In 2023 I refreshed my allergy training for Food Businesses, offered by The Food Standards Agency. All ingredients I use are recorded to make sure any information for enquiries from allergen customers are current and accurate. I use flour that is milled and shipped without any peanuts or tree nuts in the environment. The staff working there do not take nuts in or eat any in their breaks. The gluten free flour I use is produced in a separate building to the gluten flour and shipped separately. At market sales all food I offer is vegetarian or vegan. What does this mean for dairy allergies? It means I do not make the vegan items in the same area of my kitchen as items containing dairy or eggs, or ingredients containing these items.
Preparation
All of the food from The Doorstep Baker is prepared without using tree nuts or peanuts. Plain sourdoughs contain no dairy. Please let me know if you have any food allergy, when buying from me. For the remaining top allergens and many further allergens that exist, the risk of contamination can be managed with operating procedures and equipment in mind. Safety is paramount and it is essential to be clear about this for serious allergies.
Labelling
I list full ingredients on stickers attached to any pre packaged food I sell, with allergens highlighted in bold. I make cards listing ingredients and allergens for loose items. I also update an allergy matrix for each market and event I do. If you have an allergy that is lesser known please ask me what’s in any item and find more support in the links below. Since Natasha’s Law, allergen labelling regulations came into force in October 2021 and I very much welcomed this change. And there’s fantastic news that the FSA have agreed to support Owen’s Law. Their board has agreed it necessary to make it the law that establishments providing freshly prepared food (restaurants/ cafes/ takeaways) must provide allergen information (the 14 major allergens prescribed by EU law) for each dish, in writing, at the point of ordering, without the customer having to ask for it. They also agreed to update the guidance around the need for and nature of a conversation between waiting staff and customers regarding food hypersensitivities. Please speak up for allergies every time. Protecting yourself and others is top priority.
For further support and information about food and other allergies, alerts and campaigns click on the following links:-
The Doorstep Baker 