The latest news from Carrs Breadmaker
The Flour of Scotland [November 2004]
Jane de Looze from Kilmarnock is a cut above the rest when it comes to breadmaking. She has scooped the top prize in the national Carrs Breadmaker Awards and is set to jet off to Tuscany for a once-in-a-lifetime culinary holiday.
Jane beat off stiff competition from five other regional finalists to score maximum points with her Breakfast Bread in the competition to find the nation’s best loaf baked in an automated breadmaker.
The judges were extremely impressed with Jane’s bread, which demonstrated all the requirements of the perfect loaf in terms of colour, texture, crumb, taste and crust.
The final bake-off and gala dinner took place in the English Lake District and was attended by finalists from as far afield as Weston-super–Mare in Somerset and Reigate in Surrey. Each runner-up received a day’s breadmaking course at celebrity chef Nick Nairn’s Cook School in Stirling.
Jane
explained:
“I work full time and have a nine-year-old son who is allergic to eggs. I never seemed to have time for breakfast until I came up with this loaf. My Breakfast Bread allows me to eat ‘on the go,’ while my son can take a couple of pieces of it to school to eat at break time rather than a salty, sugary snack. My bread means he gets all the fruit and fibre he needs and I no longer go hungry before lunch! The recipe has become a bit of a favourite in our house and my friends enjoy it too.”
Matthew Drennan, chef and food editor of the food lovers’ magazine Delicious, was one of the team of judges. He was amazed at the ingenuity and quality of the bread baked off at the hotel for the awards. “The variety of recipes and the mix of ingredients were amazing.
“The finalists had perfected ways in which the humble loaf could be taken to imaginative levels with enormous success. The tastings showed how versatile breadmakers are and how, as well as delicious white bread, they make fabulous speciality loaves.”
Duncan Monroe, managing director of Carrs, said:
“Automated home breadmaking is becoming more popular than ever as people discover how satisfying and convenient it is to have delicious, freshly baked, home made bread every day. And as we discovered this weekend, bread bakers have become quite adventurous.”
The
Carrs Breadmaker Awards are open to amateur enthusiasts from across the UK
and are designed to promote the enjoyment of bread making in automatic breadmakers.
They are also intended to raise awareness of the benefits of using high quality
ingredients to make better bread.
Carrs Breadmaker flour is specially milled and blended to get optimum results from breadmakers. Through the awards, Carrs aims to show people the improvement that using high quality flour can make to the quality of their loaves, while in turn, keep them committed to breadmaker baking.
The recipe for Jane’s winning loaf is:
Breakfast Bread
1
tsp fast action easy bake yeast
15 oz strong white flour
4 tbsp natural country bran
1 tbsp golden castor sugar
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1.5 tbsp skimmed milk powder
1 tsp cooking salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
310 ml water
Grated zest of 1 orange
5 ready to eat figs
6 ready to eat stoned prunes
6 ready to eat dried apricots
2 tbsp golden linseeds
2 tbsp pumpkin seeds
Method:
1. Place all ingredients in order up to water in to bread pan.
2. Set to Raisin Bake for a medium sized loaf and press start.
3. Chop figs, prunes and apricots into 1cm pieces and add, together with
linseeds, pumpkin seeds and orange zest at the raisin beep. Leave now to
complete cooking cycle.
Bread is good sliced and buttered, also good toasted with banana squashed on top!
Please note all ingredient quantities and instructions are designed for the Panasonic SD-206. Amounts and method may need to be altered for other makes and models of breadmaker.
Find out more about the Awards and view the other winning recipes in the Breadmaker Awards section of this web site.
