Britain's Best Loaf is Real Bread

Britain's Best Loaf 2022. Copyright: British Baker

Published: Monday 25 April 2022

Having won the Sourdough With Other Ingredients category, the Darlington bakery’s parmesan and black pepper sourdough has been crowned Britain’s Best Loaf 2022.

According to British Baker, organiser of the awards, the loaf: “…brought strong aroma and flavours to the competition. The pepper provides a punchy kick which complemented the parmesan, according to the judges, who were also impressed with the overall look of the loaf as well as the quality of the internal structure.”

Real Bread Campaign coordinator Chris Young said: “Congratulations to the Real Bread bakers for rightly gaining this recognition. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, once again they have shown that the best bakers excel thanks to their greater levels of skills and knowledge, rather than rely on a crutch of additives.”

Best in show

Real Bread Campaign supporters won four out of the six categories and were highly commended in three.

Gluten Free
Winner: Smoked Beetroot & Sweet Chilli Loaf, Stir Cambridge
Highly Commended: Gluten Free Seeded Loaf, Two Magpies Bakery

Innovation
Winner: Turmeric, Red Onion & Nigella Seed Sourdough, Bakerman
Highly Commended: Turmeric Sourdough with Cranberries and Walnuts, The Baking Room

Plain Sourdough
Winner: Everyday Sourdough, Bakehouse at Cakesmiths
Highly Commended: White Sourdough, The Danish Bakery

Sourdough with Other Ingredients
Winner: Parmesan and Black Pepper Sourdough, Bakerman
Highly Commended: Fruity Botanical Sourdough, Country Style

White
Winner: White Farmhouse Loaf, Elsie May’s Cafe, Bar & Bakery
Highly Commended: White Tin Loaf, Seasons Bakery

Wholegrain
Winner: Malted Barley Sourdough, Lovingly Artisan
Highly Commended: Watford Sour, Flourish Craft Bakery

Campaign supporters on the judging panel were:

Alexandra Vaughan, owner/head baker, The Crow’s Rest Bakehouse
Clare Barton, owner and head baker, Bakehouse at 124
Lee Smith, baker and owner, Poppyseed Bakery
Martin Hunt, owner, Joe’s Bakery
Steve Wells, managing director and owner, Brook Food

See also

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Chris Young
Campaign Coordinator
Real Bread Campaign

Chris Young has coordinated the Real Bread Campaign since March 2009. In addition to lobbying for an Honest Crust Act of better loaf composition, labelling and marketing laws; he created and runs Sourdough September; Real Bread Week; Real Bread For All; Together We Rise promoting therapeutic/social benefits and bread making; the No Loaf Lost surplus reduction initiative; as well as Lessons in Loaf and Bake Your Lawn for schools. He’s the author of the Knead to Know…more microbakery handbook and Slow Dough: Real Bread recipe book; and edits True Loaf magazine.

From 2014-18, Chris also coordinated the London Food Link network, which included editing The Jellied Eel magazine and helping to launch and run the Urban Food Awards. Chris has pulled on his judge’s wig for BOOM Awards, The Cateys, The Great Taste Awards, The Scottish Bread Championship and The World Bread Awards. In 2017, The School of Artisan Food honoured Chris with its first Fellowship.

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