A feast of tasty bread tales awaits you in our latest news item, so dive right in. But beware… some of these stories are a bit grim!

Five years on from covid, banana bread is still a star

The banana bread frenzy rumbles on, born during the pandemic and, it seems, a permanent fixture on social media. This time ex-Great British Bake Off queen Mary Berry is wading into the fray with a banana bread recipe so good it has been praised as ‘perfect’. It is also, apparently, unusually quick and easy, even when set against a landscape of awesomely quick, easy and very similar recipes.

Assuming you’re not utterly fed up with banana bread recipes, and may scream if you come across another of them online, it sounds pretty tasty.

Sasco says finding rats in bread is “bound to happen”

PepsiCo South Africa said a woman’s discovery of part of a rat in her loaf is an isolated occurrence. On the other hand the Sasco customer care person who called Nombulelo Mkumla to apologise said that because it gets so hot in the bakery, “things like this are bound to happen”. The worst thing is, Nombulelo had already carved and toasted several slices before coming across the rat.

If only bread life was this simple!

TikTok is always a rich source of nutty baked goods tips, but this time around we’re not feeling the love. Apparently you can make great ‘30p emergency bread’ by mixing 250g of self-raising flour with 250ml milk or plant-based alternative, then baking it in an air fryer.

You whisk the flour in a bowl to get rid of lumps. Add the milk. Stir ‘really well’ without over-mixing it. Then pour the mixture into a baking tin. Bake it in an air fryer at 190C for 35 minutes, or in an oven at the same temperature, and voila. We suspect it probably tastes a bit like glue. But hey, what do we know, we’re only expert artisan bakers after all.

MSN solves bread intimidation

MSN says we ought to stop ‘being intimidated by making bread’. Then goes on to suggest that, to end the terrible fear that baking brings to those silly enough to try it, you can simply transform your oven into a dough ‘proofing’ box. Well, that’s a relief. No more cowering in the kitchen, afraid to approach the flour. What a relief.

And on a more serious note… hello to climate-friendly wheat

Climate change is affecting our food. And our food is affecting the climate. The eggheads at the Washington State University Breadlab, USA, have been busy baking with the climate in mind, crafting gorgeous loaves from 100% whole wheat flour with a difference: a mix of different grains called a ‘Climate Blend’.

The grains have been specially developed to withstand the increasingly intense weather climate change is bringing, making the loaf a ‘paragon for the future’ and a symbol of what bread can be in a climate-changed world. According to its creators, the bread also tastes great. Unlike the 30p TikTok recipe, we’ll take their word for it.

French wheat exported to New York

French wheat is being exported to the US despite France’s disastrous harvest, with heavy rains predicted to slash French wheat harvests to their lowest level in 40 years. Last season the EU exported around 474,000 tons of soft wheat to the US, and it looks like North American millers will be relying on EU wheat in the future thanks to ‘years of decline’ in local production.

The good ship Patagonia set sail in August carrying 27,000 tons of wheat from France. The USA has already taken delivery of 53,000 tons of EU wheat since July, according to the European Commission. At the same time the US is planting less wheat than they have for a century, making it cheaper to buy from the EU than get supplies locally from Kansas.

France itself has been struggling to sell its wheat profitably because of huge, cheap supplies of wheat flooding in from the Black Sea region. Having recently lost some important African customers, France will be glad to sell its harvest to the USA instead.

Free Kent artisan bakery samples

Try our beautiful, fragrant, freshly frozen artisan breads for yourself, no charge, and treat your taste buds to a party. Your foodservice clients will be thrilled with our glorious wholesale bread.