Made in Britain winner: Organics bread

Alex Gooch's Organics based in Hay-On-Wye, Powys is one of the prestigious winners of the Country Living, Waitrose and Farmers Guardian annual Made in Britain Awards.

Country Living magazine features local food producers every month - the Made in Britain Awards were launched by the magazine, together with Waitrose and Farmers Guardian, to reward those who are creating the best-quality and most innnovative foods, while keeping traditional skills alive. Five food producers of the year each receive £5,000 from Waitrose to develop their business. The overall Made in Britain Food Champion (selected from these five) receives an additional £5,000. Seven finalists were given the chance to have their product stocked in local branches of Waitrose. The Farmers Guardian Best Farm Entrepreneur will also receive £5,000 from Waitrose.

 

Alex Gooch's love affair with bread began when he was head chef at Penrhos Court in Herefordshire. In keeping with the ethos of this organic country-house hotel, he made every loaf from scratch and soon became addicted to the craft of baking real bread using wild yeasts and slow fermentation. He credits Penrhos founder and green nutritionist Daphne Lambert with triggering his obsession. "She was so generous in terms of letting me experiment - whenever she walked into the kitchen I'd have eight different breads on the go."

 

Alex's artisan breads, including the organic apple and pumpkinseed rye sourdough loaf that earned him a place among our winners, are made using leavens, or starters, instead of baker's yeast. "I made my first starter at Penrhos and I'm still using it today - it's three and a half years old," Alex says. "It's just rye flour and water, left to ferment. As wild yeasts feed on the sugars in the grain they release carbon dioxide and build up acidity. The CO2 gives the bread lightness; the acidity creates the tangy flavour: the trick is to get the balance right."

 

The other trick is to look after your starter. "People often ask why my breads are so light," Alex adds. "You've got to have a relationship with your yeast. I understand how often it likes to be fed - I feed the dark rye starter every 14 hours with more flour and water. If I neglect it I suffer. On the rare occasion that I have a couple of nights off and forget to feed it, my bread takes three hours longer to rise."

 

At the Hay-on-Wye bakery where he started his own business a year ago, Alex works through the night to ensure that the next day's freshly baked bread has the slowest fermentation possible. His dense but moist apple and pumpkin-seed rye sourdough has a rich, almost beery taste from the dark-rye leaven mixed with rye flour, salt, grated apple and a little treacle - the starter making up a third of the total weight. "The result is a batter, not a dough: it slips through my fingers into the tin. I leave it for at least six hours before baking. Given that the starter has been active for 14 hours, that's a total ferment of 20 hours."

 

This time and care is reflected in the rewarding taste and texture of the loaf. But it also increases the bread's nutritional content, making it easy to digest - many people who suffer wheat intolerance can eat sourdough with no ill effects. "In a slow-fermented loaf, the wheat is pre-digested, so your body can absorb more of the nutrients from the grain," Alex explains. "You can eat lots of it and not feel bloated. If you eat bread that goes from flour to packet in less than two hours, you're basically eating flour - no wonder it sticks in your gut. Bread should make you feel good, not ill."

 

With the sharp moistness of King of Pippins apples from local environmental education charity, the Primrose Earth Awareness Trust, and dotted with crunchy organic pumpkin seeds, Alex's award-winning loaf certainly has the feelgood factor. "My bread excites the senses," he says. "It smells great, feels warm, looks amazing and tastes incredible."

 

Alex Gooch's Organics, 01874 711798

 

Find all of this year's Made in Britain Awards winners here

 

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