How’s that for a captivating headline? I hope that when AP and Reuters picks this story up, they give me some credit for breaking it.
Seriously though, a huge congratulations is in order to Jean from Minnesota for entering the St. Paul Bread Club bread baking contest. She sent me a recap of her experiences which I am reprinting below. I wish I could have been there, it sounds like a blast.
Hi Eric,
Well I entered the 2 breads and won….nothing.
SPBC had lots of well qualified judges, some with MN
State Fair experience, a couple from General Mills and
a Betty Crocker recipe developer, etc., but my breads
were analyzed by a college student who was an
‘emergency fill-in’ judge. When I asked for feedback,
he was so excited about the Lahey non-sourdough white
bread, said it was the best bread he had ever tasted
(I used a bit of rye for flavor) and added that he had
grown up on Tastee bread! He loved the
cranberry-walnut sourdough; however he didn’t include
these as winners because he chose a pizza and a couple
specialty breads instead 
Then I asked another
judge for an opinion but chose the wrong one as her
expertise was in a different bread category. She
hadn’t heard of the NYT/Lahey method and simply didn’t
care for the taste of sourdough. I stopped trying to
explain after a few minutes–she kept pointing to the
irregular holes.
Most of the judges were very good and explained how
they selected the winners; some had suggestions for
improvement; and the people who won are excellent
bread bakers.
So my experience was fun and funny and as always,
educational. Lots of great breads and I met a blue
ribbon winner who made an exceptional whole wheat
bread using a recipe w/yogurt from Laurel’s Kitchen
Bread Book. I’m off to get the book and some flour as
I was so inspired from the SPBC event that I came home
and tossed out all my old flour, along with some newly
purchased flour by mistake.
I may have to buy rhubarb and strawberries too–am
still thinking of Denyce’s great pie.
{ 1 trackback }