Cinnamon Square in Rickmansworth wins Gold Award at Great Taste Awards (From Watford Observer)

Cinnamon Square in Rickmansworth wins Gold Award at Great Taste Awards

12:33pm Wednesday 28th July 2010 in

• Skip social links
• Print
• Email
• Comments(0)

A Rickmansworth bakery can now claim to produce one of the best sourdough loaves in the country after, winning gold at the Great Taste Awards.

Cinnamon Square’s wheat and rye sourdough bread received the accolade at an annual competition organised by The Guild of Fine Food.

This year's event attracted a record 6,021 food and drink entries, which were blind-tasted, tested and discussed during two months of intense judging by 350 food writers, chefs, deli owners.

Sourdough is a traditional loaf which is made without adding yeast from a packet. A “culture” made from warm water and flour and filled with living yeast is used to make the bread rise.

Paul Barker and his wife Tricia opened the Church Street bakery five years ago.

He said: “The competition really upped the ante this year, but we submitted our signature bread and it won a gold award.

“The secret to our bread is the “culture” that we have been growing for five years, and the passion we put into every loaf.”

Mr Baker has worked in the baking industry for 25 years, previously for the Flour Milling and Baking Research Association in Chorleywood.

“It was amazing, every lunch time we would go out and play croquet,” he added “but I've always wanted to run my own place. We base ourself on the bakeries and patisseries you would find in London.

“We've also started a “real bread takes time” campaign, because the longer the process takes the better the loaf will be.”

Next to each loaf in Cinnamon Square is a clock showing how long it takes to make. A basic “malt crunch” takes three hours, the award winning “wheat and rye sourdough” takes 103 hours, and the intense “100 percent rye flour sour dough” takes a massive 152 hours.

Mr Barker added: “A lot of people have bread as a big part of their diet, so it should be as wholesome as possible.”