World Bread Awards - Ale Sourdough

I've made my own bread at home for several years. Initially this was as a result of receiving a bread-making machine as a present.  Later through curiosity and a desire to experiment this evolved to hand-made loaves guided by a variety of books and information found on-line. I've had a lot of fun exploring the world of bread, graduating from the basics to sourdough and I've even installed a wood-fired oven which is great fun, for pizzas in particular. 

When I heard about the World Bread Awards and that there was a category for amateurs to enter I couldn't resist the temptation to formulate a recipe and send off a couple of loaves.  I combined my love of bread with another of my passions, beer. Although a simple recipe I enjoyed the process of experimenting with different proportions and a few beers, finally settling on using dark and malty Brown Ale to give both extra colour and taste to the crust and crumb.  

My expectations were not great so I wasn't too disappointed to receive an e-mail saying that my entry was not one of the finalists but I was curious to find out whether I had done enough to get an award for my loaves. After spending the evening of the awards following twitter updates about the winners of each category I was amazed to find out that my bread had received a Gold award! Of course I enjoy eating my bread and have had some appreciative comments from family and friends (the experimenting process in particular meant I produced plenty to share) but to get this kind of feedback from experts has given my confidence an enormous boost. Congratulations to this year's winners and I can't wait to have another go next year! 

http://www.worldbreadawards.com/competition/winners/