Duchy Original Organic Sunflower & Honey Bread

After waiting years to find Duchy bread after Sainsburys discontinued it, I finally found some at Waitrose. I must say it was not worth the wait - it was coarse, hard and not at all as I remembered it. I don't know what they have done to it, but it did not even taste the same.

Duchy Original Organic Sunflower & Honey Bread is a great, interesting, thoughtfully made loaf! It tastes fantastic. It is light but filling, and it is also good for you. It is really nice toasted with lemon curd!

Breads varieties produced by Duchy Originals:

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Organic Malted Oat Bread

Organic Mixed Seed Bread

Organic Vintage Cheese & Onion Bread

Sunflower Seed and Honey Bread

Variety being reviewed today:

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Sunflower Seed and Honey Bread

Cost and availability:

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Sainsbury's, £1.25

Tesco

Waitrose £1.35

Safeway £1.39

Budgens

Quantities available:

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400g

Background to the Duchy Originals company:

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Duchy Originals was started in 1990 to market the produce of the Prince of Wales all-organic farm at Highgrove. The concept of the farm was to prove (or not) the commercial viability of organic farming and if successful, to encourage others to follow suit.

As if proving the profitability of organic foods were not enough, as if employing 100's of people directly and indirectly as well as seasonal workers were not enough, the company also gives away all its profits to charity (the Prince of Wales charity incidentally). To date, this sum comes to millions from the 70+ products in their range.

To show how deeply the Prince and his achievements are embraced by the Organic community, the Soil association has made him their patron.

Erm, the cost is a whopping 3.2p per gram of bread, justify this:

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All Duchy Originals breads are produced from the La Fornaia bakery in London (Acton), they are one of the few handcraft bakeries left in the county. By handcraft they refer to the treatment of the dough, which is all cut and shaped manually by the master bakers working there.

Although the company does make non-organic bread, this is done in a separate part of the factory from the organic breads.

The D.O. breads are all free from additives, additional enzymes and genetically modified materials. The individual loaves are made with organic white and stoneground wholemeal flour, with extra virgin olive oil as binding. Honey, a generous helping of sunflower seeds, rolled oats and traditional malt give the bread a gorgeous flavour. (But more on this later)

Unlike the supermarket loaves, the base ingredients of the bread; flour, yeast, salt & water - are mixed and left to rise for about one hour until they roughly double in bulk. By using this 'mix and sit' method to make bread, the fresh yeast has the chance to ferment with the flour resulting in a fuller flavour in the end product.

During this time, the yeast absorbs the simple carbohydrates of the other ingredients, grows in mass and gives off gas (excuse yourself!) creating bubbles in the dough, making it rise and giving the bread a lovely light taste.

As if all this sitting about and passing gas wasn't enough (it's a wonder the bread does not emerge from the packet snoring) once the dough has risen, it is divided into pieces of the right size and weight for a loaf and roughly moulded. The pieces are then left to relax for a further 15 minutes, which improves the texture of the finished bread.

Now we are ready for the last stage, the cooking. The dough portions are given their final hand moulding and the pieces are placed in lightly oiled tins and trays. Within the prover (bread oven), the loaves rise again for about 45 minutes in the humid (warm moist) atmosphere.

Right enough blathering, what does it look/smell/taste like?

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It is best to take it out of the clear wrapping onto a plate, as the sunflowers tend to scatter three sheets to the wind once liberated. The loaf is soft and pliable to cut into (yes, after paying out all that money, you have to cut it up yourself! : ) The cut slice falls away from the main loaf in a small hail of crumbs indicating a bread that is not too wet or overcooked.

Although there is a scattering of sunflowers that fall away from every cut, each slice keeps a generous proportion attached to it. (and you can always gather up the escapees and munch on them separately or coat the bread in honey and butter and drop the seeds in -oooooh heaven!

For seed bread, it is very soft and light in texture, with none of that tooth-breaking sensation of other luxury breads with the seeds burned rather than baked on.

The smell is a wonderful bready fresh smell that makes you long to sink your teeth in. The taste is out-of-this-world, it is good enough to eat with plain butter. It tastes luxurious without the brick effect that some bakery loaves can have on your tummy. There is no discernable sweet taste from the honey that I can notice. Hubbie-2-b swears it is the only bread good enough to put slices of home roasted meat and he does not bother with mustard for ham so I don't think the honey effects the meat.

The bread's only disadvantage is that is not toaster-friendly (especially if you cut bakery bread in great big doorsteps as I do) due to the seed scattering, but it can be grilled to perfection. Did I mention my recipe for cheese and toast using this loaf?

Well, you take 2 big slices of the bread, put them under the grill and toast lightly on one side. While they are browning, slice up some mature cheddar (8 large slices), aubergines (about 8 slices) tomatoes (about 8 slices) Take the bread out from under the grill and put the cheddar on 2 of the uncooked sides of the bread and the vegetables on the other 2 (mix them up) Pop back under the grill. When the cheese has melted, put the cheesy bread on top of the veg bread and put under the grill for a few seconds until the cheese falls to the slice of bread underneath. Remove from grill and put real butter or pesto on the top of your toastie. Now there is cheese on toast!

Interesting tit-bits:

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This bread is suitable for veggies

It has the seal of approval of the Soil Association

The Duchy Originals brand is growing at more than 50 per cent a year.

December was the 10th anniversary of the company's first product: organic Oaten Biscuits.

Useful Related URL's:

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www.duchyoriginals.com/ (Brand website)

www.duchyoriginals.com/bread (Product related portion of the Brand website)

Thanks for reading

xx

E.