Matthew Cotswold Flour Celebrates Real Bread Week 17th - 25th February 2024

Matthews Cotswold Flour, Britain’s leading speciality flour producer, is eagerly anticipating Real Bread Week (17th-25th February 2024) and hoping to share the love for real bread with an even wider audience than ever before. Here are some things that you should try this Real Bread Week.

Test out the theory that baking is a great form of relaxation and mindfulness - follow any/all of the steps below to get involved:

• Get the whole family, including kids of all ages, involved in making bread
• Compare the ingredients in your home-baked loaf to those listed on your shop bought loaf (and see how healthy and cost-effective your home-baking is by comparison)
• Try adding grains or swapping in a speciality flour to add new flavours and extra nutritional value to your bread
• Pick up a loaf from your local artisan baker and appreciate their expert craftsmanship
• Try a new recipe such as this one for a delicious Cotswold Crunch Bloomer
• Join an online baking community such as the Cotswold Flour Baking Club for inspiration, recipes, discounts, competitions and baking support

Bertie Matthews, MD of Matthews Cotswold Flour explains: “Real Bread Week is the annual, international celebration of additive-free loaves and the people who make them. Real bread is bread made using just the four key ingredients of flour, water, yeast and salt.

This is a great opportunity to celebrate these natural ingredients, the fantastic bread that can be made using them and the artisans and home bakers creating amazing loaves all over the country.’

Bertie continues: “Making Real Bread is such a rewarding activity. It is an incredibly positive and creative experience, which many find extremely relaxing and therapeutic. It can also be a fun challenge for the whole family, including kids of any age.

It is a great opportunity for everyone to learn what actually goes into making bread and a cost-effective way of avoiding the cocktail of additives that turn up in industrial loaf products. By experimenting with healthier grains, you can add exciting flavours and improve the nutritional value of your loaf too.”

“Over the past few years we have worked closely with our customers to respond to their needs and offer them the widest range of specialist flour on the market. We provide the nation’s artisan and home bakers with a huge range of unique grains and blends in an unparalleled choice of flours that produce a huge variety of fabulous tasting, nutritious bakes and we’re keen to inspire and encourage the next generation of home bakers too.

Anyone interested in learning more about making bread should join our Baking Club which is a fantastic site for gaining and sharing knowledge, ideas and recipes and throughout Real Bread Week we will be posting blogs and running competitions on this site.”