Great Taste Awards 2020!

We’re incredibly grateful and excited to win all eight entries in the Great Taste Awards 2020! We’d like to thank our beloved customers for the continued support!

Matthews Italian Tipo ’00’ flour

The judges initially made grissini with this finely milled flour and found the dough to be ideal for the purpose. It mixed well and gave a good rise and the breadsticks were easily shaped. The final bake was golden with a good snap and crisp bite and rounded flavour. On a second occasion the appealing flour was used to make pasta and again we found this ideal for the purpose. The dough was malleable during its initial knead and then passed through the hand cranked pasta machine without breaking or tearing. The pasta was made into tagliatelle and served with a simple sage butter, a combination that was delicious. Congratulations.

Matthews Italian Tipo ’00’ Flour

Matthews cotswold pizza flour

A bright and finely milled, strong flour that was mixed with fresh yeast and sea salt carefully following the recipe instructions. From the outset, it was clear that this entry is expertly produced so that everyone can produce a dough at home that is easy to handle but with great stretching ability that is ideal for pizzas. To judge the flour we initially made pizza bases with a drizzle of olive oil and some sea salt but even without a topping these were very difficult to resist and we found ourselves tearing another mouthful time and again. Congratulations.

Matthews Cotswold Pizza Flour

Matthews cotswold crunch

This flour made a perfect loaf of bread – well risen even though the dough was a little slow to rise. The finished loaf looked very attractive, with visible pieces of malted flakes throughout, and had a mild but pleasing, malty aroma and a good crumb texture and crust. It made very enjoyable eating.

Matthews Cotswold Crunch Flour

Cotswold eight grain flour

The flour made a good soft dough, easy to work with. It rose well and produced a perfect loaf. The loaf had a good appearance, a pleasing aroma, a good crust and crumb, and in all was enjoyable eating. There was a pleasant and varied assortment of grains and seeds. (One query regarding the label which doesn’t seem to be quite accurate: The title says ‘Eight grain strong flour’ and lists wheat, oat and rye flakes, linseed, millet and sunflower seeds, and maize grits – which make only seven! Also, linseeds and sunflower seeds are of course seeds and not grains. We would suggest the label could more accurately say ‘grains and seeds’ – and add, for example, some poppy, sesame or pumpkin seeds to bring the total to eight, OR remove all the seeds and add some other grains, perhaps quinoa and barley – and say an accurate seven.)

Cotswold Eight Grain Strong Flour

Cotswold maizebite flour

This flour is a mixture of wheat flour and maize. It was tested in pastry making and worked extremely well. The pastry was easy to make and roll out and when cooked it was slightly friable and nice and crisp around the edges. It was also tested in making a pizza base which was also easy to make and also came out very well. Both the pastry and pizza base had a good crisp texture and a very good taste.

Cotswold Maizebite Golden Flour

Cotswold white spelt flour

This flour was used to make a loaf of bread and it came out perfectly. The bread dough was easy to handle, rose well and baked a well-formed loaf with good crumb and crust. It had a gentle, pleasant aroma and flavour. Very enjoyable eating.

White Spelt Multipurpose Flour

Cotswold stoneground dark rye

This flour was tested in two ways. First, it was tested using the bread recipe on the bag which used white flour, a smaller amount of wholemeal flour and a very small amount of rye. The recipe worked perfectly and the resulting loaf was delicious. The presence of rye was discernible and had a clear beneficial effect on the flavour of the finished loaf. Of course rye is a difficult flour to work with as it has to be mixed with a considerable amount of wheat flour, so another trial was done with 50/50 with white-and-wholemeal wheat flour. This proportion, as could be predicted, worked only moderately well. But one can say that the proportions set out on the bag are exactly right for a perfect result, and customers should be grateful for having such a good recipe.

Cotswold Stoneground Dark Rye Flour

Canadian great white flour

This flour made a slightly sticky dough but it rose very well and produced a perfect looking loaf of bread. It had a pleasing aroma, a gentle flavour, and a good crust and crumb. Very pleasant eating.

If you are ready to put on your apron or oven mitts on, check our selection of home baking flour! If you need baking ideas, you can check out our recipes!