Lynne makes it easy for home bakers and cooks

Baker Lynne Gardiner spent the early part of the lockdown creating a novel traditional Irish bread product aimed at the growing numbers of home cooks and bakers here.
Lynne Gardiner of Amazin’ Grazin’ artisan bakery in PortstewartLynne Gardiner of Amazin’ Grazin’ artisan bakery in Portstewart
Lynne Gardiner of Amazin’ Grazin’ artisan bakery in Portstewart

And she’s just launched a special dry mix to create a traditional wheaten by simply adding buttermilk.

The recipe is based on the wheaten breads she’s been selling successfully at the Causeway Speciality Food Market in Coleraine for a couple of years.

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Lynne, from Portstewart, runs artisan bakery Amazin’ Grazin’ and has faced the same cash flow crisis as other smaller food companies due to the lockdown of virtually every food market here. “This led to messages and calls from customers wishing to know how to buy and make my handmade loaves,” Lynne, an experienced chef, says. “Home delivery wasn’t a realistic option for me because of the cost involved. I was also conscious that more people than ever are baking and cooking at

The new wheaten bread mix kitsThe new wheaten bread mix kits
The new wheaten bread mix kits

home. It just didn’t make commercial sense to deliver single loaves around the country. I had some experience in developing a gluten-free dry mix and decided to approach the new product development team at the Foodovation Centre in Derry’s North West Regional College for assistance.”

They came up with a handy mix that can be used to produce a delicious wheaten loaf by adding half a pint of buttermilk in a baking tin. Additional ingredients such as stout, dates, apples, cranberries, walnuts, multi seeds and even Bushmills whiskey can be added to the mix for different flavoured loaves. It’s also much easier to meet orders from callers and through social media.

“The mixes are a simple way to bake one of our most popular breads at home. Nothing beats a slice of homemade wheaten bread. It’s delicious when served warm from the oven, or toasted for a tasty snack or at breakfast. It works exceptionally well with starters that are served with bread, such as soup, pate and smoked salmon.

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What I’ve been doing is to introduce different flavour options,” adds Lynne.

The quality and, above all, taste of Lynne’s wheaten breads have been endorsed in the UK Great Taste and World Bread awards over the past three years.

Lynne is understandably relieved by the plans to reopen many of Northern Ireland’s markets including the popular event every month in Coleraine’s Town Hall Square. “I am really looking forward to catching up with all my regular customers at Coleraine. I’ll be baking a host of loaves and also including my new dry mix for those wishing to bake their own. I am asked regularly how I bake my wheaten bread. They can now buy the mix and have a go at baking the loaf at home. It really is very simple,” said Lynne

She established Amazin’ Grazin’ in 2016 and has enjoyed considerable success since then. The company is now a member of Food NI.

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The new DIY wheaten kit is likely to be among Lynne’s entries to this year’s Tiptree World Bread Awards, entries for which have just opened. The awards will be recognising the people behind the loaf, the bakers, millers, farmers and all others closely involved.

The influential awards feature a special category for Irish wheaten bread, which is sponsored by Food NI. Other supporters of the awards include Andrew Ingredients of Lisburn, a leading supplier of products and ingredients for the bakery industry in the UK and Ireland.

Previous winners of the Irish Wheaten category include James Herron of the Cookie Jar Home Bakery in Newcastle and John Agnew of Ann’s Pantry in Larne. Other artisan baker such as Anthony and Jim O’Keefe of Corn Dolly Bakery in Newry and Stephen Bell of Ballydougan Bakery in Portadown have also featured in the awards in the past.