Consumers urged to love your loaf for national bread week

This week is National Bread Week and it is a case of having your loaf and eating it and admiring how it is created, whether that is the soda, batch, brack or sliced pan.

Cullys Craft Bakery in Arva is a fine example of the creativity and quality of Irish bread. Pupils from a class in St Mary’s NS in Arva are visiting Cully’s Bakery this week to see how the bread is made.

“Our batch loaf would still be the most popular – we make it in the old traditional way – that involves bulk fermentation and leave it to rest after mixing. The process takes over four hours until a batch loaf is produced using quality flour”, said Barney Cully.

Although Soda bread wasn’t actually invented by the Irish, we’ve certainly made it ours. Ever noticed the cross on Soda bread? Legend has it that folk did it to 'let the devil out’ while baking for good luck.

The name 'Brack’ is believed to originate from the Irish words 'bairin’ or

'bairgain’. Traditionally, bakers stock their shelves with Barmbrack every autumn as this is the official Halloween bread batch bread takes an incredible six hours to bake – from the mixing and kneading of the dough, to the proving and the baking of the bread.

Batch bread gets its name from the tradition of baking it in batches, resulting in its golden crust on top, with none on the sides.

So Love Your Loaf with us for National Bread Week – and share your memories of bread on Facebook at www.facebook/nationalbreadweek