A local company, known for supplying natural ingredients to the bakery industry has, after nearly 140 years, decided to share its trade secrets with home bakers.
This month sees the launch of The Baker’s Cousin, a brand new range of bread mixes for anyone who enjoys baking, from Mistley-based EDME. Six marvellous mixes of natural, wholesome ingredients are ready for the hands of home bakers, whatever their skill level. Nearly half (45%) of UK adults surveyed by YouGov in May last year said they would like to make bread in the future.
“We have just made that aspiration easy - and a whole lot more appealing,” says Mark Hodson, The Baker’s Cousin kneader-in-chief. He points to the fact that in the baking-mixes on the shelves, there is a lot of exciting sweet fare, but very little that is fun – and savoury. Hodson says The Baker’s Cousin has risen up to fill this gap.
The brand moves away from the ‘worthy’ image portrayed by some bread mixes. With its colourful packaging, quirky illustrations and play on words, it spells out the pleasure that can be had from bread baking. It indicates that producing healthy, nutritious food can be enjoyable and entertaining.
“You can have fun with dough,” he says, “and then experience fresh, nutritious bread straight from the oven. With one of The Baker’s Cousin bread mixes in your hands (or bread machine) and the help of the easy instructions, you will be creating impressive loaves right from the get-go. You don’t have to do much to rise to the challenge: just give it a ‘dough’.
“Puns aside, the fact your home will be filled with fabulous aromas once your loaves are in the oven is an additional benefit to the goodness of fresh, home-baked bread.”
The six mixes will enable baking novices and experts to create superb breads ranging from seed-packed cobs and dark rye boules to flat focaccia and ancient grain tin loaves. They are packed with the same special ingredients that EDME has been producing and supplying to professional bakers since the company started in 1884. The company is located on the Essex-Suffolk border in the heart of the best grain growing region in Britain, and over the years, local people have visited the factory and, filled with enthusiasm, asked why they couldn’t buy small quantities of the mixes to use at home.
2020 threw up changes in cooking and eating habits – some of which will endure. There is a greater interest in food, in ingredients, and in home baking. That plus the interest from EDME’s neighbours made for a clear decision. It was time to give people access to the ingredients previously available only to the pros. So it was that The Baker’s Cousin began.
The bread mixes come in handy 1kg packs – enough to make two sizeable loaves.
The name of each of the Baker’s Cousin mixes plays on words: A Rye Smile; Needed and Seeded; Go with the Grain. The brightly coloured packets, recyclable along with plastic bags at supermarkets, sport contemporary designs with an Edwardian-style twist. They are certainly attention-grabbing.
Mark Hodson concludes, “Home baking isn’t all about cakes and cookies, but about natural, nutritious savoury foods too. If there’s anything more you ‘knead’ to know, or to inspire you, just hop online and sift through the lovely mixes on offer to make your choices. Then get your implements and surfaces b’ready and get the oven on. Dough, dough, dough!”
The Baker’s Cousin range comprises:- A Rye Smile:
dark rye bread mix Light Ryelief:
light rye bread mix Go with the Grain:
ancient grain bread mix Know Your Onions:
onion focaccia bread mix Needed and Seeded:
seeded bread mix The Whole Truth:
wholemeal bread mix Serves you Rye: light rye flour Serves you Rye: dark rye flour
dark rye bread mix Light Ryelief:
light rye bread mix Go with the Grain:
ancient grain bread mix Know Your Onions:
onion focaccia bread mix Needed and Seeded:
seeded bread mix The Whole Truth:
wholemeal bread mix Serves you Rye: light rye flour Serves you Rye: dark rye flour
It is available through www.TheBakersCousin.com
