Gold for Levin bakery’s vegan bread
Thoroughbread Bakery stunned by national honour
Levin’s Thoroughbread Bakery has taken out a prize for its vegan bread loaf. This year, its 7 Seeds Loaf took out a Gold Artisan Award in the fresh section at the New Zealand Artisan Food Awards.
Thoroughbread baker and founder Rebecca Rolls said she was pleasantly surprised.
“I had entered this loaf before without it even getting a mention, and this time I thought I’d have another go, but did not have much hope. Wow . . . I thought perhaps bronze, if I am lucky ... ”
She said it is her only truly vegan loaf, which contains freshly ground brown rice and seeds like linseed, sesame seed and sunflower seed, as well as an organic activator. It is a very popular loaf, used by Te Papa. In fact, it is Thoroughbread’s biggest seller, out of a range of 15 different breads, she said.
“It was based on my original multigrain loaf, but we had had many requests over the years for egg-free bread.”
Rebecca has recently experimented with hemp at the request of local business Hemp Connect, which attended a show with its products and wanted to showcase what you can do with hemp.
“It has a lovely soft texture and is really dark, thanks to the hemp. The feedback has been fantastic so far.” She is contemplating adding it to her range.
“I will be making hemp bread for the Taste Trail later this month. We will be at Genoese Foods — it is the fourth time we are part of the Taste Trail, and Hemp Connect will be right beside us,” Rebecca said.
She and three or four of her staff will be there throughout the day serving, cutting samples for people to try. Their loaves will be available for sale.
“After each Taste Trail, we get requests from people who bought a loaf from us there and would like to buy more.”