 It may seem like something a good few years away from now, but we recently saw an article on LinkedIn discussing SpaceBakery and straight away it caught our attention and thought that we would share it with you! According to spacebakery.be seven Belgian partners including Puratos have been researching how to make bread baking in space a possibility, through a closed loop system. "Seven Belgian organisations took up the challenge of developing the ‘Space Bakery’ and the next generation of bread products, high in nutritive value and low in resource demand, that could support such future space missions." Source https://spacebakery.be/consortium There are a group of seven companies who are working together and sharing their expertise in different fields to possibly make sourdough bread baking a reality in space, and even on space expeditions too distant planets such as Mars. For the full report and explanation on how it might work, click here We think this is really interesting and look forward to seeing how the project continues, as it could also provide useful findings in regard to sustainability here on planet Earth as well! What do you think though? Is sourdough destined to be made in space? If it does happen, we are sure the bread will be out of this world!
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 To celebrate the end of a very unusual year at UCB and all other colleges around the country, the Level 3 Bakery students at UCB have been innovating to create the best Vegan Loaf, where they competed in house to be crowned the winner. The judging was held on Friday 25th June 2021 at University College Birmingham and there were some very impressive prizes with 1st place winning an amazing £250.00! Vegan Bread - Whats the difference? Students had to think carefully about the ingredients that were used in the loaf, to ensure that it was suitable for vegans, which meant no animal products. There were a range of breads, in all shapes and colours, including a rainbow themed loaf which caught the attention of head judge and ex UCB Student Katie Garrett. Not all bread is suitable for vegans as it sometimes includes ingredients such as cheese, milk and other diary products. Even egg is something that couldn't be used to glaze bread with, so although it seemed simple at first, it was a bit more of a challenge than simply making a loaf of bread, seeing students having to really think about the ingredients they were adding to ensure the finished product was suitable for vegans. The final loaf had to weigh 400g on judging day and students had spent the past two weeks developing their recipes and shapes to have the best chance of winning the competition on the day.  Katie's Comments Overall, Katie was very impressed by the innovative approach the students had taken to the competition and this was demonstrated in the final products. The shapes were really interesting and it was extremely hard to pick just three loaves from all of the entries, hence the reason for joint 3rd place. The Winning Loaf Although all of the bread produced was very innovative, there can only be one winner. The winning loaf was produced by Aisha Shaikh which was named "Shroom in the Hole" and was chosen because of the interesting concept and shape. The flavour was excellent, with fresh garlic, parsley and finely chopped mushrooms combined into an interesting shape as well. 1st Place £250.00 | Aisha Shaikh 2nd Place £125.00 | Ciara Murphy 3rd Place £75.00 | Amira Feyyaz 3rd Place £75.00 | Tionne Cohen Grant
Congratulations to everyone that took part and the winners of the competition. All of the entries looked amazing and we are sure everyone learnt some valuable skills in regard to product development along the way. Here are some other pictures from the day!
We would love to hear what you have been up to at college and university. If you have something to share with the rest of the ABST community! Drop us an email at abst.contactus@gmail.com so we can share all of the great skills you have been learning.
Many of you will have just finished college or university and it wont be long until the summer arrives which means you have plenty of time on your hands. So to keep you entertained and also encourage you to develop your newly learnt bakery skills during the long break, we have pulled together our top 5 bakery inspired things to do. Some of them can be done quite easily in the comfort of your own home, where as others need a bit more thinking about. Let us know which ones you will doing and tag us in your progress! We would love to hear how you found them. NO.1 BAKE A PIZZA FROM SCRATCHNow this one might seem relatively simple and in essence it is. All you have to do is make a pizza but making it from scratch just makes it a little bit more interesting and a little bit more special as well. But don't worry, we are giving you a recipe that you can use if you are not sure on how to get started, and we think you will agree that once you have made it and tasted it you will never buy a frozen pizza again! Even if you have a mixer at home, it might be more fun to mix and knead the dough by hand and why not get the rest of the household involved as well? You could even turn it into a competition for who makes the best tasting pizza, or most interesting toppings. We would love to hear and see how you got on with this one, so tag us in any pictures on facebook, twitter and instagram using the #ABSTPizzaPerfection Pizza recipe available here to download  NO.2 WORK IN A LOCAL BAKERYNow this one might take a bit more planning and will of course depend on any restrictions that are applicable in your area. So before you think about this one, ensure that you are able to do it safely without breaking any national and local guidelines. But as long as it is safe to do so, gaining some work experience in a bakery, (even if it is for free) will be a brilliant way to increase your skills and knowledge. Obviously you will need to agree with the chosen bakery if you are able to help out and you never know it could become more permanent over time and even lead to a job. You will learn a bit more about how a bakery works and meet some new people as well. A great opportunity to add experience to your CV, which will be vital when applying for jobs and will give you something to talk about at any interviews as well. Again, we would love to hear all about your experience, so tag us in any updates on facebook, twitter and instagram using the #ABSTWhereImKneaded  NO.3 CREATE A SOURDOUGH STARTERWe should also add "and keep it alive!" This is something that anyone can easily do at home and it is a great way to see sourdough at work. If you have never made one before, you will be able to witness the magic of taking flour and water, mixing it together and see it come alive during the week, bubbling away after a couple of days. Again we have got some instructions for you to get you started and all you really need is some bread flour and a container with a lid. Once you have created your sourdough, and it is alive, don't forget the most important step in the whole process which is the naming ceremony of course. Once you have your freshly named sourdough culture, why not go even further and bake some sourdough bread with it. We will be waiting to see the picture of your sourdough starters along with some interesting names as well. Tag us in your pictures along with the name on facebook, twitter and instagram using #ABSTSourdough Sourdough starter instructions here to download  NO. 4 BAKE SOMETHING DIFFERENTIf you bake a lot, you may find that over time you end up getting stuck on the same recipes, (which are doubt brilliant) but it can be the same thing over and over again. Why not have a go at baking something different, maybe even something that is more challenging. If you are more of a confectionery baker, maybe have a go at baking bread at home. If you find yourself baking bread a lot of the time, why not have a go at confectionery, chocolate, pastry or even decorating cakes or biscuits? Not only will it challenge you, but it will also increase your skills and experience working in different areas. There are lots of ideas on the internet, and you could try something completely different like pitta breads, doughnuts or cronuts. Let us know how you get on, and what you have made. We would love to see some pictures of your creations over summer as well. Use the #ABSTSomethingNew  NO.5 HAVE AN ENGLISH TEA PARTYWhat better way to practise and keep your new bakery skills up to date with your own tea party? Don't forget to make all of the treats yourself! We would be really interested to hear what you have served at your tea party. Will it be scones with jam and cream, or is that cream and jam? Maybe shortbread or something even more challenging like macaroons? Let us know what you have made and also tag us in your pictures as well and we would love to see them. This one might be a bit more difficult so why not get everyone in the household involved and give them different jobs to do. You could even turn it into your very own "Great British Bake Off" style competition to see who made the best scone! We aren't going to give you any recipes for this one, but there are plenty of ideas online and we look forward to seeing your creations! Tag us in your updates using #ABSTGreatBritishTeaParty  AND FINALLY...We hope that you enjoy our list of things to do over summer. Did we miss anything that you are going to be doing? We hope you all have a very enjoyable summer and well earned rest ready to start back in September! Good luck with the baking over the holidays, and don't forget to tag us as we would love to see the awesome creations!
 Exciting news from lesaffreLesaffre have just announced their newsletter, which is free for you to sign up for, and gives you lots of information about the company and products that they produce, as well as some very tasty looking recipes to try out as well. There are also technical webinars that will be announced via the newsletter as well, which will no doubt be great for learning and knowledge that you might be able to use at College and University.
We think it looks brilliant, and Lesaffre have been a great supporter of the ABST for many years. To check it out and sign up visit the Lesaffre website on the link here https://lesaffre.uk |
