With every household in Ireland taking to baking in a big way, keeping flour on the supermarket shelves has been a real challenge. Stapleton’s Bakery, based in Roscrea, Co. Tipperary, and who supply Aldi’s with 9 Fresh Bread lines including Handmade Irish Pitta Bread have added another essential product to their business!
As well as still supplying the supermarket with bread, Stapleton’s now also supply 142 Aldi stores nationwide with two varieties of flour - each bag of flour (1kg plain or 1kg wholemeal) retails for €1.29 each.
With an unprecedented demand for flour in recent weeks, Aldi and Stapleton’s Bakery agreed that something innovation was necessary to resolve the current flour demands. Stapleton’s decided to bag their own flour that they normally use for the production of their fresh breads range. There is no foreseen supply issues so you can expect to see these new flour products on Aldi shelves for weeks to come.
Joe Stapleton of Stapleton’s Bakery said, “We’re delighted to be able to provide our flour to every Aldi store nationwide, in these unprecedented times we need to be innovative where we can. Working with Aldi over the years and having the support from the team has allowed us to turn this around very quickly and meet the demand for flour for all those home bakers including budding new ones”.
John Curtin, Group Buying Director of Aldi Ireland said, "This is a perfect example of the close relationship that exists between Aldi and our suppliers. With such a demand for flour we are very happy to be able to have extra product on the shelves of all 142 Aldi stores - Joe and his team at Stapleton’s Bakery have done a great job turning this around in such a short space of time".
Aldi has Stapleton’s Plain and Wholemeal flour on its shelves now nationwide.
With that in mind – it’s time to hit the kitchen and try out these easy recipes, all available on www.aldi.ie
Traditional Brown Bread
Ingredients:
250g wholemeal flour
250g plain white flour
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
500ml buttermilk
2 tbsp oat Bran
Tablespoon of porridge oats (if you have them)
Method:
Pre-heat the oven to 210°C or fan oven 195°C.
Sift and mix all dry ingredients, make a well in the centre and add the buttermilk.
The mixture should be soft and floppy (if not, add a little more buttermilk). Knead on a floured surface for half a minute making a round shape.
Place on a floured metal baking tray or tin.
Place in a loaf tin or a floured tray and sprinkle with porridge oats. Put in the pre-heated oven for 10 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 190°C for a further 35 minutes (if using a fan oven the temp should be 195°C and 175°C).
Tap the base of the bread it should make a hollow sound.
If not, put back in the oven for 5 minutes.
Remove from oven and wrap in a cotton or linen tea towel, standing it on its side (this softens the crust).
