Bread Bakers Guild of America entered the Coupe de Monde de la Boulangerie (World Cup Bakery) Competition in Paris

Last March 2012 the Bread Bakers Guild of America entered the Coupe de Monde de la Boulangerie (World Cup Bakery) Competition in Paris, France. Their "Pearpequi" Bread took 2nd place. Attached are a pictures from the event. The picture with the black background (right) is credited to Ciril Hitz. The formula and all other pictures are credited to the Bread Bakers Guild of America. As you can see on the larger loaf there is a stencil of a pear tree and the smaller loaves were meant to be a whimsical pear shape.

The name of this bread combines parts of the three featured ingredients: pear, pecans, and mesquite. Pecans and mesquite are two native American ingredients that grow abundantly in America’s Southwest and were important food sources for the Native Americans in that region. They grow side-by-side with the pear orchards of California, which were introduced from Asia and Europe. The mesquite meal is powdered seed pods from the mesquite tree and provides subtle notes of sweet, smoke, and cinnamon, and also brings high nutritional value. This complements the flavor of the sweet dried pear and crunchy toasted pecans. A total of 30% of the total flour in this bread is fermented in a levain and a yeasted biga.

The following is a comment from Jeff Yankalow, Board Member of the Guild

"The mesquite bean flour created a flavor profile that we felt distinguished the bread as something unique and more interesting than if made without it. The reasoning behind the amount of mesquite falls within our general strategy to present flavors that are unique, and delicious without being too strong. We found that this amount of mesquite created an interesting flavor that wasn't necessarily identifiable by the eater unless they new what they were looking for. But it is enough for someone to say, I don't know what it is but it tastes really good. The judging panel is made up of a number of international judges from countries that we are not aware of prior to the competition. The taste portion of the competition is subjective and we try not to use flavors that are too strong, allowing the fermentation to still play the star role."

Casa de Mesquite wishes to thank JEFF YANKELLOW, Board Chair of the Bread Bakers Guild and the entire team in France for the initiative to use mesquite in this competition