Katrina Collins is behind The Daily Apron and they offer a wide range of breads in their bakery and in the local market in Lisburn.
In her words
“We create a range of traditional Irish breads using flat irons such as treacle, soda bread and potato bread. The flour is from Andrews mill in Belfast. The butter milk from South Derry and the potatoes are from a farm just 3 miles away. As part of our traditional bread selection we make wheaten, Guinness and walnut wheaten and fruit soda loaf. There are no additives to any of our breads. On particular localised bread we make is a Belfast Bap which dates back to famine times and is bound up on local folklore about ‘Barney Hughes bread’.
By 1833, Barney was the manager of the Belfast Public Bakery, which was set up in order to prevent private bakers from overcharging the public. We continue to follow this tradition today and feel an innate sense of history around the injustice Barney addressed through affordable bread to people starving during the famine. We have spent considerable time developing our sourdough recipe and approach. Sourdough is used on our menu and is available to sell in our cafe/bakery. It is a San Francisco style sourdough that we make. In this more internationally influenced range we make rosemary focaccia and vegan flatbreads.”
UPDATE: In Oct Cathy Stevenson of the Daily Apron, Lisburn was crowned the winner of the Tiptree World Bread Awards Heroes with Brook Food for Northern Ireland. Although Cathy is in the ‘professional’ category, she is entirely self taught. Cathy has a sixth sense in her hands about baking, creating and amending recipes. She produces breads, cakes, traybakes (buns) and all things baked on a daily basis for the Daily Apron.
During lockdown Cathy baked for local residents and the sometimes overlooked services, such as the post office and pharmacies. ‘I wanted to bring a little happiness to those who need it at a time when everyone was feeling blue.’ said Cathy, ‘To see the smiles on people’s faces when my red cart pulled up at their door filled me with joy.’
Real Bread Ireland 