How sweet it is ... hinterland bakery wins medals at Nationals

Jason Walters and Samantha Tranter with their award winning pies

A Mapleton bakery is revelling in the sweet taste of success after receiving a swag of awards at the recent Great Aussie Pie Competition in Sydney.

“The entries from all around the country were judged between November the 26th and 28th,” said bakery owner, Jason Walters. “We entered pies in a number of categories and were absolutely blown away by the results.”

Sweet and Flour received a Bronze award for their Plain pie, a Silver award for their Breakie pie, a Bronze award for their Mussaman curry pie, a Silver for their Apple pie and in the Apprentice Category, a Gold award for their Chicken and Vegetable Mornay pie.

As an added bonus, the Apple pie also took third overall place in the country as did the Chicken and Vegetable Mornay pie.

“We were up against some very stiff competition which made this recognition even more special,” Jason said.

Jason has been in the trade for 26 years and proudly remains an ‘old school’ baker. “We make everything onsite, from scratch,” he said. “There are no shortcuts here.

“I also have a fantastic team working with me. We are all passionate about our baking and we enjoy using old style recipes as well as innovating with new ingredients and flavours. One of my other bakers has 39 years of experience, and our 3rd year apprentice, SamanthaTranter, is shaping up to be a very talented and dedicated baker”.

So what is the secret to an award winning pie?

“There are lots of elements that have to come together to bake a really outstanding pie,” Jason explained. “Temperature plays a really important role and it is often challenging to control this in our humid climate.

“The pastry baking has to be just right so that the case holds the filling properly so that it doesn’t fall out when you take a bite, and the filling must be tasty as well.

“Samantha refers to it as ‘chasing the dragon’, and I think on this occasion, we probably caught him!”