Meet the Galway woman with a love for baking who has made national brown bread finals

Irish Independent

a day ago

Tracey Mullin-Ryan, from Kiltevan in Dunmore, said she is still 'surprised and thrilled' as she explained to the Irish Independent she loves cooking and baking, but she had only shared her passion with her family and friends, until this summer.
'My family and I, my wider siblings their families, we all really enjoy cooking. As a family we tend to cook a lot. We cook big dinners and that obviously includes some baking. We all like desserts.
'I probably started baking around ten years ago, just when hosting family and that kind of thing,' she said.
Then this summer, Tracey's sister-in-law suggested she should enter the National Brown Bread Baking Competition.
'My sister-in-law saw this competition and she suggested that I entered it. I didn't really think that much about it. And then we were talking about it again and I decided to enter. So that's how it came about.'
The competition, supported by Euronics in association with the National Ploughing Association and the Irish Country Women's Association, saw people from all over the country submitting their delicious entries throughout July.
And just like that, Tracey was selected, along with other seven bakes nationwide, for the upcoming final.
'No one is more surprised than I am. It's my first competition and I'm delighted to have been selected, it was a huge surprise.'
Recalling the phone call that changed her summer, Tracey said: 'I was so surprised. I think the first thing I did was I called my sister in law. Oh my God, I was thrilled. It was very surprising.
'When I dropped my entry there was loads already there. So I handed in my entry and I said okay, well it's been fun entering this, that's been enjoyable. Honestly I assumed that I wouldn't get any further.
'It's my first competition, I've never done anything like this before, so I was hugely surprised when the company rang and they were like we'd like to move you forward. I was so surprised. But thrilled, obviously.'
Talking about her passion for cooking, the 42-year-od explained she started baking about ten years ago.
'So about 10 years ago and very simple stuff. I'm really interested in cooking from scratch and knowing how to make things. You don't need to make them every day, but it's nice to be able to. So that's one of my big motivators, being able to kind of cook meals from scratch.'
However, she said there is no secret behind her brown bread recipe: 'I honestly I think it's good ingredients and time.
'If you're doing something regularly and you find something that works for you, well, then you're going to enjoy it. Because it's never a chore then, you're never doing work when you're doing something that you enjoy.'
She added how for her cooking and baking are synonymous with relaxing and unwinding as she found in cooking a way of switching off from her busy life working in insurance and studying for her PhD.
She explained: 'I am pretty busy. But baking is a welcome release. We really need time to wind down.
'It's all part of switching off from technology, switching off from everything. You can't use technology when you're doing something like that's manual.'
The National Brown Bread Baking Competition's semi-finals will take place at the National Ploughing Championships in Screggan, Tullamore, County Offaly on September 16 and 17, with the final on the afternoon of September 18.
When asked what she expects from that week, she said: 'I expect to see a lot of talented people doing what they do best. The ploughing is always a great showcase for Ireland and for rural life, I live rurally as well so it's always a great way to put our life on a national platform and that's always great.
'From the baking side of this, I'm expecting to be quite nervous. And I'm expecting to make some good bread.'
The winning brown bread baker will walk away with a cash prize of €5,000 and a NEFF Slide and Hide oven, with the three finalists all walking away with a €500 Euronics gift card.
If lucky enough to win the first place, Tracey said she will use the money prize to finish renovating her home.
'We're renovating our home, so if I'm fortunate enough to win the prize, the oven would be very welcome, obviously. And then the additional money would probably go into the bathroom or something like that.'
As the news of the final is spreading, Tracey added she has been overwhelmed by the support received by the community, the family, new and old friends.
'This is a big competition for everybody. I didn't realise the extension of it until now.
'It's really funny because I've had an old friend reaching out to me. They saw the article on the RTE website and I haven't spoken to them in a long time and I got a message them saying 'oh my god!'.
She added: 'It's wonderful to be part of things like this. And it's so much fun!'