Bread Fest is a fun community event dedicated to celebrating delicious Arizona breads and all our amazing bakers. It will feature a Sourdough Baking Contest that is open to Home and Cottage bakers. There will be live music, a butter sculpture, activities for kids and lots of samples of Arizona's very best breads.

The Sourdough Bread Contest is a chance for Arizona bakers to show off their skills. We will have two main categories- Home Baker & Cottage Baker. Within each of those categories there will be two sub categories-Classic Sourdough & Flavored Sourdough. See below for more information on what breads are accepted.

Enter as a contestant on the Event Brite website in the appropriate category. Pick "CONTESTANT Ticket".

Ahead of the competition we will email you to ask you for the name of your bread and your ingredient list.

You can enter a Classic Sourdough or a Flavored Sourdough loaf. See more on those categories below.

There are limited spots in each category.

If you would like to be a vendor at Bread Fest, please email us at info@haydenflourmills.com

A Cottage Baker refers to someone that has a Cottage Food License and sells their bread from home or at a Farmer’s Market.  A Cottage Baker is someone who makes all or part of their income selling bread. If bread is more of a hobby for you, you are considered a Home Baker, even if you occasionally sell your bread to friends and neighbors.

Bread made with Commercial Yeast + Sourdough Culture are permitted. A loaf made with ONLY commercial yeast is not allowed. We’re not sourdough purists, however we want to highlight the craft of naturally leavened bread at this year's Bread Fest.

Bread baked in a sandwich loaf pan, baguettes, bagels, rolls, pretzels, flat breads, pizza, yeasted quick breads, focaccia, pastries and tortillas. These will all be great categories for future Bread Fests, but these breads will not be accepted this year.

We are looking for hand shaped sourdough loaves, also known as boules, country loaves, hearth breads or ciabattas. 

Bread will be judged on crumb, texture, aroma, appearance, depth of flavor, creativity and scoring (if any) by a panel of professional bakers, chefs and bread-loving community members.

This category is about showing off your mastery of sourdough fundamentals and letting the flavor of the grain shine through. An example of a Classic Sourdough loaf would be a Purple Barley Loaf or a Rye Swirl Loaf. This category excludes any of the inclusions listed in the "Flavored Sourdough" category listed below.

A flavored sourdough will have additional inclusions. An example of this would be a Cheddar Jalapeño Bread or a Chocolate Cherry Loaf. Get creative, but all additions or decorations to your bread must be edible. Inclusions may include cheese, herbs and spices, nuts, fruit, dried fruit, seeds, chocolate, vegetables or honey.

Yes! This is the Hayden Flour Mills Bread Fest! HFM flour needs to be at least ONE of the ingredients in your bread. Your recipe can also include non-wheat flours like cornmeal, chickpea flour or rice flour.

Only 1 bread can be submitted to the contest per person.

If you win the Sourdough Bread Contest in your category you will receive a blue ribbon, a $100 Hayden Flour Mills Gift Card and most importantly--bragging rights.

4 loaves of the same type—1 for the judges and 3 for sampling to the Bread Fest attendees. Bring a cutting board and bread knife. We will provide a display table, food service gloves and sampling tongs. You can also bring promotional material to let people know where they can find your bread around Arizona. We ask that you arrive 30 mins early to check in and set up your bread station.

2 loaves of the same type—1 for the judges and 1 for display. Unfortunately the food department will not allow us to sample home baked bread to the public. But not to worry, your loaf will get a spot front and center so everyone can “ooh” and “ahh” over your sourdough skills. We ask that you arrive 30 mins early to check in and get your loaf to the judging station.