Australian wins with a jaffle at World Porridge Making Championship
In short:
Australian Caroline Velik has won the World Porridge Making Championship in Scotland in the specialty dish category.
Ms Velik took home the award with a special porridge jaffle and placed second for the overall Golden Spurtle award.
The Melbourne food stylist says her creative take on the breakfast favourite was inspired by one of her mother's recipes.
Melbourne food stylist Caroline Velik has triumphed at the World Porridge Making Championship, winning the specialty dish category with an Australian jaffle.
The 32nd Golden Spurtle World Porridge Making Championship took place at Carrbridge in the Scottish Highlands on October 4.
Caroline Velik's winning porridge jaffle, inspired by one of her mother's recipes. (Supplied: Michael Harley)
"I really wanted to do something they hadn't seen before and they definitely hadn't seen jaffles before," Ms Velik told ABC News Breakfast.
The winning dish, a yoghurt flatbread jaffle, was stuffed with porridge and featured iconic Aussie ingredients like wattleseed, Davidson Plum Powder and Bundaberg Rum.
Ms Velik said her specialty porridge jaffle was inspired by her mother's nostalgic rum banana recipe.
"I flavoured the porridge with some good old Bundaberg Rum and bananas, some sugar and butter, so it was really nice and well-flavoured."
Ms Velik also finished second in the coveted Golden Spurtle award for porridge made with just water, salt and oatmeal.
Caroline Velik and Sven Seljom from Norway pose with the Golden Spurtle. (Supplied: Michael Harley)
Norwegian Sven Seljom took home the Golden Spurtle championship with his porridge made from Norwegian Black oats.
"You think it's all going to taste the same but you'd be surprised how many differences you can get with just those three ingredients," Ms Velik said.
Creating a winner
The food stylist said she practised and prepared hard before the competition, and that using Australian oats was one of the keys to creating "good porridge".
"I had started testing the recipe using bread because that's what you use in a jaffle," she said.
"Then I got word back from the committee that I wasn't allowed to use bread."
Ms Velik said this "really threw a spanner in the works", as the contestants had just 30 minutes to make their dish.
Aussie Caroline Velik is the specialty porridge world champion. (Supplied: Michael Harley)
She said attempting to make a jaffle without bread "was a disaster at first" but she found a solution by creating a yoghurt flat bread.
"I actually also quite like doughnuts and so it sort of came to me that I could make it a bit more like a doughnut,"Ms Velik said.
"Once it was in the jaffle iron, it sort of puffed up and it was just a really lovely, soft texture.
"When I'd pull it out of the jaffle iron, I'd toss it like you would a doughnut in caster sugar and then … I just added a bit of Davison plum powder to give it another bit of an Aussie twist."