Baked from scratch

Our bread is fresh baked, daily, from scratch using  Marriages local flour. The range includes speciality loaves, classic tins you would expect from a bakery, and our sweet products. Our bakers also supply the cafe and Cookhouse Restaurant. 

We are proud to utilise the high quality local flour Marriage’s are able to provide for our bread. We do not use any additives, preservatives, or improvers during our process to provide the most natural finished product possible. 

Our approach is physically demanding, as well as labour and time intensive, but it results in bread with an enticing aroma, a strong crust, a firm slice and well-developed flavour.

Unlike traditional bakers, our team do not begin at the crack of dawn! Instead, we prefer to begin later, so our customers can experience the warmth, scent, and theatre of bread production. It also means the bakery team are able to help our customers with questions, and queries. 

• Be prepared to knead it thoroughly. If you don’t have a machine then expect to have aching arms, wrists & hands. A dough should be smooth, soft & elastic.
• Don’t be alarmed if some doughs appear rather wet in the early stages. Wetter is often better and will firm up with a little working. Or if not, persevere despite the inevitable sticky mess!
• Take your time. I often double prove, which actually works the dough a little for you but also develops that structure and flavour. Proving overnight in the fridge or a cool place can work well.
• Learning when to put in the oven makes a big difference, under or over proved can ruin all your hard work. If you lightly press the dough it should not have much spring back, but don’t go too far or you dough will collapse.

• Have the oven super hot and use a bread stone if possible as this stores the heat and will give your dough a good initial spring. A tray of water in the bottom also helps as the steam keeps the outside of the bread from drying and limiting the rise.