GOOD FOOD GUY
BAKING WITH TRADITION
Taken from this month’s Cotswold Life magazine
GOOD, OLD-FASHIONED BAKERIES MIGHT NOT BE TRENDY, BUT THEY’RE ACTUALLY MORE ARTISAN THAN YOU REALISE
If you thought Christmas was becoming too commercial, then I’d love to hear your thoughts about what’s happened to Easter in recent years. We’d barely had time to take the tinsel down before packets of Cadbury’s Mini Eggs started spawning on supermarket shelves – Boxing Day was when they first popped up in our local store! Since then, there’s been a steady stream of chocolate egg-laying, with whole aisles being given over to Easter-related confectionery.
Not that our children would necessarily know it, but there’s actually more to Easter eating than chocolate. For me, it’s all about hot cross buns. Not the mass-produced supermarket variety – I’m talking the real deal, huge pillows of glazed dough crammed with bite-sized chunks of fruit, done properly by a good, traditional craft baker. You know the kind, those oldy-worldy family-run bakeries that have graced the high street of every Cotswold town for a hundred years or more.
Chances are you’ll have one of these bakeries in your local town or village. It’s where you’ll find fantastic traditional breads, such as seeded cobs, malted granaries and white farmhouse loaves. It's where you’ll also find those traditional types of cakes that your grandparents enjoyed – snail buns, Belgium buns, chocolate crunch and lardy cakes, affectionately known in Gloucestershire as ‘drippers’.
You see, not that our children would know it (again!), but there’s more to good bread than sourdough. Yes, we all love a sourdough loaf and there’s certainly no stopping the trend anytime soon, but there’s room in the basket for all types of bread. As Tim Dangerfield of Dangerfields Bakery generously says, ‘the £5-a-loaf-boys are good for the industry, but I’ll leave the fancy breads to them!’
Good, honest bread-making is what you get from our Cotswold craft bakers, and you’ll spend a lot less than a fiver. They have a wealth of baking knowledge that’s been passed down the generations – these guys were doing sourdough before sourdough was even a thing – and they have experience in sourcing quality, local ingredients that they know will produce good-flavoured dough.
So, if you’ve had enough of Easter eggs or you’re getting sick of sourdough, maybe it’s time to start a new tradition – your children won’t know what they’re missing until you’ve shown them!
RISING TO THE OCCASION. Some of our favourite Cotswold bakers
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DANGERFIELDS BAKERY
Established in 1928 by Louis Dangerfield, this Stonehouse-based wholesale bakery is currently managed by Louis’ grandson, Tim and supplies breads and morning goods to over 200 retail outlets in the Cotswolds and beyond. For Easter, you’ll find hot cross buns and cupcakes, but look out for the best-selling product lardy cake: the bakery currently makes over 1,000 of these a night!
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HALLS QUALITY BAKER
Originally established in the Cotswold village of Minchinhampton in 1902 by Mr John Hall and son Edward Hall, this bakery now has shops in Stroud, Tetbury, Nailsworth, Cirencester and Swindon. The bread and cakes are made using traditional baking methods, passed down through five generations of bakers. Halls will bake over 20,000 hot cross buns this Easter, as well as seasonal Easter biscuits and shortbreads.
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WALKERS THE BAKERS
Oozing old-world charm, the Walkers building in Stroud has been home to a bakery for over 100 years. It came into the Walker family in 1939 and is today something of a Stroud institution. The breads are all naturally-fermented using quality ingredients and there’s a nostalgic range of old-school cakes – apple sponge slices, doughnuts, iced buns, lardie cakes and of course, hot cross buns for Easter.
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NORTHS BAKERY
Based in North Street in Winchcombe, this independent bakery was first established by Ron North in Gwent, Wales in 1955. Today it is run by Dan Seagrove, who himself had been a baker at North’s for over 20 years. The breads and pastries are all made using traditional methods without additives or preservatives. Seasonal lines include hot cross buns, simnel cake and mini egg cupcakes.