We were delighted to welcome Dan Lepard to the loaf today.



My inspiration to start baking sourdoughs came some five years ago when Rog bought me Dan's wonderful book, The Handmade Loaf. I subsequently became a semi regular poster on Dan's forum and it became a rich source of recipes and advice for me as I felt my way into the world of artisan bread-making. Then, when the opportunity to open the loaf came up, Dan was one of several experts who were extremely generous with advice about setting up and running a bakery.

Dan and his partner, David Whitehouse, stayed in our holiday cottage, Halcyon Cottage last night and we had dinner out together which gave Dan and I plenty of time to chat about all things bread and baking. True to previous online conversations with him, Dan was again very generous with advice and thoughts about what next steps we might take at the loaf and tips and tricks to further improve my baking.

Then this morning, Dan spent several hours in the bakery chatting to customers, staff and asking me questions about our bread and cakes. He also uses his photography skills (a former career for him) to capture photos of breads, cakes and bakers in action. I hope to get hold of some of the photos and will post them when I can. I was delighted to be baking Dan's 'Quicker Barm' recipe from The Handmade Loaf, as we do every Friday, and Dan watched it go into the ovens, come out baked and then sell, hot and crackling from the shelves in the shop! We had also baked cakes and breads that feature on Dan's forum, notably the orange and almond cake we do regularly and the seeded rye loaf we now do on a Friday.

Dan is so enthusiastic about baking and with every product he had further suggestions to try new things, make tweaks or just different ways of doing things. He even baked some of his own sourdough loaves that he had mixed this morning in Halcyon Cottage! Here he is scoring them before loading them into our ovens.



We really enjoyed Dan and David's visit. I have learned a lot and will certainly be heeding many of Dan's tips over the coming months.

If you would like to subscribe to our e-newsletters, click here. The latest is shown below.

Dear all,

I hope you are enjoying this lovely summer weather we are having - believe me, it's hot in the bakery!!

the loaf in top ten small bakeries in Britain

We are delighted to be listed in Dan Lepard's top 10 small bakeries in Britain in today's Times. Listed as one of four local food producers in Derbyshire among 300 national producers, we are then picked out in a list of local small bakeries.

"the loaf is an active part of the community, using local beers in breads, selling flour for home bakers and having a pizza evening every Wednesday."

Dan is a world renowned baker who writes a weekly column for the Guardian and whose website and forum have been a source of great information and inspiration to me over the past few years. He is coming to visit us in a couple of week's time and will hopefully help us bake his recipe for 'barm bread' which regular customers know we bake every Friday using beer from the Fisherman's Rest pub. Thanks to Dan for including us in his list.

New outlet for loaf bread

We are very pleased to be supplying Appleby & Nuttall Fine Foods, Bakewell with fresh bread from the loaf. Initially, we will be supplying them with breads every Saturday but hope this will soon expand to be more often through the week. Paul Rouse and his wife have recently taken over the delicatessen and are planning some exciting developments over the summer and autumn. Find them in Bakewell just off Buxton Road on Rutland Bu.

New regular breads

Following our Italian week, we are pleased to be offering 'Italian baguettes' or Stirato every Saturday alongside our regular french baguettes. Made from a recipe in Daniel Leader's book, 'Local Breads', they have a softer crust and more even crumb than their French cousins and are made with Italian 'OO' flour.

Also now making a regular appearance in the range is a new rye loaf: seeded rye. It uses a great recipe posted in the blog of Joanna, home baker and friend of the loaf. We are baking it every Friday and you can read more about the recipe and Joanna's blog on the loaf blog here.

100% spelt sourdough

Many of you have asked whether we use spelt flour in any of our breads. Spelt is an ancient wheat variety that has seen a recent resurgence as it is proving to be less problematic for people who suffer from an intolerance to gluten. Read more about spelt flour or wheat intolerance in recent articles published by our millers, Shipton Mill.

We already bake a part spelt sourdough on a Saturday called 'Spelt and Seed'. However, recently I have been experimenting and have developed a recipe for a 100% wholemeal spelt sourdough. I baked a batch recently which went down well with those that bought them but I would be interested in hearing from anyone who would be keen to buy this loaf on a regular basis so I know if and when to slot it into the range.

Popular pizza nights

Finally, we are extremely pleased with how well 'Wednesday night is pizza night' is going. We are busy every week with both customers eating in and taking out. Please be advised to book early if you would like a table.

As always, if you have any feedback for us, suggestions for improvement or requests for new products, just pop in or drop us an email.

Best wishes,

Andrew and Rog