Bread at the loaf

All bread and cakes sold at the loaf in both Crich and Matlock are baked, fresh every day, at the bakery in Crich. Some of our customers have told us that it would be useful to understand a little bit more about the differences between the great variety of breads that we make. Hopefully, this guide will help you to choose the next time you visit the loaf. From competitively priced every-day loaves, to the more distinctive but great value continental and artisan breads, we should have something to suit your tastes whatever the occasion.

We don't bake with any additives or preservatives of any kind. Though this means bread from the loaf is best on the day you buy it, most will also keep well for a few days if you store them sealed, but not in a fridge. Though we do use vegetable fats in some breads, most are a simple combination of flour, water, fat, yeast and a small amount of salt. Feel free to ask us to slice any of the breads with our 'medium' slicer.

We have such a large range of bread that we can't bake everything on the product list every day. View a weekly schedule of what we produce when, here.

Our full bread price list is downloadable as a pdf file here.

Where to buy bread from the loaf

As well as being available at our two shops in Crich and Matlock, bread from the loaf is available from the following businesses:

Jack Rabbits, Derby

Strutt Street Bakery, Belper

Waterhouse Delights of Wirksworth

Brown and Green Food Store, Little Eaton, Derby

the Bottle Kiln, West Hallam, Derbyshire.

The DeliCafé at Brailsford, Ashbourne

DE4 Food, the new way to order a range of food produced locally to Matlock online.

Please note that prices of bread may vary slightly from outlet to outlet.

Healthy bread at the loaf

If you have ever wondered how healthy bread at the loaf is, then I have written this blog entry in response to a recent newspaper article. I aim to highlight just how healthy the bread we bake is. In essence, all you need to know is that our bread is deliciously tasty, very digestible and 100% additive-free.

White Tin

The king of crunchy toasting breads, it is also great for your lunch box sandwiches. Our white tin breads are fat-free and are mixed the night before to allow the bread to develop a full flavour and also to help it to keep longer without adding preservatives.

Wholemeal

This is a full-flavoured loaf with lots of character. It is a great loaf with soup on a cold day and is also perfect toasted for breakfast with some of our Ashbourne-produced marmalade. The small amount of organic palm fat in this loaf helps it to keep well for a few days in a plastic bag. Look out for the wholemeal with sunflower seeds and the organic wholemeal which we make on Saturdays.

Soft White and Brown

We make a range of softer crusted breads which are great keepers and perfect for every day sandwiches, bread and jam at tea time or a quick nibble with cheese when you are peckish. We bake these softer breads in farmhouse tins or batched together on trays and the slightly higher fat content is what keeps the middle fluffy and soft.

Malted Grain, Light and Dark

We have two ranges of malty wholegrain breads. Flakes of malted wheat, rye and barley are blended with white, wholemeal and rye flour to make delicious nutty, malty bread. The light malted grain is a great every day bread for all the family. Children enjoy the malty taste and the thinner, less crunchy crust. The organic flour in the dark malted grain has more wholemeal and so has a deep, nutty flavour. Both these breads keep well and are available as large tins or shaped into round Coburgs or long bloomers.

French Breads

Using an authentic French recipe and French flour, we make a range of deliciously crusty baguettes (French sticks), rolls and bloomers - plain, poppy seeded and sesame seeded. True to their Gallic roots, these breads have no fat in them and are at their very best the day they are made. Perfect for picnics, pâtés or simply in chunks in a basket with your dinner, French style. The next day, warm them in the oven to crisp up the crust again or grill them with cheese to drop into soup as delicious croutons.

Italian Ciabatta

Look out for these irregular-shaped rolls and loaves. With a delicately crisp crust and a very airy crumb, they make perfect sandwiches. Try one as a BLT (bacon, lettuce and tomato) in the café or take a loaf home to make the most perfect grilled bruschetta. Another fat-free bread so great for slimming.

Sour Dough

Not sour, just very very tasty! Our sour dough range is fast becoming the most popular selection of breads that we produce. Sour dough bread is made using a fermenting culture of flour and water that encourages wild yeasts that are in the flour and the air to grow and thrive. Every day we feed this culture or 'leaven' and take a bit off it to make that day's bread. As there is no cultivated baker's yeast in the bread, people with an intolerance to normal bread sometimes find they can eat sour doughs without the same problems.

Our sour dough range includes plain loaves and then loaves flavoured with olives, sun-dried tomatoes, walnuts and raisins and five grains. All of these breads are hand moulded and are baked on the floor of the oven, loaded and unloaded using a baker's peel. Dunk the olive or sundried tomato loaves in olive oil and balsamic vinegar for a simple starter, the walnut and raisin is perfect with cheese and pickles and the plain sour doughs make the tastiest toasted sandwiches imaginable.

Rye Breads

We have a developing range of breads that include rye flour. Rye grain has much less gluten than wheat and so breads made with rye can be more easily digested by some people who have a wheat or gluten intolerance.

Light Rye

The very popular 'light rye' was inspired by a recipe for New York rye. It is very close to being a white bread, with only about 20% rye flour to white wheat flour. However, the rye flour gives it a fantastic depth of flavour.

We do a plain version and a version with caraway seeds. Try it as a really tasty alternative to white bread that children will love toasted with jam or spread with peanut butter!

Dark rye

This bread has 60% rye flour with linseeds and sunflower seeds. It is a denser loaf with a terrifically nutty flavour and goes really well with cheeses and cold meats.

100% rye with pumpkin seeds

Packed with pumpkin seeds and flavoured with treacle and orange zest, this is a dense, dark beauty. If you slice it thinly the day after it is baked, you will find a moist, compact, fragrant bread which is delicious with soft cheeses, goats cheese, salami or, as a sweeter breakfast treat, with honey.

Borodinsky

One of Andrew Whitley's recipes from his book Bread Matters, this recipe is brought back from his time in Russia and is rich with the flavours of coriander, malt and molasses.

Bread rolls

We do a range of bread rolls from the different doughs including soft white and brown rolls and baps, poppy and sesame seeded rolls, crusty cobs, malted grain, ciabatta...the list goes on! 

We are very keen to hear what products you would like from us so please with any questions or comments.

Weekly schedule

Below is a table showing what bread we produce on different days. All other breads mentioned above and the majority listed on our price list we produce on a daily basis, Tuesday to Saturday.

bread production schedule

Bread	Days produced and comments
100% Rye with pumpkin seed and orange	Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays
100% Rye with sunflower seed	Saturdays
Borodinsky Rye	Wednesdays and Fridays. A 100% rye bread with coriander, malt extract and molasses from a Russian recipe.
Dark Rye	Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. A 60% rye bread with sunflower seed and linseeds.
100% Spelt sourdough	Thursdays. This is made from organic ingredients including wholemeal and white spelt flours and Derbyshire honey. It is recommended for customers with an intolerance to the gluten found in modern wheat varieties.
Barm bread with Ale	Fridays. This sourdough loaf is made using beer provided by a local pub and harks back to the days when brewers and bakers worked together to harness the miraculous power of wild yeasts.
Focaccia	Fridays and Saturdays. These italian flat breads are rich in olive oil and come with a variety of different toppings.
Spelt and seed sourdough	Saturdays. Made from 20% wholemeal spelt and white wheat flour and packed with seeds this is a very digestible and low GI bread.
Stirato - Italian baguettes	Saturdays
Soda bread	Occasionally and to order
Ricotta bread	Occasionally and to order
Rosemary filone	Occasionally and to order
German rye - 90% rye using the Detmolder 3 stage rye process	Occasionally and to order
Seeded rye	Occasionally and to order