A taste of Hambleton Bakery

By Matt Wright

There are Hambleton Bakery shops in Exton (where the bread is made) Stamford, Oakham and Oundle. They sell bread (and pasta and patisserie) made to traditional recipes – about as far removed as the Chorleywood process as it’s possible to get.

Hambleton has been a roaring success and strikes all the right chords with consumers looking to move away from mass-produced sliced supermarket loaves, keen to rediscover how bread used to taste before the food scientists got their hands on it in the Sixties.

The massive woodfired oven at Exton that bakes Hambleton’s daily stock can hold around 70 loaves and is at the heart of the operation. It is powered by wood gathered at local forests that would otherwise go to waste, fuel that is far cheaper than using electricity.

For a feature coming up in Issue 8, and to attend a presentation by Leicestershire Food Links after Hambleton won the grand Big Bake prize at Melton Mowbray Country Show last month (sponsored by NFU Mutual), Great Food magazine visited the Exton bakery. These are a few pictures taken during the visit.

Hambleton’s bakers (l-r): Lewis Brampton, Scott Kenny, head baker Julian Carter, Mark Bates and Paul White

NFU Mutual’s Steve Jeal (sponsor of the Big Bake competition) with Julian Carter

Hambleton’s woodfired oven

Inside the shop at Exton

To see the full feature on Hambleton Bakery, make sure you buy Issue 8 of Great Food magazine, out on September 6, 2011.