Every honest loaf
Every real bread has a home and a heritage. Pick a type to learn what it is, what makes it the real thing, and which scratch bakers across the UK and Ireland still make it properly.
Sourdough
Leavened by a living culture alone. The real thing, not "sourfaux".
Wholemeal
The whole grain, nothing milled away. Hearty and honest.
Focaccia
Olive-oil rich, dimpled and open. A slow-proved Italian flatbread.
Rye Bread
Wholegrain rye, with or without a sour. Earthy and substantial.
Baguette
A long French stick, crackling crust, made fresh that day.
Rye Sourdough
Dense, dark and tangy. A long ferment that keeps for a week.
Spelt
An ancient wheat, nutty and digestible. Often baked as sourdough.
Brioche
An enriched dough of butter and egg. Soft, golden, a little sweet.
Soda Bread
Flour, buttermilk, bicarb. Brown or white. Anything else is a tea cake.
Ciabatta
A wet-dough Italian loaf, blistered crust, big irregular holes.
Bloomer
Slashed on top, baked free on the sole. Crisp crust all round.
Batch Loaf
Baked touching, pulled apart. Soft sides, proper crust top and bottom.
Wheaten Bread
Ulster's wholemeal soda. Nutty, close-textured, cut in farls.
Barmbrack
An Irish fruit bread, lightly spiced. Yeasted or made with tea.
Cottage Loaf
Two rounds stacked, dimpled through the middle. Old-school British.
The Blaa
A soft, floury white roll with EU protected status. Found nowhere else.
Bake it at home
No honest baker near you, or none baking today? The short answer is to bake your own. This is the bench most scratch bakers start with, nothing more.
Digital kitchen scales
Real recipes are written in grams. Scales first, everything else second.
Compare on Amazon ↗Banneton proving basket
Holds the shape of a wet dough through its final prove.
Compare on Amazon ↗Bread lame
Scores the loaf so it bursts where you choose, not where it likes.
Compare on Amazon ↗Cast iron casserole
Traps steam for the kind of crust a bare home oven cannot make.
Compare on Amazon ↗The full home bench, bread by bread →
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