Our Bread
Hobz is all about bread. I initially re-fell in love with baking through naturally leavened bread. People might know us best for our pastries, but bread will always define us.
When something is made from only three ingredients - flour, water and salt - you have to be super finicky on what and how you source your produce. In this case, bakers practically only have real control over what flour we use. We’ve made some changes to our flour suppliers recently, and have reached closer to achieving our sustainability goals. First, however, I want to address a frequently asked question we get at the bakery:
Do you have any brown / white / wholemeal etc. bread?
This isn’t a question easily answered in the couple of seconds one of our wonderful baristas, or even our bakers, have at the front counter before they’re called to other tasks. The answer isn’t simple, and I’ve always felt frustrated at being unable to explain exactly what goes in our bread to customers. Flour isn’t simply divided into white or whole; there’s varying degrees of white and different extractions of the whole grain. Flour can also be either roller milled (conventional, industrial) or stoneground, which maintains more of the nutrients from the grain in the finished product.
When I first started Hobz I was adamant that we would never make a white loaf and a wholegrain loaf. Neither make sense to me as a standalone item. All our bread, except our Rugbrød, is made from the same single mix of dough. This is partly a practical choice: we can only fit one spiral mixer in our tiny bakery, and don’t have the time to juggle multiple bread mixes throughout the day. More than this though, we also realise that you sacrifice flavour and nutrition when you choose a white loaf, but benefit from a light texture. With a wholegrain loaf, you get a truly flavourful and nutritious product, but most people find the dense texture unappetising (for whatever it’s worth, I disagree, dense loaves can be a joy to eat).
Instead, our bread is mix of flours that tries to combine the best of both worlds: a light crumb from the slightly refined stoneground white flour, and the flavour and nutrition from a variety of different grains that are minimally processed. Of course, this is nothing new, and we are far from being the first to do this. Most artisan bakers also operate on this mentality. But industrialised bread producers have created this dichotomy in our supermarket shelves, and it is far too easy for consumers to see bread as either white or whole, with no proper understanding of flour.
When we first opened, our main supplier of flour was Shipton Mill. We also started experimenting with using grain landrace grown in the Balcaskie Estate, Fife, and managed by Scotland the Bread, which we mill in house every single day. During the last couple of months, we’ve transitioned to using Matthews Cotswold Flour, Wildfarmed and Scotland the Bread as our suppliers.
Our bread is now all stoneground, all regenerative and/or organic, and all sourced from British farms.
I won’t go into the whole issue of organic vs conventional here, but in short: the “organic” term can be problematic. Something labelled organic is mostly a marketing tactic and doesn’t really mean anything anymore. Farmers might be adopting organic practices but are unable to afford certification or are unwilling to go through the bureaucracy. The future is rooted in giving back to the soil through regenerative farming, though I am well aware that, like ‘organic’ food, producers and big agriculture will eventually tag along and repurpose ‘regenerative’ for their own false marketing and greenwashing.
Our country loaf, seeded loaf, sesame crown and sandwich buns are currently 50% Matthews Cotswold Regenerative Stoneground T65 flour. The rest is a mix of Matthews Regenerative and Stoneground T80 and Wholewheat, as well as plenty of Wildfarmed T150 and freshly milled Scotland the Bread grain.
We bake our bread on stone until the crust is a deep, dark mahogany and the ear is slightly charred. Don’t tell me it’s burnt, it’s not. Though our bread probably isn’t for you if you have bad teeth.
Sourcing this higher quality flour is an added expense for us. However, we have always been committed to making real bread more accessible, and will therefore not increase prices on bread.
We’re acutely aware that our sustainability goals are nowhere near being reached. These things take time, but we’re confident that Hobz is moving in the right direction. Having a consistent product and running a viable business are two goals that don’t always align with sustainable choices, but we’re more than ready for the challenge!
Matt xx