As soon as Alan enjoyed his first home-baked loaf he was asking a question: ‘How come home-baked is so different from shop-bought bread?’ He soon found that answer is chemical additives; and CobsBakery exists to make good bread without chemicals available to as many people as possible. This makes us what we are.
We are a local business: despite invitations to deliver our distinctive products across East Anglia, we are firmly rooted in Cambridge and its surrounding area. This means that we bake through the night to deliver fresh bread with no preservatives and prefer to visit our wholesale customers with smaller, regular deliveries rather than a few larger orders.
We use no processing additives to artificially speed the maturing of our doughs - so Alan’s pride is the revival of an obsolete bakery process from the end of the 1800s to produce naturally matured dough for our breads.
With no chemical additives to even out the natural variations from batch to batch of flour, we work in close contact with our millers to bring out the best in the quality flours from those who supply us. And we’re delighted to work with two artisan millers: Jonathan Cook at Foster’s Mill in Swaffham Prior and James Waterfield at the 5-sailed Maud Foster Mill in Boston, Lincs for our Windmill Range of breads. Click their mill pictures to visit their websites.
Flour for our Classics range comes from W & H Marriage in Chelmsford, a long established family firm of farmers and millers. All our millers, like us, are registered organic producers, underlining a real commitment to chemical-free quality.
Alan is still a bakery enthusiast and alongside our established product ranges he is continually experimenting and researching new breads. Look out for the ‘Bread of the Month’ at our market stalls and follow us on Twitter for news and reminders of up-coming markets.
Cambridge Organic Bakery, CobsBakery, is Alan (the baker) and Sarah (the office), with a handful of friends who work with us to bring you the best in real bread. We hope you like it!