All our white and wholemeal breads use old long fermentation techniques to prepare the bread for the oven. Here a "sponge" of well fermented dough is loaded into the mixer as the foundation for the wholemeal bread and rolls.
In order not to "break" the living dough more than necessary CobsBakery scales and moulds all the doughs by hand. Here Alan is scaling off a small wholemeal dough, preparatory to moulding it into tins. This degree of hand-work is time consuming and expensive but gives the best possible results - particularly when working with some of the more temperamental speciality flours.
Shaping or moulding the dough by hand - in this case "chafing" small round "cob" loaves. Not only is there a "knack" to getting a good round loaf but there is a skill in reading the feel of the different doughs to get the best results. These things come by practice and CobsBakery mixes over 150 different doughs each week. We're getting there!
Sour dough is free of fast-acting bakers' yeast and needs the support of some sort of container as the loaves prove before baking. Here Alan is tipping the loaves out of the proving baskets and cutting the tops before loading them into the oven. This is a technique very rarely employed in commercial bakery today and Alan has done much research and experimentation, as well as seeking out the few current practitioners, to learn how to revive this part of the bakers' craft.
Stacking the loaves of white bread as they are turned, hot from the tins. This is the first bread of the night's baking. A large white tin loaf may not seem very exotic but, as with all our breads, it is lovingly created by hand and free from chemicals for people who want the best. And that is what CobsBakery is about - baking the best bread that we can for discerning customers. | 
