Judging by the skies, it’s a little early to be celebrating a new season. Even so, we couldn’t wait a moment longer to tell you about our upcoming spring menu.
Spring is a season of firsts. The first glimpses of green, new life and hopeful shoots. And from our bakeries, that first smell of hot cross buns, fresh from the oven. Patiently waited for, finally here.
Our spring menu embraces these fresh starts. We have beloved favourites, renewed and reimagined. New bakes, brought back from our travels. And reworked recipes, full of fresh, nourishing goodness.
Our favourite sandwich loaf this season is a Challah Tin Loaf. With its light, glossy golden crumb, this enriched dough is plaited and baked in a tin - the perfect, delicately sweet partner to seasonal fillings. It is the kind of loaf that perfumes your kitchen, waiting patiently for you to pick at the edges, which you will. It’s a wonder we ever have any left for our own sandwiches.
Pictured above: Catie cutting into a Challah Tin Loaf and Sam serving jam sandwiches.
For something robust, our Potato and Rosemary Sourdough loaf is just the thing. A golden brown, beautifully blistered crust flecked with potato skins. Inside, tangy pockets of potato are tumbled into soft sourdough, studded with rosemary needles and nigella seeds. It’s a soft, chewy and surprising loaf, and could be the new loaf that pulls you away from concentration into the kitchen midway through the day. And you’ll be thankful for it. As for scones, we’re making ours crumblier and softer than ever, with sour cherries and dark chocolate. They have come to represent the sweetness of the afternoon, soft crumbs tumbling as we take a moment from the day. Buttered, they’re even better.
Pictured above: The return of our Sour Cherry and Chocolate scones.
Hot Cross Buns have marked Easter since the 12th century, when an English monk scored a cross into his freshly baked buns on Good Friday - also known as the Day of the Cross. There is something innocent about a hot cross bun. Its softness is kind, its fragrance and soft studs of fruit ever-inviting. Toasted and spread with golden butter, it takes on a quiet new opulence. We savour the chance to make our own. We blend our dough with cranberries, sultanas, peels of orange rind, heady mixed spices and grains of paradise. Easter signifies new beginnings, backlit with a shift in the surroundings, new warmth, new life bursting from the ground, the occasional flash of sunlight.
The season seems to ask us to look at things with fresh eyes. To begin a new ritual. Something small but meaningful. Taking our pens to the blank page of the season. And if you’re looking to be inspired, a good place to start is in the bakery. Breaking open a Challah Tin Loaf, biting into the sour softness of a Potato and Rosemary Sourdough, or letting sweet scone crumbs fall onto your lap.
We are creatures of habit, but isn’t it delicious to try something new?