The perfect combination: bread and cheese
There’s something deliciously dithery about standing in front of a counter trying to choose from the temptations on display, whether its freshly baked sourdough, cardamom brioche or a shelf laden with cheese.
The North York Moors National Park is blessed with a number of talented bakers and cheesemakers, as well as farmers and millers producing the quality raw ingredients.
All of them have one thing in common – the care they take during the production process to create the best flavours that justify their artisan status.
If you'd like to bake your own bread, you might buy Yorkshire Organic Millers flour, either directly from them or from outlets such as the Weigh Shop in Pickering. Yorkshire Organic Millers believe strongly in limiting food miles.
Based at Hill Top Farm near Kirkbymoorside, the milling side of the business uses homegrown organic milling wheat and rye as well as grain sourced from other organic farms in North and East Yorkshire.
Bakeries & cheese-makers in the North York Moors National Park
The Baker’s House, Helmsley: Take organic flour supplied by Yorkshire Organic Millers, ancient grains such as spelt and emmer; add the creative flair of Emma Powell and a kind of alchemy results. A scrubbed wooden table groans under the weight of that creativity – wholemeal and rye loaves, melt-in-the-mouth croissants, roast leek cheddar tarts, salted caramel and Sinnington raspberry brownies..the list goes on.
It’s hard to not feel a sense of contentment when you’re in one of the Koeslig bakeries, which is apt as the name itself is Norwegian for cosy. They’re places where friends chat over a cinnamon bun and a coffee after a walk.
Everything’s freshly baked and peppered with some incredible flavour combinations whether it’s caramel popcorn monkeybread, passionfruit and raspberry cruffin (a cross between a croissant and a muffin), or a pistachio and raspberry brioche. Koselig has bakeries in Saltburn, Guisborough and Stokesley.
The Stonehouse Bakery is a local favourite having been in existence since 1993. This is a bakery that sticks to doing the basics well with traditional techniques and flavours coming to the fore. Go for good wholemeal or white loaves, speciality breads or focaccia plus sweet treats including scones and loaf cakes.
Tuck into something bought at Bothams and you’ll be devouring a slice of history as this bakery chain (five shops and three cafes, variously in Whitby, Sleights and Pickering) has been going since 1865. Famed for its Whitby lemon bun and Yorkshire brack, Botham’s talented bakers also draw inspiration from their surroundings to create new temptations such as a cobbled road cake inspired by the ancient streets in the town.
It’s worth the journey to get to Botton Creamery, part of the Camphill Village Trust community, down a quiet road in Danby Dale. The Community, which supports adults with learning disabilities, has a thriving creamery producing some of the most revered cheeses in the UK. Specialising in four hard cheeses, including a cheddar and a gouda, the creamery uses raw milk from the Ayrshire and Dairy Shorthorns that are kept on the village’s organic farm. There’s a small shop at the village, or you can buy the cheese online.
Formerly a chartered surveyor, Suzie-Birrell Gray at Abbey Farm Cottage might be a newcomer to cheesemaking but that hasn’t stopped her scooping a raft of awards. Her Rosedale Abbey artisan goats cheeses, made using raw milk from her own herd of Golden Guernseys and cow’s milk supplied by a local farm, aren’t just award-winning but are now increasingly sought after by local restaurants and shops. With names like Rosedale Blue and the Hanging Stone, the cheeses ooze a sense of place and their taste gives the French ones a run for their money.