Woodstock's The Artisan Bakery

It is almost a year now since Woodstock's Artisan Bakery opened its doors for the first time to serve the people of Stony Stratford with simply made, delicious, artisan breads and baked goods. Matthew Lane, the owner, invited me on a tour of the bakery shortly before it opened last year and I was shown around what was essentially a series of empty rooms and a shop front. He explained what would go where and with a bit of imagination I could see how things would work. Since then I have returned to Woodstocks often to restock them with my jams, which I'm pleased to say occupy a prominent position on the serving counter. Of course, it is impossible to resist buying some bread or baked treats whilst I'm there and the cheese and onion sourdough is now a family favourite. So, back in March, when my daughter was given a school project on bread to do, a trip to Woodstocks seemed like the perfect answer. Matt kindly gave up an hour of his precious time to give us a tour around the bakery and to answer my daughter's interview questions. This time the tour was quite different. With the rooms in full operation, there was no need to use imagination but instead a fascinating insight into the running of a small bakery was revealed. Like a swan, the calm shop front of Woodstock's hides the hard work that goes on behind the scenes and at ungodly hours of the day.

Woodstock's sits at one end of Stony Stratford High Street, not far from Cycle King and its blue banner can be seen as you drive around the roundabout that connects the High Street to London Road and Wolverton Road. Whenever you enter the shop you are greeted by the delicious smells of something baking and coffee, as well as the welcoming staff. Matt is a firm believer in good customer services and ensures that all the shop front staff are both friendly and knowledgeable about bread. On a day to day basis, you are likely to find Tracy, the shop manager, or Tom, Krista, Jamie or Kristi (Matt's wife) behind the counter. Behind them are shelves of tempting bread and the coffee machine. The counter starts the day stacked with rolls and French baguettes as well as my jams, and at one end is the cake stand, loaded up with pasties, biscuits, flapjacks and cakes. 

When the shop opens at 8am the shelves are stacked with different breads, baked freshly that morning. Cake making starts around this time and new cakes are added to the shelves during the course of the morning and at 11.30am soup and pizza slices are ready to be served hot to hungry customers. Then as the day progresses, the shelves gradually empty so that by 4pm when the cleaning down starts there isn't much left. This may seem to go against the grain of modern living where we are used to popping into a supermarket at any time of day or night and can buy a loaf if we fancy. However, this is the sign of proper bakery and fresh bread, unadulterated with shelf-life enhancing chemicals. When the shop shuts at 5pm, any unsold bread is consigned to the waste so good stock management is vital. It is only a few lucky pigs and horses that get to eat day old bread.

In the world of bread making, the day starts well before the 8am shop opening and this side of the bakery can be glimpsed by customers through the racks of metal shelving from which the hot pizza slices and other daily delights are served. This room consists of metal work surfaces, a big dough mixer and the oven. Stacked to one side are big plastic boxes which are filled at the end of every day with weighed out ingredients so they are ready to go straight in the mixer at the beginning of the baking day. One box will fill the mixer and will make about 30 loaves of bread. The mixer is first set on a slow speed to mix together the ingredients and then on a fast speed to knead the dough then the dough is removed and left to prove. Next it is shaped or put into loaf tins. The bread is then baked in the large oven. This has 3 sections which can be set to different temperatures for different types of bread but most breads cook at a hot temperature (250°C). Once cooked, the loaves are placed on the wire shelves to cool and to be sold.

Through a door to the back of the bakery there is a clean area used for preparation and for finishing touches such as heating glazes. Off this area are 2 other rooms, a clue that this building has a history of other retail uses and wasn't designed specifically as a bakery. In one of these rooms are shelves filled with ingredients, mainly used to make the cakes and pastries, and a machine that works like a large rolling pin and rolls out the croissant dough. All the croissants and other Viennoiseries are made from scratch on the premises. Look up a recipe for croissants and when you know what goes into making them you'll appreciate them all the more! The last room is the flour store and is filled with many 25kg bags of flour. Flour is delivered once a week to refill the room.

About 300 loaves of bread are made every week day and more for Saturdays. Gary, the lead baker, has over 30 years of experience. He arrives each morning at 2am to start the baking process. At 4.30am Matt joins him to help with weighing, mixing and shaping. All the bread is made from scratch from four basic ingredients - flour, salt, yeast and water. It is all shaped by hand and slowly fermented with at least 3 hours of proving time. And everything is done on the premises. That is what artisan, local bread is all about and hopefully knowing a little more about it will help you appreciate your daily bread just a little bit more.