Baked to Perfection The Big Bread Experiment

There was a time,

when a mill and a bakery

were at the heart of every country town and village,

a focal point, bringing communities together.

Today, it's a packaged sliced loaf for most of us,

but in our push for convenience,

have we lost a lot more than just taste?

People always used to bake together.

They used to go to each other's houses, everybody's doors were open,

and all of that has gone from our society largely.

We're going to see

if teaching a group of total beginners how to bake...

I've cooked my bowl, and made a hole in the bottom!

..can not only ignite a passion...

How about that one?

..but help to persuade others how great real bread can be.

The ambition is to get an ancient watermill up and running,

and use the flour that it grinds

to set up a community-run bakery.

It'll be a massive task,

so we're providing two award-winning artisan bakers

to steer them in the right direction.

Look at that!

The light should pretty much pass through it like.

Will the group be able to work together?

Everyone's pulled out apart from Rosie, myself, Valerie.

And will they really be able to change life-long bread habits?

No, I don't want these fancy breads at all.

If they can make it work,

it could spell a whole new way of life for this community.

Wow, look at this!

It's so scary! Ahh!

It's just got to work, to be honest with you!

10 months ago,

this group of Yorkshire women

embarked on The Big Bread Experiment.

When they started, the baking group had no idea how to make bread.

Good heavens!

Tutoring from artisan bakers, Patrick and Duncan,

changed all of that.

It looks wonderful. Really beautiful!

Following a huge setback when Cath,

their much loved leader, had to leave...

Lots and lots of love.

Bye!

..they got back on their feet. And as their numbers swelled...

Fruits of your labour, ladies and gentlemen!

..they set their sights higher, and did a one-day pop-up bakery,

in their hometown of Bedale in North Yorkshire.

And despite facing pockets of resistance...

That's a cinnamon and apple scone there.

That sounds posh! No, not for me.

No?

..they sold out of their breads.

The proof was in the purchasing, and it all went.

It's made us think that there is definitely scope,

and there is definitely a market

for our breads.

That's what we were most dubious about,

as to whether or not Bedale was ready for it,

and I think they are definitely ready

for real, artisan bread now.

Now the baking group are considering the next, big step,

finding a permanent place

from which to bake and sell their bread.

Artisan bakers, Duncan and Patrick,

are in no doubt that the group are onto a winner.

Since setting up their speciality bread shop two years ago in Bath,

business has boomed.

Gone are the days of it has to be square,

it has to be sliced.

Bread doesn't even have to be white or brown any more!

Take squid ink, make it black,

you can take the juice of beetroot and make it pink and red.

Take nettles, it turns it green!

Our kind of idea is having a little bit of fun with it.

It's what sets you apart from other people as well.

Using ink from squid,

gives it this amazing black colour.

I don't think the community bakery necessarily is going

to go down this route, and do what we're doing,

not immediately anyways.

Keep it simple. I think once you get them on board,

you'll be surprised how receptive people can be.

This is perfect. Just off the High Street

Yeah, it's visible.

The bakery will be not for profit,

but it's still a major financial risk,

and we'll be helping the group

over their first three months in business.

To get the ball rolling,

Duncan's come to Yorkshire to show them some premises.

-We're here to have a little look around, if that's all right?

-OK!

Quite hard to picture, cos it's not currently

a bakery or a bakery shop, you know,

there's a lot of equipment, but strip it back in your mind.

For mum and former teacher, Carol Brown,

this is a big step,

but in the right direction.

All of a sudden, you are part of a little community.

You've got people that never normally come together,

all part of one thing, all in one place,

coming together for the one thing that they all have in common,

which is bread -

the glue that holds them.

What a fantastic room!

That's amazing! I never knew this was here.

Isn't it gorgeous?

You can feel this is, kind of, a workshop room in the making,

cos it has the beams and everything.

It's all good news.

But some of the baking group

are finding making such a big commitment nerve-wracking.

It's scary, though, because it's much more long term...

It's complex, yeah.

I probably wouldn't worry so much about the kind of,

the longer term, and just, sort of, focus on...

this could be the springboard to get Bread Actually up and running.

Next stop is a high-spec food unit

on an industrial estate

on the outskirts of town.

Really important step of the process right now.

They've nailed their baking skills,

they're up to scratch and what we're looking at now is identity,

beyond just their name, they need those premises.

The big downside before you even step in

is just that's it's not in Bedale, is it?

Obviously.

On the other ones over there

-you've actually got a walk-in fridge.

-Oh!

This is where your thousands of loaves of bread

are going to be leaving, on pallets,

worldwide destinations!

The final option is Bedale's old railway station,

not far from the town centre.

It's a lovely...a lovely space, isn't it?

When you come in, the sun's streaming in...

It's got beautiful light, yes.

It's definitely got possibilities, hasn't it?

We've got a lot of thinking to do.

They've been on a bit of a whirlwind tour today

of a...a variety of places!

We're so close to making this, almost this leap of faith,

and some of us are just really excited,

and looking towards the future, and other people

I think it's scaring them silly,

and they're backing off and backing off,

and sort of...because it's that jump into the unknown.

It's really interesting, really exciting, isn't it?

They've seen some appealing locations,

but the baking group are still wavering.

To give them a push, Duncan is taking them to see

a thriving community bakery,

just one hour away in West Yorkshire.

Johanna, and her husband Dan,

started making their own bread for friends and family,

using a borrowed oven at the back of a local pizza restaurant.

Their bread proved such a hit,

they persuaded their customers to advance a lump sum in return

for a year's supply of bread,

and have now set up shop

at the back of an organic grocer's,

where they make over 1,000 loaves a week.

We started on the basis that,

we knew that the bread we were making, even at home,

was better than any of the bread you could buy in the village.

If that's a minimum threshold, you're already onto a winner!

And then you just get better as a baker the more you bake, so...

Dan's maxim is "get baking",

and to that effect, he puts the group to work.

Everything we do is either a sourdough-based bread

or we use an old English baking technique called spongen dough.

Basically, it's a simple white bread mix, but with a lot less yeast.

This sponge mixture has been proving overnight.

Because there's less yeast,

the sponge ferments longer, for a fuller flavour.

It's part of your prep the day before.

From start to finish, what's the time?

About 18 hours, I think. Well, 16 to 18, it depends.

Although a relative novice,

23-year-old graduate, Lucy,

has already learned the most important thing about making bread,

is just making bread.

You don't necessarily need to know all the basics,

you pick it up as you go along, and the more mistakes you make,

the more you will learn as well,

so it doesn't matter if you cock-up your loaf,

it doesn't rise, it's salty,

and it's completely inedible,

you'll know not to do that again next time.

The most satisfying part is eating the bread!

I do have to up my, uh, up my visits to the gym

when we are doing a big bake,

because, obviously, we need to test the bread,

just to make sure it's all right for the customers!

How do you feel, I mean, seeing the processes here,

has it, kind of, cemented your belief that it is doable,

within your means, and within each of your commitments?

I think it's because it's all abstract.

The group is talking about possibilities, and what happens.

I guess there's this little sense where everyone's on the edge, everyone's holding hands

and it's just literally taking that one last step

into actually getting the place open, get baking,

and everything else will kind of fall into place.

I know another community bakery that were raising money to buy out

an existing baker's, two and a half years ago, are still raising money,

are up to about 180 grand.

Haven't baked a loaf so far!

And that's, in my opinion, exactly the wrong way to do it.

If you build it up into this big thing that you have to get

exactly right, before you start, you'll never start.

Duncan's plan to get them to visit the bakery

seems to have done the trick, and strengthened their resolve

to move ahead with their own community bakery.

I think we'll stop trying to map out in detail the next year

and we will just go, we will make some bread,

and we will try and sell it in Bedale, I think is what's going to happen.

We'll worry less and act more, I think is what'll come out of this.

We have to jump in with both feet and eyes wide open,

otherwise I just know that we'll never do it.

There's too many concerns - what if this, what if that? Forget about the what ifs,

we have to do it, and think about it afterwards because,

if we're going to make it a success, it's got to be now.

The baking group have always hoped to make bread

with locally produced flour.

On the outskirts of Bedale, Crakehall's ancient watermill

has been undergoing a renovation.

The waterwheel has been repaired,

the millstones have been painstakingly cleaned

and the first sack of flour has been ground.

It's coming together. It's coming together.

It's something to get quite excited about.

Over the past few months, owner Lionel Green has been experimenting

with the texture of the flour.

And Lucy and Patrick have come along to see how he's been getting on.

Hello! How are you doing?

-Hello!

-Hello, I'm Patrick.

-Nice to see you, welcome.

The first batch of flour that Lionel ground was relatively coarse.

But, by realigning the millstones, he's now able to produce

a finer grade of wholemeal flour that's better suited to baking.

Have a handful. Squeeze it.

It's quite fine.

Yeah, yeah, it is. It's actually nice and soft.

Notice the smell of it? You can taste it, like.

Patrick will help the baking group come up with some recipes

to make the most of the unique qualities of this flour.

How much do you think you'll need?

I think it'll take trial and error,

especially as it's brand new flour for them,

so if we figure out what its personality is.

Excellent. That's brilliant. Absolutely perfect.

-Thank you.

-Thank you.

-Thank you, well done.

Lovely. Thanks ever so much. See you later.

Wholemeal flour is trickier to work with than white. It takes a little bit more work,

and a bit more skill to handle it.

Wholemeal flour is heavier than white, and doesn't rise as easily,

so Patrick is using a starter made from white flour,

which has been allowed to ferment overnight.

It's flour, water and yeast, there's no salt, so the yeast

can start acting really quickly and multiplying.

This is the sponge part of the sponge and dough method

that the group learned with Dan and Johanna.

It's active, the yeast is at work. It's bubbling up.

It's risen and dropped back down again.

So, you know it's good and ready to use.

The sponge is then mixed with white flour

and the Crakehall wholemeal flour.

So, the big thing, when it comes to cooking your bread,

is you want to get a nice high oven. You start off with 230 degrees.

You'll to have lots of steam.

You can do this at home by popping a roasting tray

in the bottom of your oven, make it hot, pour a bit of water in,

so it'll keep releasing the steam.

And that helps protect the surface of the bread,

and caramelise those sugars, so you get a nice crust on your loaf.

So, I think all that's left to do now is taste it.

-Ah, yes, elbows.

-Out of my way!

Getting the softness from the white, but taking the flavour

from your wholemeal, you pick the best parts of both of them.

-Yeah.

-You can see straightaway that together they work well.

The great thing is the flavour's there, it's got this natural

sweetness and nuttiness to it. If we hone in on that, it'll work well.

Mmm. Really nice. Nice texture.

After weeks of deliberation,

the baking group have finally come to a decision.

They're going to set up their community bakery

in the old station house.

With a heritage railway running alongside it,

and just minutes from the town centre, it has everything they need.

It's a big day for the baking group.

Morning!

Carol, Valerie and the secretary of the bread group, Christine,

are meeting to sign the lease.

The first thing about the station house is it has brilliant space.

It's massive. It's so light.

People get feelings about space.

And this is one of those places. It just feels right.

Grandmother of three, Valerie,

has been with the bread group from the very start.

-Yeah, very exciting.

-It is, isn't it?

-It's been a long time coming.

-Hasn't it just?

For me, it's the beginning.

We've ended one chapter. We're going into a brand new chapter now.

And this is the chapter that really matters.

This is what we strived for,

for over a year, and we're now here, so I do see it as a beginning.

Morning, gentlemen. Oh, gosh, this day's come, at last!

-This is it!

-Come on, get this pen out. Let's...

-I've got a pen.

Christine's our signatory! Right.

Valerie, you truly are the foundation of our organisation now!

Ooh, very impressive!

I've never done anything like this before,

and to think that we'll have our own premises,

with Bread Actually... Oh, it'll be fabulous, I can't wait!

-Cheers!

-Cheers!

The station house and all who bake in her!

The bread group hope to open the bakery in less than a month.

Opening a business means they need people to staff it.

So, they've decided to hire their first paid employee,

and it's down to the local high school for some job interviews.

Local businesswoman, Carol Clarke,

is the newly appointed Chair of the bread group.

The significance of today is about us finding someone

who's going to be the linchpin

for the bread-making group, and keep it moving forward so we're looking

for Superman or Superwoman, really!

Hello!

The baking group relies solely on volunteers,

and though they're all keen to make it a success,

there just aren't enough hours in the day.

Carol's got her business to run,

Christine's got at least one business to run,

Lucy's helping Carol Clarke. We've got things that sometimes take us away

so there has to be someone there for continuity.

But they can't afford to take on a fully trained baker,

so they've recruited four candidates who all love

the idea of a community bakery, but have absolutely no experience

of baking bread to a professional standard.

-Hello! Hi!

-Hiya!

-Pleased to meet you, I'm Duncan. Pleased to meet you.

-Drew.

Pleased to meet you, Drew.

OK. So you'll see, we've put together a very basic recipe.

You'll see also that there's no method.

So, we want you to have a go and do what you think might be right.

So are you guys helping us with the mixing, or are we left to...?

We're not going to. We'll let you have a go yourselves.

Just go for it really!

They've all been given the same four basic ingredients

to make a white dough - flour, water, salt and yeast.

I've never worked with this yeast before, no.

-Fresh yeast?

-No.

Twenty-year-old Susie is the youngest candidate,

and the pressure is starting to get to her.

If you heat the water a bit?

Susie seems absolutely petrified.

Whatever sort of experience or knowledge she's had

of making a loaf has completely gone out the windows.

There's a reason why bakeries aren't opening every day of the week,

it is a very tough business to set up.

And it takes a very specific person with really good qualities,

one of which is being able to deal under quite intense pressure,

so it's a fair ask of us

to see them kind of deliver within the time constraints

and with the challenge that Patrick's set them.

The candidates do their best to impress...

Quietly confident, the dough's risen twice the size,

so hopefully... Hopefully, fingers crossed. We'll see!

..and even manage to come up with some interesting-looking breads.

This was my attempt at the white rose of Yorkshire, as we're in Yorkshire.

However, it's just turned into some sort of a flower.

Bit of artistic licence!

-Bit of artistic licence, so...

-Well, sir, I'll let you get those in.

Why did you go with a snake?

Well, I thought it might be good to do like a child's...

something that would interest the children,

with it being a community thing, if you interest the children

in bread-making and things, it kind of gets the whole family into it.

With the breads baked, it's time to see who's made the grade.

So this is a yeasty special

and this is Drew's one you can smell.

Oh, it smells lovely.

Duncan and Patrick will be teaching the winning candidate how to bake.

You can grab it. It's doughy.

But the baking group are keen that this person

is also a team player, who can marshal and inspire the volunteers.

It's a massive decision and it'll be difficult,

as this person will take on and run the bakery,

and will have to go through a massive learning curve over the next few weeks.

It's about energy levels!

-Mark and Susie were bouncing around the whole time.

-They were.

I have a concern that there's a lot of nervous energy there.

Regardless, you've landed on four absolute gems.

So all in all, a very difficult decision for you all to make!

After hours going over the candidates' strengths and weaknesses, the bread group

choose their very first paid employee.

They've been impressed by the ideas and enthusiasm

of 20-year-old Susie Vickers.

Carol called and said I got the job, out of everyone at the interview.

I don't think I did very well, but apparently I did!

So I've got the job and I cannot believe it!

I'm really excited, but a bit nervous.

Oh, I forgot to put that shoe in.

Yorkshire-based Susie is about to embark on some intensive training

to hone her baking skills.

I've got to learn how to make bread, how to know when things are ready.

I don't even know what I've got to learn.

I know that little that I don't even know what's to learn.

Since graduating from college, she's been working in a care home.

Excited by the prospect of what this new job might offer,

she's decided to take a massive gamble.

I've decided to quit my job that I'm doing at the moment,

and do this as my full-time job, really.

So, I've got to really throw myself into it to make it a success.

But before her training begins,

Susie has an important visit to make.

She has a very special connection to the person responsible

for getting the bread group together 12 months ago.

Curate, Cath Vickers, is her mum.

Really, when we began, we were exploring the whole idea

of making bread, and we discovered what a binding experience it was,

and what an enabling feeling it was,

and how creative the whole process of making bread was,

and that it was naturally a community thing to do.

You haven't forgotten about these, have you?

Oh, yeah!

The day we spent down at the bakery, I was the one that did least well.

But that didn't matter one jot, because it lit something,

it got us understanding just what professional bread was like.

Hello! Hello, Suse, how are you?

Susie's appointment has delighted and surprised Cath.

I'm really glad. So are you excited?

Erm, yeah, I'm excited.

-Are you a bit worried?

-Erm, well, yeah.

At your age, I couldn't have done this.

I wouldn't have had the confidence to dare!

I don't want everyone thinking

I'm just following in your footsteps...

Love, if you followed in my footsteps, you wouldn't make one loaf that was successful!

You just must go in and drink it all in.

-Bye-bye.

-Lots of love.

-Phone and let me know how it goes, darling.

-I will do.

'I would never in a million years have imagined that Susie would do this sort of thing,

'because she was always a girl for doing her own thing

'and getting involved in something your mother does is not very cool, is it?

'But I'm really delighted that she has.

'I think it's very daunting,'

to be going to do a training course for a week on your own

and then come back, and it be all on your head. That's scary.

But hopefully she can integrate with the group, and feel like it's a shared responsibility,

and it won't be quite so daunting.

Being so young, you don't have a lot of opportunities to do things where you've got control in work.

Unless you've got a degree and everything like that. It's a unique opportunity for me,

which is exciting.

In order for Susie to get a full picture of the industry,

her training will include spending the day in a commercial bakery.

Every day in the UK, we consume 12 million loaves of bread.

Only 3% of that is handmade, artisan bread.

This is a small family-run firm compared to the plants that dominate production,

but the methods and ingredients used are industry standard.

Obviously, like most of the population, most of Bedale eat supermarket bread.

They choose to buy it maybe because it's cheap,

maybe because they like the taste. I'm interested to find out at the commercial bakery

how it's made.

So, this is the first ingredient we're going to weigh in, which is a roll concentrate.

It's literally your salt, your sugar and your dough conditioners.

It's an all-in-one paste concentrate like that.

'The thing I had the most problem with was the dough conditioners.'

And what does that do to the bread, then?

They're pretty industry-standard emulsifiers,

which allow the dough to develop, so that, say, a traditional one-hour bulk fermentation

we can get that effect on the dough within a couple of minutes.

So, it quickens the process up for us.

So do you find any disadvantages of using a dough conditioner?

Not really, no, I think the biggest disadvantage you will find

is the flavour produced in the finished bread.

Um, because that bowl fermentation process that you have,

that's where all the flavours develop within the dough.

In an ideal world, we would also use those traditional methods,

but to make the volume of product we make, we just couldn't do it.

No, yeah, no.

I suppose it's necessary for their scale of baking, I suppose.

The bread group that Susie has just joined have been taught that a simple loaf

only requires four basic ingredients, flour, water, yeast and salt.

Factory bread, on the other hand, can contain up to 15 different substances.

This is calcium propionate. It's a mould inhibitor.

It just extends the shelf life a little bit for us.

This type of bread is expected to have a long shelf life,

a soft crumb, and be a totally consistent product.

Not so the handmade artisan bread that Susie will be producing.

Because they are aiming for a uniform loaf,

they're going to go with the commercial side, with the emulsifiers, the additives,

and the preservatives.

It was a new experience, and it was interesting,

but personally I would not like to do that.

I can understand why they do it, it's just not me.

With just weeks to go until the opening, building work has started on the new premises.

The pressure is on to transform the station house into a bakery as quickly as possible.

The day we signed, the day we got the keys, we started paying rent.

So we are now in deficit. We have to make some money.

So, basically, the implication is we need to start baking.

We've need to start selling. We've got to get some money back in.

As the most experienced baker in the group, Carol Brown

has been liaising with the builders about the kitchen layout.

-We need... Yeah, we need about... What's that?

-Keep your hand there. It's about a foot-and-a-half.

But Carol Clarke is unsure about some of the decisions that have been taken.

-..further out.

-But what is going here?

The hand wash sink's going in this corner. Where's the logic of that?

Yorkshire born and bread, Carol Clarke, runs a family farm.

When she first turned part of it in to a family attraction, she faced a lot of local opposition.

I think that, generally, local farmers thought, what a stupid thing

that these people are doing, and it would fail.

But it hasn't failed.

Her business experience will be a real asset to the bakery.

I think if you enter into any business arrangement,

you do have to stick with it through thick and thin, it's not always plain sailing.

You're just wrecking your working space by having a sink in this corner.

I want to see us achieve the targets that we set ourselves,

which is produce the quality of the bread,

and I'm really concerned that we balance our books.

Because a business that isn't balancing the books isn't going to survive.

COCK CROWS

To prepare her for her new role as head baker,

Susie will spend the next week working with artisan bakers, Patrick and Duncan,

here at their headquarters in Bath.

It looks very posh.

Hello!

-How are you?

-I'm very well, thank you! Thanks for having me.

Nice to see you again!

Good to see you. This looks very nice!

Although theirs is not a community bakery,

their traditional approach, and innovative use of ingredients,

makes this an ideal base for Susie to learn the art of bread making.

Fancy! Thank you very much.

So, change over there, through there.

Oh, I've done it the wrong way.

You can tell I haven't done this before.

To get her started, Patrick gets Susie working on his speciality, the Bath Bun.

A basic bread dough is enriched with milk and eggs.

-You just crack your eggs in.

-Yep.

Oh, don't get any shell.

Citrus zest is added to give it a tang.

-And then just going in, just literally the zest.

-Just the zest you use?

-Not using the juice, just the zest of the orange and two lemons.

-OK.

I could do with a little step!

Sugar cubes pop them in.

In a twist on the Chelsea bun, Patrick bakes a sugar lump into the middle.

So, all you do is a gentle roll, just to seal off the bottom and trap the sugar cube in.

He's impressed by what he's seen of Susie so far.

She has the potential, like the spark is there.

You can see that she's definitely her mother's daughter, that's for sure.

But Susie's training won't be complete without experiencing all aspects of bakery life

and that includes the dreaded night bake.

Her training is about to step up a gear.

The key thing really is at half four the delivery van needs to leave on the delivery run

or people won't get their bread.

Susie's only baked one loaf at a time.

But now she'll be dealing with volume.

So, to run through, we've got 19 wholemeal loaves.

We have 195 burger baps.

Duncan's got over 1,000 loaves waiting to be cooked,

and wastes no time putting Susie to work.

Bear in mind, that's fully proved up, if you were to drop that it would knacker the dough.

They'd just kind of collapse.

'He made it clear to me when I walked in, if this goes wrong,

'the bread won't be out in the morning, and we won't get paid, and we might lose customers.'

-Now, bottom deck, you're going with. There we go.

-Yep. Is that all right?

-What do we need to do now?

-Check our dough!

And before that?

Put the time on, yes! I was just checking.

-So, set it to 14 minutes.

-OK.

Then hit the start button. We're going back over there. We're going to come back over here.

-And that's how the rest of the night is basically going to be going down.

-Yeah, cool.

Tonight is a lot crazier, and a lot busier, and it's beeping, and I'm frightened.

Everything's happening all at once.

Susie's been left in charge, and the timer alarms are telling her

that something in the oven needs attention.

'I was terrified because I thought, "I can't let things burn,

'"but if I take them out too early, they won't be right."'

He's told me over and over again that if these get ruined,

those are ruined for our customers, and we're losing them money!

'Do I interrupt his break, and make him annoyed with me,

'or do I kind of use my initiative and take them out?'

BEEPING

I can't get it out.

Are you kidding me? I swear!

BEEPING CONTINUES

-Do we need to take the granary ones out because they've beeped?

-I will come and have a look in two seconds.

-OK, sorry.

-It's just one of the businesses. That's all right.

I'll be in there in a second.

You're pressing down, and you can see, there, that it's still soft.

So they're still not ready.

OK, so they haven't burnt.

Well done, just remember, always put the timers on...

-Yep.

-..because if the timer isn't on, you won't know to come back.

-OK.

Susie's training has made the job she's about to take on

suddenly seem very real.

'I've agreed to take on this massive role, in such an important project.

'And all that expectation has kind of just been, I feel,

'just been put onto my shoulders.

'It's kind of a big, big challenge.'

-And we'll give them a final five minutes.

-OK.

'When I walked into the bakery with Patrick and Duncan,

'I was a care assistant, and at the end of the week

'I was meant to have changed into a great artisan baker, and that's

'a big ask, and I've no idea whether I'm going to be good at it or not.'

-I am very happy with these.

-Thank you.

-But is there is room for improvement?

-Definitely.

Yes, there is.

In Yorkshire, there's just weeks to go before the bakery opens,

and their first load of grain

is being delivered to Crakehall watermill to be ground into flour.

-It's poking up over the top.

-Oh, my word.

It's been grown by a local farmer, just two miles up the road.

Hello!

Hi!

There's loads!

-Don't know if I could lift one of those.

-We'll have a go.

Hello, Judith!

Hello, how are you?

Very well, thank you. That's a lot of grain.

How much is in one full sack?

Four stone. 20-something kilograms.

SHE LAUGHS

-It is heavy.

-I won't be able to walk with it. Oh, my word, no.

I can't even take the full weight.

Well, let's go and get the millers. OK.

When it's turned into flour at Lionel's recently renovated mill,

it'll make more than 2,000 loaves.

Neighbour Phil is on hand to help, as is mill enthusiast

Peter Morgan, who will be helping Lionel with the milling.

This is going to be our flour.

Isn't it weird to think that we could be

on a roller coaster that we can't get off?

Oh, crikey, and everybody saying, "Yes, we want some, we want some."

-I think it's going...

-I think it's going to just take off.

After more than a year of being consumed by bread,

there's no going back for Carol Brown.

'What's really nice about this project is that it's multi-generational,

'and it draws from every walk of life in Bedale.

'So, you go from knowing a little sort of nucleus of mums,'

you know, through your kids, to all of a sudden,

it just opens up the whole of Bedale.

And you walk down the street now,

and you can't walk through Bedale without knowing somebody.

And that's a more natural way to be, and that would be how life would be

in a village, which is a proper community, and that's sort of, like, what everyone really is after,

whether they think they are or not.

Mills have been Peter Morgan's passion for over 40 years.

When you have a building like this, that is gently vibrating,

it's alive.

You're really in the middle of a living machine.

You can actually feel what is happening, you can see

what is happening, you can see how the grain is being cut down.

It's just brilliant!

Here you have a situation where you've got a watermill here.

You've got ladies who like baking.

Flour and baking, go together, and, you know, one can support the other.

WHIRRING OF ELECTRIC TOOLS

With just ten days to go before the bakery opens,

the newly-refurbished premises is starting to take shape.

One trolley...

Susie's completed her baking apprenticeship,

and is now Carol Brown's new right hand.

01677.

-They wanted contact details, didn't they?

-Yeah.

'She's just bubbling with energy and enthusiasm.

'She's just got that lovely genuine warmth that Cath's got,

'and I think that will attract a lot of the volunteers,'

and keep the volunteers, as well, is the fact that

because they're working with Susie, it'll be a lovely place to work.

'I am quite a nervous person. I'm only 20. It's a big thing for me to be doing.'

I think being thrown in at the deep end,

it'll make my confidence in myself, kind of have to rise

because I'll have to be doing things that are out of my comfort zone.

'And I think that'll be a really good thing that I can take from this.'

-'Hello.'

-Hello.

One of Susie's first challenges is to see

if she can get suppliers to donate some of the equipment they'll need.

We've already been promised our oven, but pretty much everything else

we're still trying to source, so do you want me to send the list

that we're still sourcing, and you to pick things from that?

-'Send us what you've got and we'll see what we can do.'

-Thank you very much.

-'Very interested, anyway.'

-Yeah, we're very excited about it.

BELLS CHIME

DRUMMING

As the community bakery starts to take shape,

the bread group have been going out into Bedale to spread the word.

They've set up a stall at the Bedale fete.

Very nice.

Pound, then, please. Thank you very much.

And they've been invited into Bedale High School

to help inspire the kids.

Would I be able to get a job at the bakery with you?

Do a bit of experience first, see how you feel, because it's hard work, but it is really good fun.

You look like you're enjoying it.

-Could you go there for work experience in year ten?

-Yeah.

'When I first applied for the job, I was definitely, I think,

'still a teenager.

'You know, I was someone who didn't have a clear idea what I was doing.

'I didn't have a lot of confidence.'

Should cakes do that?

No!

'I'm an adult now, I think, kind of.'

Tastes nice, actually.

-Proud of yourselves? Yeah?

-Yep.

At the bakery, it's not long

before the first pieces of donated equipment start to arrive.

Marvellous.

We've got our fridge, it's massive, and we've got our brand new counter

that's been donated by a lovely company in York.

We've got our trolleys. We're just about there. I can't believe it.

It's really exciting, and it's all taking shape now.

Kind of daunting as well, though.

At last, the most crucial piece of equipment, the new oven,

arrives, but there's a hitch.

The problem is, when we looked round the building to see how

we would get it through, we couldn't find any way of getting it in.

We couldn't take a window out, or a door out,

and here we are, removing the wall.

But even with a section of wall removed,

it's going to be a tight squeeze.

The depth of it, which is the narrowest bit,

is 1.15, and we've got 1.2.

As well as being large, the new oven weighs almost a tonne.

What's stuck in it?

No chance.

We can't get enough of a run at it, and it is tight, it's so tight.

Much to everyone's relief,

the new oven eventually takes its place in the bakery.

This last bit's been frazzling, to say the least.

Fancy. That's super, isn't it?

Oh, it's fantastic.

It's been definitely worth all their hard work, because it's a deck oven.

It's what we needed. It's a bread maker. It's fantastic, isn't it?

Oh, that's great.

Apart from our hands, it's the most used piece of equipment, and I'm more confident

we'll be able to sell our bread because it'll look better, which means I've got a job.

Wow, what a difference!

Hey, it looks good.

Oh, it means... It means... like it feels like we're becoming professional.

It feels like this is going to help us deliver the goods.

Key to the bakery's success will be getting the good folk

of Bedale behind it.

Just days before the opening, bread guru Andrew Whitley

has come to advise the group on some all-important marketing techniques.

We have a vision in The Real Bread Campaign of a country where

nobody is further than walking distance from real bread.

Andrew wants the group to hit the streets of Bedale

with their baskets of real bread,

and to make sure that they're not shy about promoting its benefits.

Some of them don't know they're going to be potential customers

until you introduce them to this fantastic stuff,

and point out how different it is from what's available

in the supermarket, on a whole lot of levels.

Not only has it been made by friends and neighbours in the community, rather than rather anonymously maybe

in a big factory,

and just warmed up in the supermarket's loaf tanning salon, which they call an in-store bakery,

but it's actually made from raw materials,

some of which are grown in the locality. It's got no additives in it.

It's got a freshness, which is real, rather than engineered by putting

a load of gunk in, which keeps it soft forever.

Then, you know, I can see you conquering Bedale in a matter of weeks.

Here's some bread, have some.

Yeah, try some bread. It's tasty!

-Hello there, I just wondered if you'd like a sample of our bread?

-Oh!

We've just baked it,

and, er, we're from a new community project in Bedale.

It's called a community bakery, Bread Actually.

-You can have a bit of all of them if you wish.

-Try anything you like.

Trust me to get a great big piece.

Would you like to try some bread?

This one is a rosemary focaccia, the middle one is chickpea and fennel.

-Have a piece of each if you like.

-I'll have a bit of the fennel.

-You like fennel.

So, we're hoping for perhaps people to volunteer, to maybe come

and collect the bread, take it down to their street,

and then if they can distribute ten loaves in their street and the next one,

then they get a loaf for free, and things like that.

Mmm, very nice.

That's nice.

It's early morning on the day of the grand opening.

After months of hard slog,

the baking group are about to realise their ambition

of having their very own community bakery here in Bedale.

And Susie's feeling the pressure.

I've been here since seven o'clock,

and last night I was up very late making 200 bruschettas.

It's terrifying.

There's hopefully a lot of people coming in about seven hours.

We've got four doughs to make, and we've got a lot of other things

to do decorations wise, and canapes, and stuff.

Yeah, there's just so much to do.

Patrick's travelling up from Bath to lend a hand.

He's anxious that the baking group make a big impression on their opening day.

They need to stand out from the High Street,

to show off what they're capable of.

It's a big day. It's a day of celebration.

It's when you've got to be excited, and express that in what they're producing, really go for it.

To be honest, right now, I feel like I just want to cry.

I feel like I've got a massive list of stuff to do,

and I know I shouldn't be stressed because I know there's a whole group behind me,

but I just feel like about up to there. It's just insane.

Hello.

-Oh, hi.

-How are you doing?

Good, thank you, welcome to our bakery!

Good to see you again.

It's Patrick's first visit to the new premises.

This your new baby, is it?

-Yes.

-It's nearly as big as mine!

-It's smart, isn't it?

And he's come armed with a final bread recipe.

He's going to show Valerie how to make Irish soda bread

with 100% stone-ground Crakehall flour.

It's quick and easy to make, especially when you're busy at home.

Developed originally as a peasant bread,

it doesn't even need yeast, it uses bicarbonate of soda instead.

Hence the name, soda bread.

A little bit of sugar, and a little bit of salt,

and just to make it a little bit moist and richer, we're using just milk instead of water.

And then we just have a little bit of rapeseed oil -

it complements the kind of nutty flavour you get with wholemeal flour

-And then there's just a little bit of balsamic vinegar.

-Oh, balsamic.

So that's why this one's really, really quick.

Lovely.

You're not going to lose your wedding ring in there?

I've taken it off.

Uniquely, soda bread doesn't need to prove,

you simply mix, shape and bake.

Serrated knife, everyone has one.

Put a little cross, get rid of all the demons.

Aha!

Or so they say.

Well, I believe anything that you say!

An Irishman tell a lie?!

These are OK to go, yeah?

Yeah.

And Susie's developed a recipe of her own.

They're looking good.

Bedale bloomer.

Like many of the bakery's breads,

the Bedale bloomer is made with entirely locally-grown ingredients.

With all the bread baked,

and with just two hours to go before the launch, Susie's mum, Cath,

who started the bread group all those months ago,

has come along to lend a hand.

Hello, how are you, my little darling?

-Look at all this!

-I know.

Look at it. What do you think?

-I think it's absolutely wonderful.

-Isn't it?

For Cath, it's a special moment,

seeing how the seed she planted has taken root and flourished.

It's just lovely that it is a community bakery. That's wonderful.

So exciting. I just can't believe it, really.

And Susie is just so excited about it and thrilled about it

and desperate about it and stressed and fraught.

It's wonderful, really. It means something, which is lovely.

I would be proud whatever she did,

but I'm even prouder because she's doing this.

Look at them little beauties, eh?

Where am I going with them, though?

Cool, right. Let's go.

Team hug!

To give the launch a real sense of occasion, Wensleydale Railway

are going to deliver the Crakehall flour, ordered by

the baking group, direct to Bedale station in a restored diesel train.

Nigel Park, Wensleydale events manager, has come to collect it.

Everything travelled on the railway up until probably the late '50s.

Everything from flour to agricultural machinery, to coal to timber,

to anything the dale required,

but times have changed, so this is the first time for a long time.

-Thank you.

-Thanks, bye.

It's a very proud moment. Yeah, it's a good feeling.

Like Crakehall Watermill, this old railway line has also been

restored with the help of local volunteers.

-How are you doing?

-Good, how are you?

-You've got a little delivery for us.

-We have, a little bit of flour.

-Excellent.

Patrick's on hand to help load up the train,

which will travel two miles down the track to Bedale station.

It's a massive sense of pride,

see how far they've come from that church hall, and the stuff

we tasted that first day we met them, like, was horrendous.

And you can see how much they've gone from doing that

to what they're doing now.

Something else, really.

As the guests gather on the station platform to greet the train,

the baking group give them a sneak preview of their breads.

Would you like a piece? Like to try the bread?

Try some bread?

Oh, yes, she likes that.

And the tasters seem to be going down well.

Is that delicious?

Lovely. Very nice. Very fond of rosemary bread.

Pimms?

-No Guinness?

-There isn't, I'm afraid.

-And pork pies?

No, sorry.

It's just unbelievable that we've got this far,

but what means much more to me is the number of people

who've turned out to welcome the train coming in,

because it's just so good that the community's come together to welcome it.

Rosie was one of the first members of the baking group.

I think they can be very proud of what they've done here,

opening this place up today, and bringing the community in.

It's what the town needed. Yeah, good on them.

Anybody see a bakery?

Bit of flour to be delivered.

Yeah, just a small bag!

Wow, look at that!

Yay!

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Ladies and gentlemen, it is a great pleasure to welcome everybody

to the opening of Bedale's community bakery.

I just have to say what an incredible journey we've had

over the last 18 months trying to put the bakery together,

and none of this would have been possible without Cath.

We're extremely grateful...

Oh, well!

..for what you actually set off.

I just had fun!

-So did we all.

-I didn't do anything at all!

-That's wonderful.

-It's so lovely to be here.

Well, we're very pleased for you to come

-and see the fruits of your labours.

-It's fantastic, fantastic.

As the Mayor of Bedale cuts the ribbon,

it's time to see what the townsfolk make of their community bakery.

Wow, look at this!

My goodness, what's for sale here?

HUBBUB OF CONVERSATION

Thank you very much, thank you.

I learnt how to burn muffins.

-Oh, did you?

-He taught me how to burn muffins. I'll never forget.

Didn't teach you how to burn them!

-That was self-taught.

-I managed it, though!

The place looks fantastic. We've got everything we need now. We just need to do it, and make it work.

Thank you very much. That's right.

I think we've got a great chance of it being an enormous success.

I think we're here to stay. I think we're here to stay.

There you go.

In fact...

We sold out of bread again, so obviously people are really, desperately wanting real bread.

So there's definitely a future for us. Definitely.

It's been really, really well received. Everyone's behind us now.

Our future is just... the possibilities are endless. It's just really exciting.

One month on, and the bakery is thriving.

It's now a fully independent operation, open four days a week,

producing up to 170 loaves a day.

Each member of the baking group works alongside Susie, when they can,

in a rota system.

They've gained scores of loyal supporters...

-Thank you very much.

-OK.

..and are fast becoming the heart of the local community,

but it's not just Bedale that's reaping the benefits.

The members of the baking group have seen their lives change too.

You've got a nice windowpane there, and it's not breaking up.

Normally, if it's not quite ready, you wouldn't be able to do that.

'I never thought in my wildest dreams that I'd get a completely new identity out of it.

'I've changed so much. I'm a baker.'

I get up really early.

I'm 20 years old, and I get up at half past four,

and go to bed at, like, ten.

That's crazy!

It's fantastic to see, you know,

how people have grown through the whole process.

Kneading together, it's a therapy, you know, it is.

And, you know,

that creates a tremendous space in which we're there for each other.

You know, this is, this is something that unites us. Bread unites us.

-One, two, three.

-Bread!

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