Bread and cakes As a nation, we buy between 80 and 90 per cent of our bread from the big industrial bakeries. This means that it's difficult to find small, local, independent bakeries, bakeries which shun hi-tech mass-produced bread, in favour of traditional methods and varieties.

In this article

Chorleywood process Milton Keynes process

Traditional bakeries Flour with flavour

Some regional breads and cakes

Many commercial bakeries use the 'Chorleywood process' and, increasingly, the 'Milton Keynes process'. The Chorleywood process relies on high-speed mixing, which agitates the dough, to reduce the fermentation period. (Traditional bakers insist that it's a long fermentation time that allows the texture and flavour of bread to develop.)

The Milton Keynes process enables large-scale bakeries to make and form dough, ready to be shipped to other, smaller bakeries (including supermarket 'in-house' bakeries), where the dough is then baked. Dough made in this way can be stored for up to six days before being baked.

Traditional bakeries use neither of these methods, preferring to allow a slow, full-length fermentation of the bread, which can take up to 12 hours. They have no need of the Milton Keynes method, as everything is made from scratch on the premises.

One of the major factors influencing the flavour of bread is, of course, the flour that's used. Flour is a generic term that encompasses many kinds of milled grain. Most of us know it as milled wheat, but England has traditionally produced many kinds of grain that can be milled to make flour. Rye and spelt breads are becoming better known, the latter having once been consigned to history books.

Spelt is an ancient grain that many people suffering wheat intolerance are able to eat. Maslin flour, made from a mixture of wheat and rye flour, was the staple bread in medieval times and is once again becoming more widely available in the UK.

The key to finding these kinds of unusual flour lies with the traditional millers who generally use large, round milling stones, which, unlike the steel rollers used to mill ordinary flour, allow the miller to leave the whole grain intact, adding a depth of flavour to the flour. Most commercial flour has the germ removed. Many independent bakers make a point of using stone-ground flours grown in Britain and milled at smaller-scale mills, as the resulting bread has more character and flavour.

Save your local baker!

There was a time when every region would have had its own baking specialities. Sadly, many of these recipes have all but died out. It's through the work of traditional bakers - or holders of old family recipes - that their fate may be saved. Search hard and you may be able to find Bedfordshire clangers (an all-in-one main course and dessert in pastry), Selkirk bannocks, Bara brith from Wales, or Lincolnshire plum loaf.

Quality control

What makes traditional, artisanal bakers special is not just their regard for recipes and methods handed down from generations ago, but their insistence on the highest quality ingredients, often sourced locally. They've no need for 'mould inhibitors' or 'crumb softeners' contained in many more commercial loaves because the bread is made on the day it's sold, and the customers buying it understand that it's designed to be eaten that day or the next.

• Cornwall/Devon: pasties, saffron cake, 'Hevva' cake, scones
• Ireland: soda bread, Barm brack
• Kent: Huffkin cakes
• Lancashire: Eccles cakes
• Lincolnshire: plum loaf
• London: Chelsea buns
• Midlands: Bakewell tart, pork pie
• Yorkshire: parkin
• Scotland: oatcakes, shortbread, Selkirk bannocks, Aberdeen rolls (butteries, rowies), drop scones, Dundee cake
• Wales: Bara brith, Welsh cakes