Our Story
Where it all began.
I’m Rob, the proud owner of The Fat Batard, a small family-run artisan bakery in the Scottish Borders. My wife Suzanne works in the shop throughout the week and my daughter, Holly, works in the shop at the weekend. Tilly works in the kitchen too making all our sweet treats that are on sale in the shop.
I am a self taught sourdough baker. As soon as I discovered sourdough I fell in love with the whole process of it. I loved the idea of creating a living culture, keeping it alive and using it to create the tastiest bakes I had ever had.
I hope you think so too!
What we do.
What goes into our food is slowly becoming more important to everyone. Especially things you eat on a regular basis. Bread is a simple staple but has changed so much over the last few decades. The process is now so fast and changed so much it is hardly recognisable to how it was made in the past.
At the Fat Batard Bakery we use our own 5 year old sourdough culture in our bread, pastries and enriched breads. We do not have any fast action or live yeast on our premises. Not that there’s anything wrong with using it, it’s just not what we do.
All our products are naturally leavened with wild yeast harvested from the atmosphere which is full of good bacteria.
This is a lengthy process (typically 2-3 days) but it is the time it takes to make each loaf that really develops the flavour and makes our bread so tasty and moreish. It also means that by packing the bread full of that good bacteria and taking our time, our bread is not only more flavourful it is easier to digest.
We use Matthews Cotswolds flour, which you can read more about here.
Flour. Salt. Water. Love. Time.
These things combined is what adds up to a great tasting, quality loaf of bread. That is all you need.
We make real bread.
We are proud supporters of The Real Bread Campaign.
Real Bread is bread that does not contain any additives. When you look at the back of the bread packaging and see the list of ingredients. If there are things on there that you don’t recognise or can say, then they don’t really need to be there.
Bread these days is full of things that keep it false ”fresh” for weeks. You might think that after Day 7 and your supermarket loaf is still as soft as the day you bought it is a good thing, but you should be asking yourself what is in it to make it behave this way.
Real Bread only contains the essential ingredients need to make your loaf. Flour, salt, water, yeast (live, dried or sourdough) maybe butter or oil, seeds etc.
No preservatives. No additives.
Once you experience Real Bread you will be sure to notice the difference.
