Five bakeries in Norwich, Cromer, Sheringham, Holt and surrounding villages that are worth a detour if you visit Norfolk!
My absolute favourite is SIDING YARD. Their viennoiserie is perfection and now they’re using Tosier chocolate which is a whole new level of brilliance in their pain au chocolat. I especially love that – when I went on a Saturday morning – you could also buy a hazelnut choux bun or a Tosier chocolate eclair. I highly recommend both. And the bread!
The Gangway with branches in Cromer and Sheringham is a coffee shop / cafe but all cakes and treats are made by a talented in-house baker who also plans to incorporate local bean to bar maker, Cocoa Collective, in the brownies, tiffins and tray bakes. The berry and marscapone brownie was already very good so I’m excited for this.
I wish I’d tried the apparently popular cinnamon swirl from Two Magpies (multiple locations in Norfolk and Suffolk) but I really enjoyed the rhubarb twist on the Bakewell Tart slice and I’d love to return for more.
I missed the viennoiserie on both detours to Dozen in the suburbs of Norwich but I’m still dreaming of the LAND chocolate cookie from my first visit. Excellent sourdough, too.
Finally, Bread Source is a popular bakery with several branches which seems to make locals quite happy!
Do you know of any others? Comment below or email thenextdeliciousthing@gmail.com.
Remember to tag @thenextdeliciousthing if you try any of these and share on social media!
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Listen to Jen talking about them on The Next Delicious Thing podcast, here:
Read the transcript of Episode 16 section on Norfolk Bakeries here:
Hey guys, it’s Jen. And this is The Next Delicious Thing. This week, it’s just me. I have some bakeries in Norfolk – my top bakeries in Norfolk – for you to add to your list. And also some other delicious things from Cambridge and London. Street food, really. And I also want to ask you a question.
00:22
So, my initial plan, as you might remember, was that I was going to spend 5 to 10 minutes talking about the delicious things that I’d eaten. This episode will be a bit more like that, but I’ve really enjoyed doing the interviews. And I wondered… I would really love your feedback on whether you’re happy with these kind of little short things or whether you liked the interviews. Like the one I did last week with Bettina drilling down into how you become a retreat chef, or the one I did with Edd where we analysed and go deep into hot cross buns… I have plans to do ones like that for croissants with Nicola Lamb and Felicity Cloake and for babka with Felicity Spector and I would also really love to interview some other people about what it’s like to be a food photographer, for example, or, if you have a small food business brand, some tips on food photography, perhaps. Or from a food journalist on how to get some coverage for your business.
01:23
Let me know if any of those things sounds interesting. You can head to thenextdeliciousthing.com and find all my contact details there or email thenextdeliciousthing@gmail.com or find me on social media @thenextdeliciousthing. I’ve said that quite a few times now!
01:40
So, Norfolk bakeries. I went back again to Norfolk because I loved it so much the other time. I went back to my favourite bakery which is Siding in Melton Constable which is about 20 minutes away from the north coast of Norfolk, kind of in the middle. Siding has been going since 2019. I’ve spoken about it on the podcast before. It’s run by Polly Quick and her partner. Polly’s a local. She makes the most exceptional viennoiserie: the croissants, her morning buns… and now she’s making the most amazing choux pastry buns. So we had a hazelnut praline choux bun and a chocolate eclair, which was made with Tosier chocolate. That was our dessert because they’re now open for dinner. In the morning, we went back and they’re also using Tosier chocolate in their pain au chocolat. Tosier is a bean to bar chocolate company that launched at the Aldeburgh Food and Drink Festival in Suffolk in 2017 by Deanna Tilston and Deanna makes wonderful chocolate. It’s all vegan, mostly single origin bean to bar dark chocolate, but she has a couple of new flavours and some really delicious chocolate-filled, crunchy-truffle-praline-type things that are incredible. They call them Freddy Rocks, which is kind of like a play on Ferrero Rochers. They’re very addictive. So you’ve been warned.
03:06
Tosier also do factory tours so I am definitely planning a trip to Suffolk as well. Back to Siding! So I had the pain au chocolate – shared the pain au chocolate – and the rhubarb danish with the most delicious custard. All I’m saying is you really need to go to Siding.
03:24
Other bakeries that you might want to detour past if you’re travelling to or through Norfolk. I’m not really sure where you would go through Norfolk to… But anyway, Dozen bakery in Norwich, which made the most incredible cookie with Land Chocolate, another Bean to bar chocolate maker this time from Bethnal Green in London. There is also Two Magpies Bakery, which is a small chain of seven bakeries in Suffolk and Norfolk. I really enjoyed their rhubarb version of a bakewell tart. But their most popular is a cinnamon bun. I’m definitely going back. There was such an array of delicious looking things.
04:04
In Sheringham and Cromer which are both on the North Norfolk coast. There are two coffee shops called The Gangway and all of their baked goods are made in house by Kirsty who has her own Instagram handle @gangwaycakes. Maybe it’s @gangwaybakes. I’ll link to it at thenextdeliciousthing.com And she is going to start using another local bean to bar chocolate maker called Cocoa Collective. I haven’t tried their chocolate yet, but it sounds exciting and I would really like to. The brownie that I tried of Kirsty’s at Gangway even made with other chocolate was excellent, so I think it will only get better if they start using bean to bar chocolate.
04:48
And the final bakery that you might want to check out in Norfolk is Bread Source so they also have several locations including Norwich and Aylsham. If you have more recommendations for Norfolk please let me know. I would definitely love an excuse to go back.