‘The best bakery in the world.
This is all about heart, passion and a love for making great bread.’
George Calombaris, MasterChef
‘I had RedBeard sourdough for breakfast
and it was absolutely delicious. RedBeard is doing a wonderful job to promote the resurgence of authentic sourdough and artisan woodfired baking.’
Maggie Beer, legendary cook and restaurateur
Thes two quotes were taken directly from RedBeard Historic Bakery’s website and written by famous Australian chefs. Personally, I agree.
RedBeard Historic Bakery is in Trentham, Victoria. It makes the most amazing sourdough bread, cooked in a rare scotch oven. A scotch oven is a traditional, wood-fired commercial baker’s oven. Originally all bread was made in a scotch oven, however as bread began being made in factories the old ovens were destroyed and replaced by gas or electric ovens to eliminate competition.
RedBeard’s scotch oven is approximately 140 years old. It was used continuously from 1891 to 1987. After this time it lay dormant for nearly 20 years until the property was renovated and the scotch oven repaired.
The scotch oven has a floor area of 16 square metres, weighs 75 tonnes and has a massive domed roof. On one side of the floor area is the firebox which is put out before the bread is cooked. On the opposite side of the floor is a flu. Between all these elements enough heat is created to cook 600 loaves or equivalent.
RedBeard’s sourdough bread is leavened with a natural wild culture of yeast and healthy bacteria. They also use organic flours and their bread is shaped by hand.
The day we visited Trentham, we didn’t realise that RedBeard’s Historic Bakery would be as amazing as it was. The whole cafe was full and that didn’t include the number of people who came in for takeaway. I ordered the vanilla slice as I had been craving a cake for me birthday and not found one. But let me tell you this vanilla slice melted in my mouth. It was different to any I had ever had before. Sorry no photos.
We bought some bread to take home for lunch and again we loved it. In fact, we loved it so much that when we were coming home to Newcastle we drove 20 minutes each way extra on top of a 10+ hour trip just to buy more. The only problem was we were a day early, as the bakery isn’t open every day.