'Andrew Whitley, founder of the celebrated Village Bakery in Melmerby, is a uniquely experienced organic baker, and this is his foolproof guide to baking real, nutritious bread at home.

From simple loaves to wheat-free and gluten-free cooking, Andrew explains the baking process, demystifies the science and shares the practical craft he teaches on his popular baking courses.

Delving into the deplorable state of modern British baking, Bread Matters reveals how commercial bread is made from wheat selected with little regard for its nutritional value, laced with hidden additives and in some cases, frozen and reheated then sold as fresh.

Exposing the madness behind the adulteration of our most basic food – the staff of life – Andrew Whitley shows why and how to make real bread at home, guiding and inspiring beginners and seasoned bakers alike.'


From Chapter 1
British consumers, without their knowledge, have been taking part in a flawed experiment. Back in the early 1960s, the national loaf was fundamentally re-designed. The flour and yeast were changed and a combination of intense energy and additives completely displaced time in the maturing of dough. Almost all our bread has been made this way for nearly half a century. It is white and light and stays soft for days. It is made largely with home-grown wheat and it is cheap. For increasing numbers of people, however, it is inedible.

As technology finds ever more ingenious ways to adulterate our bread, so science is revealing the havoc this may be causing to public health. Recent research suggests that we urgently need to re-think the way we make bread.


Why you should read Bread Matters
In the early 1990s, entirely in response to consumer demand, the Village Bakery started making breads without wheat or baker’s yeast. The first two chapters of Bread Matters present recent research that suggests why slow fermentation and naturally occurring yeasts and bacteria – the things that have been banished from modern bread – are so important for our digestion. If you don’t like what modern bread does to you, the second part of the book is a detailed manual on how to make bread at home. Based on twenty-five years’ real bakery experience, Bread Matters shows how simple breadmaking is once you understand the basic principles. In what one reviewer has called his ‘effortlessly fluent style’, Andrew Whitley debunks a host of baking myths and gives fool-proof methods and recipes that will last you for years.


Andrew's book is available to buy online through our web site at just £20.00 including p&p.