baking | A Tale of Two Sittings

The last year or so I’ve been following the progress of Sarah Mather’s Noisette Bakehouse and her Madeleine Express whilst they’ve been wooing the Leeds faithful with her award winning bakes. My first memories all came about after searching for gluten free goodies and low and behold they came to the rescue, culminating in meeting Sarah in November 2013 at Brigatte World Feast. Since then I’ve seen her and Madeleine trade at Kirkstall Abbey, Trinity Kitchen, Noonshine at Outlaws, Amazing Graze and other worthy events around Leeds. Her bakes are one of the main attractions when visiting Belgrave Music Hall‘s monthly Street Feast and Laynes Espresso (apart from the coffee of course), with a tour de force spread just perfect to have with your dose of caffeine. Sarah’s also showcased her skills and bakes at the Taste Of London Festival and wowed the judges to win YBF‘s prize for baking and had her desserts on the menu at Tate Modern!!

The business which started off with Sarah’s Citroen H Van Madeleine taking her home baked goods on the road, it’s proved such a huge success they wanted a base to not only bake, but also sell their wares. So, after months of painstakingly developing their Bakehouse space in Robberttown Village, maybe 10 miles from Leeds city centre, their labour of love which was once a former hairdressers was now finally ready to open to the public.

A date of the 1st February was finally set and on a bitterly cold, crisp winter’s morning Noisette Bakehouse opened its doors to the world. I had a feeling it would be a busy one so planned to arrive just as the doors opened, luckily living a few miles away meant it didn’t take very long. As expected there was a warm welcome from a display of eye-poppingly beautiful baked goods and a rapturous hug from the intoxicating smell of buttery, sugary goodness!!! Sarah’s inspiration spans far and wide, using traditional baking techniques, she combines her creativity and innovative recipes with seasonal produce to conjure up everything a sweet tooth may desire!

I’ll apologise from the start as I couldn’t help myself and took far too many photos, but they were hard to resist and I found it virtually impossible. Sorry they just don’t do them justice!!

Locals from Roberttown Village and its neighbours popped in and walked away very happily with the choices, in particular one-time blogger Northern Writes who left with a bit of everything!!! Also Krag, one of the duo that is North Star Micro Roasters who also walked away with a number of goodies in tow.

You’ll see all-time favourites such as *the* Salt Caramel Brownie, Popcorn Cookie Pop and of course Vanilla Madeleines, but as always some newbies on the menu – a Smoked Paprika Cornbread and Cheese & Rye Scones, ~~maybe~~ (probably) others too!

The Noisette Bakehouse team still have plans for the shop space now that the bake space is sorted, maybe a place where customers can enjoy locally roasted North Star coffee whilst leisurely grazing on their pick of the freshest bakes from the oven. Who knows? I’ll be waiting with bated breath to see the next chapter in their journey.