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Darlington - Clervaux Bakery

Posted by Unknown Wednesday, February 26, 2014 0 comments

Earlier this year I'd dash home from work to watch the latest recording of Britain's Best Bakery. I'm full of admiration for bakers, and the standards in this competition have been extremely high. When I learnt that one of the entrants did fine pâtisserie, had a café and was in Darlington - I thought that'll be Robineau (one of my favourite visits last year). However I was wrong!

So I watched and learnt about the wonderful Clervaux Bakery:

The more I heard about this bakery, the more I wanted to visit.

They make a wide range of delicious artisan breads every morning and use only the very best ingredients including organic flours and local produce:

They're listed in the Real Bread Finder, their white organic tin loaves are proved overnight to make a better loaf.

They do a cheese & onion bread, and their sourdough boule uses wild yeast and is proved slowly over 24 hours to give a distinctive flavour and delicious crust:

There's also multigrain and rye, date and pecan bread and these pretty batons:

They do a good selection of rolls:

They also make delicious croissants, scones and some really nice teacakes:

They make vanilla and cinnamon palmiers:

and there's desserts like treacle tart or double chocolate brownies.

At the back of the shop:

there's an attractive café:

We were there at breakfast time, and couldn't decide whether to go for a continental breakfast:

or the full English:

Both were really nice.

If you're there at lunchtime there's light meals like this Chickpea, Panzella Salad - with chickpeas, tomato, cucumber, pepper, croutons lemon oil & balsamic:

Or salmon coconut & wild rice salad - with garlic, lime, pepper & pepper yoghurt

Or you could have a Bishops Rarebit - organic ale and caramelised onions on cheese and onion bread served with home made chutney:

Best of all, at the very back, is a viewing window:

where you can watch them making the bread and cakes:

The bakery works with the Clervaux Trust, a local charity, supporting vulnerable adults. So not only are you eating great food in a lovely setting, you're also helping to make the world a better place.

They're also getting a new name – Olivia’s Artisan Bakery and Cafe which their other bakeries (in Northallerton, Thirsk and now also Stokesley) are already using.

Clervaux Bakery
38 Coniscliffe Road
Darlington
County Durham
DL3 7RG

Tel: 01325 351879

Web: www.oliviasbakeryandcafe.co.uk

Darlington - Robineau Patisserie

Posted by Unknown Sunday, June 2, 2013 0 comments

I once read an article buy a restaurant critic, saying reviews for really good restaurants were the hardest to write. I think the point that the critic was making is that it's easy to write witty comments about places that make lots of mistakes, but when the food is perfect there's only so many superlatives that you can use. If the same applies to good food shops, then this post is going to be one of the hardest I've ever written!

Jane, and her French husband Frederick, own Robineau's patisserie in Darlington, and this business would compete with some of the best in London or Paris.

Their shop is less than 5 minutes from the A1(M) so, if ever we're on that road in future, a visit will be a compulsory detour.

They sell savoury items like quiche and salads

and delicious home made soup:

We had pea, ham and mint soup, and it was exceptionally nice. To go with the soup, there's also proper home-made artisan bread:

There's handmade chocolates including caramels, ganaches and pralines, and a fantastic range of fresh patisserie which is freshly made every day.

The only problem you'll have is deciding what to buy. The picture at the top of this post shows a vanilla éclair, a lemon and passion fruit tart and a chocolate praline coconut torte.

Or there's items like mango lime and pineapple cheesecake, strawberry raspberry and blackberry charlotte russe and Robineau chocloate gâteaux:

and millionaire shortbread:

At the back of the shop there's a café where you can have breakfast, lunch or afternoon tea. The same attention to detail goes on in the café as the shop.

As we were going to climb the 325 steps to get to the top of Durham cathedral, we decided a chocolate assiette was called for:

I'm not going to try to describe how good it was, please go there and try it yourself!

Robineau Patisserie
27 West Auckland Road
Darlington
County Durham
DL3 9EL

Tel: 01325 489129

Web: www.robineau.co.uk

Archers Jersey Ice-cream

Posted by Unknown Monday, May 27, 2013 0 comments

I was recently staying at Walworth Castle, whilst exploring County Durham, and was delighted to find Archers Jersey Ice-cream was just up the road. The Archer farmer decided to go into ice-cream making over 10 years ago, after losing their cows to Foot and Mouth. They replaced their Holstein Freisians with some Jerseys (for extra creamy milk) and have never looked back.

Their ice-cream is made from local ingredients where possible, the rhubarb ice-cream is made with champagne rhubarb from their garden, strawberry ice-cream is made with strawberries from F W Elgey in Piercebridge (when in season) and the toffee and fudge ice-cream contains pieces of Loopy Lisa's fudge.

They're are continually coming up with new flavours, and my favourite is their passion fruit ice-cream.

John Archer used to farm in Kenya and passion fruits grew on the farm, so they decided to bring a bit of African sunshine back to the UK. Their passion fruit ice-cream has won an award at The National Ice Cream Competition ICA Show and tastes amazing.

They are one of the first people to produce ice-cream cakes, which look great and are hand decorated for any occasion.

There's a café and play area and also a a trail around the farm.

The ice-cream can also be bought elsewhere, in parlours in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Northallerton, Richmond, Yarm and even now on the Wirral.

Archers Jersey Ice-cream
New Moor Farm
Walworth Gate
Darlington
DL2 2UD

Tel: 01325 300336

Web: www.archersjerseyicecream.com

Barnard Castle - Cross Lanes Organic Farm

Posted by Unknown Wednesday, May 15, 2013 0 comments

I was on holiday in Durham, and got talking to the chef at the hotel restaurant where I was staying. As the restaurant was keen on sourcing local food, I asked the chef if he could recommend any good farm shops in the area. Without hesitating, he suggested I go to Cross Lanes Organic Farm near Barnard Castle.

Peter Coverdale is a highly respected stone mason, who with his wife Sue, decided to open an organic farm shop, café and horticultural centre. It has only been open for about a year, but has already won numerous awards.

It's been stylish designed, and with a lot of thought paid to environmental issues. You may notice old pews for seats

and even shelves made from recycled old tractor tyres!

The roof is green - it's a living roof, with sedum and meadow turf and around 25 varieties of wild flower and grasses. Even the toilets are green - there's an outdoor composting toilet with a Whitby heather thatched roof

The excellent butchers sell grass fed shorthorn beef (and dripping) comes from the farm next door

and other meat also comes from named local farms.

The organic bread is made on the premises, like this organic beer cob:

which is made with organic ale and molasses and browned off in their wood fired oven.

There's jams and preserves from Just Williams in Richmond (whose bitter and twisted marmalade has won a great taste award). Organic loose leaf teas from Steenbergs, in Melberby near Ripon:

There's also a good selection of beers, from local breweries like Allendale Brewery, North Yorkshire Brewery, Wensleydale Brewery, Black Paw and Yorkshire Dales Beer Company.

You can have a meal in the café:

Dishes are prepared using organic seasonal produce, locally sourced where possible.

Last of all, this blog has already told you about shops selling chocolate shoes, but have you ever seen chocolate wellingtons before?

Cross Lanes Organic Farm
Cross Lanes
Barnard Castle
County Durham
DL12 9SL

Tel: 01833 630619
Butchers: 01833 694395

Web: www.crosslanesorganics.co.uk

email: info@crosslanesorganics.co.uk