Traditional Stottie Cake – Today’s recipe is for my grandmother’s Traditional Stottie Cake, which is a flat breadcake from the North East of England.
An Old Northumbrian and North East England Bread Recipe
Today’s recipe is for Traditional Stottie Cake. A rather plain and flat looking disc of bread, and yet to many people in the North East of England the Stottie Cake is an important and potent symbol of their identity and region.
We’ve just returned from a week’s holiday in beautiful Northumberland and County Durham, where we stayed in an old cottage, close to the Northumbrian coast and Cheviot Hills.
Whilst we were up there, I tried every day to buy a stottie, but they were always sold out, no matter what time I got to the local bakeries!
I had some luck at the wonderful Rocking Horse Cafe and Gallery in Rock, which was close to our cottage; here I had one of their Stottie Bacon Butties for breakfast, followed by a warm cheese scone.
Then, on the last day, finally, in Alnwick Greggs bakery, I managed to but two stotties to take home. However, nice though they were, they are not as nice as a homemade stottie, which I often bake at home.
Stotties are the bread of my childhood, linked forever in my memory to my grandmother’s old stone cottage and warm, happy days sitting around a big old kitchen table with a flickering fire and the wind howling outside.
Stotties, as they are called in the plural, are born of thrift and frugality; at the end of a long day of baking, as most bread was made at home until fairly recently.
Any excess white bread dough that was left over was simply shaped and rolled into a large disc, and thrown on to the bottom of the oven, where it baked in an initial burst of heat before continuing to cook as the oven cooled.
This baking method is what gives the Stottie Cake it’s crusty but soft exterior and yet a rather pleasant chewy crumb, and that unique “Stottie” taste too. A cake it is not, but a simple and homely regional loaf of bread.
I have shared my Nanny’s recipe for Stottie Cake (Stotty Cake) before on Lavender & Lovage, here: A Northumberland Cottage Kitchen Recipe: Stotty Cake (Stottie Cake)
Today’s recipe is the same, but I have updated the photos, as well as adding some images of the North East of England, and an enhanced photo of my grandparent’s old cottage, as it was.
I hope you enjoy this traditional recipe if you make it – they maybe be plain to look at with none of the fancy decorations, glazes and cuts that other bread loaves have.
However, as soon as you tear a piece of warm bread, then spread some butter on so it melts into golden pools of saltiness, you will understand the alchemy of this slow-baked bread.
And, hopefully, how it is inextricably linked to happy childhood days and simple suppers at an old cottage table.
Notes:
- This is my Grandmother’s recipe for authentic “Stottie Cakes”, my grandmother’s recipe remained a secret for many years after her death, and then one day my mum found an old hand-written recipe in the back of a Be-Ro cookbook, where she had written down the principals of how to make a Stottie, and so the secret family recipe was released.
- Our family recipe is always better if made with the remnants of some basic white bread dough, and cooked on the bottom of a hot oven that has been turned off to cool.
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Traditional Stottie Cake Recipe
Traditional Stottie Cake
Yield:
2 Stottie Cakes
Prep Time:
1 hour 30 minutes
Cook Time:
45 minutes
Total Time:
2 hours 15 minutes
Today’s recipe is for Traditional Stottie Cake. A rather plain and flat looking disc of bread, and yet to many people in the North East of England the Stottie Cake is an important and potent symbol of their identity and region.
We’ve just returned from a week’s holiday in beautiful Northumberland and County Durham, where we stayed in an old cottage, close to the Northumbrian coast and Cheviot Hills.
Whilst we were up there, I tried every day to buy a stottie, but they were always sold out, no matter what time I got to the local bakeries!
I had some luck at the wonderful Rocking Horse Cafe and Gallery in Rock, which was close to our cottage; here I had one of their Stottie Bacon Butties for breakfast, followed by a warm cheese scone.
Then, on the last day, finally, in Alnwick Greggs bakery, I managed to but two stotties to take home. However, nice though they were, they are not as nice as a homemade stottie, which I often bake at home.
Stotties are the bread of my childhood, linked forever in my memory to my grandmother’s old stone cottage and warm, happy days sitting around a big old kitchen table with a flickering fire and the wind howling outside.
Stotties, as they are called in the plural, are born of thrift and frugality; at the end of a long day of baking, as most bread was made at home until fairly recently.
Any excess white bread dough that was left over was simply shaped and rolled into a large disc, and thrown on to the bottom of the oven, where it baked in an initial burst of heat before continuing to cook as the oven cooled.
This baking method is what gives the Stottie Cake it’s crusty but soft exterior and yet a rather pleasant chewy crumb, and that unique “Stottie” taste too. A cake it is not, but a simple and homely regional loaf of bread.
I have shared my Nanny’s recipe for Stottie Cake (Stotty Cake) before on Lavender & Lovage, here: A Northumberland Cottage Kitchen Recipe: Stotty Cake (Stottie Cake)
Today’s recipe is the same, but I have updated the photos, as well as adding some images of the North East of England, and an enhanced photo of my grandparent’s old cottage, as it was.
I hope you enjoy this traditional recipe if you make it – they maybe be plain to look at with none of the fancy decorations, glazes and cuts that other bread loaves have.
However, as soon as you tear a piece of warm bread, then spread some butter on so it melts into golden pools of saltiness, you will understand the alchemy of this slow-baked bread.
And, hopefully, how it is inextricably linked to happy childhood days and simple suppers at an old cottage table.
Ingredients
- 1 ½ lbs strong white bread flour (680g)
- 1 ½ teaspoons salt
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- ½ ounce (15g) fresh yeast (quick action dried yeast can be used, 1 x 7g sachet)
- White pepper, about ¼ of a teaspoon
- ¾ pint (450mls) tepid water
Instructions
1. If using fresh yeast crumble it into a jug and then add the white pepper, sugar and a little tepid water to mix. Place somewhere warm for 10 to 15 minutes so it can start to “work” it is ready to use when it becomes frothy.
2. Put the bread flour and salt into a large mixing bowl and make a well in the centre, pour in the yeast mixture and the remaining water. If using dried yeast, just sprinkle the yeast in to the flour at this stage, with the sugar and white pepper and add the water as before.
3. Mix and then knead the dough until it is smooth and elastic. (The word stotty is believed to be derived from the local word of “stotting” which means to bounce, and I remember my grandmother “bouncing” her bread on the kitchen table for ages! So, don’t be shy when kneading.) This bread needs to be well kneaded for at least ten minutes.
4. Cover the bowl with a clean tea towel and set to one side, somewhere warm, to allow the dough to rise. This will take about an hour, and the dough should have doubled in size before you can use it.
5. Pre-heat oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6. Butter or grease some large baking sheets.
6. Put the dough onto a floured board and divide it into two equal pieces; roll the dough out to make two large flat discs, about 1” (2/5cm) thick and then stick the end of a rolling pin in the middle of the dough to make an indentation. You can also prick the top of the bread with a fork too.
7. Place the Stotty Cakes onto the prepared baking sheets and bake in the pre-heated oven for 15 minutes, before turning the oven off and leaving them in there for up to half an hour to continue to bake.
8. Serve warm with butter, jam, treacle, honey or cheese, cheese savoury, ham and Pease pudding.
Notes
This is my Grandmother’s recipe for authentic “Stottie Cakes”, my grandmother’s recipe remained a secret for many years after her death, and then one day my mum found an old hand-written recipe in the back of a Be-Ro cookbook, where she had written down the principals of how to make a Stottie, and so the secret family recipe was released.
Our family recipe is always better if made with the remnants of some basic white bread dough, and cooked on the bottom of a hot oven that has been turned off to cool.
Nutrition Information
Yield 8
Serving Size 1
Amount Per Serving
Calories 310Total Fat 1gSaturated Fat 0gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 1gCholesterol 0mgSodium 399mgCarbohydrates 62gFiber 2gSugar 1gProtein 10g
