Travel outside of the North East and it's unlikely you'll find anything quite like a stottie.
A cornerstone of Newcastle's food culture, the heavy, stodgy bread was originally made from scraps of leftover dough baked in the coal-fired ovens of the region's terraces. And now Geordies all over the UK will be able to get their fix after a North East bakery announced its nationwide stottie delivery service.
Hailed by Hairy Biker Si King as makers of the "best stotties ever", the Big River Bakery has launched a trial of its delivery service after receiving enquiries as far as London and Scotland. The social enterprise the east end of Newcastle, Shieldfield to be exact, has become a community hub since opening in 2019 by teaching unemployed people how to bake, providing food to local food banks and homeless hostels, and even sowing wheat on Tyneside for the first time in a century to create the "Shieldfield Loaf".
Read more: What is a stottie cake? The life and times of a North East delicacy
Andy Haddon, who founded the Big River Bakery, said: "The stottie has a strong connection to the North East, not just Newcastle, for so many people and we can help cheer them up and give them something they're after. Since we announced we were doing it, we've had a great response, there are a lot of exiled North Eastern folk outside the region - one woman on Facebook even said it was the best day of her life, she's living down in Maidenhead and now she can get stotties!"
When Andy started the social enterprise, his philosophy was changing the world one stottie at a time, and Big River has gone on to offer both stottie making classes and kits. And in the run up to Christmas 2022, sales of its book "Scottie the Shieldfield Stottie" and plush toys of the same character have helped the bakery to keep producing bread at an affordable price for locals who are suffering the effects of the cost of living crisis - it even invited members of the community to join in with a stottie song.
He continued: "When I started, the stottie was getting forgotten and it's not a big part of what a lot of shops and bakers do anymore, but it should be because it's a huge part of our heritage in the region. Hungry people made a lot of stotties when they didn't have much money, and that resonates a lot with where we are now.
"We're trying to keep the price reasonable for locals, and when we do we have to work hard at trying other ways to make the sums work and keep things going. The book and the toy are part of that, people have been paying it forward saying that they don't want a cuddly toy but they'll pay for one and give it to a kid who doesn't have many Christmas presents - it's been a route to kindness for some people."
As well as the stottie delivery service, Big River Bakery has been operating warm banks on Mondays and Tuesdays throughout the winter, giving daily breakfast bags to local schools for children not able to access breakfast clubs, and having free food and pay as you feel days for customers. All that while the cost of its ingredients are increasing, not to mention the dramatic rise in energy bills, which could be prescient of how it will be when Government subsidies are reduced after March.
Andy added: "We're quite resilient and we've faced lots of challenges as a business. We have to be creative and innovative to come up with ways to solve them, if we can sell stotties for a little bit more elsewhere then that helps.
"People are getting something they really want at a price they're happy to pay and it helps us to keep going and do more good things for the community and keep the prices affordable for our local customers. If we were just a business making bread and trying to survive while keeping our prices down so that it's affordable for the local people where we are that would be very hard, and it is hard, but our approach is that we try and innovate and come up with ways to make it work."
Big River Bakery's trial of a stottie delivery service will see four of the traditional cakes posted out for £10, with the service posting twice a week. The stotties can be frozen for up to three months.
For more information on the Big River Bakery's "Postal Stotties", visit the website.
Do you miss the humble stottie when you're away from the North East? Let us know!
Read next
Hairy Bikers hail Newcastle café as makers of 'best stotties ever'
Newcastle's Big River Bakery launches book to fund free cooking lessons for kids
Byker bakery does more than just bake bread - it's become a vital hub for the community
Newcastle Restaurant Week: All of the places offering meals for just £10
North East people: changing the way we do business, one stottie at a time
