Birch Bread

Birch Bread is a bakery on Reading Road in Pangbourne run by baker and owner Lucie Steel. The business began as a micro-bakery working from a shipping container in Steel's garden, where she baked bread to order and taught baking classes, before opening the current shop front on Pangbourne's main road. The bakery bakes daily sourdough, including a plain white loaf and a seven-seeded version, alongside rye and speciality loaves, plus a changing counter of cakes and traybakes. Bread is baked in small batches through the morning, so the selection changes through the day and lines can sell out ahead of closing on busy Saturdays. The shop holds a food hygiene rating from West Berkshire Council. Birch Bread sits among a small cluster of independent shops on Pangbourne's high street and supplies bread to a handful of local cafés and restaurants in addition to its retail counter, with production kept to the one Pangbourne site.