Pollen Bakery Sheffield Street Manchester

Pollen Bakery is a sourdough and Viennoiserie bakery near Piccadilly station, run by Hannah Calvert and Chris Kelly.   They make sourdough bread, made with naturally occurring yeast from a sourdough culture, which is vegan friendly containing only three ingredients, flour, water and salt.   None of those horrible preservatives, E numbers, additives, so its my kind of bread.   The sourdough process is long, twenty eight hours in Pollen's case, which makes it more digestible.

Pollen Bakery supply a number of places in Manchester and luckily for me, my choice of venue for lunch The Pilcrow Pub is one of them.   I tweeted enquiring about a vegan option for my lunchtime visit, I received a reply from both within minutes of my enquiry tweet, that is customer service and why I like to support independent businesses, they go the extra mile.   The Pilcrow offered to order a vegan sandwich and put it aside just for me and Pollen Bakery sent me a photo of their herb cannellini bean, avocado, black olive and salad leaf sandwich.   I was sold.

My sandwich made from the best sourdough bread I have ever eaten, was fabulous, the bread had a lovely crust, great texture, with that delicious sourdough smell, I did not want to finish eating it and will copy the filling idea, it was that good.

I would love to try their other sourdoughs, they make oat porridge, rye, five seed and a weekly seasonal special on a Saturday.   I feel comfort in the fact, that if I see Pollen Bakery bread on a menu, when I dine out in Manchester, I know it is vegan.

I am not sure if you can visit them, during working hours, but would love to see the bread making process, ask a few questions, like how old their sourdough starter is.   This is real bread, none of that cotton wool, rubbery bread you get in a supermarket and I cannot wait to eat it again.