Margot Bakery

It’s a while since I have been as excited about anything as I am about this - On Sunday 25 April from 10-2, myself, Tarunima Spasia and Mel are baking together and for you, just for the joy of it and with profits going to Hibiscus Initiatives. It’s been collaborative and kind, easy and inspiring to work with these women. They share generously and work hard and I’m so proud to call them my friends and to learn from them. Will share some pictures over the next few days of the food everyone is offering - everyone is making what they love and what they know best; it’s the very best of our hearts and kitchens for you. Hoping to see some familiar (and much missed) faces on the day - do come and say hello if you can make it to East Finchley!

You can preorder some items on the website margotbakery.co.uk/place and find the full menu there too

I’ve been testing and updating formulas and processes for everything these last few weeks but especially the sourdough croissant dough. Finally getting somewhere, today the pastries look beautiful. There’s no queue/short queue atm if you’re local and want one of these

Seeded sourdough. It’s not Geronimo, but maybe it’s better...

Some in tins and some not. We open at 8.

Ignore what it says in my book. Best way to make rugelach is by putting the filling on long rectangles, chill, stack in layers of 3 and cut into smallish but imperfect triangles . I’m sure you knew this already.
It’s always possible to make things better and to keep learning if you try

*with pistachios for tomorrow specially for Mother’s Day

Sourdough pastries with wild garlic and Lancashire cheese tomorrow from 10am all being well

This Saturday, local artist Rebecca Miller is launching her community mural project for young people in the local area.

After online art workshops and in-person sketching surveys of the local area, the young people involved will get the chance to paint a community mural, celebrating our local environment.

🎨 Free sketchbooks and art materials will be provided!
🗓 Starting 11am, Saturday 6th March
✏️ Sign up at [email protected]

We are open tomorrow for Valentine’s Day and to celebrate our 5th birthday (my god, 5 years!!!) from 9am-1pm. We have bread as usual and pastries and many special and delicious things the team have made! Come for gattò di patate, heart shaped shortbread with raspberry jam, raspberry croissants, choc chip bundt cakes with caramel and rhubarb almond tart. We will have more Valentine’s gingerbread hearts available and coffee to warm your hands (arghh, it’s so cold atm!!) looking forward to seeing you, thank you to our customers and all those who have come through our doors (or to the doorway!) for these five interesting and wonderfully challenging and satisfying years

Bakers doing interesting things with lamination and natural colours (I just picked up some trimmings and took the photo 💕😉)

Focaccia is so nice
Currently available on Wednesday only!

Baked

Everything is beautiful today

From the team

Chocolate hazelnut is the special tomorrow 💕




chocolate 💥

Valentine’s Day is also our 5th birthday! The heart shaped cookies with random (but mostly sweet) messages have become a staple feature over the years!!

We will be open from 9am-1pm (plan is to do occasional Sunday openings and this is a test run!)

The team have been planning some lovely things for you; come by for pastries, bread, maybe birthday cake (!) and look out for the website opening for orders this Saturday. You can pre order for next week including for Sunday!! has designed a Valentine’s hamper which you will be able to preorder too ❤️💕❤️

The prettiest rugelach ever in the bakery window this morning 👌🏻

Sourdough laminated dough with chocolate filling; made with butter and chocolate (btw if you have the time and inclination to make them yourself, the recipe is in my book )

Lovely lamination. Second tray just out of the oven 👍🏻

We will have laminated cinnamon morning buns tomorrow (we had slightly too much laminated pastry so decided to make these last minute ❤️😂)

Note tomorrow is our last day open for 8 days - the next day we will be open is Saturday 8 January. Check website for full details!

The queue was long but amazingly (with some rationing!!) we had sufficient bread so that everyone who joined the queue and wanted bread was able to buy bread today.

It was a huge effort and the team of bakers and FOH at Margot have done an extraordinary job today and all through this year, in often challenging circumstances; producing, baking, packaging, cleaning and serving, reorganising and explaining, prepping and labelling - they are fairly exhausted and I’m proud of them. This hasn’t been an easy year in so many ways so it’s all the more remarkable that they managed to do what they did this week from this small bakery on a fairly ordinary stretch of a suburban road and that so many of you came by to support us and get your Christmas bread and pies. It was our busiest day to date in almost 5 years here 🙈💪🏼Thanks to everyone who came and queued, wished the team merry Christmas and who have supported us this year with orders small and large. We can’t make all the big bad things better with baking but we try our best every day to brighten your day and fill your bellies and tables with good and special things.

We are closed the 25th and 26th and reopen on Sunday 27th from 8-2. Next week we are open normal hours Monday to Thursday and on Sunday (closed Friday 1st and Saturday 2nd January) For our opening hours next year keep an eye on the door and the website, there will be a few changes but details still tbc.

Merry Christmas to those who are celebrating; we wish our customers and friends good health for 2021, may it be kind to you all.

Happy Xmas eve eve

We have a tray of this out now - it’s a Polish/British fusion Christmas tray bake. Pastry is the one in for Marina’ (.ferguson) apricot/lavender slice which was based on jablecznik which is the traditional Polish recipe filled with apples. This has our mince pie filling inside so it’s a mince pie but not. More pastry in proportion to fruit mince and super delicious. We will have a couple more trays out tomorrow too and on Xmas eve!

Another day, another Stollen mix. Needs must as everything we bake sells rather quickly atm*

*pre~orders were open for nearly 3 weeks for bread and mince pies to be collected this week. Coming to the bakery in the afternoon and complaining there’s no bread or mince pies (or any other item you hoped to find) or announcing with great indignation that well, you’ll just have to go to Sainsbury’s for bread then( 🤷🏻‍♀️) isn’t very fair. Sudden tier 4 announcements means there’s even more people in London than usual at this time of year, certainly there are more than there were last year and we can’t magic up more time, space or bakers and neither can we tell customers who do come by in the morning and queue, sorry - someone might need bread or that almond croissant 15 minutes before closing so you can’t have it!! It’s first come, first served if you haven’t ordered...

Bakers and FOH are working so hard; we are baking as much as we possibly can all things considered. There is a limit and we often push it (hence late Stollen shift and a very tired team atm!) but there’s only so
much we can actually bake...

If you want bread, come early - we have a lot it just goes fast. If you can’t get what you want, smile and say never mind and that maybe you’ll be back tomorrow (thanks to the lovely people who do exactly this!) and accept that a handmade product which takes days to make and is created by a small team in a small kitchen in the middle of a pandemic might be in demand and you might be lucky or you might miss out. It’s no one’s fault, you don’t have to take your disappointment out on the person serving you and it really isn’t a big deal in the grand scheme of things if you can’t get a loaf. It’s ok. Chill! Merry Christmas! Tip the team! Shop local! Stay safe. X

Stollen.

Out for sale today until it’s gone!

made a batch of panettone. Traditional, sourdough leavened, incredibly soft and delicious. The best we have ever had. It’s the only batch we are baking this year and it’s out for sale now so if you want one come quick!!

What can I tell you, they are the best sourdough pain aux raisins in London 😉✨

Seasonal gingerbread design 2020 ✅

First batch of fruit mince pies are out of the oven and looking amazing! We make our own fruit mince and our own pastry (of course 😉) and they are fantastic. Made with butter from , eggs from , Bramley apples from , organic cider and lots of fruit, spices and brandy!

Christmas shop is now open on the website so you can order what you need to celebrate this year. Many of the usual joys will be absent but we are here to help with some of the small joys that remain unchanged despite it all.

Just out of the oven: Puff pastry filled with Egremont Russet apples from Puff pastry laminated with butter 💥👌🏻