There's a reason you won't find a giant commercial bakery tucked behind the doors of The Crusty Cottage.
In fact, most days, you would probably recognize our kitchen. We still bake our bread in a regular kitchen oven. Our bread dough is still mixed by hand.
We have a larger mixer that helps us with cookie dough and cinnamon roll dough, but it isn't large enough to handle our bread dough—so that part remains completely hands-on.
And honestly? We like it that way.
Slow and Steady Is the Way We Want to Grow
From the beginning, we've valued being a family business. We've never wanted The Crusty Cottage to become something that grows so quickly that we lose the very things that made us start it in the first place.
For us, growth has always been about being slow, steady, and intentional. That means we may not be able to produce hundreds and hundreds of loaves at once. And that's okay. We would rather bake less with better quality than bake more and compromise what you love about our bread.
Sourdough Doesn't Like Shortcuts
If you've baked sourdough for any amount of time, you know this already: Sourdough has a mind of its own.
There are certain things you simply can't rush. Fermentation needs time. Dough needs attention. Temperature matters. Timing matters. And sometimes, the dough just decides it's going to do something completely different than what you expected.
We've learned that every shortcut eventually catches up with you. When we try to rush a step, skip something, or force the process, it almost always ends in disaster.
So instead, we work with the dough. Every loaf gets individual attention throughout the process. That's what small-batch baking allows us to do.
Quality Has to Be Consistent
One of the things we value most is consistency. When you purchase a loaf from The Crusty Cottage, we want you to know what you're getting.
The same care.
The same quality.
The same attention to detail.
The same loaf you came back for last time.
That's part of the intention behind everything we bake. We know you have choices when it comes to where you spend your money and what you put on your table. If you seek out The Crusty Cottage, we want to give you a reason to keep coming back.
That means we can't simply focus on producing more. We have to focus on producing it well.
No Giant Equipment. Just a Lot of Hands-On Work.
Some days, Savannah admits, she wishes there were more space for bigger equipment. It would certainly make some things easier. But The Crusty Cottage wasn't built around a commercial production line. It's built in our regular kitchen.
Our larger mixer helps us handle the heavier cookie and cinnamon roll doughs, but bread dough is still mixed by hand. And when you're baking as much as we do with regular home-style equipment, attention to detail becomes even more important.
We have to calculate what we can realistically bake.
We have to pay attention to timing.
We have to work around the capacity of the oven.
We have to plan our batches carefully.
And we have to know when it's better to say, “That's enough for today.”
We'd Rather Bake Less and Do It Right
That's really what small-batch baking comes down to for us. We don't want to sacrifice quality for quantity. We want to know that every loaf that leaves our kitchen received the attention it needed.
That every cinnamon roll was given the proper time. That every cookie was made with intention. That every product you purchase meets the standard we've set for ourselves.
Because the goal isn't simply to grow as big as possible. The goal is to build something our family is proud of.
Something our customers can trust. Something that can grow without losing its heart.
So yes, we're still mixing bread dough by hand. We're still baking in a regular kitchen oven. We're still figuring out how to make everything fit into the day. And we're still choosing quality over shortcuts.
Because we'd rather bake less and do it better.
That's the Crusty Cottage way.
