Stotty Cake (Stottie Cake)

🫓 My Grandmother’s Secret Stotty Cake Recipe – Unearthed from the Past 📖

This isn’t just any recipe — it’s a treasured piece of family history. For years after my grandmother passed, her authentic Stotty Cake recipe was thought to be lost forever. But one day, while flipping through an old Be-Ro cookbook, my mum discovered a faded, hand-written note tucked inside. It turned out to be Grandma’s original Stotty recipe, scribbled in the margins with love and tradition.

Now, the secret is out — and I’m proud to share this classic Northern bread with you, just as it was made in our family kitchen for generations.

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Prep Time 1 30

Cook Time 45

Total Time 2 15

Servings 2 Stotties

Ingredients

1 ½ lbs strong white bread flour 680g
1 ½ teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon sugar
½ ounce 15g fresh yeast (quick action dried yeast can be used, 1 x 7g sachet)
White pepper about ¼ of a teaspoon
¾ pint 450mls tepid water

Instructions

If using fresh yeast crumble it into a jug and then add the white pepper, sugar and a little tepid water to mix. Place somewhere warm for 10 to 15 minutes so it can start to “work” it is ready to use when it becomes frothy.
Put the bread flour and salt into a large mixing bowl and make a well in the centre, pour in the yeast mixture and the remaining water. If using dried yeast, just sprinkle the yeast in to the flour at this stage, with the sugar and white pepper and add the water as before.
Mix and then knead the dough until it is smooth and elastic. (The word stotty is believed to be derived from the local word of “stotting” which means to bounce, and I remember my grandmother “bouncing” her bread on the kitchen table for ages! So, don’t be shy when kneading.) This bread needs to be well kneaded for at least ten minutes.
Cover the bowl with a clean tea towel and set to one side, somewhere warm, to allow the dough to rise. This will take about an hour, and the dough should have doubled in size before you can use it.
Pre-heat oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6. Butter or grease some large baking sheets.
Put the dough onto a floured board and divide it into two equal pieces; roll the dough out to make two large flat discs, about 1” (2/5cm) thick and then stick the end of a rolling pin in the middle of the dough to make an indentation. You can also prick the top of the bread with a fork too.
Place the Stotty Cakes onto the prepared baking sheets and bake in the pre-heated oven for 15 minutes, before turning the oven off and leaving them in there for up to half an hour to continue to bake.
Serve warm with butter, jam, treacle, honey or cheese, ham and Pease pudding.

Notes

Our family recipe is always better if made with the remnants of some basic white bread dough, and cooked on the bottom of a hot oven that has been turned off to cool.