Madrid’s bakeries are recovering traditions that have almost disappeared while innovating at the same time. The smell of fermenting flour, the crunch of the crust or the soft touch of your hands through the floury remains are such simple pleasures that this basic sustenance provides.
Pleasures that had been lost, especially in the big cities, where finding sourdough bread ten years ago was very difficult. But the tables have turned, especially as a result of confinement, and the value of this food that has been and is essential in our daily lives has been restored.
1. Acid Bakehouse
Acid Bakehouse is a coffee shop with a bakery that, according to Club Matador, had the best bread in Madrid in 2022. Acid, like many of the things that succeed in this life, started out as one thing and became another. First, in 2017 he opened Acid Café, a specialty coffee shop that continues to provide service to anyone who frequents 9 Veronica Street.
In the middle of the pandemic, the owners decided to take a step forward and opened Acid Bakehouse, a small bakery where they make artisan breads and pastries, in the Lavapiés neighborhood.
Calle de la Magdalena, 27 (Lavapiés)
2. Obrador San Francisco
El Obrador San Francisco also has been awarded as the best in Madrid in 2019. Their excellent breads are handmade with stone-ground organic flours and a sourdough with a long fermentation time of 24 to 48 hours.
Carrera de San Francisco, 14 (La Latina)
3. Panic
At Panic they are bread purists. It is a sourdough bread, without much frills, but with a lot of foundation, hard crust and spongy crumb inside. Javier Marca, the owner, defends the fact that he was one of the first bakeries where bread is made to order, so that everything is always sold avoiding surpluses. Panic now has three spaces: the original in Conde Duque, a stall in the Chamberí Market and La Nave, which only sells to the public in the mornings.
Calle del Conde Duque, 13 (Conde Duque); Calle de Rosario Romero, 6 (La Nave) and Calle de Alonso Cano, 10 (Chamberí)
4. Panod
At Panod, they claim a natural production process. They describe it this way on their Instagram account: “Simple and very complicated at the same time: if we don’t knead it ourselves, we don’t sell it.”
They already have five stores, with their bakeries in full view, for maximum transparency of the work they do. Most of their breads are made with sourdough, except for the sliced breads where they add a pinch of baker’s yeast. As they explain on their website, the important thing is not only the sourdough, but also the fermentation time (their breads ferment for 18 hours).
5. Leon The Baker
Leon The Baker is a particular bakery for several reasons: they deliver to your home, everything is gluten-free, lactose-free and preservative-free and they also have an organic line. It fulfills all the requirements to not put a single fault on the bread. In addition, they are committed to the search for new ingredients, textures and healthy formulas, so you can find breads as diverse as kombucha bread or charcoal loaf.
6. Proust’s Madeleine
Laura Martínez and Néstor Calvo, the founders of La Magdalena de Proust, left their careers in the film industry and put their “hands to the dough” to study in depth the ingredients, processes and fermentations. Thus, more than ten years ago, they became pioneers in Madrid in making 100% sourdough bread, using only organic flours and no additives. It also has a small selection of organic products to offer its public an alternative supermarket.
Calle Bravo Murillo, 54 (Tetuán); Calle de la Batalla del Salado, 3 (Lavapiés) and Calle de Pelayo, 43 (Jusicia)
7. Flour
In Harina they work with sourdough, flour, water and salt. To which they add long fermentations and the absence of additives. The flours they work with are of high quality. They knead wheat, rye, whole wheat, Kamut and spelt flours, which are more digestive and tasty than the rest. All the breads are artisan and strictly natural, among them the rural bread, the walnut and raisin bread, the olive bread and the rye-honey bread. They also have an online store.
8. Bread.Delirium
Pan.delirio is an artisan bakery that works with sourdough in its elaborations, subjected to slow fermentations. Afterwards, they do cold resting to allow the doughs to mature; also, stone-baked to achieve healthy breads, authentic aromas and flavors.
They make up to 14 different types of bread daily, all with certified, additive-free, organic and whole grain milled flours. At 2019 were awarded with the Miga de Oro award.
Calle Juan Bravo, 21 (Lista); Calle Profesor Waksman, 8 (Hispanoamérica); Calle del Naranjo, 7 (Tetuán) and at El Corte Inglés de Castellana.
9. Moega
In Moega, Galician bread and empanadas are made in a more traditional way. This small bakery in the Barrio de las Letras has recovered breads such as Broa de maíz, which was quite common in the northwest peninsular. In addition to sourdough bread, with slow rising and carefully selected flours, Moega specializes in making empanadas, in which they take care of both the dough and the filling.
Calle del León, 26 (Las Letras)
10. Motherfriend
Madreamiga was born from the union of the renowned bakery La Miguiña, founded by Begoña San Pedro, with Hugo Rodríguez de Prada, co-founder of Grosso Napoletano. They work only with organic flours and the elaboration processes are extensive, working on some of the products up to 48 hours from the beginning of the kneading until the moment of tasting the pieces. Bread is its star product, among its different varieties, the Levain Bread stands out. For its elaboration, wheat and whole rye flours are used, stone-ground, being, in this case, a dough that requires two fermentations over 24 hours. They also have an online store.
11. One hundred and thirty º
Bread and coffee roaster. One hundred and thirty is the dream of the Miragoli brothers: one is passionate about the masses, the other about coffee. Thus, they joined forces to create the first specialty coffee roaster with a coffee roastery in Madrid. They work directly with suppliers who respect the original quality of the raw material and do so in a sustainable manner. They seek a balance between tradition and innovation because, as they themselves state:“traditional recipes can be reinterpreted and improved with respect“.
Calle Fernando el Católico, 17 (Chamberí); Calle Sánchez Pacheco, 20 (Prosperidad) and Mercado de la Paz
12. Obrador Clan
This artisan bakery has its own name, Nuño García. After being head pastry chef in national and international Michel star restaurants, he has opened this space with a small store full of puff pastries and breads, leaving the bakery as the main protagonist. After making the finest pastries, he has brought back the well-made classics to the area around Puerta de Toledo, where bread ovens were scarce.
Calle del Gasómetro, 11 (Acacias)
13. Galician Bread Museum
What claims to be the oldest bakery in Madrid – it has been open since 1884 – is still a gastronomic corner of Galicia where artisan bread is baked in a bakery that has been in operation for 50 years. From that wood-fired oven come out not only loaves of all kinds of flour, they also make empanadas and everything runs out. People order it and come from almost anywhere in Madrid to stock up.
Plaza de Herradores, 9, BAJO (center)
Bakeries in Madrid with their own bakery are in fashion, it’s a fact. But it’s one of those fads that almost everything it has brought is good. The breads are more expensive, that’s true (the average price of a loaf is around four euros) but the quality and the work involved is far superior to industrial bread.