A love of croissants and a desire to have their own bread product for their toasties sparked an idea for Ballarat cafe owners LeRoy Hand and Belinda Pilcher.
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The pair have been selling toasties for three years both at The Orchard Cafe in Lucas and their newer location - The Turret on Sturt Street.
Mr Hand said they were looking at different options for suppliers.
"We ventured down to a cafe in Melbourne and they baked their own bread, so we brought the idea back and it grew from there," he said.
While the original goal was to secure their own products for the cafe, there has also been interest in whole loaves.
"We pride ourselves on delivering an amazing product time and time again and knowing that we could make our own bread, that was the goal," Mr Hand said.
Sourdough became a viral social media trend during COVID-19 lockdowns.
Mr Hand said he thinks this also means consumers have more knowledge about the difficult process behind the bread.
"I think they learned during COVID that it is a really technical process," he said
"It's very time consuming and so now they're willing to pay for the expertise to make it."
The bakery operations are housed at the back of The Turret in a room which used to be for dry storage.
Originally Mr Hand was planning to look for a second site to bake in.
"When we first walked in, we never thought that this was potentially a bakery," he said.
It was only when they were tidying up and a family member pointed out how big the space was were they able to see its potential.
During the first few weeks of January the focus will be on their bread, including sourdough, baguettes, Red Duck grain loaf, Turkish loaf and fruit loaf.
Mr Hand said pies, sausage rolls and pastries are in the works and should be on the bakery shelves by the end of the month.