AN award-winning Bradford bakery with “warm-hearted” customers has reached the final of a competition run by the Telegraph & Argus.

The T&A recently launched its Best Bakery 2024 competition, with readers invited to share their favourite businesses.

Nominations were made through our online voting platform and they have now been whittled down to the final 10.

Today we are highlighting The Idle Bakery & Cafe which began trading on Bradford Road in Idle in 2019.

Gosia Liwanowska uses traditional family recipes to bake breadGosia Liwanowska uses traditional family recipes to bake bread (Image: Newsquest)

The bakery is run by Gosia Liwanowska and Marcin Wysocki.

Gosia, who came from Poland to England in 2015, started to make bread in 2016 following recipes from her mum and grandmother.

“We bake everything from scratch,” she said. “It is only natural ingredients and we use old recipes. Everything you can buy here is prepared by ourselves."

Assistant manager Hannah Bentley: “Gosia’s had recipes in her family and that’s what she taught us here.

Gosia Liwanowska takes some bread rolls out of the ovenGosia Liwanowska takes some bread rolls out of the oven (Image: Newsquest)

“It’s an honour for our bakery to be nominated. We won the Best Artisan Bakery in West Yorkshire at the 2023 and 2024 Restaurant and Bar Awards and now we’ve be nominated for the T&A Best Bakery award.

“The awards and nominations show how much we do for our customers.

“We do everything including bread, scones, pies and cakes. We also have Polish cuisine as we’re known as a Polish bakery.

Idle Bakery & Cafe, on Bradford Road, IdleIdle Bakery & Cafe, on Bradford Road, Idle (Image: Newsquest)

“But we’re also happy to change things to fit our customers’ needs. We adapt to what they want.

“One thing that we’ve started to make is jams and chutneys. They have proved popular.

“We had one customer tell us that we healed her broken heart after we made a jam that she had only known her grandma to make.

“It’s really sweet the things you hear from customers. I make all the cakes and it’s absolutely amazing to hear all the compliments. It warms your heart.”

Don't miss out on your chance to vote for who you think should win the T&A Best Bakery 2024.

All you need to do is fill out the voting form, which can be found in the T&A.

The voting coupon will run in the newspaper until September 14, so there is plenty of opportunity to make sure the bakery you think is the best is in with a chance of taking the top spot.