Batter & Dough

If you're passing through Gloucester, New South Wales, Batter & Dough is the kind of bakery that has people planning a return trip before they've left the counter. It's a sourdough bakery and patisserie, and the range runs wide: small batch breads naturally fermented for 24 hours, savoury pies, sausage rolls, pastries, desserts and custom-designed buttercream cakes made to order for special occasions.

The pies get plenty of attention locally. Beef pies with big, tender chunks of meat, cheese and bacon, steak and mushroom, and a pepper pie that one traveller picked as the standout after working through four of them over a few visits. People like the flaky pastry and a filling that's properly generous. The sausage rolls earn their own fans too.

On the sweet side, the vanilla slice is the one people keep raving about, with one local saying it was gone before they could snap a photo. The almond croissant gets similar praise for its crisp, flaky outside and creamy filling right to the edges, and the cinnamon scrolls are said to travel well in a backpack, which one motorbike rider put to the test. Cheesecake, tarts, donuts, lemon pound cake and muffins round out a counter that changes with the day, so the selection isn't always the same.

Sourdough is the heart of it, and people drop in just for a loaf. There's coffee and breakfast too, and plenty of people pair a pie or pastry with a flat white. We've heard the coffee is usually good, though not everyone found it as strong on later visits, and one visitor wished for a slightly bigger choice of pies and cold drinks.

The staff come across as friendly and easy to deal with. One local said they'd tell anyone who values good pastry to expect to pay a little more for the quality, and most seem to think it's worth it.

You can order takeaway, and they take cards and tap payments. The hours are limited, with a couple of days closed each week, so check before you head in.