Pie in the sky goal becomes reality for Shepp bakery

By Kayla Jones

Jun 26, 2024

Baker Matt Daniel with the assorted award-winning pies and pastries. Photo by Rechelle Zammit

Bakeries may well be the hidden stars of Shepparton’s culinary offerings, and now another local gem has joined the ranks of pie, pastry and slice royalty.

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Baking Dough Bakery, nestled in the heart of Shepparton’s CBD on Maude St, is the pride and joy of husband-and-wife duo Peter and Melissa De Temple.

Over the weekend, the pair travelled to Melbourne for Australia’s Best Pie and Pastie Competition, where they proudly took home an impressive stack of awards, including a gold medal for a uniquely Australian flavour.

In total, Baking Dough won nine silvers and six bronzes for their vast selection of pies.

The success didn’t stop there, with owner Mr De Temple revealing that the total number of awards won was closer to 20.

Baking Dough Bakery owner Peter De Temple. Photo by Rechelle Zammit

Among the silver award winners were the classic ‘plain’ chunky steak pie, the flavourful ‘parmi pie’ which won two silvers, and the mouth-watering cheeseburger, lamb souvlaki, and barbecue meatlovers pies.

The real star of the show however was the spiced roo and chunky vegetable pie, which was crowned best in Australia.

Mr De Temple said that Dale Chandler, the bakery's head baker, was the true mastermind behind the gourmet pies that decorate their menu.

“We have done the kangaroo pie once before. Dale does a lot of flavoured pies, and since we’d done that one before and the competition was coming up, we thought we’d bring it back,” Mr De Temple said.

“Last year, we did ‘pie of the week’ in winter. Every week we tried a different flavour, which is why we have a lot.”

While the bakery is not continuing 'pie of the week' this year, its menu boasts the very best instalments from past years, carefully curated to delight local taste buds.

“(Our speciality is) definitely our huge range of flavoured pies and pastries,” Mr De Temple said.

“We have vegetarian options as well, the cauliflower pie is probably our most popular. A lot of people comment on it.”

The cauliflower might be the fan favourite, but Mr De Temple personally believes you can’t beat a good old, classic “plain” steak pie or sausage roll.

“Before I had my own bakery, I always ate my pies with sauce. Now I don’t,” he said.

“We’re one of the few places in Shepparton that do wholesale as well; we supply a lot of flavoured pies wholesale.”

The couple took over the business in late 2018.

Mr De Temple admits “there were a few rough years” during the pandemic, but now the business has come into its own and is “going strong” between wholesale supply and shop sales.

And it’s all thanks to the amazing team of staff that work hard both front of house and behind the scenes.

“All of our staff are really good. We get along well, and help each other out. It’s really a team effort,” he said.