Spooks graduate in the middle of cottage making bread (8)
I believe the answer is:
ciabatta
'bread' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'spooks graduate in the middle of cottage' is the wordplay.
'spooks' becomes 'CIA' (spooks can mean spies).
'graduate' becomes 'BA' (someone with a Bachelor of Arts degree).
'in the middle of' means to look at the middle letters (I've seen 'in the middle' mean this).
The centre of 'cottage' is 'tta'.
'cia'+'ba'+'tta'='CIABATTA'
'making' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for ciabatta that I've seen before include "Light flat Italian bread" , "Light Italian bread made with olive oil" , "Variety of Italian bread" , "Loaf" , "Type of Italian bread" .)