Behind every great product lies a great process. Like this video which shows the process of Sriracha-making or this article about the production process of bagels at Sadelle's, you can see that making a great product is more than about finding the right ingredient, or utilizing a good preparation technique. For complex processes (like those that involve fermentation), key decision points need to be formalized and made consistent.
One of the things that has impressed me is that though many herald Chad Robertson's Tartine Bread as a Great Leap Forward in breadmaking, few bakeries and fewer home baker's have instituted his methods wholesale with similarly fantastic results. Even the loaf that was brought back to me from his bakery was very good, though not as jaw-dropping as I had imagined it (it had also flown 2000 miles).
For Robertson's bread, there are several key components that I will detail here that make the very best naturally risen bread difficult to produce on a large (or small) scale: 1) Yeast activity of the starter. The natural yeast used must be fed and maintained on a schedule so that it is active enough to give the bread a good rise. Else, the artisan loaves are quite dense. 2) Levain timing. The levain, or starter that is used reaches a certain ripeness between 8 and 12 hours after is is mixed. Too short, and the bread will not have good sour notes. Too long, and the bread will not have any sweet notes. 3) Overnight timing. Because the levain takes 8 to 12 hours to ripen, and the bulk rising time can be about four hours, this bread really needs 16 to 20 hours of attention. Because most baker's shifts are not longer than 10 to 12 hours, part of the work needs to be done by one set of bakers, and part done by another set. Anytime one is dividing the work on one product between two teams over multiple shifts, communication and process formalization is of the utmost importance. The other option is to refrigerate during part of the process, which is not preferred as refrigerated naturally-risen doughs tend to produce more lactic acid (sour flavor) and tend to wipe out the acetic acids (sweet flavor). 4) The mess. Many bakeries and home bakers steer clear of complex artisan recipes because natural starters usually rely on hydration (water content) values greater than 66%. What this means is that at least 15% and maybe as much as 30% of the flour and water one is working with is somewhere in consistency between a sticky liquid and a paste. There's a reason why they call it wheat paste - it adheres to everything (including your skin) and is time-consuming to clean. So just from a logistical standpoint, using rising buckets or tubs that are coated in sticky, soon to be dried bits of hardened flour presents the baking team potentially with hours more work just in clean-up. So the difference in flavor of the artisan bread better be well worth it!
Read more on Tartine's bread here: http://blog.berenbaums.com/2012/10/deconstructing-chad.html
Thursday, July 16, 2015
Wednesday, July 8, 2015
Zach's Visit
Zach is a cousin of mine who was interested in baking so he came and visited for a week from New Jersey while on Summer vacation. He is eleven, and did a fantastic job working with our staff. Here is his story:
I got interested in baking because of its many interesting aspects. It seemed enjoyable, but something I would have to put effort into doing. Making food for the public was something I'd never done before, so I tried it at the Ninth Street Bakery, where my cousin works.
Since I've got here I've done a lot at the bakery. I've learned how to form croissants, and other pastries. I made and bagged chocolate cookies. I put stickers and labels on bags, folded and made cake boxes, helped make sour dough bread, made biscotti, formed bagels before they went onto the stove to boil, made dog treats, I helped make fourth of July cookies, helped make cinnamon rolls, made bear claws (another pastry), and helped make a lemon cake.
I'm motivated to bake because of baking's many fascinating aspects: Baking things, the smells of the food, the taste of the food when it comes out, the way you can fold, or mess with the ingredients to make the food better or more interesting, and the amount of different, and good tasting things you can make with a simple set of ingredients.
Zach
I got interested in baking because of its many interesting aspects. It seemed enjoyable, but something I would have to put effort into doing. Making food for the public was something I'd never done before, so I tried it at the Ninth Street Bakery, where my cousin works.
Since I've got here I've done a lot at the bakery. I've learned how to form croissants, and other pastries. I made and bagged chocolate cookies. I put stickers and labels on bags, folded and made cake boxes, helped make sour dough bread, made biscotti, formed bagels before they went onto the stove to boil, made dog treats, I helped make fourth of July cookies, helped make cinnamon rolls, made bear claws (another pastry), and helped make a lemon cake.
I'm motivated to bake because of baking's many fascinating aspects: Baking things, the smells of the food, the taste of the food when it comes out, the way you can fold, or mess with the ingredients to make the food better or more interesting, and the amount of different, and good tasting things you can make with a simple set of ingredients.
What We're Working On
I think it's always nice to keep our customers informed of new product drops and testing. Most of these items are either available Downtown or soon to be available:
Artisan Bread: We are testing natural starter yeasts for activity multiple times a week, putting out small batches of artisan breads, baguettes, bagels, and bialys.
Sriracha: We are brining red jalapenos in vinegar, sugar, salt, and spices, then cooking them down and pureeing into a ruby red fresh sriracha.
Italian Butter Cookies: We now have for sale every day Italian Shortbread Sprinkle Butter Cookies. Intensely delectable.
Double Chocolate Morsels: We are taking the best qualities of our double chocolate cookies and reducing them into a bite-sized morsel of textured buttery chocolate that will be available in a twelve ounce tin.
Sandwich Specials: We are excited by the popularity of our rotating sandwich specials, including the Italian, the Heirloom Tomato, the Curried Chicken Salad, and the Pimento Cheese.
Ketchup from Scratch: We are procuring local tomatoes, brining them in vinegar, water, salt, and spices, then cooking down and pureeing into a local fresh ketchup.
Artisan Bread: We are testing natural starter yeasts for activity multiple times a week, putting out small batches of artisan breads, baguettes, bagels, and bialys.
Sriracha: We are brining red jalapenos in vinegar, sugar, salt, and spices, then cooking them down and pureeing into a ruby red fresh sriracha.
Italian Butter Cookies: We now have for sale every day Italian Shortbread Sprinkle Butter Cookies. Intensely delectable.
Double Chocolate Morsels: We are taking the best qualities of our double chocolate cookies and reducing them into a bite-sized morsel of textured buttery chocolate that will be available in a twelve ounce tin.
Sandwich Specials: We are excited by the popularity of our rotating sandwich specials, including the Italian, the Heirloom Tomato, the Curried Chicken Salad, and the Pimento Cheese.
Ketchup from Scratch: We are procuring local tomatoes, brining them in vinegar, water, salt, and spices, then cooking down and pureeing into a local fresh ketchup.
Wednesday, June 24, 2015
Bonus Reading: How April Bloomfield of The Spotted Pig passed Mario Batali's 15-second interview test:
Friedman called. Neither he nor Batali had ever tasted Bloomfield’s cooking, but Batali said that if he met her he’d be able to tell in fifteen seconds whether she was right for the job. (Friedman and Batali are at least as good at mythmaking as they are at spotting talent.) So, in the spring of 2003, Bloomfield flew to New York for a job interview that turned out to be something between a fraternity rush and a competitive eating event: tuna burgers at Union Square Café, dumplings at Joe’s Shanghai, lobster rolls at Pearl Oyster Bar, pastrami sandwiches at the Carnegie Deli, apple cider at the Greenmarket in Union Square. Friedman’s pièce de résistance was a blowout feast—“this ten-hour, like, eating fest” at Lupa, which Batali partly owns—that only Bloomfield seems to recall. “We had spaghetti with eels, which I’d never had before,” she said. “There was headcheese, on a slightly warm plate, so that when you picked it up it dripped off your fork. Then we went to Babbo and ate there, too—lifeboat squid with caperberries, beef-cheek ravioli, stuffed quail.” Bloomfield was in: “I’d never seen a quail tunnel-boned. It totally blew my mind.” Thanks to a missing fingernail and some scars on her forearms, she had passed the fifteen-second test. Friedman recalled, “Mario said, ‘It means she’ll sacrifice her body. She’s a star. I can tell.’ ”
Friedman called. Neither he nor Batali had ever tasted Bloomfield’s cooking, but Batali said that if he met her he’d be able to tell in fifteen seconds whether she was right for the job. (Friedman and Batali are at least as good at mythmaking as they are at spotting talent.) So, in the spring of 2003, Bloomfield flew to New York for a job interview that turned out to be something between a fraternity rush and a competitive eating event: tuna burgers at Union Square Café, dumplings at Joe’s Shanghai, lobster rolls at Pearl Oyster Bar, pastrami sandwiches at the Carnegie Deli, apple cider at the Greenmarket in Union Square. Friedman’s pièce de résistance was a blowout feast—“this ten-hour, like, eating fest” at Lupa, which Batali partly owns—that only Bloomfield seems to recall. “We had spaghetti with eels, which I’d never had before,” she said. “There was headcheese, on a slightly warm plate, so that when you picked it up it dripped off your fork. Then we went to Babbo and ate there, too—lifeboat squid with caperberries, beef-cheek ravioli, stuffed quail.” Bloomfield was in: “I’d never seen a quail tunnel-boned. It totally blew my mind.” Thanks to a missing fingernail and some scars on her forearms, she had passed the fifteen-second test. Friedman recalled, “Mario said, ‘It means she’ll sacrifice her body. She’s a star. I can tell.’ ”
Tuesday, June 23, 2015
On Proust's Olfactory Sense
Much has been made of Proust's madaleine, but in this example, we see his union of language and smell intersect in a way that proves that the olfactory and the brain must be conjoined in a manner of exceedingly powerful sensitivity. This is the narrator describing the rooms of his Aunt Leonie's house:
The air of those rooms was saturated with the fine bouquet of a silence so nourishing, so succulent that I could not enter them without a sort of greedy enjoyment, particularly on those first mornings, chilly still, of the Easter holidays, when I could taste it more fully, because I had just arrived then at Combray: before I went in to wish my aunt good day I would be kept waiting a little time in the outer room, where the sun, a wintry sun still, had crept in to warm itself before the fire, lighted already between its two brick sides and plastering all the room and everything in it with a smell of soot, making the room like one of those great open hearths which one finds in the country, or one of the canopied mantelpieces in old castles under which one sits hoping that in the world outside it is raining or snowing, hoping almost for a catastrophic deluge to add the romance of shelter and security to the comfort of a snug retreat; I would turn to and fro between the prayer-desk and the stamped velvet armchairs, each one always draped in its crocheted antimacassar, while the fire, baking like a pie the appetising smells with which the air of the room, was thickly clotted, which the dewy and sunny freshness of the morning had already 'raised' and started to 'set,' puffed them and glazed them and fluted them and swelled them into an invisible though not impalpable country cake, an immense puff-pastry, in which, barely waiting to savour the crustier, more delicate, more respectable, but also drier smells of the cupboard, the chest-of-drawers, and the patterned wall-paper I always returned with an unconfessed gluttony to bury myself in the nondescript, resinous, dull, indigestible, and fruity smell of the flowered quilt.
The air of those rooms was saturated with the fine bouquet of a silence so nourishing, so succulent that I could not enter them without a sort of greedy enjoyment, particularly on those first mornings, chilly still, of the Easter holidays, when I could taste it more fully, because I had just arrived then at Combray: before I went in to wish my aunt good day I would be kept waiting a little time in the outer room, where the sun, a wintry sun still, had crept in to warm itself before the fire, lighted already between its two brick sides and plastering all the room and everything in it with a smell of soot, making the room like one of those great open hearths which one finds in the country, or one of the canopied mantelpieces in old castles under which one sits hoping that in the world outside it is raining or snowing, hoping almost for a catastrophic deluge to add the romance of shelter and security to the comfort of a snug retreat; I would turn to and fro between the prayer-desk and the stamped velvet armchairs, each one always draped in its crocheted antimacassar, while the fire, baking like a pie the appetising smells with which the air of the room, was thickly clotted, which the dewy and sunny freshness of the morning had already 'raised' and started to 'set,' puffed them and glazed them and fluted them and swelled them into an invisible though not impalpable country cake, an immense puff-pastry, in which, barely waiting to savour the crustier, more delicate, more respectable, but also drier smells of the cupboard, the chest-of-drawers, and the patterned wall-paper I always returned with an unconfessed gluttony to bury myself in the nondescript, resinous, dull, indigestible, and fruity smell of the flowered quilt.
- From: Swann's Way, Vol. I
From what I understand of our sensations is that if sight has the capacity to detect depth via parallax, and hearing can detect sound via the varying pressure of air against the cilia in our eardrums, then the olfactory must be some kind of mashup of these senses. It must have the capacity to enfold memory in a way that is inherently "brain-like", by which I mean it is multidimensional. Perhaps the olfactory bulb was the first model for the brain in the evolutionary spectrum, before specialized senses like hearing and sight were even possible.
From what I understand of our sensations is that if sight has the capacity to detect depth via parallax, and hearing can detect sound via the varying pressure of air against the cilia in our eardrums, then the olfactory must be some kind of mashup of these senses. It must have the capacity to enfold memory in a way that is inherently "brain-like", by which I mean it is multidimensional. Perhaps the olfactory bulb was the first model for the brain in the evolutionary spectrum, before specialized senses like hearing and sight were even possible.
Monday, June 1, 2015
A New Food Truck and Craft Market Thrives on Hunt Street
It's so amazing how the Hunt Street Market has taken off.
Once deemed a threat to the Durham Farmer's Market, the Hunt Street Market is now drawing more and more visitors each weekend.
I remember back in the Winter of 2011 when we were the only ones setting up there (OnlyBurger would join us occasionally), and then BikeCoffee came, then PiePushers, then Monuts, until the line of trucks stretched down the length of Hunt Street.
It's a wonderful feeling to wake early in the morning and bring the families and individuals of Durham fresh-baked organic breads, pastries, and donuts.
Thanks to all of our customers for supporting local business and helping a local market to grow!
Once deemed a threat to the Durham Farmer's Market, the Hunt Street Market is now drawing more and more visitors each weekend.
I remember back in the Winter of 2011 when we were the only ones setting up there (OnlyBurger would join us occasionally), and then BikeCoffee came, then PiePushers, then Monuts, until the line of trucks stretched down the length of Hunt Street.
It's a wonderful feeling to wake early in the morning and bring the families and individuals of Durham fresh-baked organic breads, pastries, and donuts.
Thanks to all of our customers for supporting local business and helping a local market to grow!
Wednesday, April 8, 2015
Product Review: Heinz Sriracha Ketchup
In the wake of the multitude of Sriracha-themed products entering the market comes Heinz' Sriracha ketchup. A good idea poorly executed, I was saddened to read the small print when I returned home from market -- there is no actual Sriracha in this ketchup, Sriracha "flavoring" only.
What does it taste like? Ketchup mixed with dehydrated barbecue sauce. It's not even spicy (I would grade it a one or two out of ten). There is very little red chili flavor, almost no sour flavor, and the salt is muted by the sweet molasses and tomato flavors. Sriracha lovers should pass. The only question I have is what I should do with the rest of this bottle.
What does it taste like? Ketchup mixed with dehydrated barbecue sauce. It's not even spicy (I would grade it a one or two out of ten). There is very little red chili flavor, almost no sour flavor, and the salt is muted by the sweet molasses and tomato flavors. Sriracha lovers should pass. The only question I have is what I should do with the rest of this bottle.
Tuesday, March 31, 2015
Wednesday, March 18, 2015
Update
Lots of good stuff going on at the bakery - worthy of an update:
- Crocuses and daffodils are up, magnolias are budding - Spring is officially here.
- Made some amazing Irish Soda Breads for St. Patricks Day. We use 90% wholegrain wheat flour, just like the Irish used to do before white flour became widely available. White flour was the flour of the rich back in the day. Buttermilk was also used historically because it was a byproduct of butter churning and would otherwise be a waste product.
- Two weeks ago we baked some delicious crumb donuts and bagels. These are coming back Saturday thanks to our new collaboration with Noah R-B, previously of Bread Uprising.
- Noah is also putting together a vegan brunch menu for this Sunday - not to be missed!
Track of the week:
- Crocuses and daffodils are up, magnolias are budding - Spring is officially here.
- Made some amazing Irish Soda Breads for St. Patricks Day. We use 90% wholegrain wheat flour, just like the Irish used to do before white flour became widely available. White flour was the flour of the rich back in the day. Buttermilk was also used historically because it was a byproduct of butter churning and would otherwise be a waste product.
- Two weeks ago we baked some delicious crumb donuts and bagels. These are coming back Saturday thanks to our new collaboration with Noah R-B, previously of Bread Uprising.
- Noah is also putting together a vegan brunch menu for this Sunday - not to be missed!
Track of the week:
Sunday, March 8, 2015
Going Back to My Roots
This past weekend at Farmer's Market and Downtown, we brought out some chocolate, old fashioned, and sugar-raised crumb donuts. They were delectable. They very first day I operated a solo bakestand (in 2011), we had red velvet donuts and Irish soda bread, so it felt like a return of sorts to make donuts again after a long hiatus. Be on the lookout for more donuts coming in the next couple of weeks. Many thanks to Noah R. for helping with the bake, as well as with the Durham Water Bagels we sent to market. Lastly, big ups to our dedicated market sellers, Brian and Michael, and to our enthusiastic market regulars.
Thursday, February 19, 2015
Monday, February 2, 2015
Sunday, February 1, 2015
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