The first bakery I ever worked in was called The Bread Garden in Berkeley, Ca. It was way ahead of its time, predating legendary bakeries like Acme Bread in Berkeley, Ca and Bread Alone in Boiceville, NY. These were the bakeries that started making Artisanal european style breads before anyone in the US knew what they were. To Americans, bread was white, squishy, pre-sliced mediocrity found in the bread aisle at the grocery store...
I recently took a trip back to my home state of California to visit some old friends and bakeries. Dave Miller is a bit of a legend in the small world of bread in the US, and I knew that this journey should start at his bakery, Millers Bakehouse, outside of Chico, Ca. Dave's bakery is unique, in that he's a one man show that supplies whole grain bread and pasta to the lucky few at the Saturday farmers...
Yeah, it's been awhile hasn't it? Well, I'm ready to get back into the swing of things, and I have an interesting flour to showcase… But, first for the noobs, there will be a new bread produced Thursday afternoons. It'll be the same for the month, then will change the following month. This is meant to be fun, and slightly experimental, so it is possible that something just might not come out right and it will not be available...
This has been a humbling experience. There are about 1,000,006 variables in making a loaf of bread that starts in the fields and ends in the bakery. Usually, flour is 100% usable and the rest lies in the skill of the baker. It turns out, I've had some funky flour to work with lately. I was starting to go crazy thinking I didn't know how to make bread anymore, and turned to Randy George of Red Hen Baking...
So what is Italian bread? If one was to walk into a bakery in Italy and ask for Italian Bread, they'd look at you, glance at the rack of breads popular in that particular region and laugh at the clueless tourist. Most of us were raised on one style. Fluffy white bread, generally made with strong flour for that explosion in the oven. The unappealing crust is pale and hard from no steam in the oven and stiff...
Our mill has arrived and we're so excited. This marks a new chapter in Seven Stars Bakery and how we treat our products. Starting this week, we have begun incorporating some of the fresh milled flour into our breads. Soon, all of the whole grain that goes into any Seven Stars Bakery bread or pastry will pass through our stone mill imported from Austria, the majority of which is sourced in the...