Baking our own bread

Fermenting a levain for the european styled sourdoughs, now being baked by hand at the Chez.






We've always prided ourselves on the quality of the bread at the Chez. But it's always been kind of a sore spot with me that we didn't bake it ourselves from scratch. It's also been a drag on our economy to buy the bread, because I couldn't see paying for bread that wasn't good... So I got the best bread available to me. And it was pretty darn good. And pretty darned expensive.

Now, with the economy going sour, and people cutting costs, we've decided that it's time to start baking our own. I think it's the right decision. And I hope you will, too. Over the next few months we'll invest in a better baking stone situation for the ovens, and get a high-powered mixer to do some of the kneading, but for now it's all kneaded by hand, by me. We're turning out dense, hearty whole wheat loaves, airy baguettes, deliciously moist potato breads and we're starting to make some ryes and traditional european sourdoughs. Loaves are available for sale, and we hope you'll feel free to give us feedback on the breads.