Baking & Snack - March 2023 - 32

ARTISAN BREAD
" If you're supporting the
existing artisan bakeries,
you're trying to
keep up with the
times, " Mr. Reinhart
said. " They've all
moved into working
with local millers,
local farmers and ancient
grains if they can
get them. "
Mr. Frenkel said a theme
of his bakery is anything might
Bakers letting their
creative juices flow
are crafting tasty,
colorful, beautiful
breads.
Ceor
its intriguing color, " Mr. Kalanty said. " Its subtle, unique
flavor makes it a good accompaniment for Asian cuisine
ingredients, especially those with a natural sweetness.
His masala bread includes cilantro, curry leaves, turmeric
and onions. When you toast it, you think you're eating
a roti or naan. "
Another instance of this trend is bakers working with
microbreweries. They can incorporate the grains or malt
used in the beer or the beer itself to create breads or other
products to complement the beers.
" Where a brewery might use local grains to make a
signature stout, the baker might say, 'Let's take the same
grain and figure out how to make that into a pretzel,' or
'What can we do to put the flavor notes from that beer
in a bread and turn that into a grilled cheese for you?' "
Local and ancient grains
Bakers take inspiration from the local grains and other
foods grown in their areas to create breads and other
distinctive baked foods.
go. Not everything will work, but he wants to be open to
new ingredients that he can explore. And that includes
the local produce in his area.
" If there's a farmer who is growing something around
me and brings it to the farmers market, I'm interested, "
he said. " I would like to be part of that conversation because
that's what creates local cuisine, the farmers and
what they're growing. It's less about me seeking specific
ingredients and more about me enjoying all the fruits of
their labors. In my farmers market I'm lucky that many
of the farmers are very interested in esoteric produce. "
The wide variety of flours available today provides
bakers with plenty of new items to explore.
" We have a giant wall with containers of every grain
that you can get in North America and some that you
can't even get in North America, " Mr. Frenkel said. " It's
about 30 different grains. Most of them are sprouted
because we sprouted them and dried them up again. If
I want to make a bread, for example, with carrot juice,
ginger and einkorn, I can do that. "
BAKERS see a difference
milling flour in-house
Many artisan bakeries are milling
their own flour, a move that they
see as game changing.
Ceor has its own mill, and bakers
there have upwards of two dozen
grains at their disposal.
" The freshness is as important
in flour as it is in coffee or spices, "
said Guy Frenkel, Ceor's founder.
" The aromas, the oils really come
through in the breads. Second, it
allows us to make flours which are
unavailable elsewhere. "
32 Baking & Snack March 2023 / www.bakingbusiness.com
In-house milling is a detailed
undertaking and not for everyone,
cautioned Michael Kalanty, awardwinning
baker and R&D specialist.
But the nutritional benefits of it are
clear.
" It's so advantageous because on
a pound-per-pound basis, when you
freshly mill your grains, the nutritional
superiority to what you're getting
over commodity flour is off the
charts, " he said. " Whether it's wheat,
rye or oats, you're eating everything
the whole grain has to offer.
That means you're also getting the
oils that come with it, the vitamins
A, D, E and K, all that soluble fiber,
so you're really power packing the
nutrition. "
Other bakeries use boutique millers
that feature more variety.
" The quality is better, " said John
Friend, president of Farm to Market
Bread Co. " A lot of that can depend
on how the crops come in that year,
what the weather was like, what
protein levels you're going to get
out of the wheat. We'll be humming
right along with great flour,
then all of sudden we get some bad
batches, and the flour is absorbing
a ton of water and we have to make
adjustments on the fly, and it affects
our quality. "
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