Transformed by the people who bake it, with passion and integrity.
Transformed over time by a balanced community of living cultures
It’s a simple recipe for enduring quality.
The Method
Levain
Each loaf begins with the starter or ‘levain’, a mix of equal parts flour, filtered water and wild yeasts that naturally live in Florida. Nurturing the perfect levain is like raising a family. You need to figure out what each member needs to reach their full potential, then create the perfect environment to make them feel safe. This environment where the wild yeast call home is something we take great care to create. These microorganisms are the life force of our bread. We mix it the day before baking then let it rest in a tempered room where the natural yeasts can thrive, slowly fermenting over the next 14 hours.
Dough
We mix flour, sea salt, filtered water and started and there we have our bread dough. For the next 60 minutes, we let the dough hydrate and relax. Resting the dough, a technique that creates a beautiful open crumb. We ferment our bread slowly over a long period of time to maximize nutrients and digestibility.
Bake
Our loaves are shaped by hand before being proofed overnight in a wooden basket known as a ‘banneton’. The loaves are left to cold ferment between 12-16 hours before our bakers individually score each one with a razor known as a ‘lame’. Finally, the loaves are baked on the stone hearth of the oven.
What we look for in a loaf: Contrast
Dark, Glistening, Burnished, Caramelized crust
and
a delacate, custardy, sweet and lightly acidic crumb
Keeping & Storing
So, you ate a loaf and have a little bit left over. Now i’m sure you are just debating eating the rest of it, but you know the right thing to do is store it. What do you do?
Best Practice:
bread is best kept in a breadbox, but also keeps well in a muslin bag, or a paper bag loosely covered with a plastic bag (not sealed) at room temperature.If sealed, the moisture from the inside of the loaf will soften the crust.
But lets be honest….
we live in florida the crust is going to get soft because we have 4,000,000% humidity in the air! Many times we will simply throw our leftover loaf in a ziplock and reheat in an oven or toaster.
To reheat a loaf from room temperature:
place the loaf uncovered in a 300 degree oven for 10-15 minutes, depending on the size. If it is large, it may be necessary to cover it with a piece of aluminum foil to prevent the crust from burning.
To reheat a loaf from frozen:
Wrap it in aluminum foil before freezing. Before eating, bring to room temperature (1-2 hours), and place it in a 300 degree oven with the foil still on. The time the loaf takes to heat through will vary. Take the foil off for the last 10 minutes to crisp the crust.
Pre-slicing the loaf before freezing is another great way to have a quick toasted slice of bread!
