Have You Tried Craft Bread?

When I was growing up, my mom got really into making homemade bread. I think bread machines were kind of a “thing” for a while.

After a few years she decided that it would be easier to just buy bread from the grocery store, so most of the sandwiches I ate in high school were on pre-sliced whole grain bread (I think the brand is Branola?).

As an adult, I’ve bought almost all of my bread from grocery stores. That is, I haven’t sought out stand-alone bakeries–it’s easier and more cost-effective to just buy bread with the rest of my groceries.

But it appears that I’ve been missing out on some great bread.

This past weekend, we ordered pizza from Union Loafers again (this time WITH cheese). On a whim while placing the order, I added a few loaves of bread to my cart. The apocalypse has made my body want carbs more than normal.

I have to say, the bread is incredible. As you can see in the photo, it’s light and airy with a crust that’s covered in sesame seeds. It eats well toasted or untoasted, and it barely needs the touch of butter I apply to it.

It’s pretty much everything I’ve always wanted in life.

I’m not saying that all bread I eat from now on will be craft bread, but it’s hard to be excited about anything else. Fortunately, my grocery store sells some local craft bread–it’s not quite Union Loafers quality, but it will do. Otherwise, if Union Loafers starts a subscription delivery service that I could set up for once-a-week deliveries, I won’t be able to resist.

Have you tried craft bread? What did you think? What’s your favorite bakery?

4 thoughts on “Have You Tried Craft Bread?”

  1. Definitely. In fact if there’s one positive thing that’s come from isolation it’s that I’ve started baking bread at home again.

    Some years ago I used to make Sourdough bread at home (for almost 2 years I think). It would involve about 24 hours over the weekend, but only about 20 minutes of work in that period. I’d make two loaves on Sunday, and they’d last us the week.

    Now I’ve broken out our now quite old bread machine which I use for just preparing the dough. Then I form the loaf or rolls or whatever and bake it in the oven. There’s nothing quite like the smell of fresh bread straight out of the oven in the house. It really only takes about 5-10 minutes of work, and elapsed time is about 3 hours from start to finish. A few minutes to get the mixture into the bread machine, just under two hours in the bread machine on the pizza dough setting, and then a brief knead and put it in the oven for about 20 minutes.

    And it’s so easy with prepared bread mix from the supermarket. There’s about 8 different varieties I can purchase at our local one including Sourdough, Brioche, Spelt, Stoneground, Wholegrain or just plain crusty white.

    If you haven’t tried it (even with hand mixing) I suggest you do it at least once. And if you do it from the raw ingredients it can be very cheap, especially with Sourdough as once you’re established with a starter it’s just flour and water.

    Reply
  2. Yes! We still buy grocery store bread for the kids because they prefer the simplicity, but Laura and I absolutely LOVE the sourdough brioche loaf (I think it’s the brioche and not the rustic) from Knead Bakehouse on Hampton: https://www.kneadbakehouse.com/

    We’ve been doing their curbside pickup weekly!

    Reply

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