Marquette Baking Company

We have been very busy this summer, and because of that, I’ve made some changes to the bread schedule.   I decided to remove a few breads that never sold all that well.  One of them was our spelt bread.  It saddened me to do it, but we were baking it every Thursday, and often we’d sell only 2 or 3 loaves.  It just didn’t make sense.

Of course, the first week we didn’t bake it, we started getting requests for it.  What we are going to do is put together a special mailing list of people who want to buy spelt bread.  When I can get together enough orders (10 loaves) for it, we’ll bake enough to fulfill the orders with a few extra to sample and sell in the shop.  Please email me if you want to be included on the list.

We will be baking spelt bread this Thursday again, so let me know if you’d like a loaf.

For those that don’t know, spelt is an ancient forerunner of wheat that contains some gluten, but many people that have sensitivities to wheat can eat it without any problems.  I personally like it because in it’s whole grain form (which is how we make it), it has a nice mild taste, unlike the harshness of whole wheat.

Another change I made to the schedule concerns our cardamom bread and saffron buns.  We have been baking cardamom bread only once a month on the first Thursday.  We’ve had a lot of interest in the cardamom bread, but unfortunately, it’s hard for customers to remember when we make it.  So now, we are going to bake the cardamom bread and saffron buns twice a month.  We will bake cardamom bread the first and third Thursdays, and saffron buns the second and forth Thursdays.  Hopefully that will help clear up the confusion.

I hope everyone is having a great summer!

Peter

Around we go again, back to the start.  The Marquette Farmers Market is where I started down this path 4 years ago with 60 loaves of bread.  This Saturday is the first market of the 2010 season.  The hours are 9am-2pm and I’ll be in my usual place on the Marquette Commons.  I’m dusting off the saw horses and old doors I use as tables.  Found and washed the table cloths.  Baskets — Check.  Lunch box for a change drawer.  The one item that’s still up in the air is my awning.  A gust of wind near the end of last season damaged it, and I didn’t order repair parts until last week.  If I don’t get them in time, I’ll have to be out in the sun for the first week, and from what the forecast says, it should be sunny and warm, just like the rest of this beautiful week.  Please come out to the Farmers market.  It’s a great way to spend a Saturday morning!

In addition to the Marquette market, our breads and cookies will be available at the Munising Farmers Market on Tuesdays from 4-7pm starting next week.  Rowan Bunce of Rock River Farms will be selling them at his stand there.

On Wednesdays starting next week, we will have a stand at the Jackson Mine (Negaunee) Market from 4:30-6:30pm.  If you are out on the West End, please stop in and say hello.

Peter

Wow!  It’s been over a month since my last post.  Sorry for the long break.  I got behind with the run-up to Easter, then I took the week after Easter off.  I still haven’t really gotten caught up.

Conchas

Today is Cinco de Mayo so we are doing a little Mexican style baking.  Conchas are large rolls or small breads made from a  rich sweet dough with a brightly colored sugar topping.  They are a staple of Mexican bakeries (Panaderias) and get their name because the colored topping is cut too look like a sea shell.  I’d always wanted to make them, mainly because they are so delightful to look at, and today is my chance.  They just came out of the oven, so stop in if you are interested.  We did not make many of them.

Lemon Bundt Cake

Mothers Day is also coming up this weekend.  We worked with our neighbor — Garden Bouquet & Design to create something special.  We are baking Lemon Bundt Cakes.  They aren’t too heavy and not too rich, but they have a lot of flavor.  The cake gets a thin lemon glaze and a dusting of powdered sugar, and then Garden Bouquet adds a small arrangement of fresh cut (food safe) flowers to the center.  It’s got everything a mother would love.

We are baking them in 3 sizes:  A large cake will serve up to 12, a small cake will serve up to 9, and a mini will serve 2.  The flower arrangements will scale with the cake.  Please order the bundt cakes in advance to pick up on Saturday.

The first Marquette Farmers Market of the season is two weeks from this Saturday and we still have a lot to do to get prepared for that.  One thing I wanted to do is teach a bread baking class, and now the only time available would be May15th.  So here’s the plan:

If 3 people sign up, then I’ll teach the class, and since it will be completely hands-on, 8 people are the most I can handle.  The class will start at 8am on Saturday the 15th, and will run until 1pm.  That will give us just enough time to bake some baguettes, and other things from the same dough.  The techniques you will learn can be applied to almost any other type of dough and we will discuss how to make those too.  We will also discuss now to work with sourdough starters and bread.

The course fee is $100, and it will include a copy of Ciril Hitz’s Baking Artisan Bread.  This is one of my favorite bread books because is  concise and well written with a lot of great pictures.  It focuses more on technique and less on recipes than most books.  It also includes an instructional DVD which shows a lot of the hand techniques that are difficult to describe in words, or even still pictures.  If you already have a copy of this book, then the course fee will be only $80.

Please let me know soon if you are interested in taking the class.

Peter

It’s only a little over a week until Easter, so it’s time to post all the special products we will have available.  In truth, we are keeping things pretty much the same as last year, so this is mostly a reworking of last year’s post about them.

Lamb Cakes are a tradition that is probably strongest in eastern Europe.  Our lamb is made from lemon zest butter cake, decorated with vanilla bean butter cream, and sitting on a bed of coconut “grass”.  One cake will serve 10 to 12 people.  They will be available for pick up on Friday or Saturday (April 2nd, or 3rd), and need to be ordered in advance.  We will not be baking any extras.

If you don’t need a full size cake, we will also be baking Chocolate Egg Cakes sized to serve 1 or 2.  They are layered and decorated with vanilla bean butter cream and marzipan.  They will be available Wed – Saturday before Easter.

Following the precedent we’ve set for other holidays, we will be baking a celebratory holiday bread that is spectacular!  Our Cardamon Easter Bread is made from cardamom spiced sweet dough heavily enriched with eggs, butter and brandy soaked golden raisins.  Strands of the dough are twisted into a ring and 3 colored Easter eggs are nested amongst the strands and baked right into the bread.  (The picture shows one made with 4 eggs.)  It tastes as good as it looks, and will serve 10 to 12 people.  The cardamom Easter bread will be available Saturday 3 April.

Sadly, this bread was my biggest disappointment of last year.  It was the first time we’d baked a cardamon bread, and I underestimated the amount of cardamon required to give it the flavor I wanted.  Also, the procedure we followed to get them baked in a timely manner, created a lot of condensation which washed most of the color off the eggs and onto the bread.  Since that time, we’ve been baking cardamon bread regularly and have our recipes tuned to the Yooper palette.  We also developed a new approach to baking the bread to avoid the condensation problem.  If you were disappointed last year, please give it another try.

Throughout lent, we have been baking Hot Cross Buns every Wednesday.  We will continue that during holy week, and also bake one final batch on Good Friday (April 2nd) — the day most associated with hot cross buns.   The buns are spiced with allspice and contain currants and golden raisins.  They are a traditional British favorite and the ones we make come from that tradition.

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We are continuing to make our delightfully rich and delicious Sugar Cookies as quickly as we can.  For Easter, they will be shaped and decorated as eggs, bunnies, chicks and other Easter classics.

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Another cookie we will be baking again next week is our Parisian Macaron.  These pastel colored, lavender, chocolate, or almond flavored meringue cookies are sandwiched together with buttercream.  One bite will transport you to springtime Paris.  They will be available Wednesday – Saturday (March 31st – April 3rd)

We will continue to bake our usual assortment of breads and french rolls throughout the week.  In addition we will be baking roll versions of our cracked wheat on Saturday.  Please call ahead so you are sure to have rolls for your Easter dinner.

Around the holidays, many items sell out quickly!  We accept special orders for any of our breads and pastries.  Please let us know what you want in advance so we can hold them for you.

I hope everyone has a happy Easter.  See you at the bakery!

Peter

We’re bouncing along from one holiday to the next.  It’s time celebrate all things Irish tomorrow!  We’ll be baking Irish Soda Bread, of course.  Soda bread is a simple everyday baking soda leavened bread and we’ll be baking 3 different versions:

First, we’ll have the most traditional version.  It’s known as “Brown Bread” in the republic, and “Wheaten” in the north.  It’s the same recipe we make every month on the 3rd Thursday and is made with coarse stone ground whole wheat flour.

For those looking for a lighter taste, we are making a White Soda Bread.  It has the same characteristic soda taste, but it is less dense, lighter in color and has milder flavor.

Finally, we will be making a dessert version known as Spotted Dog.  It is a sweetened version of the white soda bread with raisins.

For something richer and more celebratory, we will be baking Whiskey Brack again this year.  Whiskey Brack is a sweet, very buttery round bread loaded with Irish Whiskey soaked golden raisins and currants.  (Unfortunately, my supplier can’t get currants right now, so I am substituting dark midget raisins for them in all the items that normally have currants.)  It’s not really the same, but I think of it as the Irish version of the German Stollen we baked for Christmas.

Celtic Knot

What started out as a bit of fun, might turn out to be the most elegant pieces we’ve done in a while.  We will be turning some of our baguette dough into Celtic knots.  The knots can be used as dinner centerpieces , but then pulled apart and eaten.  I think we will need to use 2 Baguettes worth of dough to make each one, so there will be enough in each knot for several people.

For those with a sweet tooth, look for our cutout sugar cookies shaped and decorated as shamrocks.

I think that covers everything we’re doing for St. Patrick’s day this year.  We talked about Corned Beef and Cabbage Filled Croissant, but sorry, we weren’t organized enough to pull it together.  Maybe next year…

Peter

PS: Did you catch the front page Mining Journal article that Johanna Boyle wrote about my recent talk at NMU?  Check it out if you didn’t.

Tomorrow, March 5th, is St Piran’s Day.

St Piran's Flag

St Piran is the patron saint of Cornwall and tin mining.  And his flag has become a symbol of Cornish heritage.

In honor of St Piran, we will be baking an extra batch of our Cornish Saffron Buns and a few sugar cookies decorated like his flag.  If things work out, we’ll be flying St Piran’s flag from our sign out front.

We are continuing to bake Hot Cross Buns every Wednesday during  Lent.  We will continue to do that until Holy Week — the last week of March.  That week, we will bake them on Good Friday instead of Wednesday; and that will be the last of the Hot Cross Buns until next year.

I need to post a quick note to let you know that we are making a last minute effort to make some Hamantaschen for the Jewish Holiday of Purim that falls on Sunday.

Hamantaschen

Hamantaschen are traditionally baked and eaten for Purim. They are small triangular pastries or cookies that are filled with poppyseed, or fruit filling.  It seems like there is a yeasted pastry version, and a cookie version.  Since it’s a last minute decision to make them, we are using our cinnamon roll dough which happens to almost perfectly match the yeasted version’s recipe; and we will be filling them with raspberry filling.  I’m not sure how they will turn out.  If they look good, we will be selling them tomorrow morning.  If not, we will  probably have some samples for you to try.

I’ve put the March bread schedule up on the website.  I was planning to put Cranberry Pecan Bread back on the schedule, but I found out a few days ago that Pecans have nearly doubled in price over the past couple months.  So, we will be having Cranberry Hazelnut Bread instead.  I personally like the flavor of hazelnuts better in bread anyway.  Other than that, most everything else is the same.

Lent begins today.  Instead of focusing on Fat Tuesday/Shrove Tuesday/Mardi Gras/Carnival/Paczki Day as the last day to “live it up”, I prefer to focus on the Lenten journey.  We are a society where “living it up” is the norm, and have the wealth to eat whatever we want, whenever we want.  Even “normal” foods are filled with sugars and fats to make them more appealing and profitable.  Emphasizing one more excuse to over-imbibe in fatty, sugary “food” that sadly, rarely has much real flavor is not what we need when epidemics of obesity, diabetes and heart disease are raging.

Hot Cross Buns

We will be marking the 40 day journey of Lent with Hot Cross Buns every Wednesday.  Our Hot Cross Buns are made following the British tradition.  The allspice spiced buns are lightly enriched with currants, golden raisins, and small amounts of butter, eggs and sugar.  The cross is made from another dough that is baked right onto the bun.  The are delicious, and a reminder of where we are traveling.

Valentines Day falls on Sunday, and unlike the flower shops, we are sticking to our normal business hours and remaining closed on Sunday.  We will be open through 4pm on Saturday.  In addition to our normal assortment of breads and pastries,and we have several special Valentines Day treats for you to choose from.

Linzer Cookies

Heart shaped Sugar Cookies – Our simple, sweet, buttery sugar cookie decorated in shades of pink, red and white.

Linzer Cookies — Originating in Linz, Austria, this cookie has raspberry jam sandwiched between two thin layers of hazelnut cookie.  It’s as lovely as it is delicious!

Chocolate Hazelnut Brownies dipped in white chocolate (Gluten Free) — Imagine our Chocolate Hazelnut Meltaways, but much thicker and cut into heart shapes.  What could be better?  How about dipping them in white chocolate?  They are a chocolate lover’s dream, and they are still gluten free as a bonus!

Chocolate bread — For Valentines Day, we are making a special edition of our chocolate bread that will have dried cherries in addition to the chocolate chips in the lightly sweetened chocolate crumb.  It will be available on Saturday only.  (Also please note that we will not be baking chocolate bread during lent which starts next Wednesday.  This is your last chance to get it until after Easter.)

As with the other holidays, we are likely to be very busy.  We will try to bake enough, but calling ahead and placing an order is your best bet to get what you want.

Happy Valentines day!

Peter

I hope everyone had a nice Christmas.  We powered through — baked a lot of Stollen, Christmas cookies, Saffron Buns and everything else.  Thank you for all the business!  It was a lot of fun, but it was nice to take a couple days off after the dust cleared.

We will be closing a little early at 4pm on New Year’s Eve (Thursday) and then remain closed Friday and through the weekend.  The new year starts for us on Tuesday 5 January.  We’ll be back on our regular hours 7am-6pm Tues-Fri and 7am-4pm on Saturday.

I’m working on a new schedule to post for January.  (Look for it on the main page of our website in a couple days.)  We will be changing the Cornish Saffron Bun schedule a little.  They have always been very popular, so we are going to start baking them 2 times each month.  Instead of baking them just the last Thursday, we’ll bake them the 2nd and 4th Thursday of each month.  For January, the 4th Thursday is the same as the last Thursday, but eventually there will be a month with 5 Thursdays.

Because of the Saffron Bun change, we will now be baking Irish Soda Bread on the third Thursday of each month instead of the 2nd Thursday.  Finnish Cardamom Bread will remain on the 1st Thursday of the month.  This will all make sense when you see the new bread schedule.

I was able to get a big box of hazelnuts (filberts).  Their flavor is unmatched when combined with bread and chocolate,  so we are going to make good use of them in January.  On Fridays we will be baking Hazelnut Raisin Bread instead of the Cranberry Pecan.  And we will also put Chocolate Hazelnut Melt-away Cookies on the menu to replace the Chocolate Pecan Melt-aways.  If you love Pecan version, you better come in and get the last of them today or tomorrow.  We might have a few to bake off on Tuesday yet, but that will be it after that.

Best wishes in the new year.

Peter