#microbakery

[palmtearoom]

𝐒𝐰𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐡 𝐉𝐮𝐥 𝐁𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐮𝐢𝐭𝐬 🎄🍪

250ɢ ʙᴜᴛᴛᴇʀ, ꜱᴏꜰᴛᴇɴᴇᴅ

125ɢ ꜱᴜɢᴀʀ

1 ᴇɢɢ

400ɢ ᴘʟᴀɪɴ ꜰʟᴏᴜʀ

1 ᴛꜱᴘ ʙᴀᴋɪɴɢ ᴘᴏᴡᴅᴇʀ

1/2 ᴛꜱᴘ ꜱᴀʟᴛ

1 ᴇɢɢ ᴡʜɪᴛᴇ, ʙᴇᴀᴛᴇɴ ꜰᴏʀ ɢʟᴀᴢᴇ

1/4 ᴛꜱᴘ ᴄɪɴɴᴀᴍᴏɴ

50ɢ ꜱᴜɢᴀʀ

For full recipe visit 👉 www.palmetreet.no/pos/swedish-sailors-biscuits

[ibakemistakes]

beauty & grace

http://instagram.com/ibakemistakes

[sharonvu]

#RosieKitchen #RecipeIdeas #microbakery #bread #egg 🥚#avocado 🥑 #cucumbers #salad 🥗 #chocolate #croissant #fourleaves #blueberries 🫐 #grapes 🍇 #beehoonhorfun #DiamondKitchen #Noddles🍜 #spinach #Congee https://www.instagram.com/p/CkPbPKwIX1-/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[sailorspica]

why are my nastiest fantasies not sex but being the breadloser (a sugar baby who runs a microbakery out of a possibly haunted colonial saltbox house with multiple woodfire ovens)

[thrashwise]

Getting up early on a late shift and walking to my local microbakery to pick up some treats was worth it at the end of a rough week 🥐☕️

[babygirlgiles]

If you had a microbakery that was purely a fantasy in your head that your daydreamed about sometimes what would you name your fantasy microbakery. Hypothetically of course.

[brostateexam]

In 2013, a friend and I decided to try our luck and see what all the Cronut hype was about. We arrived at Dominique Ansel in Soho at 7:30 a.m.: A decade later, I couldn’t tell you what flavor Cronut we had, but I do remember the roughly 40 customers in line, a handful of those who even brought folding chairs.

Croissant innovation has continued: These days, though, waiting in lines for the next it-dessert has become my job — particularly since bakeries increasingly have as much status as hot restaurants, in part because more people can afford a luxe pastry than a four-course tasting menu.

Any New Yorker will tell you that lines in general are almost never worth it. In a city with a plethora of dining options, there’s always somewhere else to go. Onetime hip bakeries like Sullivan Street Bakery, Magnolia Bakery, and Arcade (RIP) may have long existed in the city, but in the last three years, something new has been happening, making more people take interest than ever before. Even the James Beards are paying attention: 2023 is the first that it’s adding an outstanding bakery category to its awards list.

Pandemic pop-ups pushed the needle for bakeries. When COVID closed restaurants, pop-ups exploded as a way to fill that niche. Baked goods — a combination of take-out-friendly structures and a salve in a sad time — were ready for the taking.

“I think people were looking for a little bit of pleasure or just a pick-me-up — a little bit of light in all of the darkness,” said Autumn Moultrie, co-owner of microbakery Back Alley Bread. “Microbakery” is a term that’s come to refer to online operations, as opposed to a physical location; Back Alley Bread, which began in 2020 on Instagram, signed on to open its first storefront this week at 53 Rockaway Avenue, between Sumpter and Marion streets, in Bed-Stuy.

Though some reports have suggested that pastry chefs are going extinct at NYC restaurants, in truth they are just evolving. Fandom has outlasted the onset of the pandemic, she says: “Pastry places are becoming the destination, not the afterthought, or just end of the meal.” Moultrie says that for Back Alley, the secret to its success was staying nimble, and not just pigeonholing its goodies into one niche — selling angel donuts, Frito pie, and Jamaican patties all under the same roof.

[cyberbenb]

The Hunger Issue: The Story of a Ukrainian Sourdough Starter in Exile

Editor’s Note: The work we do at The Counteroffensive is stressful, dangerous and costly. Readers can’t do anything about the stress or danger, but they can help us with a paid membership! 

With skyrocketing prices of fuel, food and travel in Ukraine, we’re counting on you – will you sign up for a paid membership today?

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As Katrya Kalyuzhna fled her hometown of Kherson due to the Russian invasion, she grabbed the things most precious to her in the world: her two cats, of course; the keys to her van… 

… and her precious, five-year-old sourdough starter. 

Katrya’s sourdough starter .

For non-bakers: the starter is a paste which is necessary for the making of bread, a living blend of naturally-occuring bacteria and yeast that, when treated well, will help sourdough rise.

"It was 12 hours of horror, rage, danger and fatigue", she says of her departure, "going through so many Russian checkpoints, their questioning and other disgusting things: driving through the gray zone, the no man’s land between occupied and Ukrainian held territory, we heard the sound of artillery shelling, it was endless." 

In the relative safety of western Ukraine, Katrya slowly began to recover from the trauma of that journey, processing the loss of her hometown and its violent seizure by invading forces. 

About a week after arriving in Lviv, she tried to do what had always made her calm: baking. Using the sourdough starter which she had brought along for the 600 mile journey, she made what she dubbed her “bread in exile.”

Baking, it turned out, was incredibly healing. She even posted the brief recipe on her Instagram, and other people started using it. The social media app led her to a new friend, a woman named Vasylyna, who also lived in Lviv.

Vasylyna offered Katrya a job at her microbakery, a one-woman business making small amounts of bread and other pastries out of an apartment on the outskirts of the city. There, Katrya could carry on cooking dishes from Kherson, and they soon found they were able to learn a lot from each other, sharing recipes and ideas.

Vasylyna and Katrya at the bakery.  

Nowadays, regular customers just come and knock on the window to order things – soups, pastries and dumplings, and getting involved with a 'no-knead' bread dough which they had adapted from a Tartine Bakery recipe, including a particularly delicious beetroot pizza. 

While their story is heartwarming, wheat in Ukraine has a dark history too. During the Soviet-made famine known as Holodomor in the 1930s, millions of Ukrainians lost their lives after the USSR confiscated grain and food, trapping people in their homes to die of hunger. 

Katrya feels there are echoes of that time in today’s war. She describes recent attacks on grain infrastructure in Odesa as “horrible and devastating.” A year ago, she watched as wheat fields burned near her hometown.  

“I was overwhelmed by a panic attack, then I burst into tears. I felt helpless. It was totally shocking!” she said. She says her understanding of history taught her that Russia had deliberately destroyed Ukrainian food resources in the past.

But Katrya, who had her own home-based bakery business back in southern Ukraine, insists that she will continue to bake no matter what: “no Russian will stop me,” she says, as she nurtures her precious starter, watches it grow, shapes it into loaves.

Vasylyna packing up bread.

The pair have managed to keep on working despite many winter days in the blackout of electricity cuts, many hours taking shelter from air raid sirens and missile or drone attacks on the city. Now, they even have a market stall at weekends in central Lviv – and everything always sells out.

Occasionally Katrya talks of those dark days of living in occupation in Kherson at the start of the war, and the time it took to recover from the trauma of seeing their home town overrun by Russian troops, until the moment they seized the chance to escape. 

"We lived under that stress for forty days", she says, "and afterwards, it took forty days to get over it. My mother was under occupation for six months and it took her that same amount of time to recover." 

And cooking, the rhythmic making of dough, the folding of dumplings, the stirring of soups, has been one route back to humanity. 

Katrya wanted me to take some of her starter back to the UK so that her friend, the chef and cookbook writer Olia Hercules, could bake with it too. She carefully dried it out by adding flour and wrapping it in a plastic tub, the better to survive the journey.

Katrya taking buckwheat and rye loaves from the oven.

I took that precious starter to Olia, along with some rose petal jam and pickled walnuts which I had bought in southern Ukraine.  

Katrya says she wants people to keep baking her recipe "to honor all Ukrainians alive and dead, those who are resisting! In bread we trust."  

Sourdough made with ‘Bread in Exile’ starter.

The Counteroffensive with Tim Mak is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber!

Good morning to readers; Kyiv remains in Ukrainian hands. 

Russian military forces hit Ukrainian grain facilities for a fifth day this week, its latest usage of hunger as a weapon. The overnight attacks in Odesa killed at least one person. Meanwhile, 22 were injured, including four children -- and at least six residential buildings were damaged. 

The strikes damaged some 25 architectural monuments in Odesa, according to United24, a Ukrainian government-linked group which shared this photo. 

In addition an Orthodox cathedral was struck. Rescuers pulled an icon devoted to the patron saint of the city out of the rubble, according to the NYT. 

VIDEO: Odesa residents clean the wreckage left behind by Russian attacks overnight: 

Moscow withdrew from a UN-brokered grain deal that allowed the export of Ukrainian grain through the Black Sea earlier this week. 

Ukraine's exports are a major source of food throughout the world, meaning that the expiration of the deal -- and Russia's apparent warning that Ukraine ought not to try to continue exporting grain -- will lead to price shocks across the developing world. 

The grain destroyed by Russia this week could have fed tens of thousands of people for a year.

"Some will go hungry, some will starve, many may die as a result of these decisions," UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths told the Security Council.

Olga Skabeyeva, a prominent Russian television presenter, rejoices over the attacks in Odesa this week. 

But the war has had a prolonged impact on Ukrainian food production. Ukraine’s battered agricultural sector is thought to have lost around $34 billion since the full scale war began. And Russian forces have destroyed farming infrastructure and grain storage facilities worth billions more - while vast swathes of farmland are heavily mined.

LATEST ON THE COUNTEROFFENSIVE: Ukraine and its western allies knew that Kyiv didn't have the necessary training and weapons to dislodge the Russians from the front even as they started the counteroffensive this Spring, the WSJ reports. 

"They hoped Ukrainian courage and resourcefulness would carry the day. They haven’t. Deep and deadly minefields, extensive fortifications and Russian air power have combined to largely block significant advances by Ukrainian troops. Instead, the campaign risks descending into a stalemate…" 

But Ukraine has still not committed the vast majority of its reserves to the cause. Speaking at the Aspen Security Forum on Friday, Zelenskyy said that there may be an increase in the tempo of the counteroffensive soon, and that the delay was due to, as ISW put it, a “lack of munitions and military equipment, such as mine-clearing equipment, and continued Ukrainian training abroad.”

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Hi, it’s Felicity here.

In my day job I’m a television journalist, and was first based in the former USSR back in 1991/1992. I’m also a keen amateur baker and like to photograph it all on Instagram. 

Over the last year, I have traveled many times to Ukraine in support of a non-profit called Bake for Ukraine. It was started by Ukrainian friends who provide financial support for bakeries which give away free bread to people in need. 

I have many contacts in the baking world and last summer was able to source new equipment and supplies which we took to Kyiv by convoy. Since then I have managed to travel around the country to meet the bakers the charity supports – as far east as Kharkiv and south to Odesa,  and most recently to help purchase a large mobile bakery which can provide a more flexible solution to the food supply crisis.

Let me take you on a journey through the places we’ve been:

All of the bakeries stayed open thanks to volunteers working long hours, raising money, mixing dough and shaping loaves, preparing tons of vegetables, and delivering food parcels to front line villages and troops – often taking considerable risks to get there.

The Good Bread bakery in Kyiv.

The charity has just started sending help to Oksana, an amazing lady who runs a small volunteer bakery in Kherson. She sent word that it had been badly damaged in a rocket strike, destroying one of her two ovens. 

Bake for Ukraine managed to get together the money for a new one: then the Russians blew up the Nova Kakhovka dam. Oksana wasn’t in the flood zone but the city became even more dangerous under intense Russian shelling. 

Oksana also co-ordinates local aid efforts, so we asked for a list of what they needed. Our friend Sasha took me round the giant DIY and homewares store Epicentre to load up a car with all sorts of supplies, from disinfectant and insect repellent to towels, pillows and sheets for people made suddenly homeless.

Epicentre has everything you could ever want.

For much of the war, Odesa has been a far safer city by comparison, but it's been increasingly targeted by Russian drone and missile strikes in recent days, since Russia pulled out of the Black Sea grain deal.

One night during our stay there, we were jolted awake by some particularly loud explosions: Kalibr cruise missiles had hit a block of flats, along with a McDonalds and a food warehouse, killing three workers inside. All the windows at the polytechnic university opposite were blown out by the blast. 

Aleksiy, the farmer we'd had dinner with a couple of nights earlier, who supplies our partner bakery with his organic flour, sent us a video in the morning showing his flat covered in broken glass and shrapnel – he lived in the block which was hit. Fortunately he wasn't hurt, but it must have been absolutely terrifying.

The flats and offices which were bombed in Odesa.

In Bucha, I could see how far rebuilding efforts have come – last summer when I drove through the town, the level of destruction was still very raw. A lot of money has clearly been spent on repair efforts: nothing will bring back those who have lost their lives, but at least there are new homes for people to return to, and green space for children to play. 

We visited a small bakery which carried on working through the darkest days of occupation: for months they gave bread away to anyone who needed it. Now they're able to sell their handmade loaves and buns again, from a table outside the bakery – and thanks to continuing charitable support, they can keep donating bread to the local National Guard and Territorial Defense units which keep the area safe.

The Khatynka Pekarya in Bucha 

Rebuilding a place like Izyum is another level of challenge. However often you see it, driving across the wooden bridge next to the one which was blown to pieces is still a heart stopping moment. 

You pass burnt-out petrol stations, houses without walls or roofs, and a block of flats which has a huge V shaped gash tearing the entire building in two. Here, the Myrne Nebo charity has managed to set up a kitchen and bakery supplying people with fresh bread and hot food. 

During last autumn's Ukrainian counteroffensive as the departing Russians bombarded the place relentlessly, people hid in the dark, dank basement which they use as a store room. It was pretty cold down there even in the thirty degree celsius heat of an early summer's day. 

With the generosity you see everywhere in Ukraine, they insisted we sit down for lunch, laying a table with delicious soup, bread and salad - and pressing a bag of warm, sweet buns into my hand as we left.

The Myrne Nebo social kitchen in Izyum

Today’s Cat o’ Conflict is this feline who is definitely in charge of this food market stall in Odesa:

Stay safe out there. 

Best,  Felicity

[halloumie]

June 17 2023

Sitting by the window; the air is crisp and comfortable — 12 degrees, has an almost tropical scent to it. No pain when the air is cool, but during these hot early summer afternoons I get headaches. So I was right. It really was the weather in Singapore that was disagreeable. I was also told by my specialist my ears would also get better in cooler weather, and they haven’t bothered me since coming here.

I met another potential career coach today, as well as Ian. Before she mentioned her eye watering rates she said that perhaps interviewers could subconsciously sense my disinterest, compared with another candidate who was highly passionate.

And talking with her really made me realise with some horror that maybe the most suitable thing for me isn’t the common thing. Do I not know this already, why can’t I let myself be? I feel constantly like Hesse’s Siddhartha. Why do I deny that I am this, when I’m so clearly this?

If a friend was in my situation, I’d encourage them to do this, that I want to do. Why do I not have the same kindness towards myself. I’m so incredibly harsh and self-flagellating, dismissive of my own inclinations and personality.

And the knowledge that I want to bake. I like the physical, repetitive motion and the predictable chemistry. To be in control of my schedule. Have no colleagues, no office politics. And I know bread, can control it. (That already I shred my hands kneading fabric in worry.)

Then I spoke with Ian, who helped me feel more confident despite my lack of software engineering credentials. I had a small breakdown looking at the requirements page on his company’s site (cs majors only) and went back and forth over the university of Kent’s computer science conversion course. Ian is kind; he sees the best in people and I feel my lack of optimism sorely.

It’s so boring to be this catastrophizing person always. To get up, read the doom and gloom sites I always do and reread anonymous voices in the void of those stuck in the same rut. The week of my birthday when I turned off my phone to take a break felt best.

So I’ve been thinking about the microbakery some more. This is just a day’s work. I already have some idea of sequence. To complete my driving lessons, get my drivers license. In the meantime, read the gov docs on legal and best practice. Write out expenses and approach. Have contingency plans (yes it may fail, and then what?) Read more about bread — those books I downloaded then skimmed. Still apply for jobs, since I’m still eligible for graduate schemes for a while yet. Move out. Prep the new kitchen for inspection. Acquire necessary tools. Build up the site and its credibility. Be able to drive, have access to a car and deliver. Start telling locals.

I look forward to being able to drive. I could drive to wales, or to the sea late at night. If I can’t sleep in the future as I do now I could drive. I could get a dog and drive it to the vet.

It takes time and I just have to be ok with that; not let fear, anxiety and catastrophizing determine my next course of action.

[noisynutcrusade]

Inside the "smallest bakery in Europe": the bread revolution of 24-year-old Matteo Trapasso

Trama is Matteo Trapasso’s microbakery, “the smallest in Europe”, assures the 24-year-old: the shop-laboratory concentrates everything in just 8.87 square meters in Milan, in via Stoppani. Working in such a confined space requires a particular effort in managing time and logistics, however the small dimensions have facilitated an important life choice: Trapasso has in fact decided to make bread…

[palmtearoom]

Trick or treat 🎃

[walnutsandhoney]

Some of you may have met Kathryn on Mondays and Saturdays! She's created this lovely sign and we've decide to utilise the small space by the window for a book swap. If you have any old books that you enjoyed and think somone else will get a kick out of, please bring them along and take a book with you in return. Only one book at a time please though.... Microbakery in both name and reality 😂😂 (at Walnuts and Honey) https://www.instagram.com/p/CpPopk7IFx4/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[sharonvu]

#RosieKitchen #RecipeIdeas #Grocery #roastchicken #bread🍞 #microbakery #mesclunsalad #frisee #oliveoil #sundriedtomatoes🍅 #avocado🥑 #egg🥚#friedbeehoon https://www.instagram.com/p/CmO7exwsFlZ/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[sailorspica]

this one-man microbakery in the mountains of japan has a hold on me (40 minute non-verbal no music just baking)

[dbanes]

Sourdough still crackling from a last five minute blast at high temperature. #sourdough #bread #realbread #microbakery https://www.instagram.com/p/B5N5S1AnKUU/?igshid=x6v5cdi29dfe

[amykstudio]

trial run — whole wheat sourdough and pumpernickel . . . #microbakery #bread #sourdough #sourdoughwholewheat #wholegrainbread #ferment #sourdoughbread #sandwichbread #loaves #sourdoughmania #homebake #homemade #dailybread #pumpernickel #breadclub #breadcsa #cottagefoodbaker #cottagefoodct #cottagefoodoperation #breadlove https://www.instagram.com/p/By5OC7mnwBt/?igshid=1e8olgzofo4o5