Breadness Buzz - The Shapes of Things to Come: Batards, Footballs & Hearts...

It's not often we consider making Breadness in a new shape...

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“When your teeth hit the bread, the butter better be hitting your gums.” — Ivan Allen (Irish author)

NOTE: If this is your first Breadness Buzz, or if you've been part of our tribe but missed earlier posts, visit the Breadness Buzz Archive here and catch up on this content written especially for you. It's a great way to meet like-minded artisan sourdough aficionados and be part of this journey I started back in 2016. And now for this week's Buzz...

From the beginning in 2016, I made artisan sourdough bread in the classic boule shape ("boule" is French for "ball"). I didn't really consider there was any other way to make this type of bread than in that shape. There are baguettes (French for "stick") but that's a whole different shape and bake process. But when two people from different restaurants inquired about the possibility of us making bread for their establishments, the problem of slices that were about the same size became apparent. That's when I decided to try making our artisan Country Loaf in a batard shape.

Changing the shape of a loaf requires acquiring the appropriate proofing baskets (as shown above); the dough needs to do it's long, cold rise in the basket that produces the final shape. These baskets (or bannetons as they are officially called), cost about $15 each. If we were to make 72 batards in a day, that's $1080 just for the baskets! So before I dove into batard-land, I bought 4 of these bannetons and have been making 4 batard Country Loaves every other week or so to survey our customers with. A few have been happy to buy the batard shape loaf (and one of our first customers to try one was disappointed when he came back later to get another and we didn't have any).

Our batards are the same weight as the normal-size boules we've been making from the beginning, just more of a rectangular form factor which makes for more consistent slices. We haven't tried slicing these in the Varia slicer yet, but perhaps we'll have a chance to do so this weekend when we make a few more.

You won't see these on our website just yet but if you are interested, you can place an online order and put a note in the message field asking if we have a batard available to hold one or more for you. Or come by the bakery and ask if we have any. We'll be baking at least 4 on Thursday that will be ready to slice and eat on Friday. And I'll see about making another 4 for sale on Saturday. If enough people want these batards, we'll gradually start investing in the batard bannetons. Now, the big question is: where are we going to put all these new baskets?

The Super Bowl isn't really about football. It's all about food and commercials, right? San Francisco and Kansas City are iconic food destinations known for their Sourdough Bread and Barbeque, respectively. So elevate your spread with Breadness to go with your Chowdah or 'Que. And how about Breadness Bowls to hold your prize-winning Chili or Dips? Whatever your plans, do place your orders in advance so we can make enough to meet the demand. Specify in the Special Instructions box if you would like a football-top design on your loaf/loaves. We'll do our best to accommodate. These loaves will be available February 8th through the 11th.

There's a kind of yin and yang about the Super Bowl being on Sunday the 11th and Valentine's Day on Wednesday the 14th. So after all the craziness and yelling and screaming (at the commercials, of course), it's time to chill and have some quiet time with your Valentine. Make your dining experience even more special with our Valentine's Day Heart-top Country Loaves. And while you're at it, add one or more of our exceptional butters, jams, honeys, tapenades, olive oils or balsamic vinegars to the experience.

Although we usually have a few heart-top petite loaves available every week, these special Valentine loaves will be available next weekend (February 8th to the 11th) in full-size and petite. Since we're also making football-top loaves for the Super Bowl, we may run out of hearts, so order in advance and specify you'd like a heart-top loaf in the special instructions box. We'll do our best to accommodate.

Order the above (and any of our other artisan products) at breadness.com/#shop. If a product is visible in the online shop, it's in stock. If you don't see a product in the online shop, it's sold out (but we might be making more, in which case the counter will be set to the available quantity).

Random Acts of Breadness is located at 2214 West Magnolia Blvd. in Burbank (2-1/2 blocks east of Buena Vista on the south side of the street). Come to the bakery and sample our artisan wares, or order on line for bakery pickup, or have Breadness delivered or shipped to your door. You may also order by phone at 818-562-7303 and pay when you come pick it up. We're open Thursday, Friday & Saturday 12 to 6 p.m. and Sunday 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Reminder: If you (or someone you wish to gift) live within 120 miles of Los Angeles, we can ship on Wednesday or Thursday (via UPS Ground) and in most cases your Breadness Box will arrive on Thursday or Friday. Place your order before Wednesday morning here. If you live outside of So Cal, we can now ship 2-Day Air (or Ground service) on Wednesday (unsliced bread) for Friday delivery. Join our growing list of nationwide customers who look forward to receiving their Breadness deliveries on a regular basis!

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