Huzzah! It's bread day...

Thursday shareholders: don't forget to get your bread today! Pick up is at 271 Grant St from 5-7 pm. 

If you can't make it because you are going to the "Showdown on Wall Street" in New York, your bread will left in a box at the library for pick up when you return.

As part of our commitment to sustainability, we are no longer providing free bags, so bring your own!  We will

be selling hand-made cloth bread bags (specially designed to hold bread and keep it fresh), which you will be able

to bring to the pick up every week. There will be some available tomorrow at the share, but they are not all done yet. 

So in the event that we run out, be prepared and bring a bag of your own, be it canvas or plastic.

See you soon!

Maura and Matt

Basic Bread

This past Saturday, Buffalo Reuse hosted an open house in honor of Earth Day. As part of this event, we did a little bread and pizza baking demo at the oven. It was a lot of fun and Matt and I baked and chatted to our heart's content (respectively). We talked a lot about our up and coming workshops, and one of our pizza eaters suggested we put a bread recipe on the blog, which I thought was a great idea. So here it is. This is as basic as bread gets, but it's a good place to start practicing from.  We hope that if you are starting to bake your own bread, you will come to our first baking workshop, on May 16th at 3 pm. It will be a great place to ask questions, and learn some good tricks that will bring your bread beyond the recipe. And, as always, feel free to email us with questions.

Basic Bread:

3 cups flour (wheat, white, or a mix of the two)
A dash of salt
2 tsp instant yeast
1/2 cup warm milk
1/2-3/4 cup warm water
A splash of olive oil
A tablespoon of sugar, honey, or molasses.

1) In a large mixing bowl, combine and stir the dry ingredients. Make a 'dent' in the flour, and add the wet ingredients. Stir the dough into a rough ball with a wooden spoon.

2) Sprinkle a clean, dry surface with flour and begin to knead dough.  You can knead the dough however you like, but basically you are softly punching it into the counter. It might stick a little at first, but be careful of adding too much flour or you will end up with a brick. The trick to getting is to keep it moving. Knead for 10-15 minutes, until the dough feels both tacky and soft.

3) Roll it into a ball and smooth a little olive oil over the surface. Put it into a mixing bowl, cover it with a warm, damp cloth, and put it in a warm, draft-free spot for an hour.

4) When the dough has doubled in size, punch it down (called degassing). Shape it into a log by flattening it, and then rolling it. Transfer it to an oiled bread pan to rise. Or, you can make a free standing loaf. To do this, put a clean rag in a small bowl, flour the rag, and shape your dough into a ball and put it in the bowl. Recover the bread. Let rise until about doubled again.

5) Bake at 375 for 35-40 minutes. Let cool. Eat and enjoy!

This recipe makes one loaf. It's best to practice in small quantities, but once you like your result, it makes sense to bake two or three loaves at once and either share, or freeze them. As you get comfortable with this recipe, you can do anything to alter it and make it your own--add herbs, seeds, chunks of garlic, or an egg for a crusty crust.

Milk is not necessary, but softens the wheat, so it's beneficial if you are using a high content whole wheat flour. If you omit milk, replace it with water. The liquid content will vary a little depending on what kind of flour you use. Aim for consistency, and trust your instincts.

Here's a great bread bakers resource that Matt and I have used many-a-time: The Fresh Loaf.

Bread tasting at Eaton!

Fancy and Delicious cordially invites you and your friends to a free bread tasting party at our clay oven. You'll have the opportunity to sample several types of bread we make regularly, see the clay oven in person, and meet shareholders who have enjoyed our bread since August of 2009. We'll be there to take any questions and talk about how the share system works.
If you're interested in the breadshare, but haven't wanted to commit to a product you've never tasted, here's your opportunity to test the waters and see just how fancy and delicious we are.
Friday, April 16th, 4-6:30 pm.
153 Eaton St. (in the backyard diagonal from Buffalo Reuse).
For questions or directions, call Matt or Maura.

We hope to see you there.

SPRING 2010 Bread share!

Hello everybody!

Some developments happening this spring:

1) The third share will begin on April 29th and run to July 16th. 

Distribution days:

• Thursday (271 Grant St.) 5-7 pm
• Friday (153 Eaton St) 5-7 pm

Cost:

• One share is $50 for 12 weeks ($4/loaf).
• NEW! Half shares for people who can't finish a whole loaf (1/2 loaf per week or 1 loaf every other week for $25).

We now offer free bicycle delivery if you can't make pick up times. Although, we encourage you to come to pick up if you can, because we like getting to know you. There is no extra charge for delivery, but we do ask that you consider tipping your bread peddler! You can do this by adding a tip to your payment.

2) Now introducing dessert shares. $50 for 12 weeks.

Each week, you will receive a variety of cookies, muffins, and other sweets. Some are one of a kind recipes invented by Delicious herself  (or her Italian aunts). Participating in a dessert share will award you the distinct pleasure of tasting some of these desserts below for the first time:

• Beet cake
Mauradora's bonkers everything sunshine muffins
• Power cookies
Aunt Tina's Long Branch rugelah

3) The Good Neighbor Fund is our subsidy program in which you can voluntarily raise the cost of your own share to offset the cost of someone else's. Be a good neighbor, and help us increase access to healthy food. Add a dollar amount to your share payment. Contribute to the Good Neighbor Fund, and receive a little something fancy at the start of the third share. The more you give, the fancier you'll be. 

4) Bread bags. Beginning with the third share, we will charge 10 cents for every plastic bag we give you. We want to encourage you to bring your own bag. To make this easy and fun, we will be selling some very special Fancy and Delicious cloth bread bags at distribution, or by mail. 

5) Workshops. Our first official bread baking workshop will take place on Sunday, May 16th at 3 pm. Stay posted for more baking workshops and oven building workshops, later this summer.

If you have any questions, ideas, or comments, or want to reserve your share(s), as always, we look forward to hearing from you.

Yours,

Fancy and Delicious