Author: Rachel Mumme

It’s another beautiful day that has me itching to get out into the yard. The leeks I planted in the fall are coming up nicely, and we’re getting ready to welcome our first chickens here in Michigan! Lots of projects lined up for the spring, all of which help to make this house (and yard) feel like home.

This coming week I have the pleasure of baking with maple syrup from Rebel Farm in Osseo. If you haven’t visited there, I highly recommend it! Suzie is passionate about regenerative agriculture and local community and food. She offers a farm share full of beautiful, delicious, and highly nutritious vegetables, as well as options for pasture-raised chicken and eggs. You can see all of the community shared agriculture (CSA) options here. She also offers workshops throughout the year – tomorrow is all about maple sugar! I will be leading one there in April about baking with maple sugar – we’ll make scones with maple and pecan.

It’s Suzie’s maple syrup that’s going into my maple and spelt sourdough loaves this week. This is the bread that makes people gather around the toaster when they smell it toasting! It’s made with freshly-milled spelt, which is the only grain besides the flour in the sourdough culture. Maple syrup, water, and salt are the only other ingredients in this loaf. It’s a big hit around here, and I make sure to have plenty of extras on hand in the freezer. It’s not overly sweet, so you can eat it with anything. But if you’re feeling indulgent, slice this loaf thickly and make it into french toast.

Always on offer is my house sourdough, made with 25% freshly-milled grains. If you’re looking for a bread that can do it all, this is it. Toast, bruschetta, sandwiches, strata/egg bake – you name it, and this crusty sourdough will fit the bill! These are good-sized loaves that can feed a family.

Orders are back to usual this week with Thursday and Friday pickups at my home (March 21-22) and Thursday pickups (March 21) at Hillsdale College. Orders are open from now until Tuesday, March 19th. 

First, a reminder that orders for next week will only be available on Friday, March 15th. I will still deliver to the college, and orders can be picked up at my home. If you are a Thursday subscriber, everything will be the same for pickup except the day. Please let me know if you have any questions, or if this will cause a problem for you for pickup. Thank you for being understanding!

When I can, I like to bake and cook seasonally. Winter has me craving hearty, stick-to-your-ribs foods, while summer is filled with garden salads and grilled everything! Morning glory muffins, available to order this coming week, feel like an exception. They are equally at home in any season! These beauties are made with sourdough starter for extra flavor, along with dried cherries, pumpkin seeds, coconut, walnuts, apple,freshly-milled whole wheat flour, and spices. I like so many things about these muffins, but I especially like that they are satisfying without too much sweet. They make for a great grab-and-go breakfast or snack, or a lovely addition to a brunch. Each order will contain 4 muffins. These should freeze well, so stock some away for another day!

My house sourdough is available every week – this is another good one with which to stock your freezer. When I thaw bread, I prefer to do that in the oven. I run the loaf under some water, then bake it at 300 for about 30 minutes, or until it’s (mostly) thawed. It can also just be thawed overnight, but I’ve found that the texture is better and closer to fresh-baked when I thaw loaves in the oven. 

Orders can be placed on hillsdalehearth.com/shop until Tuesday evening, March 12th, and pickup will just be on Friday, March 15th this week. Payment is by cash, check, or cashapp on pickup, or by credit card on the website.

Please let me know if you have any questions, or if the Friday pickup poses a problem for you. I will be happy to work with you however I can!

This week I’m making a bread for you that was standard fare in Germany. A dark, heavy sourdough rye bread. If you’ve not had this kind of bread before, you’re in for a new experience. It’s not light, like a deli rye, but it has some of those flavors. Rye has a kind of earthy flavor, and if you pair it with some bright and briny flavors.

Try it topped with cream cheese and smoked salmon, and maybe some capers. Or even with a tart jam and salted butter. Or dip it in a big bowl of split pea soup with ham. Let me know how you’re going to try it this week!

Always available is my house sourdough, which goes like hotcakes when a fresh loaf comes to the table. If we ever have ends leftover, I like to let them dry out and then toss them in the food processor for bread crumbs!

Orders will be open until Tuesday of next week, and ready for pickup on either Thursday or Friday, March 7-8. 

We’ve been seeing Robins and Finches in our backyard recently, and are filling the birdfeeder more than we have all winter. When we left Wisconsin, dear friends gave us a clear feeder that attaches to a window. We love watching all the different birds up close as they vie with each other for the perch on the feeder! These signs of spring seem to boost everyone’s mood.

March is around the corner and that means another month of bread subscriptions! I have a mix of new-to-me bakes and favorites for you this month. And, as always, a special treat for subscribers 🙂 Here’s the bake-of-the-week rundown:

February 29 – March 1: Sourdough bagels

March 7-8: Sourdough Rye (90% rye)

March 15: Morning Glory Muffins

March 21-22: Maple Spelt Sourdough

March 28-29: Sourdough Hot Cross Buns

Please note: the third week, March 15th, will be a Friday pickup only. 

Sourdough bagels are a huge hit around here. As with all my sourdough items, I don’t add any commercial yeast but let the natural leavening do its work! I make these plain, but there’s nothing plain about them. Great with a fried egg, or sliced and sprinkled with cinnamon sugar these are delicious any way you choose!

The rye bread in the second week is a dark, dense loaf which will improve over the first few days if you can wait that long to cut into it. Morning glory muffins are chock full of all sorts of seeds, nuts, and dried fruit. Just sweet enough for a great start to the day. Maple spelt sourdough is a bread list favorite – local maple syrup and freshly milled spelt make for one of the best breads I’ve eaten. And naturally leavened hot cross buns are a Holy Week tradition!

I’ll also have a monthly subscription for my house sourdough, a great addition to any meal at any time of day. If you’re hesitant to try sourdough bread, or have had bad tasting ones in the past, give mine a try. If you don’t like it I’ll make you something else, on the house 🙂

House sourdough subscriptions and bake of the week subscriptions are available to order now on hillsdalehearth.com. Orders are also open for individual orders of house sourdough and sourdough bagels for this coming week. All monthly subscribers will receive a special baked item in the first week of the month. This month I’m making an old, old family recipe: a German kuchen from my great grandmother. Kuchen is like a coffee cake, but not the fluffy iced kind in a box. Real fruit, real butter, handmade, passed down for generations!

Orders will be open for March subscriptions as well as house sourdough and sourdough bagels until Tuesday, February 27th, with the first March orders going out Thursday and Friday, February 29th and March 1st. 

The sunshine and warm weather last week has had me turning my sights toward spring and outdoor projects. We (mostly my husband) are building a chicken tractor in the garage this month – a moveable coop and run together – as we plan to have a few birds in the backyard come summer. Any suggestions on favorite (or least favorite!) breeds are welcome! We’re also planning out fruit trees and a vegetable garden, now with much more space than we’ve had in the past, and also with growing children who can lend a hand.

When the thermometer plunged this week, as it always does in February, I found myself thinking of spring flavors. For me, there are few sweet combinations better than lemon and blueberry to welcome in spring. It’s like sunshine in baked form, somehow. This week, I’m baking lemon blueberry scones: tender and lemony, packed with blueberries, and topped with a lemon drizzle. When the gray days start to feel unending, a little bit of sunshine goes a long way.

Available every week is my house sourdough, with freshly milled flour. I usually get my whole grains (wheat berries) from an organic mill in Illinois that offers a great variety of grains. It’s a fun way to experiment with different flavors and see what we most enjoy! I let these sourdough loaves ferment for 24 hours, which helps with both digestibility and flavor: a win-win!

Next week, I will open March subscriptions and share with you what I’m baking in March. If you have any favorites, or special requests, be sure to let me know! Orders are generally open from Friday when you get this email until Tuesday. That gives me enough time to start the sourdough process Tuesday night for Thursday’s loaves. If you’re looking for a special gift, you can purchase loaves for friends, or a gift subscription for a month of sourdough! 

House sourdough and lemon blueberry scones will be available for pickup at my Hillsdale home on Thursday and Friday, February 22-23, and at Hillsdale College on Thursday, February 22nd. Orders for scones and sourdough will close on Tuesday, February 20th.

This week’s bread is sourdough challah. While it might be typically found in Jewish bakeries, it’s one that I’ve enjoyed making for many years. It’s a *slightly* sweet bread that is enriched with eggs and just a bit of brown sugar. This version is also naturally fermented so no added yeast at all! I love making it in part because I enjoy eating it, but in part because it’s a braided bread that can be arranged in many different ways! Sometimes I get fancy with a 5 or 6 strand loaf, or weave it into a round; other times it’s the plump 3 strand braid that wins me over. We’ve been tearing off great hunks and eating it plain this week, or slathered with butter and jam. If you’re lucky enough to have some survive for a few days, it makes outstanding french toast!

Always on tap is my house sourdough, made with freshly-milled grains and fermented for 24 hours. If you’re on the fence about sourdough, or you haven’t had one you like, give mine a try. If you don’t like it, I’ll make you something else – on the house!

Challah and house sourdough both also make wonderful hostess gifts, if you’re headed out of town or joining friends for dinner. 

I often like to plan some of our meals around the breads I’m baking. It gives me some inspiration for meals and lets me have one main part of a meal already covered. That really helps on busy days! This week, challah will be a breakfast feature – I have an egg bake on the menu that I mix up overnight and bake in the morning. Challah with butter and jam is a perfect pairing! It fills everyone up, and usually leaves us at least a few leftovers. 

Orders can be placed on hillsdalehearth.com/shop/, and are open from Fridays through Tuesdays. If I reach a limit to what I can bake, I may close orders a bit sooner so order early and often! Payment is by cash, check, or cashapp on pickup, or by credit card when you order.

Sourdough challah and house sourdough orders should be in by Tuesday, February 13th and will both be ready for pickup on Thursday, February 15th and Friday, February 16th. 

Please let me know if you have special requests, or any questions about orders or bread!

This week’s bake of the week brings a special bread, one that I usually only make around this time of year near Valentine’s Day. But whenever I make it I wonder why I don’t make it more often! I’ve made different iterations of this loaf, but this one is my favorite. The bread itself is a sourdough with 50% rye flour, bringing a deep flavor with a nutritious punch. On top of that I add dark chocolate chunks and  dried cherries, giving it sweet and tart notes. There is no added sugar in this bread; the chocolate and the cherries bring just the right amount of sweetness to keep it interesting without simply tasting like sugar. I like that this bread is good at any time of day – it feels indulgent for breakfast toast with warm, soft chocolate peeking between bright cherries and whole grain bread.

I’m also making my house sourdough with 25% freshly milled grains. This recipe is flexible and can use different grains, but these days I’m really enjoying a mix of red and white wheat with spelt! This loaf is great for everything, and we eat it in various forms every day. If you want to make it stretch, or have some around for a rainy day, try slicing half of it when you get it home and freezing it. That way, you can take out slices as you need them.

Breads can be picked up on Thursday, February 8th at Hillsdale College outside of my husband’s office, Kendall Hall 413. Orders can also be picked up at my home on Thursday and Friday afternoon, February 8th-9th. Be sure to indicate your pickup place when you order! If you need a time outside of those listed, just let me know.

Payment is by cash, check, or cashapp on pickup, or by credit card when you order at hillsdalehearth.com. Orders will be open online from now until Tuesday evening, February 6th.

April showers might bring May flowers, but February brings birthdays at our house! One of our boys turns 7 next week and his excitement has been building for weeks. This little future engineer has drawn out what he would like for his birthday cake, and let’s just say that it involves an active volcano.

In less complicated baking, I have great bakes in store for you this month! Here’s the rundown for February:

Pick-up dates

February 1-2: Parmesan and black pepper sourdough focaccia

February 8-9: dark chocolate cherry sourdough loaf

February 15-16: sourdough challah (heart-shaped, if you’d like!)

February 22-23: lemon blueberry scones

For monthly subscribers, I’m making millionaire shortbread bars with whiskey toffee. I think I first had these in England, but a sickly-sweet packaged version. This decadent bar cookie is made with a rye and sourdough crust, filled with a whiskey toffee, and topped with a dark chocolate ganache. These are very rich, and very delicious! Subscribers will receive a few of these with their first week’s pickup.

The parmesan black pepper sourdough is a bread take on the classic pasta dish, cacio e pepe. This one drew everyone out of their rooms to the kitchen when it came out of the oven! The tangy sourdough and the creamy parmesan pair perfectly along with the bite of the freshly-ground black pepper. Try this one stuffed with prosciutto and greens, or alongside a big salad or bowl of pasta!

I will continue to have breads available week-to-week, as well, and my freshly-milled house sourdough is for sale both as a monthly subscription and a weekly purchase. 

If you’re new to the list, subscriptions are available for either my house sourdough, or the bake of the week (listed above). You can, of course, order some of each! Order once and have fresh bread made to order weekly. This helps me know what to plan for each week and it ensures that you don’t miss out on delicious homemade bread.

I make everything by hand, with a bit of help from a stand mixer every now and then. Wherever I have whole grains, I mill those here at home to give the best flavor and optimal nutrition. 

Both subscriptions and weekly orders are available for purchase on hillsdalehearth.com from Friday-Tuesday of the following week. (Subscriptions are only available this weekend). You can select your pickup place – either Hillsdale College on Thursdays, or my home in Hillsdale on Thursdays or Fridays – when you order. Payment is by cash, check, or cashapp on pickup, or by credit card when you order online. Please order by Tuesday, January 30th for pickup on February 1st or 2nd.

I’m sitting in a quiet house as I write, a rarity for me. The fire is blazing and the snow is falling gently outside. I like winter on these days.

Despite the landscape my thoughts are turning toward warmer days. This weekend I’m headed to a seed swap at Rebel Farm. I’m not totally sure what to expect, but there will be a lot of good garden knowledge and sharing of ideas and seeds for the coming season of planting. We didn’t have a garden last year but we’re planning on one this year. The kids are all poring over catalogs to find the most outlandish veg. I tell them that I’ll plant it, but they have to eat it!

This week I’m making sourdough biscuits, a super-versatile bread for your meals this weekend. Cheesy fried egg sandwiches? Check. Strawberry shortcake? Also check. Feeling fancy with biscuits and gravy? Just promise to invite me over for those! These are flaky, buttery, and just plain delicious. Top them however you like, or enjoy them in all their sourdough goodness. You win either way!

Also and always available this week is my house sourdough. I’ve been experimenting with different grains and combinations. For now, I’ve settled on a mix of hard red wheat, hard white wheat, and spelt that I mill myself just before mixing. Even after many years of baking various versions of this bread, there are always great sighs of contentment when a fresh loaf hits the table.

My schedule is the same this week, pickup on Thursday, January 25th here at my  home and at Hillsdale College, and Friday, January 26th here at my home. If you’re a subscriber, your order will be ready for you as usual!

Next week subscriptions for February will open, and do I have a delicious month planned for you! Stay tuned, and let me know if you have any requests. I love to make special breads for special occasions.

It’s snowing! We don’t usually have our first big snow of the year in January, but despite the cold and blustery weather it sure is nice to look out the window and see white. I am glad to be sitting by our wood stove, where my toes are warm! When the weather turns extra cold, I find my thoughts going in the opposite direction. Flavors are a big part of that for me – I’m craving warm spices, colorful soups, creamy pasta – anything that makes me feel warm(er). On my menu this week are a chickpea curry, minestrone, chili (with cornbread, of course), and tomato soup. My favorite bread to go with tomato soup is the one I’m baking for you this week: asiago sourdough.

Sharp cheese and tangy sourdough are a match made in heaven. The asiago melts right into the bread, marrying the two flavors together. We’ve enjoyed this loaf in so many ways, not just alongside tomato soup! It makes the ultimate grilled cheese sandwich, it’s lovely with a fried egg at breakfast, cubed and sauteed it makes fantastic croutons for your salads, and is really good just on its own. If you’re sensitive to dairy, I hear you; I’m working on a goat cheese sourdough loaf that I hope to have out in a few weeks!

As always, my house sourdough is available for purchase. Both my house sourdough and the asiago are true sourdough, fermented for at least 24 hours to give you maximum nutritional benefit and to make it easier on your gut. My house sourdough uses a mix of freshly-milled grains, which adds such a lovely flavor and retains all the good parts of the wheat! Give it a try; give one to a friend.

If you are a subscriber, remember to grab your loaves on Thursday/Friday of this coming week, January 18th/19th! 

Orders are open now through Tuesday afternoon, January 16th. January subscriptions are closed but you can order your favorite breads every weekend for pickup the following week.