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A new month is nearly upon us, and as the weather turns warmer (sometimes, anyway!) my sights are set on spring. My little plant starts are growing in the basement, and a few remnants from last year’s garden are popping up outside. Everyone is itching to run around barefoot and feel the sun on arms and legs again!

April brings a new month of breads and I have a great lineup for you! The dates listed are for pickup; ordering happens in the week leading up to that date:

April 3: Oat porridge sourdough loaf – versatile, simple, and full of hearty flavors this one is sure to be a favorite.

April 10: Sourdough soft pretzels (3 to an order) – these are simply the best. Close your eyes and imagine meandering through cobblestone streets in Germany! Be sure to have good beer on hand for these, as well!

April 17: Sourdough hot cross buns (4 to an order) – I’ll make these just in time for Good Friday. They’re soft, sweet, and decorated with a traditional cross on the top.

April 24: Raspberry white chocolate sourdough babka – Babka is a decadent sweet bread. I’ve made other versions in the past, and this one will be just right for the season. Loaded with raspberry jam and white chocolate you’ll enjoy every last bite of this mini loaf!

Subscriptions for April are only open this weekend; after that, you can place orders on a weekly basis for the bake of the week or for house sourdough. A subscription ensures that you get each week’s bake before it sells out! 

Subscriptions and weekly ordering are available for both the bake of the week, and for my house sourdough loaf. This is a great crusty loaf that goes well with everything and is packed full of whole grains from freshly milled flour. It’s a bread you can feel good about eating! If you’re sensitive to gluten, and have thought about trying a true sourdough, this bread is a great place to start. Reach out to me if you have any questions about that!

Sourdough is simply a term that means natural leavening. All of the sourdough products that I bake are made without commercial yeast. It doesn’t mean sour flavor! True sourdough means that the bread-making process extends over at least a 24 hour period, allowing for the fermentation to work its magic. Many sourdough loaves in the grocery store still add commercial yeast – this keeps the bread on a schedule. I don’t do that; I let the bread have its own schedule 🙂 And it gives a wonderful flavor to both savory and sweet breads, as well as making them more nutritious and easier on your gut!

March’s last bake is a new one for me, and one that will delight all you chocolate lovers. I’ve made different kinds of sourdough focaccia in the past, but sweet focaccia has never really appealed to me. Perhaps it’s that I associate it with olive oil and savory toppings, but whatever the case it’s not been on my baking radar. Until a fellow baker encouraged me to try a sweet version and I stumbled on this one. I had a few half-used bags of different kinds of chocolate chips so I used dark, milk, and white chocolate and loved the combination! It’s chocolatey, and sweet, but doesn’t wallop you with sugar. The sourdough culture tones it down a little and also adds some other layers of flavor. This chocolate sourdough focaccia has definitely converted me to the sweet sourdough side!

I’ve been thinking about what to bake in April and have a good start to my list. If you have a favorite bake that you’d like to see offered, let me know! With Easter coming up I have some special things in mind. Be sure to read next week’s email for all the details.

My house sourdough continues to be available each week. I love the grains in these loaves, and the fresh flour is a delight every time I mill it. It smells so good, and it’s soft and fluffy when it comes out of the mill. Yesterday’s spelt bread had the mill working overtime, but I think the result was well worth it! There’s spelt in my house sourdough as well as red and white wheat. My kids polished off an entire loaf at lunch this week; whenever there’s one right out of the oven it disappears in a flash!

Chocolate sourdough focaccia and house sourdough loaves are available now until Tuesday or until sold out. Each focaccia order is for a piece about 6″x5″.

The days have been warm and the nights cool, which I’m told are just the right conditions for tapping maple trees. We’ve had fun in the past going out to Rebel Farms in Osseo during maple season to learn about the process, see the setup, and sample syrup in its various stages. I’ll tell you, a cup of steaming sap that’s on its way to syrup is such a memorable delight!

This week I’m working with Suzie at Rebel Farms to bring you an absolutely wonderful (and healthy!) bread: 100% spelt sourdough loaf with maple syrup. Spelt is an ancient grain that is high in fiber and has higher levels of essential vitamins and minerals than other grains. It can help to regulate blood sugar and aid in digestive health. Since I’m milling the spelt myself, all of those nutrients and minerals go right into your bread! Add that to the minerals (yes, minerals!!) in maple syrup, plus natural fermentation, and you have a bread that you can feel very, very good about eating. The good news is, it won’t taste like eating healthy bread! The maple syrup from Rebel Farms is the best I’ve had and adds such wonderful flavor to this loaf. This one is in pan loaf form, so it will slice nicely into toast or sandwiches.

Always available is my house sourdough loaf. This crusty loaf is a staple at our house (hence the name!) and is the bread I make most often. It really is our daily bread! I use a blend of grains that I mill just before mixing, and I love the flavors that each brings. The process from preparing the starter to finishing the bake takes about 36 hours. That long time is part of what gives these loaves their wonderful flavor – not really sour, just delicious. 

I’m excited about this coming week’s bake, and especially about partnering with the good folks at Ramshackle Brewing Co. in Jonesville! Jonathan and I went out to taste a flight and pick out just the right beer to use in this week’s specialty bread, a stout sourdough. Zack and Jessy Bigelow are running the whole operation, making great beer, and are active in the community to boot. 

We narrowed the search down to two beers: the Dunkelweizen and the Maple Command Stout. For this bread, we went with the stout – it has so many great notes that are going to play nicely with the freshly milled grains in this sourdough! If you’re looking for a great way to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day that doesn’t involve green beer, pick up a loaf of my stout sourdough and head on over to Ramshackle to sample what they have on tap and enjoy some live music or trivia. Zack and Jessy were kind enough to pass along a discount for everyone who orders this week – 50% off of two beers – which I’ll include in every order! 

This past weekend we took the boys along to a conference where Jonathan was speaking. It’s rare that I get to see him at his day job (that is, not in outdoor gear cutting up trees or building things!), and it was such a treat for me! The boys and I had fun exploring a new place and enjoying a change of pace for a few days. Sunshine and warm temps didn’t hurt, either, and we soaked up the sun like a bunch of northerners!

Stout sourdough and house sourdough are both available to order this weekend. I mix everything by hand from start to finish, and both loaves have a good portion of whole grains, which I’ll mill shortly before mixing. Freshly milled flour is a very different product than what’s available in the grocery store. All of the nutrients are preserved by using fresh flour, and the flavor difference is huge. Plus, there is no chance of any natural oils getting rancid with such a short time between milling and mixing. If you haven’t tried a loaf with fresh flour, this is a great week to start!

Both breads are available to order now through Tuesday, or until sold out, and can be picked up on Thursday afternoon, March 13th. If you’re saving your beer bread for a special occasion, it freezes well and will be a treat whenever you want to enjoy it. If you’re traveling for spring break but don’t want to miss out on this bread, let me know in your order and I’ll pop yours in my freezer for a few days.

What a change outdoors this week! I started the week on a walk, bundled in all the layers and trying not to slip on the icy sidewalks. And the next day the kids were outside barefoot splashing in mud puddles. Spring must be on the way.

I have a fantastic lineup for you this month and I’m excited for you to try everything! Here’s what’s on for March:

March 6th: King Cake Scones

March 13th: Stout Sourdough Loaf

March 20th: 100% Spelt Sourdough with local maple syrup

March 27th: Sourdough Triple Chocolate Focaccia

King cake scones are on the sweeter side, and I’ll adorn them with Mardi Gras-colored sugars. These are fun and festive, even if they do come the day after Ash Wednesday!

Beer and bread are a natural fit, and I love this bread for all of its flavor. It’s the one I like to bring to friends for a meal – hearty, filling, and gorgeous. I’m partnering with Ramshackle Brewery in Jonesville for this bread, and I think you’re going to love it!

I’ve partnered with a local farm (Rebel Farm) for the last few years on the spelt and maple sourdough. This is a loaf that beckons the household into the kitchen when you toast a slice. The only flour is spelt, which I’ll mill just before mixing. I only have so many loaf pans, so order this one early!

Sweet focaccia is new to me this month – I love, love, love focaccia but have always eaten it with savory toppings. This one has three kinds of chocolate, and cocoa powder, and it’s absolutely delightful. Not too sweet, and perfect with breakfast or afternoon coffee.

Subscriptions are open now until Tuesday, or until sold out. Orders are also available week to week, so orders are also open for house sourdough and for king cake scones this weekend, for pickup on Thursday, March 6th.

My house sourdough with freshly milled grains is available weekly and can also be ordered as a monthly subscription. 

This past week I received an email from recreation.gov reminding me that our camping reservation in North Dakota is just three months away! Looking out the window it doesn’t seem possible that in less than 100 days we will be enjoying the great outdoors, and yet the warmer weather is coming. We’re still enjoying the fruits of our garden; there’s a butternut squash soup simmering away for dinner, and the last of the green beans are in the freezer. Luckily for you, there is also shredded zucchini that has been waiting for its moment in the sun.

This next week’s bake is a repeat of a crowd favorite from the summer: cheesy zucchini muffins. If you’ve been with me for a while you know that I love a good savory bake. These muffins really hit it out of the park. The zucchini keeps everything tender, the cheese lends a wonderful savory element, and I add just enough red pepper flakes to make the flavors pop. A few of you wrote to me after enjoying these in the summer and hoped I’d make them again. Here you go!

We’ve been enjoying house sourdough with everything these days. Toast, cheesy garlic bread, open-faced sandwiches, dipping into soups and stews – it’s (thankfully) not something we grow tired of eating! It’s available to order every week, and is a wonderful loaf to keep on hand in the freezer!

Orders are open now through Tuesday, or until sold out. Cheesy zucchini muffins come four muffins per order, and house loaves are about 1.5 lbs each. Pickup is on Thursday, February 27th at my house or at Hillsdale College (Kendall 413), and payment is by cash, check, or cashapp on pickup or by credit card when you order.

It’s a wintry wonderland out my windows as I write this morning. The snow is sparkling under the early morning light and the only clouds in the sky are the wispy contrails left behind by planes, perhaps on their way somewhere tropical. Some days I long for the sun to feel warm again, and yet the wood fire in the hearth reminds me that even the coldest days have the joy of a different kind of heat, one that comes from logs split by my husband, stacked by my boys, and carried in with my girls.

When I make bread it engages different parts of my brain. For breads I make often, like my house sourdough, my hands go into autopilot when I’m carrying out various steps. But there is still a technical side of planning, calculating, milling, and measuring that goes on well before any mixing. The creative side comes in as I’m considering a menu for the month, the flavors I’d like to use, and the forms. Sometimes I like to think about the seasons, and sometimes I plan to make things that are just plain fun to make!

Sourdough challah certainly fits into that last category. Challah is a slightly sweet bread that is fluffy, flavorful, and an absolute delight. We’ve enjoyed it many ways, but if any happens to be left over it makes killer french toast! I love the creativity it affords with shaping – loaves can be braided with a simple three strand, or a complex eight strand, or anything in between! I’ll likely make four strands for all of you, but we’ll see what I’m feeling up to on the day 🙂 Challah has a rich history; if you’re interested here is a great article going in-depth on this bread! If you’d like to see some stunning challah loaves, check out this guy on Instagram. If you’d just like to eat it, I’m making a sourdough version for pickup on Thursday, February 20th!

With one birthday in the books, and the next coming this week (mine!) we are rolling through birthday month beautifully. My oldest boy turned 8 and wanted a tropical layer cake. I made him a coconut cake with a mango jam filling and coconut lime cream cheese frosting. Dairy doesn’t sit well with him, so the whole thing was dairy free – he loved it! The big smile on his face and pure joy of the day made all the celebrating that much sweeter.

Growing up, with my birthday so close to Valentine’s Day, there were always heart motifs surrounding my birthday and gifts. I have heart-shaped cupcake liners, heart cake pans, and even a stunning enameled cast iron heart-shaped baking dish from a dear friend! Even if you’re not celebrating a sweetheart, the sentiment behind St. Valentine’s Day is one to enjoy with the whole family. One of our favorite picture books is about St. Valentine, by Robert Sabuda. The illustrations are done in mosaic, and it is really beautiful!

This coming week for Valentine’s Day I’m making one of my favorite sourdough combinations: dark chocolate, sweet and tangy dried cherries, and about 50% rye flour. Friends, this bread is so, so good. Whenever I bake it, it’s hands down my favorite breakfast – a slice of this, toasted, and a little good butter. The chocolate warms and melts just enough in the toaster to feel indulgent. There is no added sugar in the dough; the sweetness from the chocolate and the cherries are enough to let all the flavors shine. I’ll score it with a heart on top for a special touch!

Always available is my house sourdough, made with a blend of four different grains that I mill just before mixing. This ensures that all the nutrients from the grains make it into your bread! I love that this bread is so satisfying, so easy to digest, and just so delicious!

Orders are open now and will be until Tuesday or until sold out. Payment is by cash, check, or cashapp on pickup, or by credit card when you order.

For Christmas this year, my eldest daughter gifted a cookie cookbook to my husband. His look of surprise and confusion was amusing, but then she revealed the real gift: that she would make cookies every week for him to take to his office hours, where he makes tea for students. They looked through it together and chose a few varieties that looked especially good. The first batch was well-received and they’re both looking forward to the upcoming weeks.

Cookies are also on the menu for you for the last week of January! I’m making a household favorite: white chocolate cranberry. I’m going to take these up a notch by adding orange zest to the mix. And for even more flavor, I’ll mix in some sourdough discard to put these over the top. I hope you’ll enjoy them as much as we do!

Our backyard chickens experienced winter for the first time these past weeks. The plan had been to keep them in the movable (and very breezy) coop until the cold set in, then move them to the less breezy coop for the winter. (We’ll use the regular coop for raising meat birds in the spring and summer). But in order to move them, the coop had to be finished! The last necessary parts were added the day before the sub-zero temperatures hit, and I think those birds were grateful to be out of the wind. Thankfully, they’ve continued to lay eggs over the winter, and we’re enjoying those very much.

Sourdough bread has become for us much more than just a type of bread we enjoy. The more I learn about it, the more I am so grateful to put it on the table for my family. We all feel good eating it, and it continually brings a smile to the kids’ faces when a warm, fresh loaf is brought to the table. From nutrition to flavor, this is such a wonderful addition to any meal! It’s always on the menu at my house, and available to order every week.

Orders are open now and will be until Tuesday, or until sold out. February subscriptions will come out on Friday, January 31st, so keep an eye out for that! Good things are coming your way 🙂

We’re back from a fun and rejuvenating few days in Wisconsin and ready to start a new semester of school. This morning I’m headed out to make my regular pickup of a trunk full of flour in 50-lb bags! I’ll be well-stocked for all the breads over the next few months 🙂

This week I’m baking savory scones, filled with cheddar cheese and chives. I love the combination of the sharp cheddar with the mild chives. Sweet scones have their place, for sure, but savory scones are such a nice change of pace and I’m looking forward to baking these for you this week.

Always available is my house sourdough with freshly milled grains. This loaf is packed with flavor and good-for-you fiber and minerals. Grab a few loaves for easy accompaniments to meals throughout the week. We enjoy many of our loaves as toast with eggs, open-faced sandwiches, and dipped in olive oil alongside a big salad. 

Ordering and pickup is back to normal this week. If you are a subscriber I will have your orders ready on Thursday, January 16 either at my home or at the college. If you’re ordering this weekend, yours will be ready at the same time. Please indicate your pickup preference when you place your order!