Breaducation

Here at McGrath's Bakehouse, we make true artisan breads. We say true because when you actually read the definition of "artisan", you can rule out most other products that claim to be such. Here is how we do it: First, to make a high-quality product, you need high-quality ingredients. This is why McGrath’s Bakehouse is committed to using only organic grains, most of which are milled within 30 miles of our location. Many of the other ingredients we use are organic as well such as fruits, seeds, etc. and we do our best to select them in the most environmentally...

  The below text is a direct quote from Andrew Whitley of Bread Matters Sourdough is a culture of yeasts and beneficial bacteria that occur naturally in bread flour and dough. The yeasts are more varied and less concentrated than baker’s yeast, so they raise the dough more slowly. The lactic acid bacteria (LAB) also require many hours of fermentation to work their wonders. Real sourdough is very simple, as befits a method that’s thousands of years old. You take some starter, refresh it with several times its own weight of fresh flour and water and let this ferment for some...

If you know you won’t be able to eat all your bread within 5 days, or are purposely saving it for another occasion, your best bet is to freeze it.  It is the best preservative available that won’t compromise a loaf’s integrity and will hardly affect it’s eating quality.  If you are going to have it in the freezer for more than a few days, we would recommend double bagging it in plastic before you put it in.  Still others like to either cut it in half or even slice it before freezing so that it is easy to take out a smaller portion...

Ian Falcone Productions  

Setting the damper into place     There will be two dampers that enter into the smoke chamber (hence the two holes) Smoke chamber walls going up This oven is getting tall! We needed to cut two bricks with a 10 inch half-circle in them for the main chimney pipe to exit the smoke chamber. The chimney anchor plate will set in that hole.   Kevin and Derek shortly before going to the airport and parting ways. What an accomplishment in just 10 days of work! The finished core! The firebrick give off an extreme amount of efflorescence in a...