From Grain to Loaf: A Tour of Three Toronto Bakeries

Laura

Rustic Brodflour loaves!

One half of the Epitourists are sourdough bread obsessed. Caroline and I have been nursing starters and practising our leaven, autolyse, proofing and baking skills for most of the winter. Stand-by for a blog post soon. On our recent Epitourist adventure in downtown Toronto, I put a few bakeries on the itinerary.

Brodflour

This recently-opened bakehouse is tucked into a back alley in Liberty Village. They mill their own flour on a huge stone mill that is prominently on display in the space. The mill is from New American Stone Mills in Vermont. They source rye, red fife, spelt and hard spring wheat from Ontario and Manitoba. Head miller and partner, Jesse Saldana, gave us a great tour and explained how the mill grinds the whole grain between two huge granite stones. The flour is then sifted to remove some of the bran and germ.

There is not a lot of seating in the bakery but we sat down on the couple of benches and tasted a sampling of slices of some of the breads they bake: Dark & Sweet is a heavy, oblong loaf of rye with dark molasses and caraway; Heritage Hearth, a traditional style sourdough batard made with red fife and spelt; and Whole Grain sourdough with rye and whole prairie hard red. Needless to say we all left with loaves to take home. They were also offering samples of sweet Cardamom Knots. Their consulting baker is Swedish, so much of their offerings along with the Hygge-style décor is Scandinavian inspired. Caroline and I also purchased some of their freshly-milled flour to test in our own sourdough loaves. 8 Pardee Avenue, Toronto

Brodflour... such a cool place!

Forno Cultura

This Italian bakery is located in a basement on King Street. It’s a narrow space jam-packed with breads, sweet and savoury baked goods and there’s even a fridge full of pasta sauces, soups and cured meats, and a wall of olive oils and preserves.

Cultured ovens!

The owner is a third-generation Italian baker who wanted to preserve artisanal baking methods. They make beautiful sourdough breads, but it was easy to get sidetracked by all the other goodies. A glass-fronted case runs along the length of the bakery, full of biscotti, croissants, cakes and other beautiful sweet treats. There’s also an assortment of deep-fried arancini and stuffed croquettes. Caroline purchased a few of these home for a quick dinner upon her return home from our gourmet adventure. I left with one of their beautiful biscuit-style cake made with ground almonds and filled with a lemony pastry cream.

Cliffside Hearth

A sourdough baguette is an art to shape

I made a little side-trip on my own to my favourite Scarborough bakery. It just happens to be up the road from Kaarina’s place and very close to our yacht club. It’s run by the husband-and-wife team of David and Camelia. David worked in bakeries for years before starting to bake sourdough bread in their backyard brick oven. After neighbours kept asking to buy his loaves, the couple decided to open up a bakery.

Handsome red...

Since my move to Wolfe Island and my own foray into sourdough baking, David has been a great resource, graciously emailing back and forth with me answering all my sourdough questions. So it was great to be able to spend an hour with him that morning to talk sourdough in person. It was 9:30 am and the end of David’s work day. He’s up and in the bakery in the wee hours of the morning to get the breads proofing and baking.  Unfortunately I was so caught up in my learning that I forgot to take any photos. But you can have a look at their website and Instagram for some drool-worthy pics.
I’ve been struggling with baker’s math and how to ramp up my bread production. David shared his excel spreadsheet with me. It makes it easy to figure out the ratios of starter, flour, water and salt. He also showed me his big bucket of starter that he keeps in the fridge and feeds once a day. He laughed about the “blogger bakers” who name their starters and baby them with twice-daily feedings at carefully monitored temperatures. David said he hasn’t got time for that and it’s impossible to control temperature in the bakery. He says he’s trained his starter, much like a flea circus, to live in the fridge and deal with hot water poured over it. I’m not going to question his methods. His bread is the best I’ve tasted. And don’t get me started on his croissants. I don’t know how Kaarina can live so close by and resist eating them every day.