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sprouts-bread
 by Lin Carson

Bread, Forward Thinking and Celebrations: Days 60 and 61

I received some hearty and wholesome naturally leavened bread today from Columbia County Bread & Granola. This is a wonderful bread, from a wonderful company. They bake organic flourless sprouted breads and flax-based granolas, as part of their mission to help make the world a little better. This is reflected in part of their name, Columbia.

Throughout the history of America, Columbia has been a symbol of forward thinking and inspiring change. As they put it in their brochure, the company “revere(s) Colombia as the embodiment of what we aspire towards. She symbolizes our efforts to craft the world’s finest breads and granolas and our belief that, working together, we can help shape a better world.”

Country BreadPita Bread flourless Colombia County Bread & Granola.

Country Bread and Pita Bread from Colombia County Bread & Granola.

Their take on sprouted bread is a little different than most other bakeries. During the sprouting process, gluten chains are degraded. So, many sprouted-grain breads have vital wheat gluten and yeast added back in to the formula. However, CCB&G want to stay true to the old-time traditions of sprouting and fermentation. Their sprouted wheat mash ferments a wild yeast culture, lactobacillus and bifidobacterial. And no gluten is added back in.

This gives their bread a truly unique flavor. It also makes it an ideal choice for gluten-sensitive people.

Today we also celebrated out podcast launch, and dined on bread from Little T bakery, Rotella’s, Bob’s Red Mills, Eat the Ball® and Columbia County Bread & Granola. Quite a few people turned up to honor our launch.

pitching a loaf podcast team

I’m so grateful for my podcast team, and all their hard and excellent work!

I was really happy to see so many people enjoy the bread we brought in. We also brought in some of my favorite donuts from Blue Star Donuts to celebrate National Donut Day! Oh wait, maybe that’s why they all came….oh well.

blue star donuts

We brought in my favorite donuts from Blue Star Donuts. Unfortunately, it was all gone before I was able to get to it.

Here’s what I ate on Days 60 and 61 of EB90:

Food Portion Calories
Day 60
Everything Bagel 2 (100g) 420
Oroweat Whole Grains Double Fiber 6 slices (38g) 480
Ricotta Cheese 1/4 C 100
Butter 2 Tbsp 200
Pineapple 8 oz 80
Apple 1 95
Coconut water 2 C 100
Pizza Slice 1 220
Orange 1 orange 45
Calcium Supp
Total 1740
Day 61
Everything Bagel 1(100g) 210
Wholegrain Sourdough 80g 103
Croissant 240
Baguette 100g 255
Columbia Sprouted Country Wheat Loaf 3 slices (45g) 150
Columbia pita bread 1 pita (85g) 100
Honey wheat Nugget Bread 2 slices (45g) 190
Meatloaf 5 oz 241
Corn 150g 155
Ricotta Cheese 1/4 C 100
Apricot Sugar-Free Jam 2 Tbsp 40
Butter 2 Tbsp 200
Steamed Broccoli 1C 35
Strawberries 1C 50
Calcium Supp
Total 2069

 

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Lin EB90cpodcast 2, pitching a loaf, podcast
 by Lin Carson

Pitching a Loaf: My Podcast is Live! Day 38

Yes, you read that correctly. Today, I dug into a whole loaf of Alvarado St. Bakery sprouted multi-grain bread, sat back, and listened to our Pitching a Loaf podcast. It’s taken us 6 weeks to produce and launch this new product of ours, and I was joyfully lavishing in the rewards of my team’s hard work. The best part of this podcast journey? Is getting the bakers I interviewed to share their passionate stories with me.

Today, on Episode 6 (coming soon!), I interviewed Arif, a wholesale baker from Canada, who has had issues with their artisan bread bursting on its sides. He complained that this issue has been causing a high waste issue for the past 2 years, and he used the recommended tools that I suggested on the podcast to solve his problems.

We managed to get him to reduce his waste by 12%, increased outputs and reduce energy consumption in the oven. Don’t believe in thermal profiling of your product? Listen to episode 6 and hear Arif’s testimonial.

multi-grain bread- alvarado st bakery-nut butter

Slices of hearty Alvarado St. Bakery Multi-grain bread with roasted vegetables on ricotta and with almond and cashew nut butter. Also, thanks to the American Society of Baking for this wonderful loaf of acknowledgment for my involvement as a session chair at this year’s Baking Tech.

Now, back to eating 14 slices of sprouted multi-grain bread. Honestly, this bread made me so full today, I could hardly finish all 14 slices. But I did it. I ate all 5 slices at once at dinner with chicken noodle soup (without the noodle – which got the disapproving nod from my mom)! And I will live to tell this story.

Here’s what I ate on Day 38 of EB90:

Food Portion Calories
Alvarado St. Bakery Sprouted Multigrain 14 slices (34g) 1260
Apricot Sugar-Free Jam 2 Tbsp 40
Roasted Vegetables 30g 60
Ricotta Cheese 1/4 C 100
Almond Cashew Nut Butter 1 Tbsp 190
Smoked Ham 4 Slices 60
Chicken soup 2C 200
Coconut water 2 C 100
Cauliflower 1C 100
Calcium Supp
Bike -150
Total 1960

 

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bakers-dough- eat bread 90, bakery
 by Lin Carson

Be Passionate About What You Do: Day 24

Artesano® bread by Sarah Lee is probably one of the most favored bread here in the Pacific Northwest. It is a white bread, without a gummy texture. I can eat this toasted with butter all day. Why do I choose this bread? Mainly because I wanted to try what it feels like just to eat white bread all day. I love it. No guilt here. Just pure indulgence into my favorite food in the world, bread. White bread.

We also recorded our 4th podcast today sponsored by Manildra, co-hosted by David Deblauwe and I. Our guest was Scott Baker (yes, he is a real baker), CEO of 5 generation bakers. They make an amazing raisin swirl bread under the label Jenny Lee®. Talking to Scott really gives me hope for this industry.

Passionate Baking

His success story is about being really good at something, repeating that, and growing it by leaps and bounds. Scott is a genuine baker. He chose to be really specialized at producing one thing, and that’s raisin swirl bread. The way he broke down his process (which I feel is a really difficult process), how he cared about the quality of his bread, and how that affected his growth decisions indicated to me that he really cares about his bread. I was excited to have found a commercial baker who is successful after starting from ground zero and growing his bakery to a multi-million dollar business. Above all, I love seeing passion being rewarded. Look for this podcast on iTunes (coming soon).

 

“Skills are cheap, passion is priceless” – Gary Vaynerchuk

It is true, you should always be guided by your passion if you want to grow a successful bakery. This can be seen with the success stories of 5 Generation Bakers, Grand Central Baking Co., Dave’s Killer Bread and Blue Star Donuts.  If you bite into any of their products, you will feel the passion. It is what keeps your customers from coming back again and again.

Here’s what I ate on Day 23 of EB90:

Food Portion Calories
Sara Lee® Artesano 11 slices (38g) 1100
Ricotta Cheese 2 Tbsp 50
Artichoke Bruchetta spread 2 Tbsp 67
Sugar Free Strawberry Jam 4 Tbsp 80
Salami 6 Slices 180
Apricot Sugar-Free Jam 2 Tbsp 40
Dickinson’s® Lemon Curd 2 Tbsp 120
Orange 1 orange 45
Nutella 2 tbsp 200
Tilamook Butter (Salted) 1 Tbsp 100
Kale Soup 1 C 48
Marie Biscuits 10 pieces 150
Banana 1 105
Calcium Supp
Bike -300
Total 1985

 

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