August 2021: New Bread!
* Next Market Day: Barton Creek Square Mall, Saturday August 7th
Finally Some News!
It’s been a couple months since you’ve heard from us, mainly because…nothing newsworthy has happened. But this month, there are a few interesting items to report: new breads, our farmers market roll out schedule, and baker’s notes on some of the bread you may have noticed. As an aside, I did a calculation on number of loaves baked this year - about 1,500 so far - this puts me at well over 2,500 since Jinx was born. I feel like I’m starting to know all the things I don’t yet know…
As usual, please feel free to share this with others you may think are interested in good, old world bread!
Ryes are Here!
Y’all asked and we delivered! Enough people brought up the idea of a rye (a “real rye; not the deli, beige ryes”) so we looked at some trusted sources, bought a couple books, adopted and adapted, then tested with a few customer-friends.
It was obvious that only one or two of us had ever tasted “real” rye. My experience with it was the bland, beige deli rye used for a reuben. This rye is…big, bold, and not shy to scream from the rooftops that it has arrived!
The flour is sourced from Barton Springs Mill and was developed in 1976 in Poland. Originally named, Dankowskie Nowe, “Danko” rye is richly aromatic of the earth, and slightly chewy. It’s like our whole wheat Farmers Heritage amped up in flavor and richness (if you can believe it). As with all Jinx flour, it’s organic and non-gmo; its genetics have not been monkeyed with by humans since its birth.
The rye we’ll have at the market this Saturday, August 7th, will be a sandwich bread with 70% rye flour. The rye you may have had with that reuben was probably well under 10% and possibly as small as 5% rye. Since it is a majority of rye, those of you with gluten intolerance should notice a positive difference in reaction. It is naturally leavened, of course, and no sugar added, so it’s a triple play on bread that’s easy to digest.
The “Rektangel Rye” hits the scales at 1.8kg and is wonderfully Scandinavian in appearance and taste: long and rectangular with a flat top. Feel free to give me a hard time over the Scandinavian name ;-). Eat it with powerful ingredients; we tried a suggestion from a good customer/friend: blue cheese, granny smith apple sliced thin, red onion (we used pickled onion we had left over). Each strong flavor pops through!
Come try some! If the response is positive enough, it will be added to the online lineup for delivery. If you can’t make it to the market and you’re a delivery customer, let me know before Saturday and I’ll deliver you a piece with your next order.
If You Got ‘Em, Smoke ‘Em
I got the bug to buy a wood fired oven. This shouldn’t surprise many of you. But this bug was temporarily squashed when I talked the importer and learned that it would be $40-60k. So we’ll put that off a few cycles.
But, for giggles, I tried a Rustic Voodoo on the offset smoker - the same one I’ve used for years for brisket, ribs, etc. Even using post oak, we all thought the crust would be acrid - but instead, it smelled and tasted like brisket! So I bought an additional stone for the smoker and now preparing 6 or so for the show. It’s a long process, as you can imagine, so the breads are considerably more expensive.
However, given that a good-ish bottle of wine will set you back $15-20 (exposing my lack of wine-ness here), it seems about right.
Available for pre-order here and we’ll have one to sample.
Market Roll Outs
Assuming the ovens arrive by the end of September, we’ll have 6x capacity by mid-month, meaning it’s time to add some markets to the schedule.
Our desired, but certainly not guaranteed, schedule:
First adding Sunday at Mueller, if accepted
Then BCFM on the other Saturday, if allowed
Then BCFM Sundays
Then Lakeline Saturdays
What you can do:
If you attend Mueller or Lakeline, please ask the organizers for Jinx Bread! Their wait can be long, especially if they feel they don’t need another bread vendor. Since you’re reading this, it’s safe to assume that you “get” the difference Jinx brings to the world. So thank you from the bottom of our hearts, in advance!
Experimentum
The fun section where we go into technical details that you may not care about. Today, it’s baguette shaping/formulas and leaven optimization.
Baguettes are..Better
If you’re a baguette subscriber, you may have noticed some odd shapes. A “pregnant snake”, comes to mind. After some formula and process modifications, I’m pleased to announce that baguettes are tasting and looking better than ever. Thank you for your patience (you know who you are)!
If you’d like to know what I did, head over to the Baker’s Notes page and nerd out.
Leaven Tweaking
I really like the acid levels in the Rustic Voodoo and Smoke. But the sandwich breads, in my opinion, should be less acidic. So leaven is being mixed a little earlier in the maturity process. Let me know if you’ve noticed this!
In Closing…
Business over the summer has actually grown steadily at the market (96 breads sold per market) but online growth has flattened. Looking back, this could be expected; without a big outlay in marketing or taking on a delivery partner, growth is limited. I would think more about online/subscription growth were the market business not selling out (nearly) each weekend, so we’ll go that route for the foreseeable future.
As usual, we truly appreciate your business, suggestions, and sharp criticisms!
Jack, Robin, & Grace Holt
More Recipes
Etc.
For market days, some of the breads have a higher price. This is primarily to cover the expense of the market but also to make change more easily (about 50% cash sales) and cover the loss of unsold inventory. You’ll see increases on the non-subscription prices but not the subscriptions (hint hint). Last, I can keep track of all my sales and inventory this way.