Community Bread Bake On November 21st

Happy Thanksgiving (almost).

We are hosting a Thanksgiving Community Bread Bake on Saturday, November 21st, 2015 from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.  This event is open to everybody, just bring your loaf or loaves to the oven and we will bake it.

Also, the Saint Paul Bread Club will be meeting at the same time. They are a friendly group, and so feel free to get to know people who also love bread and love talking about bread. All skill levels are welcome.

The best breads for the community bread bake are ones that have little or no sugar in them. Caramel rolls or banana bread will likely burn on the outside and remain gooey on the inside. Of course, the oven may have cooled by noon and we can give it a shot, but no guarantees.

Bread that is baked in the oven is usually not in a pan (like the ones above), but we can bake breads in a metal pan. No glass or pyrex bread pans.

If you need a recipe, you can check out "Lazy Loaf" and the "Sunday Loaf."  They are posted on the blog on the right-side column under "General Information and Recipes." 

Slowing Down, Meeting Neighbors, and Baking Really Good Bread

For a long time, there was just one oven for an entire village.  It was inefficient for every person to have their own oven, and so the community shared a large oven in the center of town. In the process of baking, people would meet friends, discuss politics, share stories, and gossip. In addition to producing good food, the community ovens produced good neighbors.

That old idea is now coming to the Hamline-Midway neighborhood in Saint Paul.  This spring we will begin building the Community Brick Oven at Hamline Church, and hopefully we'll be eating some wood-fired pizzas and baking many loaves of awesome bread by this summer.

News, information, and random thoughts will be posted on this blog. So stay tuned and visit often. Construction of the brick oven will start in April. It will be a community effort. Anybody who would like to volunteer to help is welcome to sign-up for a volunteer slot (more information about signing up will be posted soon). Once completed, we'll focus on learning how to fire the oven and use its full heat cycle. Then, the fun will really begin.

Before we get too far ahead of ourselves, however, we must step back and thank White Bear Lake United Methodist for awarding us a grant to build this community brick oven in the Hamline-Midway neighborhood. It is the vision and support of Pastor Bryce Johnson at White Bear Lake United Methodist that sparked our imagination and made this possible. It's also the technical expertise and construction know-how of Mike Faust that is going to get this project done.