Category — Early Days: Brick Oven Baking

Hi Everyone,

Ok, I’m a wimp. Yup. A big wimp. I know I’ve lived in Regina all my life, and it’s always cold and windy at the end of February. But I don’t care. I still have a tough time dealing with it. I keep trying to find pleasure in the brilliant sunshine but it’s hard when the windchill wants to make bits of me fall off. But even with the cold and wind we managed to haul some more firewood and test some new recipes, so we’re ready to bake for you this week!

We’ve got two variations on some old favorites for you this week:

Orange Boot Birdseed bread: This is a new, improved version of our loaf that is chock full of seeds and grains. First, the seeds: we’ve got flax, sunflower and sesame seeds and even some millet if I can round it up by Friday. Then the grains: how about white flour, whole wheat, rye and oat flakes too. All combined it has a nice wheaty, peppery aroma and a great texture.

- Orange Boot Birdseed Bread, 650g loaf, $4.00

Semolina Bread: Our semolina loaf is a mix of bread flour and durum semolina flour for a nice crunchy crust and golden crumb. The traditional S shape and dusting of sesame seeds will benefit from the shaping and seeding lessons I picked up at school. Yum!

- Orange Boot Semolina, 500g loaf, $3.50

The Orange Boot Baguette: I’ve fallen in love with these sweet, wheaty treats. I hope you will too. I’m working on duplicating the luscious baguettes we made in school with the high protein flour that is milled in Saskatchewan. Come see how it’s coming along.

Please note: The baguettes are best eaten the day they are baked. They go with pretty much any dinner so plan for some good bread for supper Friday!

- Orange Boot Baguette, 350g, free on Friday if you order in advance.

As is our custom, please order by 6pm on Wednesday by sending an email to mark@madbaker.com. Your bread will be ready for pickup on Friday between 3PM and 6PM at 2904 Wascana Street (around back in the garage, just past the oven.)

One other wild card this week — I’m committed to a meeting at my day job between 4-5PM on Friday. Cindy and Robyn will at the bakery to see you all, and are looking forward to it too, but if you want to chat about San Francisco I won’t be there till after 5PM.

============= What’s Happening at the Orange Boot ============

- We’ve got a ton of wood that should last us through the rest of the winter now. Thanks to Perry for the truck and trailer (and heavy lifting) and of course Kent for the wood. Make sure to see Woodland Tree Service for all your pruning, planting and tree repair needs!

- We’ve got a new website! I moved us over to our own domain. Now you can find out all about the bakery at www.orangeboot.ca

- I’ll be sending out a separate email this week about a new way to receive updates from the Orange Boot. It will be simple for you to get updates as well as tell your friends about us too!

Welcome to the new website at http://www.orangeboot.ca/

We’re making the move from the wordpress.com site so that we can customize the site a bit more and have a site name that is easier to remember.

So, when you think of Orange Boot Bakery, we’re at www.orangeboot.ca from now on!

Hi Everyone,

When I built the brick oven in our yard, one of the questions people asked (and I asked myself) was “Will it work in the depths of a prairie winter?” I always figured we’d be OK so long as we didn’t let the oven freeze solid but until last week I admit I felt a little trepidation. Well, things went amazingly well, even with temperatures around -25C and the wind chill at -40C. A couple notes:

• The oven heated up pretty much as usual. Maybe a little longer burn, but nothing too crazy.
• The oven did cool a little quicker than normal. Once the mass is saturated, it usually cools about 10F per hour. In the freezing cold last week, the temperature dropped 20F per hour, which is still very manageable
• The door is still the biggest source of heat loss. I had to switch the loaves around a bit but, again, given the temperatures outside it was more than acceptable
• Whoever thought to position the oven so the back blocked north winds was pretty smart! We were as sheltered as possible, without having the oven indoors
• I can load the oven really, really quickly when my hands are freezing
• Those human interest stories on the news are true — exposed flesh does freeze in a minute or so. I got a mild case of frostbite on my hands by the end of the bake day. Nothing too bad but I had purple fingers for a couple hours.

So all in all, a great learning experience and I was really pleased with the quality of our midwinter bread. We hope you enjoyed it as much as we enjoyed baking it for you.

I’m really excited about introducing some new bread to the list over the coming weeks, but this week we’re going to stick with some old standbys to keep your bellies full during the short days. Comfort food to enjoy wrapped in a blanket, in your favorite chair with a good book and a cup of tea…

#1: Orange Boot Multigrain Loaf: Our best seller, this large loaf is bursting with corn meal, rolled oats, brown rice and local organic unbleached flour. A touch of honey and plenty of buttermilk gives a touch of sweetness and tang too!

Orange Boot Multigrain, 800g Batard, $4.00

#2: Potato, Cheddar and Chive Torpedo: This is a huge favorite with the folks who like cheese bread (like, everyone in our family for example.) With real potatoes, sharp cheddar cheese and a healthy portion of chives in each loaf, I think of it as ‘perogie bread’. Either way it’s a really tasty treat and is great on its own or in a funky sandwich.

Potato, Cheddar and Chive Torpedo, 750g Batard, $5.00

As is our custom — please order by 6PM on Wednesday by sending an email to mark@madbaker.com or calling 522-1592. Your bread will be ready for pickup between 3PM and 6PM on Friday and can be picked up at 2904 Wascana Street. If you need the bread delivered I can do that after 6:00PM Friday but please call in advance to arrange for delivery.

Robyn promises to reply and confirm every email order we receive. So if you don’t hear from us within 24 hours please call or email again.

Best wishes this week!
Mark, Cindy, Ben and Robyn

Hi everyone,

Wow, last week was a bit of a challenge, to say the least. I got hit by a nasty flu bug on Thursday and I’m still working my way back to full fitness, so the vast majority of the firing, baking and packaging fell to Cindy last week. I helped where I could from a respectful distance and wrapped in a blanket, but it all worked out in the end. Sorry I wasn’t able to say Hi to everyone who picked up bread but I’m sure you’ll agree it was for the best!

You could tell we were a little out of kilter because for the first time in our history, Friday didn’t have the nicest weather of the week. I know it wasn’t too terrible, but I’m used to seeing sunshine and unseasonably warm temperatures when we’re baking. Perhaps we’ll be treated to a chinook this time round.

This week, we’re making two slight modifications to some old favourites:

#1: Orange Boot Birdseed Loaf: This is a “transitional” multigrain loaf — that is, it still contains white flour but has lots of healthy additions like wheat bran, buttermilk and of course, fresh-roasted pumpkin, sunflower and flax seeds. The roasted seeds give the loaf a unique flavour and crunchy chew. Yum!

Orange Boot Birdseed Loaf, 750g Batard, $4.00 [Note that the shape is different than pictured, but the insides are the same!]

#2: Our Semolina Loaf is a simple loaf with a deceptively complex flavour thanks to an extremely slow rise. We start building the dough Wednesday for a Friday bake and the dough does most of its rising in the cooler. The bread contains a mix of white flour and durum semolina flour from locally grown, organic grain and when shaped in the traditional ‘S’ and topped with sesame seeds becomes Pane Siciliano, which makes it more fun too!

Pane Siciliano, 500g S-shaped loaf, $3.50

As is our custom — please order by 6PM on Wednesday by sending an email to mark@madbaker.com or calling 522-1592. Your bread will be ready for pickup between 3PM and 6PM on Friday and can be picked up at 2904 Wascana Street. If you need the bread delivered I can do that after 6:00PM Friday but please call in advance to arrange for delivery.

Robyn promises to reply and confirm every email order we receive. So if you don’t hear from us within 24 hours please call or email again.

Best wishes this week!
Mark, Cindy, Ben and Robyn

Hi everyone,

Wow, last week was a bit of a challenge, to say the least. I got hit by a nasty flu bug on Thursday and I’m still working my way back to full fitness, so the vast majority of the firing, baking and packaging fell to Cindy last week. I helped where I could from a respectful distance and wrapped in a blanket, but it all worked out in the end. Sorry I wasn’t able to say Hi to everyone who picked up bread but I’m sure you’ll agree it was for the best!

You could tell we were a little out of kilter because for the first time in our history, Friday didn’t have the nicest weather of the week. I know it wasn’t too terrible, but I’m used to seeing sunshine and unseasonably warm temperatures when we’re baking. Perhaps we’ll be treated to a chinook this time round.

This week, we’re making two slight modifications to some old favourites:

#1: Orange Boot Birdseed Loaf: This is a “transitional” multigrain loaf — that is, it still contains white flour but has lots of healthy additions like wheat bran, buttermilk and of course, fresh-roasted pumpkin, sunflower and flax seeds. The roasted seeds give the loaf a unique flavour and crunchy chew. Yum!

Orange Boot Birdseed Loaf, 750g Batard, $4.00 [Note that the shape is different than pictured, but the insides are the same!]

#2: Our Semolina Loaf is a simple loaf with a deceptively complex flavour thanks to an extremely slow rise. We start building the dough Wednesday for a Friday bake and the dough does most of its rising in the cooler. The bread contains a mix of white flour and durum semolina flour from locally grown, organic grain and when shaped in the traditional ‘S’ and topped with sesame seeds becomes Pane Siciliano, which makes it more fun too!

Pane Siciliano, 500g S-shaped loaf, $3.50

As is our custom — please order by 6PM on Wednesday by sending an email to mark@madbaker.com or calling 522-1592. Your bread will be ready for pickup between 3PM and 6PM on Friday and can be picked up at 2904 Wascana Street. If you need the bread delivered I can do that after 6:00PM Friday but please call in advance to arrange for delivery.

Robyn promises to reply and confirm every email order we receive. So if you don’t hear from us within 24 hours please call or email again.

Best wishes this week!
Mark, Cindy, Ben and Robyn

Hello Bread Lovers!

The weather has warmed up a bit and we’ve found a source of seasoned firewood, so we’re back to baking this week!

As we’re getting back into the swing of things, we’ll be sticking to two of your favorites this week:

#1: Orange Boot Multigrain Loaf: Our best seller, this large loaf is bursting with corn meal, rolled oats, brown rice and local organic unbleached flour. A touch of honey and plenty of buttermilk gives a touch of sweetness and tang too!

Please note: We’re no longer making sandwich loaves in the brick oven. You’ll get the same great flavour in an oblong shape — it’s still a nice high loaf which is great for your morning toast.

Orange Boot Multigrain, 750g Batard, $4.00

#2: There’s nothing ordinary about our Pain Ordinaire – our french loaf is given an extra slow rise starting Thursday night to extract the most flavour from our organic flour.

French Loaf (Pain Ordinaire), 700g Batard, $3.50

As is our custom — please order by 6PM on Wednesday by sending an email to mark@madbaker.com or calling 522-1592. Your bread will be ready for pickup between 3PM and 6PM on Friday and can be picked up at 2904 Wascana Street. If you need the bread delivered I can do that after 6:00PM Friday but please call in advance to arrange for delivery.

Robyn promises to reply and confirm every email order we receive. So if you don’t hear from us within 24 hours please call or email again.

Best wishes this week!
Mark, Cindy, Ben and Robyn

Hello Bread Lovers!

Happy New Year everyone. We hope you are all having a wonderful holiday season. December has been a very busy and exciting month for us and it was nice to take a few days off to relax and have fun as a family.

We’re getting ready to start baking again and we’ll have a ‘bread order’ email shortly. This isn’t it, though. There have been several inquiries about what we’ve been up to so this email is a summary of the events of the past couple weeks…

The Bakery: We spent most of December attempting to purchase the existing bakery in the River Heights mall on Regina Ave and Montague St. Pretty much did it too, but on December 18 we finally decided to hold off for now. The space was larger than we needed, the equipment much older than we’d like and the layout is pretty awkward too.

The good news is we had a really good meeting with the mall landlord and will work together to design an appropriate space in the mall over the next 18 months or so. We’re both excited about the type of bakery we want to build.

In the meantime, however, we’re still looking for some rental space (hopefully with equipment) so we can continue to bake 1-2 days a week for all of you. We have pretty much maxxed out what we can do in the house while still preserving our sanity, so if any of you know of a commercial kitchen we can rent by the hour, please let us know!

The Bread: The last four months have been a lot of fun as we’ve worked to figure out how to scale up our baking, manage the brick oven and expand on the types of breads we offer. We learned a couple really good things:

1. 60 loaves per baking day is a good number when baking out of the house. We did 75 on December 1 and that was hard, and the 155 we did on December 14 pushed us (mixer, oven, Mark and Cindy) to the limit. So the solution is to expand to a bigger space (with bigger equipment), bake two days per week, or change my mixing technique. We’re open to ideas here — please let us know if something ‘obvious’ comes to mind.

2. Bread pans are damaging the brick oven. We were disappointed to learn that the heavy pans we’re using for our multigrain and birdseed bread are causing the firebrick hearth to deteriorate. Lots of scoring on the bricks from sliding the pans in and out of the oven. So we will no longer be offering pan breads (aka ’sandwich loaves’) and will be investing in proofing baskets so you can still get nice high loaves for your morning toast. We started experimenting with the baskets in December and are pleased with the results. We think you will be pleased as well.

At every step on this adventure we’ve been obsessive about how to provide the very best experience for each and every one of you. What new breads do you want to see? How can we make ordering easier? Can we improve how the bread is packaged or delivered? You are our ‘A-team’ and we rely on your comments to make the bread and the bakery the best you’ve ever experienced. We’re thrilled that you are part of this — please keep the comments and suggestions coming!

Happy New Year everyone. We look forward to seeing you again in January!

Mark, Cindy, Ben and Robyn

We hope you’re having a great December so far. Things have been really busy for us – Robyn got over her flu bug, a little hockey was played and we’re getting used to the fact that it’s going to be really, really cold for some time yet. But nothing beats the cold like a wood fire and fresh bread, so we’re back baking this week!

Please note: This Friday will be the last baking day for us before Christmas –- we’re frantically trying to get our head around leasing a commercial space in the New Year (more details below) and we need to get some shopping done too.

This Week: Many of your old favourites — order some extra to freeze if you need. All the loaves freeze well; the multigrain especially so.

#1: Orange Boot Multigrain Loaf: Our best seller, this large sandwich loaf is bursting with corn meal, rolled oats, brown rice and local organic unbleached flour. A touch of honey and plenty of buttermilk gives a touch of sweetness and tang too!

– Orange Boot Multigrain, 800g Sandwich Loaf, $4.00

#2: Our “birdseed” loaf is a multi-grain loaf chock-full of roasted pumpkin, sunflower and flax seeds. The seeds add extra crunchiness and pack a lot of flavour!

- Orange Boot Birdseed Bread, 800g Sandwich Loaf, $4.00

#3: There’s nothing ordinary about our Pain Ordinaire – our french loaf is given an extra slow rise to extract the most flavour from our organic flour.

– French Loaf (Pain Ordinaire), 700g Batard, $3.50

#4 (Sweet Special): Cranberry Walnut Celebration Bread. This is a very pretty sweet loaf, with six strands of dough all braided together and baked till a golden brown. A luxurious treat with a hint of oranges and as many cranberries and nuts as we can cram in there!

– Cranberry Walnut Celebration Bread, 850g Braided Loaf, $7.00

Note: If you’ve got a large gathering, we’d be glad to make a 1.2kg behemoth for you for $9.00.

#5 (Savory Special): Herb and Garlic Focaccia. This amazing flatbread is built over two days for maximum flavour and then we go even further with a home-made herb oil. Wow! This is sold as a slab which you can cut up for guests or tear apart with gusto.

- Orange Boot Herb Focaccia, 8”x12” slab, $4.00

As is our custom — please order by 6PM on Wednesday by sending an email to mark@madbaker.com or calling (306) 522-1592. Your bread will be ready for pickup between 3PM and 6PM on Friday and can be picked up at 2904 Wascana Street. If you need the bread delivered I can do that after 6:00PM Friday but please call in advance to arrange for delivery.

We promise to reply and confirm every email order we receive. So if you don’t hear from us within 24 hours please call or email again.

Best wishes this week!
Mark, Cindy, Ben and Robyn

=== What’s Happening at the Orange Boot? ===

It looks like we might be going “legit” sooner than we thought. An opportunity came up to take over a local bake shop and we’re seriously considering going for it. Lots of details to work out – negotiations, financing, equipment appraisals, staffing, renovations to plan, etc. and we’re trying to get a final decision made before Christmas. Exciting and scary all at once.

Mark is also enrolling in an Artisan Bread baking course at the San Francisco Baking Institute in early 2008 so we can offer up some new and interesting varieties for you to try.

As if that wasn’t enough, Mark’s researching some new whole grain breads to give you some even healthier alternatives. More news to come in the New Year on this topic too.

Hello Bread Lovers!

I spent far too long yesterday reflecting on how I could feel so darn happy after watching football on TV this weekend. Very entertaining 2-0 win by Arsenal over Wigan Athletic on Saturday and a pretty darn special CFL game on Sunday. I know I’m not the only one thinking how things have changed in our lives since the last time the Grey Cup came to Saskatchewan. One example — we received lots of nice comments about how our Herb Focaccia was a tasty addition to your Grey Cup parties; in 1989 the only wheat products I consumed came in an amber bottle…

As promised, we’re offering our “Sweet and Savory” specials again this week along with a basic (but exceptional) french loaf. We want to keep the number of varieties each week small so we can focus on producing bread of a very high quality.

#1: There’s nothing ordinary about our Pain Ordinaire – our french loaf is given an extra slow rise to extract the most flavour from our organic flour.

– French Loaf (Pain Ordinaire), 700g Batard, $3.50

#2 (Sweet Special): Cranberry Walnut Celebration Bread. This is a very pretty sweet loaf, with six strands of dough all braided together and baked till a golden brown. A luxurious treat with a hint of oranges and as many cranberries and nuts as we can cram in there! We were overwhelmed by the response last week — I wish I took a picture of our prep table laid out with over 150 little dough strands waiting to be braided!

– Cranberry Walnut Celebration Bread, 850g Braided Loaf, $7.00

Note: If you’ve got a large gathering, we’d be glad to make a 1.2kg behemoth for you for $9.00.

#3 (Savory Special): Herb and Garlic Focaccia. This amazing flatbread is built over two days for maximum flavour and then we go over the top with a home-made herb oil. Wow! This is sold as a slab which you can cut up for guests or tear apart with gusto.

– Orange Boot Herb Focaccia, 8”x12” slab, $4.00

As is our custom — please order by 6PM on Wednesday by sending an email to mark@madbaker.com or calling (306) 522-1592. Your bread will be ready for pickup between 3PM and 6PM on Friday and can be picked up at 2904 Wascana Street. If you need the bread delivered I can do that after 6:00PM Friday but please call in advance to arrange for delivery.

We promise to reply and confirm every email order we receive. So if you don’t hear from us within 24 hours please call or email again.

Best wishes this week!

=== What’s Happening at the Orange Boot? ===

Lots, as usual!

First off, we’re pleased to announce that our daughter Robyn has taken over the position of VP of Replies and Keeper of the Order List. She’ll be confirming all your orders from now on and making sure I bake the right things.

Second, I’m fretting over how the oven will perform now that the weather has turned extra cold. We’ll be paying close attention to the firing time on Thursday to make sure the oven is good and hot come bake time.

Finally, we’re trying to find the right balance between baking old favorites (multigrain, birdseed, cheddar-chive) while also getting our wild yeast breads and lean doughs just right. We’re working on a monthly bake schedule so that you can stock up on your favorites and we can still experiment with new varieties too. More news to come next week!

This is our eighth week of baking for friends and family. Two month’s worth of good bread, prepared with care every Friday. It’s extremely gratifying to see the smiles and hear the great comments about our bread. We really appreciate it – frankly, making a direct happy contribution to your weekend is a big reason why we’re doing this in the first place!

We’re approaching the time of year where many of us are heading out to Christmas parties, pot luck suppers or maybe even hosting a gathering of your own. We think we can help you out a bit in this regard, by offering two very special breads to go along with our regular fare (which is special in its own way!) So you will see two special loaves each week from now till the New Year. One sweet, one savory – either will make a nice gift, pot luck contribution or decadent treat for a winter evening in.

This week’s offerings:

#1: Orange Boot Multigrain Loaf: Our best seller, this large sandwich loaf is bursting with corn meal, rolled oats, brown rice and local organic unbleached flour. A touch of honey and plenty of buttermilk gives a touch of sweetness and tang too!

- Orange Boot Multigrain, 800g Sandwich Loaf, $4.00

#2: Saskatchewan Sourdough: Flour, water and salt. Take three simple ingredients, add lots and lots of time, and you get the most complex and delightful flavour possible. If Mark was stranded on a desert island, this is the bread he’d want.

- Saskatchewan Sourdough, 700g Batard, $3.50

#3 (Sweet Special): Cranberry Walnut Celebration Bread. This is a very pretty sweet loaf, with six strands of dough all braided together and baked till a golden brown. A luxurious treat with a hint of oranges and as many cranberries and nuts as we can cram in there! We were sampling this loaf last Friday and got 100% huge grins from everyone who tried it!

- Cranberry Walnut Celebration Bread, 850g Braided Loaf, $7.00

Note: This is slightly smaller than the 1.2kg behemoth we served up last week, to make it a little more manageable for you. If you’ve got a large gathering, we’d be glad to make the big ‘un for you for $9.00.

#4 (Savory Special): Herb and Garlic Focaccia. This amazing flatbread is built over two days for maximum flavour and then we go over the top with olive oil, garlic and fresh herbs. Wow! This is sold as a slab which you can cut up for guests or tear apart with gusto.

- Orange Boot Herb Focaccia, 8”x12” slab, $4.00

As is our custom — please order by 6PM on Wednesday by sending an email to mark@madbaker.com or calling (306) 522-1592. Your bread will be ready for pickup between 3PM and 6PM on Friday and can be picked up at 2904 Wascana Street. If you need the bread delivered I can do that after 6:00PM Friday but please call in advance to arrange for delivery.
We promise to reply and confirm every email order we receive. So if you don’t hear from us within 24 hours please call or email again.

=== What’s Happening at the Orange Boot? ===

We’ve got heat in the garage! Yay! We’re still mixing in the house, but fermentation, shaping and proofing has moved to the garage to be closer to the oven. Your bread is also available for pickup in the garage too. Please come on in!