fresh out the oven

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goodness gracious, look at this lil bun fresh out the oven:

yup, Cassady Francis Baker was born into this world on June 7, 2015, and my oh my, what a joy he is. don't worry, i won't be one of those people who post tons and tons of photos of their newborn on their website.

...

but, i mean, come on, you've gotta agree, he is pretty frikkin cute, and his papa ain't no sack of sh*t either:

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anyway, we got a lot going on at The Mill. too much to blab about in one silly and too-quickly-written post. here's a few things though, just to whet your whistle...

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Ryan, known to some as "Rye Guy," has been doing tooooons of experiments lately, and i've been madly inspired by his determination and creativity. he's pushing into new frontiers, blending malted barleys and pre-ferments and sprouted ryes and molasses and polenta and creme fraiche and what-the-ef-ever else he feels like, and he's coming up with some really amazing stuff. like what you ask? like this frikkin crazy naturally leavened corn bread that's unlike any other corn bread i've ever tasted, so much so that it feels like a misnomer to even call it corn bread. one day we'll make some for you and you can tell us what to call it.

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Ty, who has one of the most beautiful man manes i've ever had the pleasure of seeing, has been leading the charge on a JBB baguette. baguettes, my god, i love you and i hate you. we made baguettes way back when, and then we stopped, and we've tried a handful of times since, never quite able to recreate the baguette of our dreams. but Ty is closer than ever, and it's purely because of his beautiful man mane. no silly, it's because he's got mad skills, and he has been tinkering and exploring and inventing for months, trying to coax that dreamy baguette into our mouths. how does he do it? i can't tell you all of the secrets, nay, i can't tell you any of the secrets, but that's because there aren't any - he's using about half whole grain sonora flour, half high extraction wheat flour, a super fresh sourdough culture, overnight bulk, very gentle shaping, just shy of 500F oven... the results are magnificent when everything is aligned. keep your eyes peeled, soon my friends.

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i've been working with a very talented fellow over in Oakland named Joe, who is actually an alum of Hampshire College, just like myself. Joe spends his nights down at the Stanford Linear Accelerator, smashing subatomic particles together with great force (is that what you do Joe??), but by day he works with metal, making knives and beautiful signs and as of today, grain mills. with the help of the brilliant Andrew Heyn from Elmore Mountain Bread in Vermont, we are building a new grain mill that is about twice as big as our current mill. why the new mill? because we want greater control of the granulation of our flour, and building it ourself just seems like fun. i've been grinding the millstones over the past few weeks, while Joe has been meticulously crafting the frame, and we are pretty darn close to giving it a test run. should be up and running within the next couple of months, and we are puuuuuuumped up about it.

i hung with my photographer bud Erin Kunkel a few weeks back and she snapped some pics that made me look wayyy cooler than i am, which will be used in a piece in King Arthur's new publication, Sift. we had a lot of fun, some of it looked like this:

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we've been baking bread everyday for the last i-don't-even-know how long, so we are going to take a day off - Wednesday August 26 - so we can party together. it's our 3rd annual JBB Retreat and we're going to go on a camping trip the night before, then spending that Wednesday hanging out on the beach, decidedly NOT baking bread. so mark your calendars - no bread on Wed Aug 26!! The Mill will be open as usual.

what else? here's Blair watching Jess be a Rye Master:

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so that maybe one day she can make bread like this:

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and here's Rafi meditating in the sunset in the Trinity Alps during a backpacking trip he and I did a week ago:

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and here's my child, last one, i promise:

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check ya soon sweethearts

<3 j

whole / wild / wet / slow / bold

just to get a little personal here for a moment - my first child's due to be born today. this'll come as a surprise to some of you, as i tend to keep this kind of personal stuff outta here, but as you can imagine, this is one of those things that will impact every other facet of my life, and so what the heck, i decided to share the news with you all. thanks for sharing in the joy, next time you hear from me i should be a papa.

but enough about me, let's get back to the bread... i've been thinking a lot lately about what our guiding principles are. what are the characteristics that define good bread, both in terms of the process and the ingredients? these rules aren't hard and fast (and i'll be the first one to support a deviation in the quest of deliciousness), but i do think they're principles by which most good bread is made.

whole: whole grain i'm definitely not tied to all breads being all whole grain (there's a different bread for every occasion, and many of our breads are 50% whole grain), but the more bread i make, the more bread that i eat, the more i am drawn to breads that are mostly whole grain. i find these breads both more interesting to make, and more interesting to eat. we've been working with a bunch of different grains lately (einkorn, rye, spelt, khorasan, corn, oats, buckwheat, a bunch of different wheats such as Sonora, Cabernet, Cristalo, Bolero, Merica, etc) and i've been elated by how much i've grown as a baker, and all of the flavors, textures and aromas we're getting. and we're just scratching the surface. we've got a stone mill in the bakery so that we can control the granulation and then use the flour immediately in whatever fashion we dream up - mixing it directly into dough, or soaking it overnight, or toasting it and mixing with boiling water, or cooking it into a porridge... new possibilities present themselves everyday.

wild: wild yeast a sourdough starter is a magical little beast. it’s a combination of flour and water, along with wild yeast and bacteria that are naturally found on flour and in the environment. starters can be tricky to work with, as you need to constantly monitor their development and characteristics in order to make the bread you’re after. in order to keep your sourdough starter alive, you have to “feed” it regularly with flour and water, and by doing this you can coax the wild yeast and bacteria into the proportions that are good for bread baking. most bread is made with yeast that's made in a factory, and this yeast is created in order to make bread rise quickly and dependably. but it wasn’t always this way – the first breads ever were most definitely “sourdough” – made with a mixture of flour and water that was allowed to ferment by the power of the wild yeast that was lucky enough to find its way into the mixture. the best breads that i've ever had have been made using a sourdough culture. if used properly, a sourdough culture yields bread that tastes better, lasts longer, and is healthier for you.

wet: fully hydrated it’s a lot easier to end up with moist bread if you start out with moist dough. why don’t more people put more water in their bread doughs? because it makes for a dough that is very sticky and tricky to handle, and well, that's a pain in the ass now isn't it? this is especially true if machines are dividing the dough, or shaping it into loaves. only the sensitive human hand can handle dough like this, and even then, it takes hundreds, thousands of loaves to get the hang of shaping "high hydration" dough consistently. most breads out there have 60-70g of water for every 100g of flour. our breads have between 75-125g of water for every 100g of flour, and this totally depends on the particular flour of a given bread. we aim for a dough that is fully hydrated and yields a bread that has a moist and supple crumb.

slow: long fermented good things take time, didn't your gramma teach you that? the flavors and textures of a long-fermented loaf are just flat out better than those of a short-fermented one. the life cycle for most of our breads goes something like this: our sourdough culture hangs out for 20-24 hours before being mixed into dough, our dough relaxes for 3-4 hours before being shaped into loaves, our loaves chill out for 14-18 hours before being baked into bread. so our bread dough has matured over a couple of days before it's baked into bread, which gives the yeast and bacteria of our sourdough culture time to perform their magic: producing the perfect mix of acid, alcohol and gas to make good bread.

bold: boldly baked when a loaf goes into the oven it is the moment of truth - did we make the right decisions over the last 48 hours? and so begins the waiting game for that loaf to complete its transformation. you can't rush this phase of the process, just like every other one. we bake our breads anywhere from 30-120 minutes, depending on the size and type. regardless, we bake each loaf till it's crust is dark and substantial and its insides are fully cooked. folks occasionally point out that we burnt our bread. while i admit that our loaves are significantly darker than those from most bakeries, i also stand by the flavors and textures created by the bold bake, and encourage critics to employ their taste buds.

and that, my friends, is that. holler if ya got any thoughts on the matter.

<3 j

the next big thing in bread

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happy spring, chickens

we're about a quarter of the way through 2015, ya know what they say when you've been having fun... if i do say so myself, and i do, i've been having the best year of my life. i've just been soaking up so much learning about baking and living and loving and it's landed me in a place where i'm so very aware of how much more there is to learn, how much richness there is to be sopped up out of these moments of life. is that too gushy for you? i hope so, but in a nice kinda way that makes you giggle, not think, 'jeez that baker boy has been spending too much time smelling roses or something.' anyway.

the past few weeks have been particularly inspiring, and have led me to something i'm very excited to share, something that i dare say may just be the next big thing in bread.

but hold your horses there kiddos, i can't just go cutting right to the chase, that would really spoil all the fun now wouldn't it? come along, hold my hand and i will take you on a little journey with me so you can fully appreciate my tale. i'll start at no particular starting point, and by that i mean with a trip out to see Mr. Dave Miller.

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every time i hang with Dave i learn something simple and powerful. it usually involves something that we've talked about before, something he's mentioned in the past that i wasn't ready to understand, but then all of the sudden it clicks into place and i find myself saying, 'ohhhhhhhhhh, that's what you meant!! of course.'

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other than taking a breather from SF life and enjoying the deep pleasure of gas station cappucinos with one of my good buds, Ms. Blair Cardigan Smith (pictured below), i was reminded of the importance of starting each and every loaf with the highest quality flour you can find, which is much more complex than i could have ever imagined. this involves sourcing your grains well, but then you also have to mill your grains well. neither of these things are easy to do. it seems like the deeper into grains and milling and bread that i get, the more there is to learn. and that's just fine by me, because if there's one thing i don't like, it's being bored.

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i came back from Dave's and had a lovely week baking bread with my oh-so-very badass crew at the bakery, and then the next weekend i took a trip out to the woods with a group of dear friends, led by my dearest heartbrother Rafi. together we built a sweat lodge.

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i'd never built a sweat lodge, nor sweat in a sweat lodge, but i am a full convert - it was one of the most powerful and nourishing things i've done.

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if the opportunity presents itself, hear my voice in the back of your mind saying, 'it'll be worth it.'

back to the bakery for another week of bread baking and jogging in golden gate park and hanging out with my beautiful pregnant wife (yup, t-minus 2 months my dudes!!). and then off on another adventure, this time to the east coast. specifically, i just returned from an epic trip to North Carolina + Virginia where i visited with a handful of bakers, some of whom i have literally met in my dreams. goodness gracious, i was absolutely floored by the welcoming i received by each and every one of them.

i started out visiting Dave Bauer at Farm + Sparrow, right outside of Asheville. Dave's been milling his flour and sourcing grains direct from local farmers for about a decade, and my my my, he knows what he is doing.

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he's a master of his craft, and i feel truly privileged to have been able to spend a few days in his company. can't wait to go back.

after Farm + Sparrow I head to Raleigh, where i had the pleasure of hanging out with the crew at Boulted Bread.

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these boys are making some phenomenal bread + pastry, and my only regret is that i had barely 24 hours in their company.

after getting in a quick car accident i proceeded to Richmond, VA, where i spent about 16 hours in the ridiculously loving arms of Evrim Dogu and crew at Sub Rosa Bakery.

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Evrim and I are quite obviously long lost brothers, and we quickly delved deep into some of life's more personal and mysterious topics, such as Peter Chang's Chinese food, the tragedy of of love long lost and the resulting flickering eye lids, and whether or not "2000" should ever be uttered following the word "pizza." i miss you already Evrim.

ok, so, enough of that trip down memory lane - are you ready for it? i'm not sure you are....

so we all know that overcooking your veggies leaches many of the most nutritious bits, while also rendering them less pleasing to your palette. for many foods, the optimum way to ingest is to avoid cooking altogether, to just eat that carrot/kale/tomato/sunflower seed raw. over the last year i have been exploring what this could look like in our bakery, and today i am ready to share some of these discoveries.

since i started baking bread i have always favored the 'bold bake,' appreciating the nuanced flavors/textures/aromas it allows you to coax from the loaf. however, as is the trend in coffee roasting, i'd become curious about what it might mean to go for a lighter bake, to let the flavors of the grain speak for themselves, instead of being overshadowed by those produced during caramelization and the maillard reaction.

we've been secretly experimenting with 'light baking' and while it's proven promising, i now believe that we have stumbled upon the true next frontier in bread. my friends, i proudly present to you here and now what is sure to be the next big thing in bakeries across the world: raw bread.

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the act of baking bread dough robs it of many of its beneficial probiotic cultures, not to mention solidifying gluten into its much more abrasive form. did you know that gluten is totally harmless if it's consumed raw? also, the wild yeast and bacteria present in sourdough culture are able to thrive fully throughout the digestive process so long as they aren't exposed to the cruelty of baking temperatures, thereby lending a helping hand throughout the entirety of their journey through your digestive tract.

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it is for these reasons that from here on out we will not be baking our loaves, instead opting for the more nutritious raw form of sourdough bread dough.

also, i am pleased to announce that from here on out we will no longer be toasting our bread, as we believe that consuming raw toast is the superior approach.

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and you thought $4 toast was a big deal.

all my love sweethearts

<3 j

happy birthday to us

just a quickie here sweethearts, cutting to the chase - be there or be square.

<3 j

Friday Night Pizza

yo yo yo my sweet sweet sweetie pies let's get the big news outta the way so we can catch up...

FRIDAY NIGHT PIZZA STARTS IN FEBRUARY

yup, Mondays have been so much fun that we're gonna start slanging pizza on Fridays too. same deal as Mondays: 6-9pm, one type of pizza per night, $3/slice or $24/whole pie (8 slices), along with salads, chocolate chip cookies, yadda yadda yadda. so come on out for the fun - the first Friday is February 6, and then you can get your pizza every Monday and/or Friday that your little heart desires.

also a couple more fun things we got coming up -

Saturday Jan 31

we're going to be hosting a couple of very talented ladies all the way from New York - Erin & Agatha, bakers and cookbook authors, will be celebrating the release of their new cookbook, Ovenly, by hanging out at The Mill all morning on Saturday 1/31 with copies of the book for sale. we'll also be running a very special one day only collaborative toast special that may or may not include a chocolate date spread w crumbled spelt cookies on top, which Erin + Agatha make just for us... come + eat some and buy their book.

Friday Feb 13 - Maria Schoettler will unveil her art at The Mill. and yes, there will be pizza too. very stoked to be surrounded by her gorgeous work, it looks like this -

and this -

hope to catch ya around for some of these fun things.

but let's get down to business, you and me - i've missed you. where the heck have you been? probably you were busy chopping down your christmas tree or lighting your menorah or meditating on bodhi day or feasting for kwanzaa...? whatever your holiday of choice, i hope it was fulfilling and rejuvenating and that your 2015 is off to a tremendous start.

mine indeed is, as i spent a couple of weeks back east in Vermont w dear family + friends doing stuff like this -

and daydreaming about stuff like this -

and looking at stuff like this -

I snapped that last pic from the top of Elmore Mountain. a funny little tangent - i drove my mom and step dad to the airport one morning at 4:30am. as i was driving home i all of the sudden was struck with a powerful idea - i'm going to hike to the top of Elmore Mountain and watch the sunrise!!! i pulled into a gas station and got a big cup of coffee and started amping myself up. i drove for 20 minutes then stopped at another gas station and picked up a liter of water and, what's that sitting next to the register just begging to be brought to the top of the mountain and eaten while the sun rises? that's right, a frikkin cadbury cream egg. yes, i'll take one of those too please. so i keep going, get to the base of the mountain, strap on my head lamp and chug the water and put my mountain top cream egg in my pocket and start off tromping. man o man this is going to be great!! but another 30 seconds and i stop - what the heck am i doing? its zero degrees and pitch black and i am all alone and i actually don't think i'm as tough as i think i am... i went home and went to bed, woke up and had french toast then hiked the mountain later in the day with my papa.

speaking of Elmore Mountain, i spent some great time hanging with my buddies Blair, Andrew & Kate at Elmore Mountain Bread, and just had so much fun.

they actually built their very own stone mill this past year, and they've inspired me to build our very own mill!! at least, that's the current dream. watch out though, dreams really do come true...

love to you my dear.

<3 j

bake with us; Holiday Craft Bazaar this Thursday 6-10pm; gift my cookbook???

alright dudes, before i get into our quest for the newest member of the JBB family, a few things of note -

Holiday Craft Bazaar, Thursday 6-10pm @ The Mill

haven't gotten that special something for that special someone for this special time of year? been putting off buying yourself that sweet, sweet coffee mug that you've been wanting to find for months? feeling jealous of my totally rad indigo tie dye shirts??? have no fear, this coming Thursday 12/18 we're having a lovely evening at The Mill in which all of your dreams will come true. members of the JBB + 4B family will be showing off their skills and making the products of said skills available for purchase to people like you and me. so come check out what we do when we're not baking your bread or making your macchiato. we're very good at stuff, ya know? like, for god's sake, look at what Ryan Lee, also known as Function & Whimsy, makes in his spare time -

and that's just the tip of the christmas tree, if you know what i mean...

bake with us - open position starting 12/28

yup, it's that time of year as well - we need another baker to join our ranks!! is it you? it may be, if you meet the criteria below. you may be the newest JBB crew member if -

• you love baking bread, more specifically highly hydrated, whole grain, sourdough bread
• you've got at least 6 months experience working in a professional bakery/several years experience working in professional kitchen and a serious baking habit on the side
• you're ready to work 3-5 days/week starting December 28
• you can hang in an open kitchen, with curious customers always asking you things like, “what are you doing?” and then not listening to your answers
• you have your opinions about how to do things, but you’re open to learning how to do stuff better, quicker, and in a variety of ways
• you like working in a tight little bakery where you’re never more than 3 feet away from another person

position begins in 2 weeks, December 28, so please e-mail me a resume and explain why you're the perfect fit ASAP to jobs@joseybakerbread.com

gift my cookbook???

i've been beside myself with glee to be hearing from so many people about how much joy they're getting from my book. i even made a few lists for folks' favorite cookbooks of the entire year!! that just about made me cry with joy, check it out:

• Eater.com
• Evan Kleiman

don't be shy, go ahead and buy it for that buddy of yours who's always wanted to bake bread. maybe it'll change their life. just look what happened to me.

lastly, just gotta share how stoked i am about a new bread we're making -

California Heirloom is our newest loaf, and it's made with 100% California grown organic wheat. specifically, it's made with an heirloom variety called Sonora, and it's grown by one totally badass farmer named Sally Fox, out in the Capay Valley just a couple hours outside San Francisco. i drove out to visit Sally a few weeks ago and loaded up 500 lbs in the back of my truck, and here in the bakery we've been having a blast figuring out how to turn it into the most delicious bread we can. we're only making a handful of loaves each day here, but if you're lucky enough to see it on the shelf, i suggest you grab it and give it a try. i think Sally would be proud.

peace out sweethearts, hope to catch ya Thursday. or if you know what's good for you i'll see you Monday night, for some of this -

<3 josey

thanks for giving

ok, first things first - i just turned 32 and i am loooooving it -

can you believe those shorts? my lady knows me so well.

but that's not the point of this - no no no. so - FIRST THINGS FIRST - this week is Thanksgiving, and i am thankful for so many things, i can't even begin to tell you. my wife, my mom + dad, my brother, my amazing team of bakers at The Mill, stuff like this:

but come on, this is booooooring, you wanna know about BREAD. well, here's the deal my dudes:

Thanksgiving - every year (*see below*) i take great joy in baking up the bread on Thanksgiving morning, and this year is no exception. so check it out - we are OPEN on Thanksgiving at 8AM and will have a bunch of bread coming out of the oven, so don't you go worryin' your pretty little heart when you wake up Thursday morning and say, "OH CRAP I FORGOT TO GET THE BREAD." just come + get it. just come and get it by 3PM, cuz that's when we close so we can go home and party because...

Friday - The Mill is OPEN, but JBB is not baking any bread. but oh yes, we will have coffee + toast and lots of pretty people mulling about, so don't be shy, go for a Black Friday jog and finish it off w some whole wheat toast covered in pumpkin butter.

*the see below part*

4 years ago i baked up 60 loaves of bread in my dinky little home oven on Shotwell St, and a bunch of people i didn't even know came and bought it all. i had no frikkin idea what the next 4 years would hold, but good god almighty, i am so so so thankful for it all. SO THANK YOU, each and everyone of you who've played a part in the crazy adventure.

speaking of which, i was fortunate enough to make a trip out to my bread hero Dave Miller this past weekend, and get a load of this - 100% stone ground whole grain kamut, like non i've ever seen -

he has a way, goodness gracious he has a way.

oh, one more  very exciting thing - on my way to Dave's i swung by to visit Sally Fox and pick up a bunch of her Sonora, and two days later i milled it up and mixed it up and baked it up -

it's reeeeeeeal good, and after this Thanksgiving craziness has passed we're going to start making it for you too. so stay tuned honey bees.

ok ok ok, see ya on Thanksgiving, or if i don't have an amazing time and open up your heart nice and wide and do a back flip for me.

<3 j

wanna have... [ahem]... dinner w/ me?

yo buddies, long time no see, where the heck have you been??? anyway, let's cut to the chase, i don't have time for dilly dallying here...

if'n ya wanna have dinner w me (not fully formally w me, i mean, i'll be there, but we won't be, ya know, sitting down and staring into each other's eyes and playing footsies under the table), then come on out for this special evening next Monday -

what oh what is going on, you ponder? the talented folks at Jardiniere are having a special one night only menu in which they use our bread in every single dish!! what are these dishes, you so eagerly ask? i got your back, you curious little cat you -

i rolled through last week for dinner and was really floored, it was incredibly scrumptious. hope to see ya there honey pies.

but if i don't see you there, i better hear that you were scarfing pizzas at our Monday Night Pizza party, which shall be still be raging on, as it is every Monday, from here to eternity.

oh yeah, and one more thing - we aren't baking any bread on Friday, Nov 28, nor Thursday, Dec 25, nor Thursday, January 1. cuz bakers need to rest, too.

<3 josey

whole grain bread baking - Wed, 10/29 7:30-9:30pm @ The Mill

howdy folks if'n ya wanna learn how to bake some bread, you can go ahead and sign up here for my next class - Wednesday, October 29 from 7:30-9:30pm. it'll be at The Mill.

the last one filled up quick, so don't ya go dilly-dallying.

<3 j

bake w me (again), my first halfsy, + The Return of The Chocolate Chip Cookie

yo buuuuuuddies i got an overwhelming response to my last post about baking classes, and it ended up selling out in a couple of hours, and so now hear this - more are on the way!! how to sign up? enter your e-mail here and i will keep you up to speed -

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*please note - signing up above does NOT sign you up for a class, it just adds you to the class e-mail list, and you can sign up once i send you an e-mail with details, links to ticket site, etc.

next class is planned for Wednesday, Oct. 29 7:30-9:30, and there's a few more on the calendar as well, so please gimme your e-mail and you can sign up if ya like.

enough about that - man oh man, i just did something that i've never done before!! it wasn't easy, but it wasn't nearly as hard as i'd thought it was gonna be. i sweat nearly the whole time, but luckily i was practically naked. and it probably would have been a lot worse if i didn't have this guy with me the whole time -

that's Ira Glass, host of This American Life, and man oh man, he is just so good at what he does, and i have taken to listening to his show religiously when i go on longer runs. (and how about that new podcast, Serial?? so good right?!!? i mean, what the heck, Adnan does not sound like he could have done that... and how about that streaker!!)

but anyway - i ran an unofficial half-marathon! or, as i've taken to calling it in the last few hours to nobody but my proud self, "a halfsy." so i ran my first halfsy. feels so good to have done it, and it's got me pumped on doing more. i started running a couple of months before my wedding because, let's face it, running a bakery had turned me into a fat kid. or, as i liked to say to all the bakers, "the fattest kid in the bakery." the real turning point was when, during my bachelor party, while wearing body paint and a headdress and chasing after a bear, i realized that i was not going to catch the bear, because i had, as stated earlier, turned into the fattest kid in the bakery. and i said to myself, "if i was not at my bachelor party, but rather just out in the woods, and it was time to chase after a bear, i should be able to catch it." so i stopped eating so many chocolate chip cookies and started running a few times a week. last time i checked i'd lost a whopping 25 frikkin pounds since that pathetic bear-chasing performance. (for the record, i did catch the bear, though he definitely slowed down for me, and after that i ate his heart. but that's another story altogether, now isn't it?)

but speaking of chocolate chip cookies - tonight marks The Return of The Chocolate Chip Cookie at The Mill. yup, we've been hearing consistently from you that you're mighty pissed that we don't have that special little treat anymore, so we decided to bring it back, on Monday nights only, as a nice little after-pizza snack. so if you're angry with us about the cookies, then please come by tonight, or any other Monday night for that matter, and stuff your face with warm chocolate chip cookies and a cold glass of milk.

this past weekend was as glorious as can be - i spent Saturday evening baking pizza in a wood fired oven -

it was part of a wonderful evening at a farm in west Marin aptly titled, "Nature Babes," in which some talented ladies showed off their art + music gifts to an attentive and appreciative little gathering of folks. after the fun was had on the farm me and some good buddies engaged in something i hadn't done since i was a child. i also had no idea how intense things would get -

good god!!! playing a good game of JENGA is one of the most exhilarating and anxiety-provoking experiences i've had in a long time. and that photo doesn't even capture where we went - soon after this two brave women pulled BOTH the left and right block out of the BOTTOM LEVEL. i was completely awed by their finesse. we had a dedicated group of about 7, and man oh man, we really gave it our all. it was a fitting end to the drama when another party-goer who wasn't engaged in the insanity accidentally whacked her booty into my buddy Rye Guy while he was delicately nudging a block out, thereby making the teetering tower topple to the ground.

ok, i need to go eat some pizza and cookies, maybe i'll see ya there?

<3 j

bake with me?

been wanting to do this for a while now, and finally the day has come - bake with me!

yup, i've decided it's time to share all of the secrets of whole grain bread baking, and i wanna do it with YOU, on Sunday October 5 at 7:30pm. don't be shy, if ya wanna come bake some bread, sign up here. there are only 10 spots for this class, so if'n ya want in, then sign up quick. but fret not, if ya miss this one, i'll be doing more soon.

anyway, enough shameless self-promotion, let's look at some pretty stuff -

me and my sweet lady Cathy went on a superb backpacking trip a few weeks ago, which culminated at that very pretty swimming hole you see right there. it was deeper than we could even see, and you know we jumped right in, hootin and hollerin the whole way down. i would love to share it's location with you, but i've been sworn to secrecy by the very trusting fellow who told me about it. and when someone tells you a secret, you keep your lips sealed. right? right.

but here's a hint - it looked like this on the way there -

ain't cali just the best???

but hold the phone, ya know what else was the best? a couple weeks ago i hauled my butt up to Mt. Vernon, Washington for The Grain Gathering, and it got me so so so excited about what's happening right now with grains, bread, baking - we're in the midst of something very special. it was a gathering of some of the most badass folks in the field these days - bakers, farmers, miller, scientists, maltsters, brewers, you name it. and check this out - i even got to put on Kiko Denzer's hat for just a sec -

it felt really really good.

what else is up? ya know, baking bread, trying oh so hard to make it look like this, which every once in a while it does, and makes me all warm and fuzzy inside -

look out, there may be a pot of gold at the end of that one.

we're continuing to experiment with some new breads, and i'm stoooked to share this next one with ya - 100% einkorn. what is einkorn, you may ponder, oh curious reader? it's the mother of all wheats. when i first started baking i learned about this ancient grain and i was very intrigued, i just said to myself, "one day i'm going to make bread out of that." and friends, we've been making bread with this old grain and i'll tell you what - it may just be my favorite bread. but hey, you don't have to take my word for it, we're trying our best to work it into production, and soon so soon we'll have it for sale at The Mill in very limited quantities, probably 5 loaves a day or so. it ain't a showy loaf, it looks like this -

but good god, that flavor, it's really something remarkable. if'n you're curious come on by in the next few weeks, we should have it sorted out by the beginning of October.

which reminds me - NO BREAD ON WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 24 !!!! sorry my dudes, we will miss ya, but i'm taking the whole bakery staff on a retreat to somewhere special up in the woods. not to worry - The Mill will remain open as always, and there'll be plenty of coffee and tea and toast and pastries...

which brings me to another important point - here at JBB we're going to focus all of our energy on bread, starting next week. what does that mean? it means that at The Mill we're going to start working with some of the most badass pastry folks around, and we'll be offering up their goods for your enjoyment at The Mill. we've been making our pastries in house since the beginning, but as time has marched on i've realized that bread is where my heart is, and in order to do the types of things i'm most interested in, we've gotta narrow our focus. don't worry, we're still making pizza -

because pizza is just bread with delicious stuff on it. and obviously we're going to keep doing toast, don't be silly. more to come on those changes, don't wanna bore with it all here and now... but now i'm bored, so i'll check ya later you sexy little bunnies.

<3 j

no pizza this Monday 9/1

just a quick note to make sure ya don't get disappointed this Monday - NO PIZZA!!! but please come and hang with us the next Monday, 9/8, because we'll be slangin again, as per usual.

have a great weekend sweeties

<3 josey

let's keep it simple

have you already eaten like a million tomatoes this year? holy crap, they're here in full force, and here at The Mill we are freaking out about how delicious they are. in particular, just this last week Ryan & Erin roasted up a whole bunch of them and turned them into the best damn pizza sauce we've ever had. we're getting all of our tomatoes, of the dry-farmed early girl variety, from a strapping young farmer named Toby, who looks just like this -

Toby_SF_680_340_85_s_c1

handsome, isn't he?? but hold your horses boys + girls, he's taken.

so hell yeah, we roasted up all those yummy tomatoes and put them on the pizza along with smoked mozzarella and basil and it looked like this -

photo 4

we liked it so much, get this - for at least the next month we're going to celebrate the mighty tomato by letting it shine loud and true - dry farmed early girl tomatoes, mozzarella cheese, basil. what does it taste like? really frikkin good cheese pizza, that's what. come check it out if'n you're curious.

Monday_Night_Pizza_tomato

and eating this delicious pizza made us feel just like this -

photo 3

which was funny, because there just so happened to be many drawings of this variety all over The Mill this last Monday, since we had very rad Berkeley artist Rob Wilson's art opening, which was a smashing success - he sold almost all of his art that very night. understandable, when it looks like this -

rob water magic

we're also continuing our R&D for a bunch of new breads, here's one that we pulled outta the oven today: stone ground spelt -

photo 5

100% stone ground whole grain spelt sourdough, to be exact. where do we look for inspiration on matters such as these? the man, the myth, the legend: Mr. Dave Miller.

photo 1

was beyond stoked that he came by to visit the other day. he never ceases to inspire, got me all pumped up to keep pushing our bread into new directions.

that's all, check ya soon sweeties.

<3 j

#sharetheloaves

guys, i can't even tell you how proud this makes me: my mom is using my cookbook to bake bread. i mean, look at this, this is some of the gorgeous bread she is pulling out of her oven in her home in Vermont!!

this brings a tear to my eye, i mean, my love of the kitchen began with her. (and my gramma, with whom i used to love watching cooking shows, most memorably the Galloping Gourmet, i mean, check him out -)

my mom taught me how to hang in the kitchen, and her cookbook collection was integral to my development as a baker, as an all around lover of cooking, and learning abut cooking and baking through cookbooks... and now she is using MY book!!! too good to be true, really, goodness gracious me.

mama's been taking lots of photos of her baked goods, and every time she sends me a photo my heart sings with joy. so yesterday she sent me a few photos of her sourdough pizza, and i damn near drove off the road (was driving back from week in LA in which i was absolutely floored by the excitement around baking, grains, the "artisan bread revolution", but more to come on that later).

without further ado, i would like to invite all of y'all who are baking from my book to SHARE THE LOAVES. and by that, i mean take a sweet pic of your bread, pizza, pocketbreads, whatever, and post it to Instagram or Twitter with the hashtag #sharetheloaves. there's already a bunch up there as i started tagging photos a while back, other folks have picked up on it, and it would warm my heart to see what y'all are baking up.

and speaking of baking from the book, check out what these folks have been saying...

David Lebovitz

Lottie & Doof

Root Simple

The New York (frikkin) Times (!!!)

TheKitchn

so have at it people, please keeping sharing the loaves.

<3 j

this whole pizza thing is getting out of control... and we like it that way

hi honey pies i'm gettin ready to jump in my truck and head down to LA for a bunch of book parties, but i just had to share some exciting stuff with y'alls.

we've been peeing our pants with joy at the popularity of Monday Night Pizza... speaking of which, check this ridiculously rad graphic that the handsome + talented RJ Rabe just whipped up out of the bytes floating around in the ether -

(there may or may not be some posters in the works, stay tuned)

but let's quit kissing each other's butts for a second, eh? you've been very patient and understanding when it's taken us a bit too long to get you the goods. we've been making just as much pizza just as fast as we can, but we're in the process of re-imagining some stuff, which is gonna hopefully allow us to feed more people faster...

and in truth i am kinda jumping the gun on telling you all this, but i just can't help myself, because i wanna make sure that y'all keep coming over on Monday nights and that you're not deterred from waiting a half hour for your cheesy goodness... just don't you dare give up on us and start saying stuff like, "oh yeah, Monday Night Pizza at The Mill? it tastes so frikkin good, but i ain't gonna go back cuz i don't like waiting that long for my pizza."

instead, i want you to say stuff like, "oh yeah, Monday Night Pizza at The Mill? it tastes so frikkin good and i go all the time, just cuz i love it so so so much, it's my favorite god damn pizza in the Universe."

speaking of the Universe, when i was out on a river in the foothills the other week, which looked like this -

i was staring at the stars and pondering how they all look so similar to us, but in reality they have so many humongous differences between them. i mean, it's kinda crazy - we look up at the night sky, and we see a sea of stars, and they all just look like variations on a theme... but there's some unbelievably diverse stuff going on out there, we just can't see it with our wimpy little human eyes... check this out -

ummmm, what are you even talking about?

hey now, come on, i was purposefully trying to spice things up because i figured you may be getting bored with all this pizza talk... i was leaving out some of the technical stuff because i figured you actually weren't that interested...

well, i might be interested, if you say it in an interesting way...?

ok, i'll try. just don't be a jerk about it, k?

can't promise you anything. 

wait a sec, hold on - you can't promise me anything? well that's screwed up, you should be able to promise some things... are you an all around untrustworthy person, unable to make promises??

you're off topic baker boy, get to the point. 

right. so - thus far we have incorporated all of the pizza dough mixing into the rest of our dough mixing, but what we're about to do is -

zzzzzzzzzzzz.

i told you it was gonna be boring!!

make it better. 

god, just look at this -

we're gonna start making a special kind of pizza dough, a top secret sourdough pizza dough that we'll be able to make exactly the way we want, no compromises, no if's/and's/but's about it. and we're gonna be able to make more of it. and at some point we'll start serving pizza sooner in the evening. ya feel me??!?

ok, this is kind of interesting... what's the big deal. 

we will imbue our pizza dough with our massive spirit and bless it with rainbow power and it will make you 10% smarter every slice that you eat. so keep it coming sweethearts. because at the end of the day we all just wanna be loved. am i right?

now we're talking.

i'm outta here.

<3 j

one can never eat too much pizza (in august)

just a quickie here my dudes - here's the pizza party menu for the next 5 weeks -

love you

<3 j

the woods are calling

well jeezum crow, i feel like i've lived a million years since we last spoke!!

just a few days ago i found my way to a lovely little river about 3 hours northeast of San Francisco. it was my first time out in the California wilderness this summer, and my goodness gracious me, it felt amazing. it really is just one of my favorite things in the world to do, to pack up my bag and just walk up the river and explore and relax for a few days. but holy moly, for this trip it was *H*O*T* - a whopping 100F on Monday! not to worry, we were never more than a few steps from the water, and we just spent all day splish-splashing around.

but i've been on the move a bunch over the last few months, what with a book to promote and a beautiful woman to marry -

but things are calming down now, and that's just fine by me. i am so very excited for the book (a bunch of parties in LA, see below!!) but it's also really nice to be spending time in the bakery day in and day out, making stuff like this happen -

it's not that i wasn't loving what i was doing, don't get me wrong, but when i was coming and going every other week, i would just start to get in the groove and then *POOF*, i'd fly away. but i'm back for a spell now, so i should stop whining.

at least til the end of the month, when i head down to LA for a whole bunch of book parties!! check em out -

• Thurs, July 31, 4-8:30pm - Grist & Toll
• Fri, Aug 1, 7-8:30pm - New School of Cooking
• Sat, Aug 2, 4pm- Book Soup
• Mon, Aug 4, 6pm - Baker to Baker Discussion w Evan Kleinman & Zack Hall (e-mail roxana@cookscountyrestaurant.com to reserve a space), Vibiana 214 South Main Street, LA

do ya wanna come to some of em??!? well i would just love that, so if'n you're in the neighborhood and in the mood, then please swing on by and say hey, ok? OK.

i'll tell ya, it's been kinda nuts, this whole "being a published author" thing. i mean, guys, people are coming up to me in The Mill and asking me to sign the book that i wrote. SIGN THE BOOK THAT I WROTE?!?!? i wrote a book?!?! and people want me to sign it?!?!?!?! i'm not sure any of this is really happening, but i will continue to act like it is, because it is very, very fun. and i get to do stuff like this, act like i'm a famous person on WCAX in Vermont -

i had no idea i was showing off my thigh tat like that, i'm not a floozy, i promise you.

but then i come back from acting like i'm famous, and my amazing bakers show me this -

so i get overwhelmed and eat 4 of them and just immediately pass out. btw - the magical light on this here peanut butter brownie is sunlight that streams into the bakery only for a couple hours in the afternoon, only at certain times of the year, like this time of the year. gotta appreciate the now, now don't we, now?

well, i don't wanna bore you, so i'm just gonna quit while i'm ahead.

but just let me ask you this - do you like bagels? think about it and lemme know.

<3 j

let the pizza fly in july

Monday nights are my favorite nights, and it's because of all your beautiful faces. every Monday The Mill fills up with happy pizza eating people, and it just makes my heart sing.

come out and grab a slice if ya feel like, but please try to come on the early side - we've been running out of pizza by 8pm most of the time.

soon we will offer our pizza starting at 5pm, but ya gotta give us a few weeks to make that happen. til further notice expect it as always, at 6pm.

and here's the menu for the next month -

oh yeah, just a little heads up - we had to increase our prices by 50 cents a slice, so now it's $3/slice, $24/pie. why the price hike? the toast was getting jealous.

love ya

<3 josey

it's okay to feel good

well, i've made it 31 one years on this here planet and this much i know is true: there ain't a better way to end your day than hacky sacking on top of a mountain while drinking champagne and watching the sun dip down into the ocean. am i right, or am i right??? i'm oh so happy to hear if you've got a better idea, so speak up now, ya hear?

okay now, let's get down to business, i've got some veeeeery important stuff to share. let's see now, where was i...?

...

oh sheesh, i thought i had all sorts of funny and entertaining and important things to tell you, but wtf, we all just wanna look at pretty pictures anyway, so let's just do that -

BUT before we dive into pretty picture zone, might i remind all of you folks who live in the northeastern part of our united states of america that maybe just maybe i will be in your neck of the woods for a book release party, and maybe just maybe you can come by and join in on the revelry??? here goes -

• June 12: Brooklyn, NY
  • Marlow & Sons, dinner
• June 18: Amherst, MA
  • Amherst Books, 4-6pm
• June 20: Morrisville, VT (my home town!!!)
  • Bee’s Knees, 4-6pm

and don't you worry Cali folks, once i am back i am driving down to LA for some parties there too!! check em out -

• July 31: Pasadena, CA
  • Grist & Toll, 4-8pm
• Aug 1: Culver City, CA
  • New School of Cooking, 7-8:30pm
• Aug 2: Los Angeles, CA
  • Book Soup, 4pm

ok ok ok enough with all these WORDS, let's get into some yummy stuff -

that is our workingman's bread. (do you get it? if you do, you'll also appreciate that what some people call their "office days" i refer to as my "dancing bear days." what a long, strange trip...) we love workingman's bread. it's half rye flour, half wheat flour (all whole and stone ground at The Mill), and then we also sprout a bunch of rye berries and grind em up and work em in to the dough. aside from tasting real nice, i like to think that it's a purty one as well... don't you think?

holy moly, the pizza last week really blew my mind. and i can say that, because to be totally honest, the topping combo was wholeheartedly not even my idea. ya see, at Josey Baker Bread we subscribe to a philosophy that can be summed up thusly: best idea wins. and sometimes i don't have the best ideas, sometimes the wonderful folks that i am fortunate enough to employ have the best ideas. and this was one of em: snap pea, radish + mint. and tonight: summer squash, rosemary + spinach. next week 6/16: corn, chard, + ricotta. and the following Monday 6/23: tomato, basil, fresh mozzarella. please enjoy the next couple pies for me, i will be away on book tour, and missing all of you and all of this pizza.

speaking of the very talented folks whom i have the joy of employing, ms. rachel anne duffy decided to do that with the berries in our galette the other day, and i thought it rather marvelous. i hope it tickles your eyes the way it does mine.

we're always tweaking how we make the bread, and sometimes things go just right and it goes BOOM in the oven. the other day that happened, and it looked like that. it made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

now i am VEEEERY pumped about that guy right there. ya see that is an experiment that i've been wanting to do for a long while, and i'll tell you why. we are making some changes at The Mill, and one of the things we are going to start doing is making more breads with ancient grains, such as einkorn, spelt, and khorasan (same grain as Kamut, with a non-trademarked name). these grains behave differently in the dough than common wheat, and so present some fun and interesting challenges. we took a stab at it the other day, and this little beauty is what came of it. it's a blend of einkorn, spelt and khorasan, with a weeeee bit of rye from the starter culture. all of the flour is whole grain, milled moments before being mixed into the dough. there's no common wheat in it, nor is there any store bought yeast. we're gonna start making it regularly soon, and we're not quite sure what we are going to call it... got any good ideas?

my brother came over last night, and i know how much he likes it when i make him snacks, so i made him this. it's our stone ground griddle cake, with some cutesy little strips of bacon, rosemary, maple syrup and szechuan peppercorn. i'm a bit outside of my comfort zone making stuff like this, but what the hell, ya gotta do that kinda stuff sometimes, yeah?

ok that is all peace out sweethearts hope to see some of ya on the east coast

<3 j

the universe has a way

hidy ho my adorable little dudes well, since we last spoke i've gone and got hitched, and i'm feeling pretty great about that. check out me and my sweet sweet lady Cathy at City Hall, moments before we officially became husband and wife:

and then we spent 3 days on a river in the Sierra Foothills with 100 of our closest friends and good god, that was about as good as it gets. lots of this kinda stuff:

followed by this kinda stuff:

and then a whooole lotta this kinda stuff:

(above 3 pics courtesy of the handsome + talented Dylan Chandler)

yup, very very happy about it indeed, being married is the raddest.

on another note, goodness me, it's been so so lovely to hear from all of y'all about how you're digging on the book!! thanks times a zillion for all of your sweet sweet e-love letters, they make me blush, every single one of them. i've even been getting some good ol' fashioned letters of the handwritten variety as well, and that makes me smile reeeal big, so if you're feelin like breakin out the ol feather pen, please do and send it to me at The Mill, 736 Divisadero St, San Francisco, CA 94117. i may even write ya one back w my new watercolor set, which i am actively looking for excuses to uses [sic].

ok ok, i wanna tell you a story, so quit yappin and just listen up - i was up in Portland, Oregon a few weeks back, absolutely loooooving it, when i got a text from my sweet lady Cathy, "what's the license plate number of your truck?" my stomach immediately sunk - somehow i knew that somebody stole my truck. a bunch of texts back and forth and a few phonecalls later and it was confirmed - some total a-hole had stolen my truck. i was flying back to SF that day anyway, so we went straight to the police station, filed that report, and then i prayed to the almighty god that i don't even believe in that my dear truck would find its way back to me.

minutes, hours, days went by...........

then this happened:

yup, some friggin jerk had gone and tossed a couple wine bottles through our skylights at The Mill. i wondered - was i doing something wrong? was the Universe trying to show me something? was it the toast??? WHY O WHY WHAT DID I DO??!?!?

but then i got a call, and an hour later i was going like this:

THE POLICE FOUND MY TRUCK YAAAAAAAYYYYYY!!! and yes, i felt as awesomely crazy as i appear in this photo, if any of you have had a car stolen and then returned, you understand what i'm talkin about. and the thieves had been pretty sweet, as far as thieves go - the truck was totally fine, with stereo in place and trailmix still in the glovebox.

so now i am feeling okay again - i got a sweet truck, a sweet wife, a sweet bakery, a sweet life.

what else is up? i've been surfing a good bit, sometimes if i am lucky with the likes of this fellow:

and we've got some changes afoot in the bakery!! basically we are gonna pull back our pastry program so that we can make a little bit more bread. what kinda bread, you ask? TOP SECRET. jk sweetheart, we are considering all sorts of stuff, but currently these are the winners:

• baguettes. these will be baguettes of the sort you've never seen. why? because we are gonna make them completely out of ancient grain. yeah that's right - ancient baguettes. get ready San Francisco, we're gonna hit you right where it counts.
• ancient wonder bread. remember when you were a kid and your mom used to make you sandwiches on that delicious sliced multi grain bread??? we're gonna make that. but we're not going to slice it for you, don't be silly. and it's not gonna be made to last for weeks on a supermarket shelf either, even though this aging process lent a certain charm, for sure. ours will probably be a blend of khorasan and einkorn and who knows what else, stay tuned. i've known for years that i needed to make bread with einkorn, and we've been experimenting in the bakery, and we can't even believe how delicious it tastes. it's hard to work with, but we're gonna try our best to figure it out. what's einkorn? oh, it's only like the oldest frikkin variety of wheat on the planet earth, no big deal. BIG DEAL. read more here.
• more adventure bread, more rye bread. people been freeeakin on the adventure bread, and we have been struggling to keep up. rest assured, we are going to start making more of it so that you don't have to be here first thing in the morning to get your adventure bread fix. what's adventure bread? check this out. whoops, not that, this. (it's our gluten-free bread) also, we can't make enough rye bread right now, but we will soon!!
• yummy pastries from a baker buddy. we will still make some of our yummy sweets, such as our cookies and granola, but for the most part we are gonna hand over the pastry reigns to a very talented baker buddy of ours. stay tuned, you'll know when it happens.

and OH MAN, if you're free this Friday ya gotta come to Penrose + party with us!!!

no reservations, just come on in and eat some delicious dinner and drink some delicious drink and leave with a signed copy of my book.

speaking of book release parties - i'm headed to the northeast in just a couple weeks - so if you're in New York or Amherst, MA or Vermont, or LA, i better see you at one of these:

• June 12: Brooklyn, NY
  • Marlow & Sons, dinner
• June 18: Amherst, MA
  • Amherst Books, 4-6pm
• June 20: Morrisville, VT (my home town!!!)
  • Bee's Knees, 4-6pm
• Aug 1: Culver City, CA
  • New School of Cooking, 7-8:30pm
• Aug 2: Los Angeles, CA
  • Book Soup, 4pm

ok that is all i loves yous

<3 josey