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give that special someone a holiday gift that will make them want you oh so bad by joseybakerbread

mmmm-hmmmm. let them eat josey baker bread.

i'm serious. sign up your crush for bread, as a totally sweet gift. come february, you, or they, will be able to get bread Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday.

i mean, how many times have you thought to yourself-

gee whiz, i really wish i could give someone a gift that was

* crafted with love and care
* made by someone who actually lives in my town
* was totally, totally delicious
* helped support josey baker live up to his name

ya know???
i know! so don't be bashful, be bold. be wild. be the lover/brother/sister/mother you've always wanted to be.
see?
hearts and rainbows,
josey
p.s. if you don't feel like doing that, then just do this:

http://www.youtube.com/get_player

i came up with this first so when everybody starts saying it, say to them "josey baker came up with that first" by joseybakerbread

i'm very excited for two thousand and elevain. if you don't get this, don't feel bad. just click on the link and feel good.

people have been sending me photos and it's making me crazy with glee. check this one out from my buddy elizabeth:


and this gorgeous lunch shot from megan:

and look at what happened when pam brought home her first loaf to her hubby:


ya'll are the sweetest kids on the block.

<3 josey

don't let the man get you down by joseybakerbread

hidy ho you holiday sweater wearin hotties

jeezum crow this whole bread thing is really gettin outta control, ain't it?!? friggin awesome.

hey, here's a quick story - it's the day before thanksgiving. i am mixing up all of my doughs, getting in a good little work out:


everything's going well, i'm feeling very cheery, like i'm david slowly and surely slaying goliath, or maybe i'm kanye west, or i can do a back flip from a standstill, or something, and then i get to the cranberry walnut whole wheat levain dough:


its so totally sexy, right? i know! i plunge my man hand in, and while it makes me all hot and bothered to look at, things just don't really feel right... the dough isn't feeling the way i like it to feel. but i decide everything is fine, and keep rubbing down all the other doughs.

when it comes time to shape the dough into loaves, i'm in a good mood. i'm like whoa mama i can't believe i'm about to shape 60 loaves, this so so much i don't know if i can do it all. but i just start in, and am doing it and doing it and doing it... and then i get to that cranberry walnut whole wheat levain dough. and that friggin dough just does not feel good. i go about my business, but now it's starting to bum me out. i'm thinking aw man, i knew this was too much. what the heck am i doing, trying to bake 60 loaves tomorrow morning?? ugh ugh ugh i'm in a very bad mood and sleep sounds so stupid but i'm going to do it anyway because it's late and i'm tired and i have to get up at 3:30 in the morning to start baking. i go to bed all pissed off about that cranberry walnut whole wheat levain dough.

i wake up a few hours later and start baking. i put some loaves of the cranberry walnut whole wheat levain in first, and start brainstorming what i'm going to tell people when it comes out looking and tasting like poo.

but what the hell, i bake em up, and this is what i pull out:


and all was well with the world.

so don't worry kids - even when stuff feels all weird and wrong and like you're going to ef it all up, things end up being just fine. tell em joseybaker said so.

see you sooooooooon

<3 josey

p.s. i will be out of town from dec 18-jan 3. that means NO BREAD for the weeks of 12/20 and 12/27. i'm sorry, but i'll bake you some crazy sh*t when i get back, i promise you.

o hell yes for tg success by joseybakerbread

ya'll made for the raddest thanksgiving morning ever. thank you a million times over.


i baked 60 loaves thursday morning, all outta my teensy tiny little oven. and all of em got gobbled up, by all of you. folks started coming at 7:30 am, and didn't stop until noon, when i took off on my bicycle to deliver to hungry people around the neighborhood. it was so totally rad i was high all day (on excitement, not the weed pot you stoner)... until about 7:30 pm when i snuck away to take a nap in the basement of Amnesia.

but here's a little behind the scenes peak at what your breadies look like before they become bread.

black pepper parmesan you make me feel funny on the inside...

cranberry walnut you take me places i never knew existed...

and fig gorgonzola rosemary i can't even begin to explain the things i want to do to you...

get your mind outta the gutter.

we had such a special special thanksgiving dinner at amnesia with so many beautiful people.

and i ate way too much and had to fall asleep in a secret place for an hour or so. but then i woke up and sucked down a redbull and felt like a superduperstar and danced the night away.

it was full on goodness. and look at my friends. they are so pretty.






things got pretty crazy by the end of the night...


anyway, see you soon dudes.

<3 josey

community supported bread {for realll} by joseybakerbread

first of all, i want to thank you thank you THANK YOU for all of the support ya'll have given me over the past few months. it's been so super rad to see how pumped ya'll get on my breads, and that you keep coming back week after week to get more.

first things first - Thanksgiving is this week and i wanna make sure ya'll get what you want. if you haven't ordered already, please email me by Monday evening. i will be delivering most of this bread by bicycle on Thursday, and i'm mighty, mighty pumped about this.

and an important shift in the winds is happening here team... the time has come for no more day by day bread decisions. this is too important, too essential, too delicious to fly by the seat of our pants any longer. i'm gonna ask ya'll to make some teensy tiny commitments, and subscribe to my community supported bread. thats CSB for short, you cute sexy babies. so help me help you, and fill out the form at the top of the page to join in on the fun.

here's how it works, very simply - you buy $20 worth of bread (4 loaves) at a time. but on this first time around i wanna give you the sweet deal, so let me give you an extra loaf on me. so that's $20 for 5 loaves of baked goodness. for most of you this will be 5 weeks of bread - 1 loaf per week. for others this will be one week of bread, cuz you are so bread crazy that you just get as much as you can and eat it all and get a tummy ache then complain to me (silly bread loving ones). whatever your style and eating habits, i'm down, you just gotta give me the heads up. don't worry - if you're away for a week or two, just let me know at least 5 days ahead of bread day, and your subscription will carry over to the next week. and when your subscription runs out, just get another one. easy as pie. yummy as bread.

heads up - bread subscriptions don't start until after Thanksgiving, Nov 30 to be exact.

starting in December, i plan on baking on tuesdays as well, so you'll be able to get bread on Tuesday or Thursday. and to remind everybody, you can pick up my bread at Gravel & Gold (3266 21st St @ Valencia) during the day from 12:00-7:00, OR at Amnesia (853 Valencia, b/w 19th & 20th St) any time after 6:00 PM. whatever is easier for you, just let me know and i'll make sure the bread is there. pay in person with cold hard cash - i'll be at Amnesia, or there's a cute little wooden breadbox at Gravel & Gold for you to drop your money in, like this -

rafi made the box. i made the sign and even the little envelopes.

don't be sneaky and try to take your bread without paying. i am an excellent detective and i will find you and take all my bread back and maybe even call you a jerk to your face.

if you're super scared of commitment please say so (and start working on that), and just order 1 loaf at a time. my preference is for the subscription, and my hunch is that one-loaf-at-a-time won't last for long, as more and more people subscribe. you can always drop in to Amnesia and see if i've got any orphan loaves for you to scoop up, but this is only for the wild ones.

check out my new business cards. these aint no mass produced thingamajigs, no sir. i made em myself -


<3 jo

p.s. who is this mystery bread boy...???

thanks[for]giving by joseybakerbread

howdy friends

this is part totally disgusting and part totally awesome...

(that's a loaf of my black pepper parmesan. the black pepper parms LOVE to party, and i cant stop them.)

anyway, a few exciting tidbits in my bread life lately:

* i got a little nod in the November issue of San Francisco magazine. woooohoooooo
* i was recently contacted by a popular sf food and entertainment website, because they want to write a story about me (this stuff makes me bonkers)
* mcsweeney's may be writing a bread book, featuring yours truly (i know, i know, enough with the bread already, but what the heck this is my breadblog folks)

and now on to the realgoodstuff... i wanna let ya'll know about something very special i'm going to be doing in a couple weeks.

everybody's been asking about bread for the holidays. like, josey, when the hell am i going to be able to order some bread for thanksgiving??? i need to bring a loaf to my new girlfriend's house so that i can lie and said that i baked it and she will finally spend the night at my apartment. stay calm my good people, thanksgiving is right around the corner (SO IS MY BIRTHDAY AND I LOVE PRESENTS), and i'm going to give a sweet idea a good ol fashioned try - thanksgiving bread by bicycle. ohhh yes. 'tis the season emmer effer.

here's the deal - on Thanksgiving day (Nov. 25, which is 2 1/2 weeks from today) i'll bake all morning. you can come by my spot (20th & Shotwell) and pick up bread any time before noon. if you're feelin like keeping it nice and cozy and staying home, or laying low at your boy/girl/whateverfriend's house, then i will bike the bread to you sometime after 12:00, before you feast. so sweet. you get to stay in your pj's, and i get to see your place. maybe you'll even have an extra candy corn (or a few of those sweet candy pumpkins [or maybe just maybe a delicious frosty beverage]) on hand so that i can bike on to the next delivery without passing out.

and to make things fun i'm going to have a little competition amongst my breads. please vote for your favorite thanksgiving bread out of the choices below. the winners will make their way into your greedy little fingers on thanksgiving morning. possible thanksgiving breads:

* cranberry walnut whole wheat levain (so festive!)
* seed feast (so hearty!)
* olive levain (so addictive!)
* rosemary, fig, gorgonzola (so sexy!)
* black pepper parmesan (so oozy!)

and here's the thing team - you gotta order bread ahead of time! i'm anticipating more bread orders than i can handle, so if you really want bread you gotta let me know soooooon.

love all ya'll so super hard

<3 jo

p.s. this is the most perfect loaf of bread i have ever baked. i hope you like it.



whole effin wheat by joseybakerbread

i need to get into healthy brown breads. and they need to not taste like healthy brown breads. they need to be sexy and yummy and not make you think "healthy brown bread." maybe i will stop calling them that, so that you don't get it stuck in your mind...

i remember a few years ago my friend rafi was doing lots of fermentation experiments, inspired in part by the book Wild Fermentation, by Sandor Katz. rafi is a gifted man in many ways, the kitchen being one of the places he shines the brightest. but his whole grain sourdough breads tasted like poopoo. this is rafi:

anyway, the other day rafi suggested that i get into whole grain breads. i thought about it for a few, and now i know that that boy has a point. sooooo, here is my first foray into healthy brown bread - whole wheat levain.


and here is some corn bread i made. my buddy bronwen suggested i make it using a recipe from Peter Reinhart's Crust & Crumb.

and here is my roommate brendan about to get a homemade tattoo.

sorry ladies, he's taken.

<3 josey

i heard someone say... new gear... stamped bags?!? by joseybakerbread

my bread looks a little angry lately, doesn't it?


i heard someone say...

people have been telling me things about the bread i'm baking. usually it really gets me all pumped up, cuz they're telling me they like it. here are a few of the things i've heard from people after they ate it:

"your bread is the f***ing best, makes all others taste like s**t."
- MTG

"This truly was the best bread ever!"
- JR

"your olive loaf made it across the bay and onto my dinner table last night. paired with cultured butter and fig red onion jam... delicious. spectacular really. the topic of conversation for a good half hour as dinner guests slowly trickled in."
- ALM

"Oh man, I got my nards severely rocked this morning by some amazing toast. Call the fire department, call the Vatican, call the NSA, there's an amazing baker on the loose!"
- MJ

ya'll are makin me blush... but please don't stop.


new gear...

holy frikkin cow i got a HUMONGOUS new peel so that i can bake MORE MORE MORE bread for YOU YOU YOU. look at this thing, it's really a monster.


my plan is to bake 12 loaves at a time. WHAT?!? 12 LOAVES AT A TIME?!? shut up, im gonna do it, and you can't stop me.


stamped bags...

after thinking about it for a long time, i finally made myself a little linoleum stamp.


i thought that i would really like making it, but i got bored and frustrated pretty easily. luckily my friend rafi hung out and made delicious soup, so i didn't get all pissy all alone. and now i really like it. thanks rafi. oh, and thanks to my new roomie lana, too. she offered up very helpful advice about how to get a good stamp out of it, and even let me use her little rubber roller.

i love my friends.

<3 josey

p.s. i miss you, brother.

thursday bread by joseybakerbread


*note this bread photograph has been slightly altered to give it a more heavenly sheen

yo team. exciting news, and a slight change o plans. thursday is now bread day for my san francisco peoples. i had been delivering bread to gravel and gold on wednesdays, but enough of this 4 am mumbo jumbo, which is when i have to wake up if im going to get to work in berkeley for my day job by 10 am. i work from home on thursdays, and can fit in some baking while i plan how to teach the kiddies.

SO...

bread at gravel & gold on thursdays!!!

and for other exciting news...

i started working at Amnesia, a wonderful little red bar on valencia at 20th st. i'll be there every thursday.


*please note that this is the old amnesia sign. the new amnesia sign is totally sweet. (it's a ship)

what's this thursday theme?!?

and get this - i'll have bread at Amnesia too. if you wanna come in for a slice of toast, it's on me. and if you wanna come in and buy a loaf, it's on you. four big fat bucks. it'll be worth it, i promise. but even if you don't want bread, just come to amnesia some thursday night and ogle at all the pretty people and maybe get just a little bit drunk and say something to someone that you wouldn't otherwise. that's fun.

swak (my friend della says this means kiss, altho ive never heard anyone else say that)

<3 josey