Bread, Babka, Baba

I am a bread person...I love it. I could eat bread, bread, bread and more bread. Hmmm there has been times in my life in which I have unfortunately looked the part! Our town in New Jersey was a mix of European immigrants which lead to a very happy thing for me....great bakeries. My family's favorite was Sieze's bakery and they had the best crusty yet soft inside rye bread in the entire world. My dad would stop there several times a week for our loaves and we happily ate our bread. Some days it was still warm and the butter would soften and melt into the pillowy goodness. On weekends we would get a treat of custard and jelly doughnuts, raisin buns and danish. When I tell you I still dream of these things I am not kidding.

Of course, Sieze's bakery is gone. They retired and had no one to take over the business. This same senerio has been repeated over and over again for various reasons (competition, cost overhead, retirement, big chains) to our detrement. When was the last time you have visited a real live bakery that actually made their own baked goods from scratch?

Only adding to my love of bread is my Baba.

This is my baba with her babkas. When I look at this photo I can't do anything but smile with pride and thank my lucky stars that I had this in my life for 35 years. The babka...and most importantly the Baba whom I loved so very much.

My grandmother's homemade, handmade, baked goods can not compare to anything else. They were special. She made Babka, a sweet bread, and from this basic dough she may so many different recipes...pointichi (doughnuts), varenki (pockets with blueberries) and bulichka (simple sweet rolls). I have attempted a few of the recipes but of course they come in a very far second place.

So you see....with all of this amazing bread that I have had in my life....it has turned me into the most incredible and absolute bread snob.

So what does a gal like me do for an encore short of baking bread myself? How do I get away from the not-so-great-grocery-store, we-get-our-dough pre-made-from-a-vendor, and bake-it here, but-who-knows-what-the-heck-is- in-it-bread? What is a bread snob to do? I am so not neutral about this...I love them!

Swiss Bakers

See.... I was getting to the point.

Swiss Bakers http://www.swissbakers.com/ is a Reading business that specializes in breads that have a crunch. Wait you say... I have never seen a bakery in Reading...well yes, they do not have a shop but you can have fresh bread. You have to order the bread or other tasty baked goods over the internet or call them at (781) 354-6989 and then you pick it up at :

The Chocolate Truffle

494 Main Street

Phone: 781-944-7155

http://www.thechocolatetruffle.com/

Yes, I too have to admit that I didn't know we had a chocolate shop in Reading.

So, my personal favorites at Swiss Bakers are the Swiss shield rolls and the Swiss challah. Since you have to order $30 worth (perhaps this can be lessened for repeat local customers hint, hint) I freeze them as soon as I get them home and then all I have to do is pop them in the oven and wow....the best thing in the world...fresh homemade BREAD! The apple filled doughnuts are really to die for.

I spoke with the owner Thomas Stohr about his all natural ingredients. He uses King Arthur flour which is an employee-owned Vermont company. Very good! I then emailed King Arthur flour about where they get their flour (see the Egg and I about Chinese import concerns). I got a standard response letter that said what I wanted to hear:

Dear Baking Friend,

Thank you for your inquiry.

All of the wheat gluten that’s been in the news, as part of a recall on pet food, originates in China.

The vital wheat gluten sold at the Baker’s Catalogue comes from the Netherlands and France, not China. (Even though some Chinese wheat gluten is shipped through the Netherlands, this is not the case with what we sell.) Our vital wheat gluten is imported from facilities registered with the United States FDA, and is free of melamine.

The gluten in our King Arthur signature flours, both conventional and organic, is a natural part of the wheat berry; it’s not added after the fact. All of our King Arthur Flours are milled in the United States, from American-grown wheat.

Any of our mixes that include added vital wheat use the gluten that we obtain from the FDA-registered facility mentioned above.

Our dog biscuit mix doesn’t use added wheat gluten; it only contains the gluten.

I hope this information is helpful. Please let us know if we can be of further assistance.

So I do hope you try them out. If you don't want to order then go to the many local locations they sell at like Whole Foods in Woburn and Busa Farm in Lexington.

Bread is truly a miracle food. After WWII in Kufstein Austria my Baba traded her precious supplies of soap for...you guessed it.....BREAD. Decades later the bakery still stands, the baker warmly remembered, and most appreciated by my family. I do hope that Swiss Bakers will have the same fondness in our collective memories of Reading.