Over the last few years as we slowly grew our small business, it was important for me that we lead with our strengths and focus on what we do best - producing naturally leavened bread. I have spent many years trying to learn the craft of traditional bread baking, and I must say, the learning has yet to end. But I also knew that one day, we will need to expand our offerings and bring something absolutely delicious to the table. Viennoiserie has always been that something for me.
Viennoiserie is the meeting point between pastry and bread. And so, it was a natural progression to make in my development as a baker. This category of goods requires knowledge of bread-making principles and also skills associated with pastry-making such as visual composition and beautiful presentation. If you've had the fortune of trying crisp croissants that shatter at the bite, delectable danishes, or a rich golden brioche...then you've had viennoiserie. The taste and flavor of these when freshly made from scratch is incomparable to anything.
In order to perfect my technique in lamination required for viennoiserie products, I have been traveling whenever I had a pocket of free time to learn from those who are far better than me. The baking community is an exceptionally generous group of people and I've been very lucky to have had the opportunity to go up and down both coasts as well as within the heartland staging at incredible bakeries and attending workshops taught by some of the top bakers in the country. From the Pacific Northwest to California, from Rhode Island to North Carolina, and here from Madison to Chicago to Michigan....the few pictures below summarize what I've learned on my travels and what we will be making for you.
We made all these croissants last week as part of recipe trials for our March fundraising event - the Pastry Pop Up! We have been anxious for you to try out our pastries ahead of the indoor market opening and so we are collaborating with our amazing friends at GEM (located in the former Nadi building at 406 E. State St.) to set up a bakery for a day in their beautiful downtown space next week on Saturday, March 30th from 9am to 2pm.
From now until next Wednesday, we are offering a special pre-sale ticket for $10 that will turn into a $12 credit towards your purchase on the day of the event. You can get the tickets HERE. This Pop Up is a little different than our previous ones as it is set up in a traditional bake sale way rather than a sit-down meal event. We will have a large variety of sweet and savory pastries, coffee and other beverages, and, of course, bread available for purchase. I sincerely hope you will join us next weekend and also would greatly appreciate if you help us spread the word about this event to your friends and family!