It started with a No Knead Bread Baking class lead by Eric Knutzen at the the Ecology Center and quickly moved to heirloom flours and stone bread ovens!
I am really enjoying learning more about bread and flours and milling and baking. On March 9, 2014, I attended a Community Pop Up Event at Grist and Toll in Pasadena. Grist and Toll is a new mill that opened in November 2013 with an emphasis on milling heirloom, as local as possible grains, for baking. Check their website for current grains that are available.
Michael O’Malley, a sculptor, has made M.O.M.O. or Michael O’Malley’s Mobile Oven. He builds a fire in the oven as you do with traditional stone ovens and then rakes the fire out and gets ready to bake. At the end of the day on Sunday, the oven was still at 600°!
Bakers were invited to bring their own loaves to bake, tour the mill, and shop from the Pop Up market. It was a fantastic day in spite of the 88° day outside! Clicking on the pictures below will open up the gallery so you can see larger pictures.
- The new mill
- Bakers gather to discuss their craft
- Loading the loaves into the oven
- Wiping up excess flour
- Many of us wanted to capture the day
- Adding steam to the oven
- Closed up tight
- The beautiful mill and sifter
- Removing the loaves from the oven
- Finished loaves
- My loaf
- Getting ready to take the oven home
- Bread for our dinner on Friday
- My first rye loaf using flour from the new mill