This blog has left the building

Hi, I am no longer posting in this space. However, I have recently put up a website, if you're interested here is the link...www.cliffsidehearth.com
I'm outa here.
Ciao.
PS: I will leave the contents of this blog active as they show the steps of our journey, from backyard bakers to retail slaves. Who knows, maybe someday I will return to baking in the old backyard oven...

Autumn 2011

Hi, It's been awhile. A busy time in our lives, up early and late to bed with many hours of hard but rewarding work in between. Canadian Thanksgiving is the Monday after the first weekend in October and it's always a busy time for any bakery. Other than apple galettes and braided Challah we made nothing out of the ordinary, we just focused on our regular bread line and the pizzas and cookies that augment our offerings. It all flew out the door as folks came early and bought up everything we had. We went home exhausted but very fulfilled, that's what the good side of baking can do for you. The flip side is that you go home exhausted but disappointed from whatever didn't turn out so well- a failed batch of bread that just lay there on the hearth and refused to rise, or burnt cookies, or even a customer that you couldn't please, it all adds up. Fortunately, things turned out well. Post Thanksgiving there's always a downturn, so it's been quieter in the weeks since. But no complaints, we are busy making plans for Christmas baking. I have always loved the traditional sweet goods associated with Christmas, like Fruit Cake, Plum Pudding, Gingerbread and Stöllen...so, that's what it will be. I'm going to lay in some supplies for all this stuff and get to work, you need to get things baked well in advance so they have a chance to age (meaning you soak everything generously in booze/butter/sugar/suet) In the meantime here are the latest pics.
Ciao baby...

Spring Into Fall

Hi,
The first week after Labour day is always a mad rush. Toronto summer traffic, once a mere background roar has increased into a desperate gas guzzling death race. Fall activity...school drop offs, work, groceries, school pick ups, soccer, hockey, music lessons and what have you, Torontonians are on a mission from god. We got caught up in it too, it's always a struggle to achieve some sort of work/family balance but somehow we managed. A couple we have become friends with invited us over to try out their new pool and pizza oven. Last Sunday we packed up our swim gear, threw some tomatoes and loaf of bread into a bag and went. We spent a very relaxing afternoon swimming and eating some incredible homemade pizza. Our hosts brought their homemade tomato sauce and various toppings down from the kitchen to poolside and together, with lots of kidding and handfuls of cornmeal tossed onto the peel, we proceeded to assemble a series of pizzas, blistered and charred from the wood fired hearth, each more delicious than the last. Accompanied by salads created from fresh homegrown vegetables that another guest had brought along and washed down with glasses of cold Vino Verde, it was the perfect end of summer gathering. La dolce vita!

 

Globe and Mail article

Hi,

The Globe and Mail published an article about our bakery in their "Globe T.O." section in last Saturday's paper. HERE is the article. Many flattering things were said about us, we'll try to live up to them. At any rate, we've ramped up bread production during this past week as the article has attracted many new people who have come to check us out. Awesome writing from Peter Scowen (you rogue journalist!). I hope wherever you end up on this Labour Day weekend, that the water is still warm from the summer's fading heat, the drinks are cold and the sunset is long and glorious.

Here is a picture taken of a young boy and girl when they dropped in with their parents for a visit  during a bicycle outing. They needed no prompting to tear into their baguette...

Adios summer 2011.

Summer Holidays 2011

Hi,
We closed the bakery for a week and went north to our family cottage. We slept in, hung out on the dock, counted frogs in the creek, replaced the sewage pump, and did a few day trips... one of which was over the Haliburton Highlands (via Ottawa) to Shawville Quebec to visit at the ancestral family farm. We stayed overnight and returned back to the cottage loaded with homemade tomatoes, cukes and onions. A memorable week. Now it's back to baking bread.
Here are some pictures, hope you enjoy.

                                                                   Declan with canoe

                                                     The gang at Ivy Crescent

                                                    At the farm, Shawville Quebec, with Cucumber Man

                                                     Old maple tree at farm

                                                     Declan on Cucumberman's 'sickle

                                                     Tomato worm

                                                     View of the machine shed

                                                     One of the many GMC pickups

                                                     Wood heater

                                           Check valve with shut-off valve, upstream from the basin

                                                     Declan in the creek, frog "counting"

                                                     David and Declan at High Falls

                                                     Camelia and David at High Falls

                                                     Foot bridge at High Falls

Nice to link

Hi,

Two items of interest in todays batch:

1. When you find your business reviewed on a website from your own hometown it's really a cool feeling, a little like playing at Maple Leaf Gardens opening up for...let's say...Rush and Max Webster (I'm dating myself here bigtime).

Anyway, big thanks to Robyn Urback and the people at blogTO for the visit and the primo exposure,  you guys can drop by for a slice anytime. 
Here is the link to their review:

http://www.blogto.com/bakery/cliffside-hearth-scarborough

2. Had a great chat this morning with a gentleman who really knows and appreciates a good baguette. As he rang up a generous order of assorted goodies (Cinnamon buns, a Five Grain Levain, Cookies, ect.)  he told me about his own efforts to bake bread at home, his searches in Toronto for a decent baguette and a planned trip to Paris where he will stay close to the Eiffel Tower as a base of operations to explore the Boulangeries in the surrounding area.
What a gas!

It's nice to be included in the same echelon as the bakeries of Paris, a city where I have never been and hope that someday I will visit too.

Enjoy the new smell-o-vision blogger feature by moving closer to the screen...

Move closer!

 Good for hand-to-hand combat

That's it...until tomorrow

A visit from the Globe & Mail

Hi,
Hows your summer going?
This morning we had a visit from a Globe and Mail reporter and photographer,  they came with some good questions and comments about our bakery and the role of bread in this post modern pre-meteroric collision era.
To summarize:
-The more sophisticated our tastes become the more we crave the primitive and elemental.
-A wide range of foods are available as close as your local grocery store and the selection is stupendous. So why does bread, with a ragged crust, dark from the blistering heat  provide so much satisfaction for our gustatory senses? My own guess is that it has something to do with the Maillard Reaction, a process that occurs during baking that is similar to carmelization...but maybe it has to do with our sense of loss for the times when food was less about hype and politics and more to do with simple satisfaction and deeper, purer flavours.

Uh, yeah.

And so on and so forth... it was a fun exchange.
Anyway, we will be in an upcoming Saturday's edition in the "Globe T.O." pullout, available only in the Greater Toronto Area.
A link will be provided in a future post.
Ciao for now.
-ßak­ërman

Stencilled Whole Wheat Miche

  Ciabatta

Bialys, the bun with a schmear

"Rusty Longtrucks" (a dedicated Unimog aficionado and fellow guitarist) suggested we try making Bialys, sort of a relative of the Bagel but lighter and chewier. Minced onion, bread crumbs, poppy seed and some vegetable oil make up the schmear, a dollop of which goes into ze middle of ze Bialy. Ten minutes on a blistering hearth and they are ready. Mmmm, good for breaky with butter and a cup of coffee. Recipe courtesy of Jeffrey Hamelman's "Bread". Enjoy the pic, inhale the bun.

Cheers!

Now Open

Store Hours:

Tuesday- Saturday 9AM-6PM (or sell out)

Closed Sunday and Monday

Address:

3047 Kingston Road,  (at McCowan Rd. in the Cliffcrest Plaza beside Kelly's Pub) Toronto, Ontario

Telephone: 416.261.1010

Cliffside Hearth Bread Co. Grand Opening

Saturday April 16th-

Hi, The big day arrived. We opened at 10AM with strong winds and rain coming down sideways, but there were quite a few brave souls who wanted fresh baked goods, and we had 'em. I put on a big pot of coffee so people could enjoy a hot cup with their hot cross buns and cookies. The boules, batards and baguettes flew out the door in the hands of new customers. It was great seeing many of the familiar faces from our Cliffside, thanks to all the family and friends who showed up, your support is very encouraging and much appreciated. Even better, we met many new people from the Cliffcrest neighbourhood all of whom made it known how much they crave for a new local bakery. We were glad to make some new friends and hope that everyone visits us often. 

All in all a good first day.

Here are a few pics taken during early morning production...

 

...time for a short break