The People
Hi there! We’re Brianna and Mike, and we are (most of) Butternut Bakery! We’ve been baking bread for ourselves, friends, and family since 2015, with a strong emphasis on artisan-style sourdough breads. Brianna has also discovered a passion for French macarons, and is continuing to perfect this often-frustrating cookie.
The Equipment
Like many cottage bakers, we started with a regular home oven, using Dutch Oven cookers to make loaves two at a time. While this method does provide great results, it is difficult to scale up. So we recently became the proud owners of a shiny new Rofco B40 Electric Stone Oven! Rofco is a Belgian manufacturer who has acquired quite a reputation in the cottage bakery world for their high-quality stone ovens. The B40 is their largest model, with three compartments allowing us to bake up to twelve loaves at once!
The Leaven
Meet Stinky. Without this little guy, Butternut would be limited to offering a tasty selection of flatbreads and crackers. This unassuming container of goop is actually a thriving community of wild-caught yeast and bacteria working in harmony to help us produce delicious sourdough! Through their simple but invaluable contribution (basically eating flour and burping carbon dioxide), the dough turns from a lifeless lump of flour and water into an airy, chewy, tangy loaf of delicious Real Bread. Stinky doesn’t require much in the way of pay or benefits fortunately, just a few ounces of fresh flour and cold water, and a warm spot in the sun… truly the hero of our kitchen!
