In celebration of Real Bread Week, Abigail’s Oven is pleased to join with other bakeries and bakers worldwide in the Real Bread Campaign. Combined our goal is to promote the baking and eating of Real Bread.
“Real Bread has nothing to hide. It is made with simple, natural ingredients and NO additives. Simple, eh?”—Real Bread Campaign
That fits us to a “T,” since every loaf of REAL™ Sourdough Bread made at Abigail’s Oven begins with just “3 Perfect Ingredients:” Flour, Water, Salt.
What is Real Bread You May Be Asking?
It seems everyone has their own concept of what Real Bread might be, but here is what The Real Bread Campaign believes about Real Sourdough Bread:
“To be named or marketed using the word sourdough, a bread must be:
- Made without any additives – ie the main criterion in our basic defintion of bread
- Leavened only using a live sourdough culture, without the addition of any commercial yeast or other leavening agents, e.g. baking powder
- Made without using other ingredients/additives as souring agents or as sourdough flavouring, e.g. vinegar, yoghurt, or dried sourdough powder
(Read more about sourdough and sourfaux at The Real Bread Campaign site)
So real bread is made without any additives. And there should only be four things in its ingredient list: flour, water, yeast or natural leavening, and salt. The whole point is that natural ingredients are all that are used. Of course, other natural ingredients such as fruit, nuts, seeds, and cheese could be added to loaves too, just as they are at Abigail’s Oven.
For example, our Country and Rustic Wheat Loaves are made with just our “3 Perfect Ingredients:” Flour, Water, Salt. In addition, the seeded loaf has natural pumpkin, flax, and sunflower seeds, the Cinnamon Swirl has organic cane sugar and Vietnamese cinnamon, the Jalapeño Cheddar has sharp cheddar cheese and fresh jalapeños, the Garlic Rosemary has olive oil, fresh garlic, and fresh rosemary, while the Jewish Rye begins with our “3 Perfect Ingredients, and adds in freshly ground light rye flour, molasses, cocoa and caraway seeds, which makes them all REAL™ Sourdough Bread.
So What’s Up with Real Bread Week?
During this week, “bakeries, baking schools, mills, schools, care homes, youth and other community groups around the world bake special loaves and run classes and other activities. Meanwhile, countless people bake at home, some with their children other family members, colleagues, or friends, and take to social media with photos of themselves with loaves they’ve baked or bought.”—The Real Bread Campaign
According to Sustain, the alliance for better food and farming, Real Bread Week is an annual, “international celebration of Real Bread and the people behind its rise.” Abigail’s Oven is happy to celebrate this, its twelfth year since its founding in 2010. And as such, we support its spotlight focus on their “key work of encouraging and helping people to:
- “Buy Real Bread from local, independent bakeries
- “Bake their own Real Bread”
The second of the two main aims of this celebration has always been to encourage more people to learn to bake their own Real Bread. The campaign is “particularly keen to see more children learning to bake it, whether at home, in a bakery, baking school or in the classroom.
Martha Levie, Abigail’s Oven chief baker, teaches regular classes on Sourdough Bread making
Abigail’s Oven offers training to learn how to make sourdough bread yourself for free. And while you may have missed our FREE Live Sourdough Class at the Bakery and Online last Wednesday, we will be offering it two more times in March.
The live classes at the bakery are limited to 30 participants and Zoom classes are limited to 100 participants. There are two dates: Wednesday, March 2nd and 16th at 5 pm MST. Click here to register.
As part of the class, you will also receive a free copy of our sourdough bread recipe.
Fresh Sourdough Bread cooling from our ovens is available Mon, Tues, Thurs, and Fri at noon.
But of course, our first aim is to get fresh bread from our bakery to your home.
Every week, we deliver thousands of fresh hand-made sourdough loaves to more than 30 stores in Utah and Nevada (click here to find one near your).
And of course, you can pick up fresh bread weekdays at The Store at the Bakery (we are open Mon 12:00 PM-5:00 PM, Tue 9:00 AM-5:00 PM, and Wed-Fri 10:00 AM-5:00 PM) at 421 South 200 East in Spanish Fork, Utah.
Every loaf is hand-made and baked at 460°F in individual Dutch Ovens, cooled, sliced, and packaged for delivery and purchase.
So now the question is, how will you celebrate Real Break Week this year? Bake, buy, or teach others? Tell us your plans in the comment section below.