Good Bread

There is a place called Country Grains on Sylvania Ave, near Olander Park. The building is set close to the road, and looks like a red barn. (If you were heading west on Sylvania Ave, it would be shortly after McCord Rd.)

I don't know if they have exactly what you're looking for, but it couldn't hurt to go in and look around.

If you didn't see what you wanted, the Andersons Market is just down the street from Country Grains. I think the Andersons Market carries an even bigger selection of breads than the regular Andersons stores.

Have you tried making your own?

Bread is my favorite food. Real bread. It's good bread when I enjoy eating it plain. If what you buy is wrapped in plastic or pre-sliced, then it's not real artisan bread.

The best bread you can find around here that I'm aware of is at three places:

• Zingerman's in Ann Arbor
• Avalon Bakery in Detroit
• at home, baking your own.

In the bakery section at Sautters Market in Sylvania, a sign says their bread baker was trained at Zingerman's. I have not tried their bread though.

It seems Toledo clearly lacks a bread culture.

You can make crusty, chewy, moist, flavorful bread at home. Visit these Web sites:

• Breadtopia
• The Fresh Loaf

You only need four simple ingredients to make great tasting bread at home: flour, water, salt, and time. If you're not doing naturally levain bread, then you will also need instant yeast, but keep the amount small.

A long fermentation time combined with a natural levain and/or a tiny bit of instant yeast is the key. Weather will affect how long your bread dough ferments. The fun part is the experimentation and the differences from loaf to loaf. A lot of science exists in bread making.

Cold fermentation, however, is an alternative technique you can read about online. I may have to resort to cold fermentation when it gets hot in the summer, since we don't have air conditioning.

Don't store a finished bread in plastic, and don't store it in a refrigerator. I leave my artisan bread set out on the counter with the cut side down and a paper sack draped over it.

You can freeze bread. Wrap it and store it in a freezer bag. When you want to use it, set it out to thaw. Once it's thawed, preheat oven to 325 degrees. Then set the bread on the oven rack for 15 to 20 minutes. Rejuvenated. Then I store it on the counter per above.

You can also use this warming technique for bread that's become a little too hard. I usually eat one of my homemade loaves (1.3 to 1.6 lbs) within a couple days, so the bread doesn't have a chance to get dry.

For at home baking, this simple no-knead bread technique will produce a loaf that's probably better than anything you can buy within Toledo.

Acquire a small, digital kitchen scale to measure ingredients in grams.

If you continue to bake bread at home, you will want to try making sourdough bread and grow and maintain your own sour starter.

I took the naturally levain bread baking class at Zingerman's in January, and since then, all of my "regular" house breads have been made with my sour starter and no commercial yeast. The power of sour. I made another sourdough loaf last night.

When I have my "Trilby Sourdough Bread" recipe honed, I'll share it. I'm still experimenting. Working with the sour starter is a bit more challenging, but the flavor is much better.

Zingerman's uses King Arthur all-purpose flour in most of their bread recipes. They do, however, use King Arthur bread flour for their San Francisco-style sourdough bread.

Since I bake bread at home two or three times a week, I'd prefer the bread not be made with 100% bread or all-purpose flour all the time. I'd like the bread to be at least 50 percent whole grain.

But I dislike the taste of regular whole wheat flour. I made a loaf once where 50 percent of the flour was regular whole wheat and 50 percent was all-purpose/bread flour, and I took one bite of the finished loaf, and I pitched it.

At 50 percent regular whole wheat, the bread was way too dense, grainy, and healthy tasting for me. But in recent weeks, I've been making sourdough bread with 50 percent whole grains by using 20 percent spelt flour and 30 percent white whole wheat flour along with the all-purpose or bread flour.

White whole wheat flour has the same nutritional value as regular whole wheat, but white whole wheat has a much lighter or milder flavor. It's simply grown from a different form of wheat. White whole wheat flour is a good way to sneak in some whole grain healthiness into baking without having that dense, wheaty taste.

Spelt is slightly more nutritious than whole wheat, but spelt has a mild, sweet, nutty flavor. I've made loaves with 50 percent spelt flour that I've enjoyed.

It's claimed that spelt is more tolerated by those who have a slight reaction to wheat. Spelt is one of the oldest grains known to humans. I buy spelt flour from the bulk bin at the Phoenix Earth Food Co-op, and I use King Arthur's white whole wheat flour.

All bread is good bread...just ask any fat person.

Anderson's Continental Italian when it's fresh and soft.

I agree with hockeyfan - Anderson's Cont. Italian is great - makes superb garlic bread, too.

(btw Pittsburgh is tops in pizza and bakeries! Love "The Ripe Tomato" in Harmar.)

"All bread is good bread...just ask any fat person.

posted by justareviewer on Apr 03, 2010 at 07:18:25 pm"

Fat jokes - how lame.

I used to have the same bread-finding problem. I wanted to patronize the local bakeries because in other cities, they have the best. Alas, bakeries here are more interested in soft products, artificial color, and corn syrup.

For a few years I used to go to Zingerman's in Ann Arbor. It was kind of depressing to come back home and survey the local bread scene after those trips!

I settled on whichever grocery store carried Canadian bakery bread (often wrapped in paper, sometimes labelled organic; LaBrea and Ace brand names). The Anderson's on Talmadge was a good source. After a while, even Meijer's started to carry LaBrea Portuguese bread and rolls. Then grocery stores caught on to the profit trend and began parking their own soft, chemical-laden product, similarly wrapped, right next to the imported bread. So now we have a number of stores in town that have special "gourmet" bread displays that consist of their same old stuff.

The Monnette's on Reynolds usually carries an awesome Canadian bread in the form of loaves and rolls. The deliveries arrive several times a week and sometimes sell out; if you don't see it, ask about the schedule.

Once the Fresh Market opened in Westgate, my bread troubles ended. In addition to the softer stuff that many customers like, they have German pretzel rolls, dozens of crusty loaf and roll choices, and many whole wheat and organic choices.

Surprisingly, Costco also has authentic crusty loaves, ciabattas, baguettes, and rolls (made with natural ingredients). In their bakery area, they sell very large bags of mixed dinner rolls. They would not be crusty or especially natural, but I am curious about them.

Country Grains is an admirable local enterprise and I enjoy their free samples, but for me bread is all about texture and simplicity of ingredients. CG has a wide variety of soft and sweet loaves, but they don't do crusty.

Sometimes when I travel, I find crusty organic loaves in a Wal-Mart grocery; some of the stores order one or two varieties (again, parked next to their own line of nonauthentic, not-natural breads in similar wrappers).

In short, if I want a reliable source of great bread, I head for The Fresh Market. If I want to save a bit and freeze one loaf, I hit Costco. If I'm jonesing for crusty Portuguese bread, I try Anderson's or Meijer's (with no guarantee I'll find it when I want it). If I'm near a Monnette's, I'll look for their Canadian shipment.

BTW, I am so grateful that I was led to Toledo ... although I occasionally get crabby, I have really enjoyed learning my way around and discovering local treasures!

Great post, viola. And jr, for that matter.

Thanks for the info folks. I will check out your suggestions!

Sofo's bakes several kinds of bread and the prices are reasonable. If you haven't shopped there lately I must report that the store has been renovated and now has a vestibule to keep the cold wind from hitting the checkout ladies every time the door opens.

Oh gosh, I just thought of Fedlman's bakery which was on Canton Avenue many years ago. Their bread was awesome!

Sure I've baked bread at home but when we toast it, it won't brown.

I'm partial to Panera Bread even though it is a bit pricey, but you get what you pay for. Go there when I need a bagel fix :)

P.S. Barfly wish they'd open an Einstein Bro bagel store here. Use to be my favorite back in the burgh. Wish Primanti's would expand as well then I'd be set for life lol.