Sunday’s We Bake Bread with Kendall of Flour Child in LA
Kendall of @flour____child is a California native living in LA. who was recently featured on former VP Joe Biden’s Instagram account.
She is a copywriter for a social impact - focused startup up by day and a baker by night. She is happiest when “eating some form of carbs and cheese while singing along to Taylor Swift.”
How did your love for baking start?
I remember baking a lot with both of my grandmas as a child. My dad’s mom taught me how to make bread and my mom’s mom taught me how to make what is still my favorite cake recipe ever. My mom always baked a ton during the holidays to give out plates of assorted cookies to friends and family and I loved helping (and mostly eating) alongside her. My dad was always big on making educational cupcakes for my sister and my birthdays every year to share with our classes which was such a fun way to celebrate.
What emotions provoke you when you bake?
I find baking so calming. It’s a nice moment to disconnect from work, the news, social media and just focus on one thing. Then there’s the excitement of getting to share and eat what you’re making!
What are your favorite things to bake?
My grandma’s Sand and Dirt cake recipe (mentioned above) is a long process, but one of my favorite things to eat. It’s a double-layered chocolate cake with mint frosting and semi-sweet chocolate melted on top. I rarely make it, but when I do it’s heaven. I’ve only been baking bread for the past year or so, but I played around with a couple of recipes and created my own garlic rosemary loaf that I could probably eat solo in one sitting.
What’s been inspiring you lately?
So much has happened this year and there are so many causes I’ve wanted to support, but knew I only had so much money to donate myself. After baking bread for a few friends during quarantine, around June I decided to start baking in exchange for donations to a few key causes. The response from my peers was so encouraging! Shortly after I found Bakers Against Racism and saw other bakers on Instagram doing similar bake sales to raise money. I’ve raised over $700 at this point for Black Voters Matter Fund, Fair Fight, ACLU, When We All Vote, and the Biden campaign.
What does bread symbolize for you?
For me, bread is all about bringing people together and spending quality time over a shared fresh loaf of bread.
What is the most challenging part of baking bread?
Honestly, it’s not eating the whole loaf at once!
What’s the most important thing to you when baking?
Bread brings me so much joy—both making it and eating it—and I just want to be able to share that joy with others when I give them a fresh loaf.
What are some things you’ve learned about bread?
Every time I make a loaf, it always amazes me how few ingredients you really need.
How do you like to eat your bread?
Any and every way! My go-to ways are just warmed with some butter or in a nice toasty grilled cheese.
Sunday’s We Bake Bread with Emerald who lives in Phoenix
Emerald Green (@thegemthecolor) is a 32 year old bread baker and artist living in Arizona and is also a a bread artist for @proofbread and the cofounder of @bakers4good which is a collective of bakers in the Greater Phoenix Metro Area changing the world the best way they know how: through baked goods.
How did your love for baking start?
My mom taught me how to cook as soon as I was old enough to assist in the kitchen. After college when I was living on my own, I realized I still hadn’t learned how to bake. I had a friend who had a range of dietary restrictions who was lamenting about not being able to find any bakeries that had cupcakes she could eat without making her sick. So I ordered a specialty cupcake book to make her cupcakes as a surprise. I haven’t looked back since.
What emotions provoke you when you bake?
I love the alchemy that comes with baking. Mix some things in a bowl and watch the magic happen. Makes me feel like a wizard.
What are your favorite things to bake?
I work in an all sourdough bakery, which happens to be where my passion is. More than anything else, I love to intricately score bread and then eagerly wait for the results.
What’s been inspiring you lately?
My specialty is decorative bread scoring. For my scoring designs, I am often inspired by the environment around me (the Arizona desert), produce that is in season, animals, portraits. As far as flavors go, I enjoy bringing Korean flavors into sourdough bread. I am half Korean and half German. Bringing the flavors of Korea inside an artisan loaf of sourdough bread is like the culmination of my heritage.
A lot changed for me when I started to see bread as an art medium. I’m always challenging myself to see what the limits are to manipulating bread in different ways. It’s challenging but lights a childlike wonder in me at the same time.
What does bread symbolize for you?
Sourdough bread is universal. Every culture has their own history and traditions when it comes to naturally leavened bread. It’s one of the most basic and essential food staples. It brings people of all walks of life together.
What is the most challenging part of baking bread?
Like everything else, it’s a skill. It takes repetition to build up the muscle memory required. Sourdough is a long process that’s a refined science but also necessitates a level of intuition and flexibility. It’s a lot of hands-on hard work.
What’s the most important thing when baking bread?
Patience with both the process and yourself. There are so many factors that come into play to have a successful loaf of bread. Keeping detailed notes, being mindful of temperature and timing, and not feeling defeated when a loaf doesn’t come out the way you’d hoped are all important as a bread baker.
What are some things you’ve learned about bread?
Every sourdough loaf is unique to the baker who made it. The microbes that live on your hands have a relationship with the microbes that live in the dough. The more you are touching your bread as you’re mixing, folding, and shaping, the more those microbes flourish and become an intrinsic characteristic of your bread. I think that’s the coolest thing.
How do you like to eat your bread?
Most often I’m eating it as avocado toast with a bed of arugula tossed in a light dressing and topped with fried eggs. However, the simplicity of a toasted slice of bread with a pad of butter is undefeated.
Sunday’s We Bake Bread with Raphaelle who lives in Berlin
Raphaelle (Instagram) is a 34 year old french girl who likes to bake bread in her free time. She has been living in Berlin for 8 years and she is a mother to a lovely girl name Louise. She is also a store manager at Sessun, a french brand from the South of France.
How did your love for baking start?
I used to bake some breads sometimes but always with yeast. Every time I tried to do my sourdough I quit too earlier because I didn’t have the time to take care of it.
During the lockdown I thought it would be a good time to try again and this time it works. So I began to bake one bread a day and after some fails I found the good combination !
What emotions provoke you when you bake?
Satisfaction ! Baking with sourdough is a very long process. It takes between 24 to 48 hours. I use to bake it in a dutch oven. You can’t imagine the satisfaction when you open the lid and see the oven spring.
What are your favorite things to bake?
I love to bake basic sourdough loaf but my favorite is cheddar with pumpkin seed !
What’s been inspiring you lately?
I began to do some “artistic” scoring on my breads and found a good mix between the flour to get a good bread, where I can score what I want. I love for example the work of Linda ring which her face on breads and the work of Sarah Vignon, who does some lovely drawings, which I tried to score on breads.
What does bread symbolize for you?
As french girl, bread has always been really important for me ! A meal isn’t complete if you don’t have bread on the table!
What is the most challenging part of baking bread?
To master the good hydration level of the dough to get a lot of big bubbles in the crumb!
What’s the most important thing to you when baking?
A nice crumb and crispy crust.
What are some things you’ve learned about bread?
To be patient and take the time. If you bake it to early you will always get a flatbread.
How do you like to eat your bread?
I love it both sweet or savory. For the sweet part, I love it with salty butter and honey. For the savory I love to dip it in the juice of fresh tomatoes or with comté cheese.
