Duluth's Best Bread Bakery
We did a run down to Duluth for a Thomas Rhett concert and grabbed the opportunity of visiting MichaelLily's bakery. Michael unfortunately wasn't there, but his brother Robert graciously offered us a tour of the bakery, and I also scored some of their Sourdough starter!
The first thing that we noticed when we got there was that the shelves were bare! They had sold out of just about everything! That's the sign of a good bakery! We did manage to buy an almond croissant, a caramel bun, a kouing aman as well as a couple of loaves of cranberry wild rice bread. I did get to taste what I think was their regular Sourdough bread. Delicious!!!
I baked a couple of my 10 grain and sprouted wheat loaves from last week's recipe and brought those as a gift. Michael will be able to give feedback when he gets back from his trip (Robert froze the loaf right away), but Robert told me that I passed the test. He really seemed to like this loaf. This made me pretty happy that someone who is in the bread business actually liked my bread. I know my family and friends like it but it was nice to hear that he approved of the crust and crumb as well as of the flavour.
We inhaled the almond croissant and the kouing aman shortly after leaving the bakery. They were amazing! The caramel roll got eaten after the concert. It didn't last long either! The cranberry wild rice loaves will need to wait until we get home tomorrow.
This was a lot of fun. We will definitely go back!
Here is a post on the two brother's bakery in Duluth that makes the best bread in the city
http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/business/3853537-duluth-brothers-open-bakery-lincoln-park
It Really is a great article on the bakery. I didn't realize that they have been in their present location for just over a year.
The oven is super cool as it is several layers of huge flat round stones that rotate. They also designed their own steam injection system. These two are two very talented guys!
And a going home present of some starter. Very nice indeed. Be sure to let us know how baking with it turns out.
I fed it tonightvas soon as I got home. It is a white starter so I fed it unbleached flour. Hopefully, it will like it's new home.
and bright smiles to prove it. Looks as though you two had a wonderful visit. Thank you for sharing it with all of us.
What a fun field trip. Sounds like you were a winner all the way around. Compliments, yummy treats, and a nice parting gift! Refresh my memory as to where you're located? When you say "down to Duluth", you must really be up north quite a ways!
It depends on your point of reference. We are 4 hours directly north of Duluth but it isn't the far north for sure.
Sounds like a really wonderful visit. I think I should start planning trips around good bakeries. Kind of like planning trips around Scotland based on where the best distilleries are!
I ate your bread, and it was good. It looked really good, too. Thanks! Too bad I missed you. I was doing my own visiting at Tartine in SF, where I had some luck and got to briefly meet Chad Robertson. Although it did require me to barge in to the back room uninvited. I'm also glad there was some sort of diversity awaiting you at the bakery! You just never know when it's going to be a bigger than usual day.
That means a lot to me since I still consider myself a novice baker. Robert was awesome in juggling us and the customers. He really made us feel welcomed and I loved his sense of humour!
We will be down again as we seem to head to Duluth every few months so we will be by the bakery again and I hope to meet you then.
In the meantime, I am faithfully feeding your starter with some no additives unbleached flour and non chlorinated water. It seems to like that regime. My regular starters are rye so it is quite different for me to have a white flour starter. I am going to use it this weekend to bake so I looking forward to that.
Oh and I need to tell you that I am really enjoying the wild rice cranberry bread. It is awesome toasted with a bit of butter and honey.