A home for the bread

Woodman’s Artisan Bakery takes its farmers market success to its own shop

By John Fladd
jfladd@hippopress.com

Bill Woodman makes bread — a lot of bread.

“We rotate the breads every day,” he said, “probably a good 12 to 14 potential varieties of breads that we can offer from types of sourdough, German rye, baguettes, Italian semolina with sesame seeds — that’s a nice one — a German flaxseed rye called leinsamenbrot. That’s a hearty, hearty bread. Leinsamenbrot means flaxseed bread. So with rye flour, it’s a much denser bread.”

But what Woodman, the owner of Woodman’s Artisan Bakery in Nashua, really dreams about is panettone, a tall, round loaf of enriched Italian bread.

“Right now,” he said, “the unicorn, so to speak, is probably the Italian panettone. There’s a baker in Italy — we follow him on social media — I’ve dabbled a little bit in trying to make a panettone, but I’m too busy to actually focus on it the way it needs properly. But to be able to get a nice, proper Italian panettone like he makes, with a nice open, airy crumb from the sourdough, to be able to use the exact sourdough culture, you know, it’s a pasta madre, I believe they call it in Italian. It’s like a drier starter dough and it’s like wrapped up in a towel, so it partially dries out on the outside of the actual starter dough. And it’s supposed to impart these different finer nuances into the bread. But to be able to get that, it’s something that would be very unique and very special. You just don’t see around here very often or at all. You get the stuff in the grocery stores around Christmastime, but it’s definitely not the same thing.”

Woodman started his business by selling bread at area farmers markets.

“We started at Salem [the Salem Farmers Market] on Sundays,” he said. “We started there, trying to figure out if there is a demand for breads. We make European-style artisan breads and pastries — croissants, Danishes and German pretzels. After about a season, we had picked up business, so we decided to do the winter season. At that point we picked up a couple more farmers markets for the winter season. Business picked up a little bit. You started to see your regulars coming more and more. And then the following year came and we just decided to go all in. We picked up six markets a week, so there was no sleep for me whatsoever. And it kept going from there.”

Woodman recently opened a storefront bakery in Nashua. The bakery offers sandwiches and coffees, but the main focus is on bread.

“We tell people our breads are real bread,” he said. “The pastries are real pastries, and what we mean by that is that our sourdough for instance is flour, water and salt. So it’s real ingredients, real breads. We have a lot of people who are gluten-sensitive who can eat a lot of our sourdoughs and not get sick not have a reaction. They can eat our croissants and Danishes because the flour that we use in those products comes from France and it has a lower protein content, so they can eat those and have no reaction as well.”

Woodman was approached by an importer who introduced him to French flour.

“The sales rep came in and introduced himself,” Woodman said, “and started telling us a little bit about what the product was. He had explained the company is out of France, and they sell through his company here. If we were interested, a sales rep as well as a baker would come for a couple days, work with us and teach us about the products. I thought it was a great opportunity for my staff and myself to learn about something new. And so we said, sure, let’s give it a try, so they came in and we started working with it.” It was a game-changer, Woodman said.

Woodman’s Artisan Bakery

Where: 4 Sunapee St., Nashua,
Hours: Tuesday through Sunday, 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
More: 718-1694, woodmansartisanbakery.com
During the summer, Woodman also sells his bread at the Concord Farmers Market on Saturdays from 8:30 a.m. to noon, at the Bedford Farmers Market on Tuesdays from 3 to 6 p.m., and at the Salem Farmers Market on Sundays from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Featured photo: Woodman’s Artisan Bakery makes traditional European style breads. Photo courtesy Bill Woodman.

The Weekly Dish 25/06/12

News from the local food scene

By John Fladd
jfladd@hippopress.com

Noodles at Nash: The Lucky Lantern Noodle Restaurant has opened at The Nash Casino (Pheasant Lane Mall, 310 DW Highway, Nashua, thenashcasino.com). It is one of three sit-down restaurants in the casino. As its name suggests, the restaurant specializes in Asian and Asian-inspired dishes, particularly those with noodles. It is open seven days a week, from 5 p.m. to 2 a.m.

Harpoon in NH: Harpoon will open its first brewery and pub in New Hampshire on Sunday, June 15. The brewpub will be located at 215 Canal St., Manchester, in the Queen City Center. In a June 5 press release, the Harpoon parent company said the new location will include an experimental brewery, restaurant, tap room, private event space, and an outdoor beer garden. Visit harpoonbrewery.com.

Two great tastes: There will be a chocolate and wine pairing event at Wine on Main (9 N. Main St., Concord, 897-5828, wineonmainnh.com) Thursday, June 12, from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Chocolate expert Maggie Prittie will guide participants through tasting four single-origin chocolates alongside four complementary wines. Tickets for this 21+ event are $39.19 through eventbrite.com and include chocolate and wine samples as well as a lesson on the history of chocolate and how to taste it.

Better than breakfast in bed: Celebrate Father’s Day with a “Dad and Me Pizza Cooking Class” at Uno Pizzeria & Grill (15 Fort Eddy Road, Concord, 226-8667) on Saturday, June 14, from noon to 2 p.m. This is an interactive cooking class where dads and the kids can bond over making deep dish pizza from scratch. Chefs will guide participants through every step from preparing the dough to adding favorite toppings. Adult tickets are $44.52 and children’s tickets are $12.51 through eventbrite.com.

Order online for this food fest: Starting Sunday, June 15, Temple B’nai Israel (210 Court St., Laconia, 524-7044, tbinh.org) will accept orders for its annual Jewish Food Festival. Dozens of types of traditional Jewish dishes will be available for drive-thru pickup on Saturday, July 19, and Sunday, July 20. Orders will be accepted at tbinh.org/shop-page through Monday, July 7.

A Boy and His Blender

By John Fladd
jfladd@hippopress.com

I really wanted a serious blender.

Not one of the relatively inexpensive ones from a big-box store. Not a cool, chromey, vintage one that would be at home in a diner. A serious blender, the type you can watch chew up hockey pucks and Barbie dolls on the internet.

My wife tried to deflate this ambition with logic — namely, why would I want to do any of these things, particularly grinding up hockey pucks? “We are not spending $500 on a blender,” she informed me in a tone that would not allow for any argument.

An hour later, after some internet research, I informed her that we could buy a reconditioned professional blender for a relative bargain of just over $200. I took the jar on my dresser that I had been dropping change into for the past year to change-counting machine at the bank. It made short work of my jar of change and returned two British pounds, $1.40 in Canadian change, two buttons and almost $300 in Blender Money.

Upon returning home, I informed my wife that we would have to pick up a change-of-address form at the post office.

“Why’s that?” she asked.

“Because we’re moving to Blender Town, Baby!” I replied, waving a wad of cash in the air.

I subsequently bought a red Vitamix blender and named him Steve.

This was Steve’s project this past weekend:

Fluffy Lemonade

  • 1½ cups of ice cubes
  • Zest of one lemon
  • ¼ cup (2 ounces) fresh squeezed lemon juice
  • ¼ cup (2 ounces) heavy cream
  • ¼ cup (2 ounces) sweetened condensed milk
  • ¼ cup (2 ounces) London dry gin

Combine all ingredients in your blender (Steve).

Blend on low speed, until the ice stops rattling around, then really put the spurs to the blender, and whip the mixture up for 30 seconds or so, until it is light and fluffy in texture.

Pour into a Collins glass and drink with a straw, while your digital assistant plays “Mr. Blue Sky” by the Electric Light Orchestra. Hold up your glass, as in a toast, and gently clink it against the rim of your blender jar. Your blender will smile to itself contentedly.

Given that some of the ingredients — I’m looking at you, condensed milk — are pretty heavy, this is a beautifully light and delightful blender drink. It’s super lemony, but not too sour. The gin hides in the background. The overall drink is lightly sweet, and super refreshing.

Featured photo: Amanda’s Savory Cheesecake. Photo by John Fladd.

Two perfect foods

Bacon and Beer Festival highlights two tasty eats

This weekend marks the ninth annual Bacon and Beer Festival, a major fundraiser for the High Hopes Foundation (931-4999, highhopesfoundation.org), a New Hampshire charitable organization dedicated to making life a little easier for the state’s children with special needs.

“We help kids who need stuff that is deemed non-essential by insurance companies and we believe is essential,” said Lisa Rourke, a High Hopes board member. “For example, today we just threw a post out there about a little boy whose diagnosis leads him to not be able to ride a traditional bike but of course he wants to ride a traditional bike with his twin sister. There are adaptive bikes out there, but a bike [like that] is about $5,000.” Although it would significantly improve the quality of this boy’s life, Rourke said, it’s not something that insurance would cover.

That’s where the bacon and the beer come in.

This year’s Bacon and Beer Festival, which will take place Saturday, June 7, at the Anheuser-Busch Field in Merrimack, will feature dozens of area restaurants and breweries providing Festival-goers with beer and bacon-centric foods. The restaurants will compete to win bragging rights and a trophy for a People’s Choice Award for this year’s most popular bacon dish. “It’s actually a really cool trophy this year,” Rourke said.

“North Country Smokehouse is our biggest sponsor for this event,” Rourke said. “A fun fact: they donated 1,500 pounds of bacon this year for the festival, three different types. So the bacon samplers can either use chopped, chunk, or slices [of bacon]. Then they [the participating restaurants] can do something savory or something sweet, but they’re all competing for the People’s Choice Awards.”

“A bunch of restaurants and food trucks all agree to sign up to do this,” Rourke continued. “North Country Smokehouse will donate the bacon, but then they do everything else. So, for instance, if they’re pairing their dish with something like french fries or whatever they’re doing, they do that on location.”

According to Rourke, the event is expected to draw 1,800 attendees, each of whom will receive an attendance wrist-band. “And they’re not the annoying type!” she said emphatically. “They’re the kind that clicks on instead of sticks on. It’s a game changer! On the wristband, there are four voting tickets and you use those [to vote]. So if you like a bacon sample, you take one of those tickets off your wristband and throw it in there and vote. You can put all of your tickets into one guy if you really were blown away, or you can spread it out to four different bacon samplers and spread the wealth. And it’s just kind of, it’s open — you can go to a bacon sample, then go to a brewer and then go to a bacon sample, then go to a brewer, and then go to a bacon sample. You can go straight down the bacon line. You can go straight down the brewery line, however you see fit.”

“The really cool thing,” Rourke continued, “is what these guys bring to the table. They’re all different types. We have guys that come who are food trucks that make New England comfort food. And then we have Greenleaf in Milford that’s an exquisite farm-to-table classy restaurant. From a sampling perspective, that’s really amazing.”

For the most part, Rourke said, the participating breweries will be locally based.

“We have about 60 local craft brewers,” she said. “We try to keep it as local as possible. So we really try to keep it … open to those places that are within New Hampshire, New England. We have 60 breweries, but many of them will bring three or four different samples. So you can sample a ton of things and then decide what you love and sip on that all summer.”

NH Bacon & Beer Festival
When: Saturday, June 7, from 1:30 to 5 p.m., with last pours at 4:30 p.m.
Where: outdoor fields of the Anheuser-Busch Brewery, 221 DW Highway, Merrimack.
Tickets: General admission tickets are $70.90 through nhbaconbeer.com. Designated Driver tickets (no alcohol) are $39.07. If there are any tickets left on the day of the event, they will cost $55 at the door. This event will take place rain or shine. This is a 21+ event — no children or pets allowed in the event area.

Featured photo: The trophy for the People’s Choice Award at the Bacon and Beer Festival. Courtesy photo.

Amanda’s Savory Cheesecake

By John Fladd
jfladd@hippopress.com

“Why don’t you ever make anything for me?” Amanda asked.

“How about some cookies?”

“No,” she said with a frown. “I’m keto.”

“Some muffins? I could make them out of almond flour?”

“Will they have sugar in them?”

“So, what would you like?”

“You know me,” she repeated with a bright smile. “I’ll like anything you make.”

Amanda’s Savory Cheesecake

Crust
Two 8-ounce bags of roasted, salted pecans
3 Tablespoons butter, melted
1 egg white

Cheesecake filling

Three 8-ounce blocks of cream cheese
½ cup (113 g) sour cream
3 Tablespoons corn starch
1 teaspoon kosher or coarse sea salt
2 eggs
2 Tablespoons capers, drained
1/3 cup (20 g) chopped chives (well, snipped actually; chives prefer to be cut with scissors)
½ 14-ounce can of artichoke hearts – four or five hearts
2 Tablespoons balsamic vinaigrette
Preheat oven to 350°F.

Grease a 9-inch springform baking pan, and line the bottom with parchment paper. Welcome the lined pan to the team, and set it aside to prepare for its upcoming mission.

Chop pecans in a blender, then transfer them to a mixing bowl. Mix the chopped pecans with the melted butter and the egg white, then transfer the mixture to the springform pan, and press it down with the bottom of a measuring cup or a coffee mug. Bake it for 20 minutes, then set it aside to cool for a few minutes, while you make the cheesecake filling. Reduce the oven temperature to 250°F.

Drain the canned artichoke hearts, then squeeze them by hand — hard, like they owe you money. They will break apart, which is what you want. Put the broken-spirited artichoke hearts into a small bowl, and add the balsamic vinaigrette. Leve the two to marinate for 15 or 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, use an electric mixer to beat the cream cheese, corn starch, sour cream and salt together until they are light and fluffy. Put the corn starch in first to avoid poof-ing. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber or silicone spatula, then beat in the eggs, one at a time.

Add the capers, chives and now thoroughly inebriated artichoke hearts to the cream cheese mixture and stir them in by hand.

Transfer the mixture to the springform pan, on top of the pecan crust. Smooth it out with the silicone spatula or the back of a large, wet spoon.

Place the cheesecake on the middle rack of your oven. (You remembered to turn the temperature down, didn’t you?) Bake it for 45 minutes, then turn the oven off, but leave the cheesecake in it for another hour. Do not open the door.

After the oven and the cheesecake have calmed down together, take the cheesecake out and leave it on the counter to continue pulling itself together. Yes, 250°F is what we would call a “gentle” heat, but it can still be traumatic to a cheesecake.

Serve at room temperature, in modest-sized slices. While it’s not a sweet dish, it is very rich, and one slice per guest will be perfect. A glass of prosecco or a cup of oolong tea will be a perfect accompaniment.

Amanda’s verdict?

“This is like the best dip I’ve ever had. But it’s a CHEESECAKE!.”

Nomad Bakery

Cheryl Holbert’s bread is available weekly at Benedikt Dairy (97 Shirley Hill Road, Goffstown, 801-7056, benediktdairy.com), on the menu at The Grind Cafe (5 W. Broadway, Derry, 260-2411, facebook.com/thegrindnh), on selected dates at the Derry Homegrown Farm & Artisan Market (1 W. Broadway, Derry, 479-5918, derryhomegrown.org) on Wednesdays, June through September. She also accepts commissions through her Facebook page, facebook.com/NomadBakery.

Featured photo: Amanda’s Savory Cheesecake. Photo by John Fladd.

Beauty and the yeast

A Derry baker creates art through bread

By John Fladd
jfladd@hippopress.com

Cheryl Holbert is more than a baker and more than an artist. She creates works of art — mostly landscapes and scenes from nature — from brightly colored bread dough. The result is almost better than a painting or a sculpture, which would have the disadvantage of not making a good sandwich.

Holbert said she started baking professionally in 2014. Before that, she worked as a reporter.

“I worked for museums,” she remembered. “I was a tapestry artist. I ran a program at the Currier Museum for a while, weaving and all of that. I always loved bread; I grew up in a family that loved bread. It was my grandmother who was really the baker. I started baking bread, honestly, because after I moved away from my family in New Jersey I was homesick so I just started baking it at home.”

At the same time, she was also exploring her Jewish roots.

“I was discovering my heritage,” she said, “some roots I wasn’t familiar with and the two just dovetailed where I started baking and being very interested in the bread that my grandmother had made from her Eastern European culture — challah bread [a traditional braided Jewish egg bread]. And I ended up starting a small business, from my home, a homestead food operation, where I started baking bread for the farmers markets. I got a license so I could do it wholesale. And I started baking.”

This, Holbert said, is where her weaving background came in.

“During Covid,” she said, “everyone, including me, started a sourdough starter. Sourdough people started braiding and doing challah braiding. There were a lot of platforms at the time reaching out and looking for bakers with experience making braided beads. I started a relationship with King Arthur, contracting with them as a guest teacher. I began teaching a lot virtually.”

A series of family health emergencies kept Holbert tethered to her home, and creative baking gave her an outlet for her talent, and to support her family.

Holbert uses local and organic ingredients to make her breadscapes.

“I color the bread with food ingredients,” she said, “actual food ingredients. So in my spectrum of the reds to pinks, I use pureed beets. And then I might add beet root powder to make a little more red than a magenta. Yellow is definitely turmeric. I might add olive oil in the dough for that because that’s going to affect what kind of yellow that’s going to be. I love very highly saturated earth colors. I love saturation. I love contrast. And for me, because bread is going to put kind of a brownish hue on everything, I want to get as much color as possible, and this is the route I need to take to get that.”

Holbert usually tints her doughs before baking a breadscape, she said. “The colors will retain, if not brighten, the interior. When it’s on the exterior, you have to do some things to retain as much color as possible because it’s going to turn brown, but you can do certain things to control that a little bit. And then I have painted more on the surface design with [ingredients] like chocolate powder or espresso to create designs. You have to be intentional about what you think, where it’s going to land in the final piece.”

“It really has to do with the years of really having a passion about and developing a growing and evolving understanding of how all the natural elements work,” she said. “For me, that creates the art I want with this.”

Nomad Bakery

Cheryl Holbert’s bread is available weekly at Benedikt Dairy (97 Shirley Hill Road, Goffstown, 801-7056, benediktdairy.com), on the menu at The Grind Cafe (5 W. Broadway, Derry, 260-2411, facebook.com/thegrindnh), on selected dates at the Derry Homegrown Farm & Artisan Market (1 W. Broadway, Derry, 479-5918, derryhomegrown.org) on Wednesdays, June through September. She also accepts commissions through her Facebook page, facebook.com/NomadBakery.

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