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The beloved Clark Street Bakery was a whole-foods mecca that produced delicious, nutritious baked goods, using only organic whole-grain flours, less-refined sweeteners like honey and molasses, and vegetable oil rather than lard, hydrogenated shortening, or lots of butter. Chemical preservatives, dough conditioners, bleaches, and food dyes were never used. In the early 1980s, the bakery served as a retail community bakery and supplier to natural-food stores and co-ops in Chicago and Evanston.
This collection of much-requested recipes and heart-warming vignettes not only tells our story, but provides a wealth of nutritional information, as well as detailed instructions and the reasoning behind the techniques used.
About the author
In writing this book, I have come to realize that baking is a process of connection. As we bake, we connect with those hardy souls who sowed the first grain with bone hoes and ground it between two rocks to make a simple flatbread. We connect with present-day farmers and millers who, through their toil and care, provide us with quality ingredients. We connect with those who developed the original recipes that we have adapted. We connect with those we bake with and with those we serve with the work of our hands and our hearts. In ways that cannot be fully expressed, we connect with ourselves as we mix the ingredients and knead the dough. It is all a process of connection, and being aware of all of this makes it a spiritual endeavor.
