Poilâne

Today I had the opportunity to go to Poilâne bakery, one of the few bakeries that still use an old wood fired brick oven to make their breads. And they gave us a tour downstairs (just like Julia Child. No really, if you read her book 'My life in France' there is a picture of Julia Child in front of the very oven that you see here. Random french bakery history for you) Anyway, moving on. This bakery specializes in artisan breads and they are the nice heavy chewy ones that are mostly healthy for you. My favorite is the rye/raisin bread but the apple tarts were WAY better than most of the boulangeries just off the street.

Upon entering, we met in a little room off the entrance and received a history lesson. They have been making bread the same way since 1932 and still even use some of the original sourdough starter. This is a chandelier made of bread. No, not the original. They remake it every few years.
During hard times (depression or WWII, I can't remember) local artists would paint pictures for the bakery in exchange for some bread. Thus the room full of bread paintings.
This is how they weigh their ingredients.
and this is where they mix them.Then after the rising process, the dough is shaped and put in this oven which is about 500 degrees but will gradually drop off to about 160 degrees before they will add more wood to the fire.

The baker masterfully removes the bread and moves things around so they they are in the hotter part of the oven if needed.


Voilà, you have a ton of fresh bread.

Here are the apple tarts I mentioned. Yummy.
If you find that you are craving any of this, fear not for you can order online (click the link at the beginning) from them and they will ship it Fed Ex to you so you, too, can have fresh Poilâne bread...just like me.