The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
‘A simpler time remembered’
Artisan bread baker draws upon Old World methods for loved loaves
EAST HAMPTON — At the foot of Barton Hill Road, where the roadway meets Main Street, lies a fledgling artisan bread shop inside which a master baker intent on creating the perfect loaf plies his craft according to Old World methods.
Owner Christian Michalowski opened what has become, in less than a week, the wildly popular The Black Walnut Bread Co. at 81 Main St. And it all began as a hobby.
At his shop’s soft opening, Michalowski baked 40 loaves of bread. They sold out in 20 minutes. Sunday, he baked 80. Those sold out in an hour.
Last week, between Thursday and Sunday, he made 140 loaves of bread each day.
“Every day we just kept selling out. And that’s everything — there’s not a cookie to be had by 9:30 in the morning,” said the former 20-year researcher at Alexion Pharmaceuticals, who brings a scientific background to his trade. “We’ve been so inundated with people here at 5:30 in the morning waiting for breads … and we’re still not meeting the demand, so we’re going to ramp up even more so this week.”
The bakery is a one-man operation, although Michalowski’s wife, son and daughter do come in sometimes to ring out orders or to help with cookie making.
Depending on the day, customers will find a variety of freshly baked loaves made with high-quality, local ingredients: cranberry walnut, pumpkin spice, blueberry orange, raspberry rum, Himalayan salt, habañero cheddar, maple cornmeal and sunflower crunch among them. But they’d better get there early — very early.
“I’m anticipating this frenzy will die down after the holidays, and if it doesn’t, by all means, we’ll just keep ramping up,” said Michalowski, a man of high energy and enthusiasm. Both traits he often draws upon, along with endurance, as a long-distance runner and ultramarathoner.
“You don’t start off running a half-marathon, you start off running a mile,” he said. “My goal was to sell 40, 50 loaves of bread with cookies, cakes, treats and hot chocolate throughout the day. But then with the demand — people coming in, and selling out 140 loaves in a half-hour — it’s just overwhelming.”
“After last week, we sold so much bread, I told my wife and friends, ‘I’m more tired from this weekend than I am from running.’ This has knocked me down. This is tough work,” he said. But work he loves.
His recipe needs no trademark: salt, water, yeast, flour. But how he transforms those basic ingredients into what customers consider masterpieces is the mystery which can’t be replicated.
“They all have to get the right feel, the right consistency, and no one else can do it,” Michalowski said. “I can’t just hire workers to make the bread. There’s no measuring, there’s no recipes, they’re all in my head. I put the ingredients in there, I get a feel, I know how it tastes, then I say, ‘that’s fine,’ I put it away and do the next one.”
His breads are naturally 90-percent vegan, save for the Nutella and buttery stollen he bakes for the holidays. His recipes require a 14-hour proofing period.
“It’s the slow fermentation that’s the key,” Michalowski said. “If the bread rests for 14 hours, that’s when the science happens and the flavors develop. I could make a loaf of bread in an hour, but it’s not going to be the same as the one that’s been sitting for 14 hours.”
He might soon have a waiting list of new friends, as those close to him are the only ones guaranteed a loaf of his crunchy, soft and rustic handmade and handkneaded loaves.
The shop is open Thursday and Friday from 6:30 to 9:30 a.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 6:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. In theory, that is.
“I never envisioned we’d be selling out this fast,” he said. But that is the European model.
In America, if a specialty shop runs out of its main product hours before closing, people expect purveyors to simply make more. Not so in Europe, Michalowski said.
“They do this. They bake bread. They sell out, and they go home,” he said, giving London’s East Bristol Bakery as an example.
Depending on the day, customers can expect between four or five warm, freshly baked loaves. At first, he’ll be gauging customer interest in each.
“We’ll go through all of them, and then showcase them and figure out which ones people really like,” he said, such as the immensely popular Chocolate Nutella bread. He made 15 loaves Saturday.
“Now I’m up to 60 of those a day because they just fly off the shelves,” said Michalowski, who is also a 10-year Haddam Neck Fire Department volunteer.
His dream was always to open a bakery.
“Some people play golf. I like to bake bread. For 10 years, I’ve been crafting my skills and making breads for parties, friends and family,” he said. “These bread shops are on every corner in Europe. They’re very, very common, but around here, there’s nobody — nobody makes bread anymore. It’s a dying art. I thought there would be a niche for it.”
The shop’s name is derived from the times, years ago, when he and his daughter would pick black walnuts off their tree while waiting for the school bus in the morning. Michalowski would crush the nuts and sprinkle them atop his signature bread, which also incorporates oatmeal and maple syrup. They have a distinct flavor, with sour notes “almost like a tang,” Michalowski said.
“Each batch is handcrafted. It’s not shot out of a tube. It’s not in a factory, it’s hand-to-oven creations. Each loaf is special, each loaf is particularly cared for. You can see if it’s too crusty, not crusty enough, not done enough, everything’s got to be perfect.”
Bread is alive, and every day is susceptible to elemental factors, such as water, temperature and humidity, he said.
“Some days you might have a crustier loaf, some days you might have a softer loaf. It’s like a wine,” he said.
Fittingly, The Black Walnut Bread Co.’s motto is “A simpler time remembered.”
“Nowadays, everything is moving at the speed of light. We’ve got people on their phones, they’re doing all this stuff on their computers all the time,” he said. “I want to turn it around and bring it back to a time when you bought a loaf of bread, you sat with your family, you broke the bread, there were no distractions, you just ate and were present with the people you love. That was the whole concept.”
For information, visit blackwalnutbread.com, Black Walnut Bread on Facebook, or call 860-9898678.