JONES MILL HOUSE BAKERY
We offer these through Gilmanton’s Own Market or through direct order.
We’re not professional bakers. We’ve never been trained. But we love wonderful breads, especially classics from different regions of the world, and we do our best to make these international breads as authentically as possible in a home kitchen.
Our favorites are the basic and historic breads of France and Italy — think of people coming home from the baker in the morning with a baguette under the arm. But we range much further in our bread tastes. There are great American breads like Anadama and Raisin Pecan Cinnamon Bread. There’s nothing like homemade pita — a whole different experience when you taste home-made. And if you try our Multigrain English Muffins you’ll never want another supermarket muffin again. Even our White Bread is nothing like the supermarket stuff — it has real bread in it, real taste, and none of the preservatives loaded into the commercial kinds.
So we’ve tasted and read, and tasted and baked and baked and baked. And tasted. We only bake what we eat.
We offer our baked goods through Gilmanton’s Own Market — you can preorder them and they are there whenever the Market is open. You can also special-order breads and cakes from us and we will deliver through the Market. To do this, just write to me at vsapiro@gmail.com or through my Facebook site https://www.facebook.com/jonesmillhouse/. I announce what’s on tap on my Facebook page so if you follow me you’ll be in the know.
Questions? Email Gina at vsapiro@gmail.com
THE BREADS
(not all of them, but some)
Mostly 1 pound loaves. Although we have options without salt and without dairy, I don’t do gluten-free breads. I recommend Beth’s Gluten-Free Goodies, always available at Gilmanton’s Own Market in the freezer section. Lots of different breads and sweet stuff.
Wild Yeast (Sourdough) Bread: 1 lb Baguettes or 1.5 lb Boules. We deliver a bunch of these to Gilmanton’s Own Market every week, most weeks of the year. This bread has been baked for eons — long before there was commercial yeast, breads came from wild yeast, nowadays called “sourdough.” The rising agent in sourdough bread is a starter made with a lactobacillus, a type of bacteria that is our friend (not the kind that makes us sick). We started our starter a few years ago, and refresh it weekly. The amazing thing about it is that it gets its life purely from local lactobacillus — what’s in the air around us. So sourdough from one place will never taste exactly like sourdough from another.
This is a really a simple bread — its ingredients are flour, the wild yeast starter, a little salt, and water. But its flavor develops through this longer process — it takes me 2-3 days, not counting growing the starter. The result is a glorious bread with a crunchy crust and a soft tasty inside and a marvelous crumb (lots of tiny holes). We offer it most weeks of the year.
Here’s a great article explaining how sourdough works — fascinating!
And I offer are some nice variations, usually by special order:
Wild Yeast (Sourdough) New York Rye (with seeds): You can’t get better rye unless you go to New York City. We start with a wild yeast base using rye flour. Its classic deli flavor comes partly from the sautéed chopped onions in the long ferment. Plus caraway seeds (of course). We end up with a bread that would make any corned beef or pastrami happy. It’s a 3-day process, but so worth it. The squishy stuff in the supermarket they label as “rye bread” just isn’t the real thing.
Pumpernickel Bread: This also starts with a sourdough starter, with rye flour plus ingredients to make it darker and richer.
French Bread: A lot of breads go under the name of French Bread, but lots of them aren’t anything like what you would find in a French boulangerie. Although it’s not possible to replicate a real French bread exactly with a residential oven, this recipe is designed to come as close as possible, with a good crust and strong bread. The two-day process develops the taste of its simple ingredients: two kinds of flour, yeast, and water. Magic. It looks and acts a bit like our Wild Yeast breads, but without the ping of the wild yeast. Baguettes or Boules.
Herbed French Bread or Lemon French Bread: Same as above, but rolled in a mix of lots of dried herbs or lemon zest.
Tuscan Bread: When a customer asked for a salt-free bread we searched high and low and found this traditional Italian version. Salt in bread is not just for taste — it is a crucial agent that interacts with the flour and yeast to make bread rise. So it takes some extra work to get a nice bread with a good rise and great crumb without the salt. But this works! This bread has a slightly sweet taste and very nice consistency using just flour, water, olive oil, and yeast. Special order only — minimum 2.
Challah: Challah is a delicious eggy, slightly sweet bread (from honey as well as a little sugar) that is traditionally eaten by Jews on the Sabbath and holidays. It is usually braided except for the New Year, when it is round and studded with raisins. But it is well-known in the larger community as a great bread for eating, for sandwiches and especially, as the best bread in the world to use for French Toast. We do it round or braided, with raisins or without.
Greek Bread: This lovely bread — mostly white flour with a little whole wheat — is great for sandwiches or whatever use you want. It has a little honey, a little olive oil, a little milk in it so it’s really delicious tastes like…. bread. This recipe is designed to resemble the classic Greek country bread that is served at just about every meal in the Greek countryside. It’s a strong bread that stands up to all those amazing Greek dips and starters. It’s also a terrific sandwich bread and makes amazing toast.
MultiGrain Granary: We searched until we found a recipe for multigrain that tasted just as we imagined … beautiful crumb (great for sandwiches, toast, whatever), some little crunches and texture from the different grains, and a little sweetness. It reminds us a bit of the utterly wonderful “granary loaf” we always buy from English bakeries. It smells amazing.
Multigrain Granary is a 2-day process. A delicious, healthy bread with bread flour, whole wheat flour, and different grains: variously oats, wheat berries, quinoa, brown rice, polenta, — it varies a little depending on our mood. Sweetened with a little honey and molasses. Baked in rectangular sandwich loaves. Addictive.
Cinnamon Pecan Raisin Bread: The ultimate breakfast bread (or, we think, any other time): Scented throughout with a swirl of cinnamon sugar and studded with raisins and pecans. It is delicious as is, for toast, for French toast, and even sandwiches. Dangerously good.
White Bread: This is not just any white bread — it’s beautifully enriched. Like all our breads, it has real substance — completely unlike supermarket squishy white bread. With poppy seeds or without.
Sourdough Starter: Have you ever wanted to make your own sourdough bread, but don’t want to do all the work it takes to make a first-rate starter? Ours has been going for a few years now — it makes delicious bread, bagels, etc. And did you know that the same starter will taste different if you refresh it in different locations? That’s true, because it depends on local yeasts. So our starter is New Hampshire (Gilmanton) born and bred. Contact us if you would like a 3-cup container of starter, which is more than enough to get going with your own creations!
SMALL BREADS:
MOST OF THESE ARE IN GILMANTON’S OWN FREEZER SECTION, BUT WE OCCASIONALLY BRING THEM IN FRESH-BAKED
Wild Yeast Bagels: These are (we say, modestly), the best bagels you will get anywhere around here. They are cooked in the classic way — boiled then baked to get that characteristic texture and flavor. We use a wild yeast base, so they are very tasty. We do “Everything” and Plain. The Everythings have more different kinds of seeds than the ones you’ll find elsewhere, but no garlic because we find dried garlic bitter, and no salt in the coating so the bagels don’t get soggy. Just warm them up for a few minutes in a medium oven and they are good-as-fresh. I bake these because I grew up in New York and can’t find any bagels that satisfy. These do.
Multigrain English Muffins: Amazing — nothing like the supermarket version. A two-day process that has lots of great grains, sweetened with coconut sugar and finished with a great dollop of butter baked in. These are big. We know people who have a half for breakfast. We also know folks who use them hamburger buns. Happy to have caused addictions.
Pita: Pita is a lovely and ancient pocketed flatbread that is baked throughout the Mideast. It is used to scoop up dips, used as a wrap, and for many other purposes. Although it is increasingly common throughout the U.S., if you don’t live near a Mideastern food market in a big city you have probably never tasted it fresh baked. If that’s the case, you will be delighted and surprised by the beautiful bread flavor. A little whole wheat flour in them gives extra taste and substance.
Honey Corn Muffins: There are many versions of corn muffins. Southerners believe it’s a crime against humanity to make them sweet. In some places corn muffins demand hot peppers. The ones that show up in supermarkets and bad catering establishments are super-sweet and too greasy for our taste. Ours are classic New England versions: course-ground cornmeal and some sweetness from local honey — but not a lot. Buttermilk and butter to give them richness. And we bake them in flat round tins (some people call them “muffin tops”) so you can eat them as they are or (as we love them) split them and toast or griddle them. Pop a poached egg on them, heat them and pour chili over them … whatever you like. They are SO good. Special order only.
Hot Dog (Top Loading) and Hamburger Buns: Supermarket versions have very little real bread taste, but a lot of sugar in them. Ours are a real bread, complementing whatever you put in them. A light bread super-enriched with local eggs and a little local honey. Available in the summer; otherwise special order.
Naan: A beautiful flatbread found throughout South and West Asia. Enriched with yoghurt, butter, egg, so richer than pita. Pop it in the toaster or oven straight out of the freezer, just to defrost and warm a little. Special order.
Naan-e-Barbari: A delicious Persian flatbread studded with tasty kalonji seeds and sesame seeds.
Pizza Dough: This is what we use for our homemade pizzas. Order packs of plain and rosemary pizza dough directly trough us. Each pack sufficient for a 12-ounce pizza topped with whatever you want. Special order.
THE MAPLE GRANOLA
We like our granola kind of grown-up tasting. Made with local maple syrup — not very sweet. Three kinds of nuts — usually almonds, pepitas, pecans. Three kinds of dried fruits — usually raisins, cranberries, cherries. A tiny touch of spice (e.g. cinnamon, anise seed) and a dash of dried orange zest. No gluten grains (oats only). No salt. No sugar. We try to keep it in the Market at all times, but some weeks it all goes fast.
THE SWEET THINGS
We tend to do mostly unusual things, not super sweet. More grown-up flavors. For grown-up sweet teeth.
Bundt Cakes: Rich, delicious cakes that serve at least 16 slices. We do these flavors: Lemon or Whiskey Chocolate or Orange with Honey & Earl Grey Tea or Spicy Gingerbread, or others to order!
Sour Cream Streusal Cakes: Beautiful 8-inch coffee cakes. Choice of different flavors: Blueberry, Orange-Scented, Chocolate Chip. We usually do a 6″ diameter that serves 4 people very generously, but we can easily do larger ones.
Market Macaroons: We’ve been baking these since the Market opened, and they are a favorite among some of our customers! These a great little coconut cookies with chocolate. No gluten, no dairy, no salt. Just goodness.
Belgian Speculoos Cookies: This is a a traditional Belgian-Dutch spice cookie. Very crisp, sweet, and spicy, with tastes of cinnamon, cardamom, cloves. (They’re pretty much the same as the Biscoff cookies Delta Airlines serves … to which some folks are addicted.)
Coffee Chocolate Chip Cookies: Who doesn’t love a classic chocolate chip cookie, the one with the recipe on the bag? That’s what we have here. Just chocolate chips — no nuts or raisins. But with a good hit of espresso powder.
Crinkle Cookies: We love these neat little Crinkle Cookies. Very crisp and very flavorful, rolled in sparkling sugar. We do Lemon or Chocolate or Spicy Molasses ones. The picture shows all the flavors as we dressed the up for the holidays last year, with colored sparkling sugar.
AND FOR HOLIDAYS
Every year we offer a special range of breads and baked goods for holidays. You can preorder them for any time during the holiday seasons.
Winter & Spring:
Mardi Gras King Cake: A delicious, sweet, spicy cake frosted to look like colorful Mardi Gras beads.
Purim Hamantaschen: Apricot, Prune, or Poppy-filled triangular filled pastries representing the hat of the evil Hamen.
Passover Macaroons: No flour — just coconut, egg white, sugar, arrowroot and chocolate.
Paska — Ukrainian Easter Bread. Delicious and beautiful slightly sweetened bread enriched with egg and milk and braided on top.
Juneteenth: Red Velvet Cake: The traditional red-colored chocolate cake covered in cream cheese frosting.
Christmas: We love searching the world for wonderful Christmas baked goods. So much to choose from!
Christopsomo: A Greek Christmas bread: Fragrant round bread with dried fruit, spices, nuts, sweetened with honey.
French Brioche Wreath: Enriched brioche bread shaped like a wreath, studded with almonds.
Grittibänz: Swiss Bread People: An egg enriched bread with a little spice, a little orange peel, shaped like a person. Cute!
Limpa Bread: A Swedish rye bread traditionally served at Christmas.
Panpepato: Classic Italian Christmas Bread with nuts, dried fruit, citrus peel, chocolate, and black pepper for a little kick.
Panforte: A traditional Italian treat: Very dense cake with nuts, dried fruit, and spices.
Treacle Tart: A traditional English tart with a lemony treacle filling.
Jones Mill House 