As luck would have it, I was headed back to Even Dough one Saturday when I spotted the out-the-door-and-down-the-patio line and instead re-headed myself to the Carrboro Farmer’s Market. It was a beautiful day, so the Market was crowded, but I am a fast shopper, even there. I’d picked out greens, radishes, and catfish from the coast when, on the way out, I spied a baker unpacking his wares.
Box Turtle Bakery, his sign said,
inviting me to get my morning treat there.
I waited a few minutes for him to set up, then chose a raisin bread with
only four ingredients.
It was still warm, so I threw the rest of my haul on the
counter and cut a slice. Wow. Here was a home baker who clearly made his
few ingredients shine. That freshness
and texture reminded me of my brother Charles’ sour dough bread, when he and my
nephew Chet were still baking it (Chet’s become a baker of other good things
now, but I’ll get to him in a few
paragraphs…).
I found Abraham online soon
after, and asked if I could have a few words with and about him. “I’m busy this week,” he wrote, “but just
come to next Saturday’s market [he only bakes for that morning] and we can talk
between customers.”
Here,” he told me when I returned
the next week. “Try this sour-dough with
apricots. It’s got some spelt in it.”
(Yes, I went home with it.)
How did he get started?
Guess. In his family’s kitchen,
where, growing up, his large family congregated. “It wasn’t like we were taught to cook,” he
explained. “Just if you were around the
kitchen, you were given something to do.”
Eventually,
inspired by his mother’s bread-baking, he turned his dining room into a place
to explore breads and sources for the kind of carefully grown ingredients.
His sources are local and/or
specialty farm-based. That’s what
interests him the most…how flours and grains can act, how they can enhance a
loaf. From the way he talked about it, it’s clear that experimenting with this
flour and that, this combination and that, is what baking is about for him. And
finding just the right people growing just the right stuff.
What’s your favorite thing to
bake? I asked him. He looked around a
minute, then nodded. “English muffins.”
He pointed to the batch I hadn’t noticed in another bin. “I began in the usual way, but then I kept
trying to make them better. Eventually,
I got a metal worker to form grids, and now I just roll the dough over the
grids and they bake in those separations.”
One of the ways to success is knowing who, like you, know how.
And then there’s my nephew Chet.
Like Abraham and like many of us from a large family, who bake and cook (some are better bakers than cooks, and vice versa), Chet took to
it, and does both well.
My brother’s sour dough bread, for instance, passed along
to Chet when it was getting difficult for his father to manage the heavy work
of it, especially the enameled iron pots where the dough rose and baked. They baked loaves at a time; there was always
something in progress…starters, mixers, risings, bakings of the sour dough that
could include cheese, herbs, olives…even chocolate. Chet meanwhile had been cooking meals for his
family, too, as they were busy with work and health issues. Here’s his story:
“I began thinking about food seriously enough to make it
and work with it when I was a teenager.
At our store, I was selling gas grills; so I began using them, playing
around with hamburger…something basic, straightforward. Maybe some hot dogs, then chicken, then
steak.“
Like Abraham, Chet thinks cooking
is all experimentation. “What learning
with meat taught me was temperature control…useful across the board. Also to apply patience, attention and an eye
for detail. “ He began to include spices and ingredients that inspired him to
try different ways of making what would ordinarily be…ordinary.
“I don’t do it only for the
science, though,” Chet affirms. “I want to see people’s faces change, tasting
something I make and knowing this is special.
It’s a way to share myself creatively.”
I will vouch for that. I’m a particular fan of his sweet potato
enchiladas, mushroom soup, roasted cauliflower, and Morning Glory breakfast
cake. And if Chet is appearing at a family
feast, my grandson’s first question is, “Is he bringing that mushroom pate′?”
That one will be gone in minutes.
These
days he’s begun his cottage baking business, turning out pies, cakes, cookies,
and lately confections, too. Still, he
finds himself still eagerly learning and experimenting.
He loves the
challenge. 
He began making chocolates and toffee at first because his mother couldn’t eat soy.
“Soy is in everything!” he says.
“Especially chocolate. So I tracked down
soy-free bars and learned how to temper it properly. Temperature is everything there. It’s the same with nuts…pull pecans ten
degrees too late and it’s scorched, but right on the edge of done? Gorgeous.”
“My whole recipe is high-fat butter, organic cane sugar, a
bit of salt, soy-free chocolate and well-roasted pecans. No corn syrup, no
junk, no stabilizers. A few simple
ingredients, nothing artificial. I want
to remind people of what good food is and what it can be.”
He’s becoming as popular at
farmer’s markets and pop-up tables around Cary and Raleigh as he is around our
tables. And the holidays are coming...
