The Goodness of A Bread Affair bread

A Bread Affair makes hand crafted, organic artisan breads. But most of all it is flavourful. We make bread the same way that bakers perfected their craft 100, 500 and even thousands of years ago. And it shows in every loaf.

We started by choosing Full Circle Milling as our primary flour mill. Full Circle Mill only produces certified organic flours; it's not some sideline to their main agri-business market. Then, Full Circle Milling goes the extra mile by providing the seeds to the farmers to ensure the exact varieties of wheat that will help to create the best breads. Then it commits to the farmer to purchase the entire crop.

Our bread starts with great flour and attentive measurement of every component, the weight of each ingredient precise in grams. This care and attention to detail is a hallmark at each step in the process.

Most A Bread Affair breads are made using a natural culture for leavening. This allows us to exclude commercial baker's yeast in most of our products (Our "Country White" and our rye breads are the major exceptions). This natural culture is the heart of A Bread Affair's rich flavour. Selected by Tanya Belanger, our bakery's master baker, from hundreds of prospects, our starter has been tended on a daily basis to ensure the natural development of enzymes, bacteria and natural yeasts.

We allow our breads to develop over as long as a 3 day period, using a variety of natural cultures and processes. This ensures the rich flavour is fully developed by using a slow fermentation process. Our bakers carefully follow each batch of dough to ensure it is at the correct temperatures at the right time. Our bakers watch humidity levels since there is a big seasonal variation here in B.C. At A Bread Affair, it is the responsibility of each baker to follow his or her own work, from mixing, to pre shaping, then to moulding and finally proofing. The personal ownership of their work at each step in the process is a key reason that A Bread Affair tastes so much better than other breads. It is little wonder that each batch is checked more than 20 times over the process. When your personal reputation as a baker is on the line with each batch you create, you take the extra care to ensure it is the best. Far, far different than the industrial model where you operate one machine for your shift, never making a loaf of bread from start to finish during your entire time.

We hand mould each loaf of bread. Hand moulding is the only way to ensure a lighter, airier crumb or inside of the bread, whereas mechanical or factory shapers ensure smaller air bubbles inside the loaf so that restaurants don’t need as much butter or mayonnaise when they are preparing a sandwich. We bake our bread for you and your taste, not the profits of a multinational restaurant chain. At A Bread Affair, we strive to maximise the flavour for you.

Every loaf of bread is baked on the stone hearth of our oven. A simple oven with excellent heat transfer, degree by degree temperature control and full steam controls to ensure a crisp thin and layered crust. The high temperatures and the watchful eye of our craftsmen bakers ensure the loaf that you take home is perfect.

Come to our bakery any day of the week and you might see the team of bakers at work. When you see the commitment to producing the perfect loaf of bread, it will be little wonder that you will want to take one home.