Hello Breadlies! About the Mother Loaf

Piping Hot Mother Loafing News Coming Your Way (Sometimes)

So, here’s the thing: We’re excited you’re here! Prepare yourself for oh so many exclamation points and terrible bread/food puns! HAHAHAHA! For yous who have been part of the Loaf journey for awhile now, this will not be as shocking to the system. But we say to all: welcome and don’t be scurred. Come be weird and eat bread with us?

A Little About the Mother Loaf Breads

You may already know this, but for those who don’t, here’s a brief intro of the Mother Loaf Breads, a bakery based in Core City, Detroit, Michigan.

Who are these Crazy Kids?

Jeremiah Kouhia is the owner, operator and head baker of the Mother Loaf. Stephanie Ariganello is a sometimes-silent-but-not-really-ever-silent partner. Jeremiah, a Connecticut native, was lured to Michigan by Stephanie. After years of surviving as a cold-blooded mermaid supping on the souls of drowned sailors in Lake Superior, Stephanie decided to move back home to downriver/metro Detroit. Her dad’s cooking may have had more than a little to do with the decision. Jeremiah, hooked on the siren song he heard those many years ago, followed her and has regretted it and loved it every single day since.

Now for the Bread - Getting Wild

We are all natural - as in all natural leavening. Those little yeasty beasties are floating around in the air and living their lives on flour until we capture them and make them work for us, pumping up delicious dough and turning it into some of the best bread you can find (we hope!). That means all of our breads are sourdoughs, and we do what is called a “long, cold, slow fermentation” meaning each batch takes 2-3 days from start to finish.

Why do we do this?

• Sourdough is better for you. Of course, all bodies are different, but sourdough leavened breads are typically a lot easier for most people to digest as compared to breads with commercial yeast as their only or primary leavening. This seems like a bold claim, but is pretty well documented in “the literature”.

• Sourdough “pre-digests” the nutrients (i.e., acids, carbs, proteins, minerals, etc.) in bread, which again, contributes to that easier digestion. Some research supports that sourdough is lower in FODMAPs (IYKYK) than baker’s yeast or commercial yeasted breads, and that true sourdoughs have a lower glycemic index as well.

• It helps us access all that good stuff that nourished our thick-calved ancestors — the wild yeast and lactobacillus bacteria that leaven sourdough help make it available to our modern sacks of flesh, aka bodies. That means things that most of us don’t think about, like manganese and friends, are there for the taking. Wheat and other types of grain are sources of calcium, magnesium, zinc, and the aforementioned, which are essential to some human functions.

• Sourdough is a natural mold inhibitor, so no preservatives here. We do recommend preserves, however, and maybe life preservers, like those water ring things for when you get lost in the sea of flavors and start to sink down, down, down and a siren starts to take little bites... Anywho, our loaves can last a long time, like an eerie long time.

• Flavor. I mean. Come on. Once you start eating sourdough and try to go back to a “regular” bread, it’s kind of crazy just how bland and flavorless that regular bread now seems. Sure there are exceptions, but for the most part, welcome to your new era of taste buds, you bougie bitch (we’re happy you joined our club).

• Structure. “The architecture of bread is the scaffolding of life; the more it is able to uphold us, the abler we are to uphold the shining ideals of man, which is to say the stronger a society’s bread, the stronger the society.”
  I just made that quote up, but it kind of works? Structure means the texture, crumb, and poofiness of the loaf, how it performs in a sandwich, etc. The fermentation, among other factors (ahem, the baker’s skill), helps the bread come alive and grow and become a wonderful scaffolding. It also means it freezes well.

• It’s the old way of doing things, paying homage to the history and culture of those who came before us, such as people who used to say things like the architecture of bread is the scaffolding of life, etc. etc. etc. And honestly, Jeremiah was pretty much born an 84-year-old man who would never opt to do things the “easy” way.

(NOTE: The exception to our all natural leavening are the challah buns and baguettes, which are sourdough, but also have a tinge of commercial yeast in them to ensure consistency even as environment, weather, humidity, protein in wheat, etc. fluctuate.)

So, welcome aboard the bread train and stay tuned for more info, menus, specials and news updates. Thanks again for being here!