鈥淚 wish you could smell them,鈥� says Susan Reid 鈥�79, looking down at a tray of English muffins she鈥檚 just pulled out of the oven. They鈥檙e steaming, golden, dusted with semolina.
Reid is addressing roughly 1,700 people who have gathered, via Instagram, in her home kitchen in Vermont, just a few miles from King Arthur Flour headquarters in Norwich.
Reid, a chef, editor, and senior recipe tester, has worked at the legendary flour company for 18 years. These days she鈥檚 also playing counselor to the tens of thousands of newly minted American home bakers with nearly that many questions.
Starting in March when the country started locking down because of the COVID-19 crisis, bakers, both veteran and novice, stripped grocery shelves of yeast and flour, and began home-baking everything from cakes and cookies to pizza dough.
Susan Reid ’79, a chef, editor, and senior recipe tester at King Arthur Flour, is also playing counselor to the tens of thousands of newly minted American home bakers. (Photograph by Andrea Brown)
Long-neglected bread machines were pulled out of cupboards and set to work. Photos of fermenting sourdough starters suddenly seemed more popular than selfies on social media.
Reid says King Arthur was prepared for strong sales in April, since the weeks around Easter are usually the second-busiest baking season (Thanksgiving through Christmas being the first).
But as they shut down their popular baking school in Norwich, which is too tactile and tourist-driven for remote instruction, and sent staff home to work, they weren鈥檛 prepared for an 鈥渁t-home tsunami鈥� of baking that has turned spring 2020 into the equivalent of a prolonged holiday baking season 鈥� and turned King Arthur products, and Reid鈥檚 skill set, into particularly hot commodities.
鈥淲e blew through everything on the shelves and were able to refill with the Easter supply,鈥� Reid says a few days after the muffin-making appearance for cast iron manufacturer Lodge, on whose Instagram cooking show she鈥檚 becoming a regular. 鈥淎nd then the pinch hit.鈥�
鈥淎mericans are so extreme. They think, 鈥業f yeast breads are good, sourdoughs are even better.鈥� They also think they have to maximize their time.”
The employee-owned King Arthur scrambled to address the supply-chain problem. There is plenty of wheat available 鈥� but with its usual mills already working overtime, King Arthur sought additional mills that could grind to the company鈥檚 precise specifications. They found one, but it only has the capacity to package in 3-pound bags. Soon that smaller size will show up online in place of the usual 5- to 10-pound options, allowing King Arthur to send more product to grocery stores.
Presumably, the home bakers who have been frustrated by empty grocery shelves will soon be able to get back to self-soothing with bread making. Reid absolutely understands that impulse. 鈥淭he feel of dough is really soothing and therapeutic,鈥� she says. 鈥淭here is nothing better than a warm loaf of bread. It鈥檚 so enticing and rewarding. And everybody is stuck at home anyway.鈥�
Jim Amaral 鈥�80, the founder of Maine-based Borealis Breads, is also unsurprised that baking bread suddenly got trendy in a time of crisis. 鈥淲hen I am shaping bread it is like a Zen experience,鈥� he says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 calming and you feel like you鈥檙e doing something constructive.
鈥淭here鈥檚 all sorts of good, strong emotional context to the process. You鈥檙e feeding your family and it also speaks to a nostalgia for a simpler, home-based kind of life that we might have grown up with.鈥�
James Amaral ’80 poses at his Borealis Breads store in Wells, Maine, in 2008. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College).
Borealis shut down its retail stores in Waldoboro and Wells in March, but is preparing to re-open in mid-May with new social-distancing protocols. Amaral鈥檚 wholesale business was diminished but never halted.
鈥淎bout 20 to 25 of our wholesale accounts [including 乐播传媒 Dining Services] temporarily stopped taking orders, but all of our biggest accounts, including about 35 Hannaford stores, have continued to take orders.鈥�
That鈥檚 kept his truck drivers and production staff fully employed. The furloughed retail staff is starting to come back to work.
For bakeries like his, there鈥檚 plenty of flour to be had. It鈥檚 the same product, but coming through the wholesale market, and delivered in bulk packaging (too big to be wedged on any grocery shelf).
鈥淲e haven鈥檛 seen any shortages at all,鈥� Amaral says. With some bakeries closed, he says, if anything there鈥檚 probably more available on the wholesale market. 鈥淚鈥檓 sure there is an excess of flour sitting around in 50-pound bags.鈥�
Before the two retail locations closed, when flour demand had already started to soar on the consumer market, Borealis Breads employees started digging into those giant sacks of flour and bagging up 5-pound parcels for retail customers. Amaral advocates for homebaking; it鈥檚 no threat to his business and a good thing for any household, particularly right now. 鈥淚t鈥檚 one more great thing to do with kids.鈥�
He co-authored a book last year, Borealis Breads: 75 Recipes for Breads, Soups, Sides, and More, and in recent weeks there鈥檚 been an uptick in sales. He adds, 鈥淚 have certainly had a lot of people reaching out to me saying 鈥榃hat do I do with my sourdough?鈥欌�欌��
鈥淭he feel of dough is really soothing and therapeutic,鈥� Reid says. 鈥淭here is nothing better than a warm loaf of bread. It鈥檚 so enticing and rewarding. And everybody is stuck at home anyway.鈥�
In fact, that trend-within-the-trend is one reason Reid has been so busy. An extraordinary number of bakers are going straight to the bigger challenge of artisanal breads made with sourdough starter, which leavens bread with 鈥渨ild鈥� yeasts rather than the commercial, packaged yeasts that have been in such short supply during the pandemic.
Unless the baker is lucky enough to get a good sourdough starter from a friend, they have to 鈥渞aise鈥� it on their own. It takes a lot of time, patience, meticulous measuring, and flour.
During that process, a starter requires flour and water to invigorate and strengthen it. Some recipes demand three 鈥渕eals鈥� a day for this growing starter, and after they serve their purpose, roughly 80 percent of the starter is removed (dubbed 鈥渢he discard鈥�).
Pampering a starter is a lot harder than opening a packet of yeast. 鈥淜ind of like the Grand Canyon鈥� of baking, Reid says, 鈥渨here you are leaping across into new territory.鈥�
Novice sourdough bakers have questions. Engagement spiked on King Arthur鈥檚 website, which is when Reid raised her hand to help produce more content, including tips about keeping starters alive.
鈥淧eople worry, 鈥榃hat if I kill it?鈥欌�� she says. Usually her answer is, unless you see red, or streaks of orange, indicating bad bacteria, it鈥檚 probably fine. On a typical busy day pre-COVID-19, the King Arthur Flour website might have 600,000 unique visitors. Now? 鈥淚 think we hit like 956,000 in March and it hasn鈥檛 let up.鈥�
鈥淎mericans are so extreme,鈥� Reid says with amusement. 鈥淭hey think, 鈥業f yeast breads are good, sourdoughs are even better.鈥� They also think they have to maximize their time. 鈥業 have all this time. I have to do something with it.鈥欌��
For some, the business of throwing out those leftovers, known as discard, is a cause for guilt, especially because flour seems to be in short supply. That鈥檚 where those English muffins come in. Like many of the recipes coming out of Reid鈥檚 kitchen in these pandemic months, the English muffins are meant to show how bakers can use discard.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B_90ayojzTQ/
鈥淲e have like ,鈥� Reid tells her viewers. 鈥淵ou can put it in almost any recipe that has flour and liquid.鈥� (Pro tip: It鈥檚 also great for the compost heap.)
鈥淭here鈥檚 no sign of it slowing down,鈥� Reid says, referring to the home baking trend. 鈥淓ven if a switch got flipped, we would probably still have these people in our universe.鈥�
She believes nothing since World War II has presented this kind of challenge for America. Many Americans are likely to stick close to home for months, even years to come. 鈥淗ow do you plan for that? How do you plan for this world now?鈥�
Baking is a way to feel you have some mastery over your world, Reid says. The only problem? Amidst too much of a bad thing, baking presents too much of a good thing. Those English muffins are headed out of her kitchen, just like the muffins, breads, and five cakes she made last week for demonstrations. The beneficiaries will be her friends and neighbors. 鈥淚鈥檓 doing lots of porch drop-offs.鈥�
Then she鈥檒l make a chocolate cream pie.
