bake - January/February 2024 - 14

" Fresh milled flour is used when flavor and texture are added,
It does find its way into most things we offer. "
Manresa Bread founder Avery Ruzicka
of upcoming holiday offerings and a new bake kit. These
kits are made with home bakers and pastry lovers in
mind; Manresa Bread offers three Bake with Manresa
Bread Kits (cookies, waffles, and brownies - and all can
be made vegan) and a more robust " Bake with Avery "
baguette kit that comes with everything you need, plus
a video link to a tutorial from Avery. The newest addition
is a cinnamon roll kit.
For the most recent December holidays, Manresa Bread
featured a variety of baked goods available for nationwide
shipping, including holiday snack tins, cookie boxes,
panettone, babka, and the classic " Bread " sweatshirt.
Each Manresa Bread store is located in a different
town. Each town has a community with slightly different
flavor preferences. This is the fun part.
More pan loaves and multigrain breads are planned
for the future, as well as Pain de Mie sandwich loaves.
Ruzicka possesses individual expertise from a commissary
production vantage point that brings her wisdom,
patience, and strategic planning.
" The younger version of me would say, 'Let's do it
now.' Now I have a strategic plan. These new product
goals are very realistic. "
Classic breads and pastries
Conceived in the kitchen of three-Michelin-star Manresa
restaurant, Manresa Bread sources high-quality
organic and local California ingredients to create the
best interpretations of classic breads and pastries.
Customers can find Manresa Bread in Los Gatos, Los
Altos, Campbell, Santa Cruz and Palo Alto. Not in the
Bay Area? No problem. Manresa's pastries are available
for nationwide shipping (excluding Alaska and Hawaii).
Inside Manresa Bread, there is an 18,000-square-foot
commissary with a very large baking space, a pastry
room, and a bread mixing and shaping room. There are
two large freezers and a large walk-in.
The bakery's new equipment includes a larger Esmach
mixer with a removable bowl and bowl lift.
" Our equipment is lightening the physical load without
taking away from our quality and passion, " Ruzicka
explains. " If a team member has to physically lift the
dough, which is quite dense, out of the mixer, the physical
demand of lifting dough by hand eats up a ton of energy. "
Other additions are a new diving arm mixer, which
recreates the dough mixing process of human hands to
ensure a natural leavening process without artificially
warming the dough.
Her mission: " How can I create the most energy for
my team to make the best products. "
Efficient teamwork
The new place affords the Manresa Bread team the ability
to craft a broad product line of delicate and delicious
pastries with maximum efficiency.
As pastry chef, Prida plugs her expert creative mind
into the process of new product development, which
results in such unique creations as grasshopper mousse
cake and delicious sables - in flavors like coffee or
salted butter. After the holidays, Ruzicka says they
plan to offer vanilla sables, salted butter sables, and
14 < JAN-FEB 2024 | bakemag.com
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bake - January/February 2024

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