McGrath's Brick Oven Bakehouse

McGrath's is a bakehouse dedicated to making bread the way it used to be. There was once a time when bread was one of nature's more wholesome foods, packed full of nutrients which our bodies could readily absorb. In the past 100 years, bread has become something manufactured on a large scale where fast production and low price became the driving forces of its evolution (or devolution). Commercial

yeast began to be poured into the flour and water mixture along with sugar and dozens of other unnecessary ingredients to produce long lasting bread that will fill peoples stomaches for pennies a slice. The only problem is that this bread is more or less indigestible and empty, having little in common with the kind of bread perfected over the past several thousand years. Where has this wholesome bread gone? That is why we are bringing McGrath's Brick Oven Bakehouse to South-Central Pennsylvania. Please read on to further understand why our bread is special and set apart from anything you will find in the area. fermentation: noun
the chemical breakdown of a substance by bacteria, yeasts, or other microorganisms, typically involving effervescence and the giving off of heat. What does fermentation have to do with bread? It used to have a lot to do with bread and it all starts with a mother culture (also called sourdough starter or levain). We are currently feeding and caring for two mothers (cultures), one which is almost 20 years old started by bakers at Pleasanton Bakery in Traverse City, MI, and the other created by ourselves over two years ago. The way these starters are created is by carefully mixing together two ingredients: flour and water. You wouldn't think much would come of this, but by continuous refreshing (taking a small part of your mixture and feeding it more flour and water) it will almost magically grow into something which would have the power, potential and destiny to leaven hundreds of thousands of loaves or more. Where does this power come from? It is all around us, in the grain, in the air, on our hands, and in our breath. It is natural yeasts and bacteria which find their way into the culture and it becomes a very specialized community which you will only find in a sourdough starter. This community of organisms are then perpetuated by feeding on flour and dough giving off the absolutely essential byproduct which has changed humanity forever: gas which is trapped in a glutenous structure of the dough. However, is this not what commercial yeast does, which you can buy in any grocery store and what all bread manufacturers take advantage of? To learn why our method is very different than the traditional 20th-21st Century method, and to learn much more about the science and virtue behind our bread, please visit www.mcgrathsbakehouse.com