While lingering in the cafe you may find yourself in a conversation with owner Chip Stewart. Lately his topics of interest involve new recipes and baking techniques. Regular customers notice frequent subtle changes in the product offerings. With a new baker on duty recently, there are even more tasty new products to check out.

Chip has discovered some bread-baking methods that yield surprisingly soft light loaves that are 100% whole wheat, breads that are often heavy and dense. “Basically you keep the yeast out of the dough in a slow growing refrigerated sponge, while the dough is conditioned in room temperature.” He explains that this allows the flour to absorb more moisture and develop sugars and enzymes. When the yeast is “pitched”, to borrow a beer-brewing term, it is younger and more vigourous than if it were started in the dough.

As Chip tried his new 7-grain whole wheat bread he said "It's very yummy for my tummy." 

The book that Chip has been studying is Peter Reinhart's Whole Grain Breads . His numerous tips include the use of sprouted wheat as a yeast nutrient, also known as a people nutrient. The consumption of sprouts has nutritional benefits, when eaten raw in salads and on sandwhiches, as well as in baked goods.

The point is Amazing Grace breads are becoming even more amazing.

A fine companion to a piece of good bread is a bowl of good soup. In between baking chores, Chip has been working on some of his soup recipes. His newly evolving gumbo has become a cafe favorite. The name of the soup, gumbo, comes from a west African word for okra. The new Amazing Grace gumbos bring a flavor of Louisiana and the Deep South to the lunch offerings of the Amazing Grace. With the use of roux, various peppers,  thyme, and gumbo spices, like file, which is made of dried sassafras, these stews give my taste buds a lovely winter trip south.