Boulted Bread

Founded in August 2014 by Joshua Bellamy, Sam Kirkpatrick, and Fulton Forde, Boulted Bread is an artisan bakery loved by locals and and all who visit. But you don’t just walk in and shop. Everything must be ordered the night before you plan to pick it up.

The proprietors start with organic and heirloom grains — wheat, rye, oats, corn — and use a use a stone mill to grind them. They are mixed by hand with water and salt, then fermented overnight to let the flavors blossom. Every morning, the oven kicks into gear and plays a key part in the signature dark caramelization on Boulted bread. “Our products depend on great flour and great restraint,” they say. “Mostly, we try to stay out of the way.”

We arrive at our scheduled time to pick up a large bag of delicious treats. Each is better than the next. Still-warm chocolate chip cookies are dense and heavy on the chocolate, with sprinkles of thick sea salt to balance the sweetness. Each buttery masterpiece is placed on a piece of wax paper before being stacked into the bag. Pull-apart bread is made with croissant scraps that are wrapped together, filled with raspberry jam and Escazú chocolate, then sprinkled with powdered sugar. A buttery ham and cheese croissant is richly layered with salty Benton’s country ham and Gruyere. The unique Campo croissant is little more flattened and dense than the ham and cheese, with Boxcarr Campo cheese and red pepper flake honey. A thick piece of lemon poppyseed cake is tangy, not too sweet, moist and toothsome. The levain is practically the opposite; a beautiful loaf of bread with airy pockets that is just as good dipped in olive oil and salt as slathered with pimento cheese for a sandwich. Nordic rye is dark and seedy: a half-loaf is more than enough for a week of morning slices, toasted with raspberry jam. The long, thin fougasse, a French version of focaccia, is another favorite, with three holes, a golden brown crust, and chunks of green olive throughout.

Best of all is a morning bun — that inexplicably brilliant combination of cinnamon bun and croissant. This one is a revelation. It is puffy and crisp and crunchy at its edges; sprinkles of crystallized sugar and cinnamon give way to a gooey cinnamon bun-like center.