TWISTED TREE BAKERY

By Erika Williams

There’s nothing better than a freshly-baked loaf of bread on an autumn morning or a sweet pastry with coffee on a cold winter day. Thanks to Twisted Tree Bakery, located at 111 N. Broadway, Edmond residents can now enjoy artisanal European goods made fresh daily.

Twisted Tree is a local and family-owned bakery that opened in downtown Edmond in August. Customers can find croissants, cookies, various types of breads, and many other items.

“For us, we’re focusing on two things: artisanal European style breads is one thing, and then European inspired pastries are the second thing,” said owner Robert Black.

Robert says that the bakery’s goods are inspired by the same goods he and his sister would make with their grandmother when they were younger.

“My grandmother was half-German so a lot of the foods, pastries, and breads we made growing up were German,” said Robert. “For our birthdays and our special occasions, my grandmother would make this sweet German cake called kuchen so we brought that here to the bakery as something that we could offer every day to people because it was close and special to us growing up.”

In their short time being open, Twisted Tree has already become known for their homemade bread. Customers can find country sourdough, butter flaxseed, honey wheat loaf, and more. The bread recipes were created by head baker Kassie Joslin who is also Robert’s sister.

“What I think is the cornerstone of our breads is our house made sourdough. It’s a country sourdough with only three ingredients, flour, water, and salt. In fact, we don’t even add yeast because there’s a natural yeast that we use in our starter that helps the bread rise,” said Robert. “There’s nothing artificial or preservative in there. So, we’ve found that, that artisanal, old world style country sourdough not just tastes great, but actually makes people feel better when they eat it.”

Another popular item in the bakery are the homemade croissants.

Twisted Tree Bakery “I would say the cornerstone of our pastry programs is our housemaid croissant dough, and most people don’t realize how difficult it is to make croissant dough. You know, there’s probably less than a dozen people in the state of Oklahoma that make their own croissant dough,” said Robert. “We make our own croissant dough. It’s a threeday process from start to finish.” Robert and his wife also own Café Evoke in downtown Edmond, and one of their motivations for opening a bakery was to provide fresh-baked goods to other businesses in the area. “One of the first things I did kind of as a former chef was really get excited about doing awesome pastries in the coffee shop,” said Robert. “I looked for a local wholesale partner, someone that was doing really great pastries that we could buy from for the coffee shop, and we didn’t find a great fit for us.” This combined with his sister’s talent for making bread took Twisted Tree from an idea to a reality. “My sister, Kassie, who was a school continues on Page 10

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Bakery continued from Page 8 teacher for her whole career, was making bread out of her home as a hobby. I could tell it was really, really good. It wasn’t just good bread, it was great bread,” said Robert. “Kind of jokingly, it started with, ‘Hey, why don’t you quit, you’re teaching job and come open a bakery with me?’ That was kind of like a running family joke, but one day she said ‘Sure.’ So then, it began in earnest.”

Even though the wholesale focus was the original goal of the bakery, the storefront has been extremely successful. During the opening weeks Twisted Tree sold out of products within a few hours of opening.

The bakery staff is working on ramping up production to meet the needs of customers, and Robert is planning for a pre-order service to be up and running by mid-September.

“We’re going to have an online pre-order system that lets people sort of pick their box, pick their pastries, pick their croissants a couple of days ahead of time and pay for them. That way all you have to do is come in and pick them up,” said Robert.

Robert and his staff have been grateful for the community support they have already received, and they are looking forward to more success and growth in downtown Edmond.

Twisted Tree has allowed Robert and Kassie to bring a little piece of their home to the Edmond community, but Robert feels that the experience is mutual. He says working downtown has been reminiscent of his childhood in Shattuck, Oklahoma.

Said Robert, “This feeling of being in downtown Edmond reminds me of growing up in downtown Shattuck because it’s got that same small-town feel. So, we want to be here not just because we like the people in the community, but also because for me it reminds me of home and growing up.”