Good Cooking
Sarah Webster’s passion for baking is leading her life in tasty directions Story by Jacquelyn Hall Photos by David Moore
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ome of Sarah Webster’s earliest memories are of baking cookies with her older sister Emily. Early on, the Georgia Mountain woman felt her calling was not the traditional college/ job route. Always creative, she followed her passions and made baking her profession. Immersing herself in all things baking, Sarah attended the former campus of Birmingham’s Virginia College pastry school, worked at Birmingham Breadworks and Edgar’s Bakery plus assisted her friend Matthew Dyer, a professional chef, with desserts for private catered dinners. Through her “externship” at Birmingham Breadworks, she quickly found herself fascinated by sourdough. It was a fortunate position for her, as there are only a few bakeries that specialize in sourdough located in North Alabama. Continuing her education in her newfound fascination, she traveled to North Carolina in 2018 to take part in a sourdough workshop that ran for several days. And in 2019, she was able to take part in an apprenticeship in a small family-owned, sourdough bakery in Virginia that makes wood-fired loaves. Selling her efforts happened rather organically when a friend asked to order some of her baked goods. After that, Sarah tentatively opened a booth at the Guntersville Farmers Market under her business name, Mission Bread, offering a variety of sourdough items. Through lots of practice she became extremely proficient in all things
Sarah Webster exercises her call to creativity in the kitchen. For more info visit: www.facebook.com/missionbread. sourdough, but not without a few hiccups along the way.
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nitially, Sarah focused on easier and more predictable yeast-based breads, like a basic white sandwich loaf. Then she tried her hand at sourdough bread – but it just didn’t turn out right. Going back to the drawing board, she did some troubleshooting, figured out the minutiae of the process, made a hybrid yeast and produced a sourdough bread which turned out brilliantly. It’s now one of her principal recipes. Fueled by the thrill of success, Sarah officially, as she puts it, caught the sourdough bug. “I had to do it again.” With the basics of sourdough down pat, she loves tapping into her creativity by combining different flours for the flavors and textures they offer. Some of her favorites to use are organic highprotein bread flour, organic rye flour and organic whole wheat flour. Sarah orders most of her flours from a mill in South Carolina. With her skill growing, she now offers sourdough products that require more finesse. One is her extremely popular sourdough
chocolate chip cookies, which must ferment at least overnight before baking. After figuring them out, sourdough items are now her favorite to bake. “They are super satisfying to make,” she says. “I love the fermentation process, even though it is slow.”
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arah also enjoys the process and challenge of baking with laminated layers of thin dough and butter, and making croissants and other viennoiseries*. The croissants take upwards of 18 hours to rise before being baked. After a few batches of them went sideways, Sarah now makes them as a hybrid yeast/sourdough so they reliably rise properly. The dough for the laminated items is very versatile. “It can go both savory or sweet,” Sarah explains. Given all of the time, effort and ingredients that go into each batch, if they get messed up, she adds, “it is kind of devastating.” With Mission Bread growing, Sarah is making a couple of transitions in the selection as well as ingredients. FEBRUARY | MARCH | APRIL 2022
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