Yeast is an integral part in many baked goods, it’s what gives texture, flavor, and life to such baked goods. For us, we have a sourdough starter (termed; This Is Mother - Born 2016) that we use everyday. We solely use wild yeast fermentation for our doughs because we believe the closer we are to nature, the better the product is going to be for us to eat. Wild yeast lives all around us, at all times, and it is the lifeblood of any yeast risen doughs.

In Colorado the water is supplied from the Rocky Mountains so we naturally have tap water that is of medium hardness, typical minerality ranging 100-150 ppm. Water is an essential part of bread baking because it hydrates flour and eases digestion when eaten. We use a higher hydration dough, hovering around 80%.

Because we have access to large supply chains here in Denver, our options are endless when it comes to flours and the companies that we want to support. We support a mill in Boulder called Dry Storage. We specifically use their Colorado grown variety's Yecora Rojo and White Sonora wheat flours. These are flours milled in a stone mill.

White Sonora is a soft white winter wheat from Michael and Sarah Jones at Jones Farm Organics in Hooper, Colorado. Sonora Wheat was the first wheat grown in the US, brought north from Mexico, gaining popularity as the original flour tortilla wheat.

Yecora Rojo is a hard red spring wheat from farmer Dave Asbury. It is a modern wheat developed in the 70s in California that boosts a deep, red hued wheat that has a beautiful nutty flavor, very aromatic, and can be used as a more wheat forward all purpose flour.

These flours have never been bromated, which means potassium bromate has never been added to the flour, which is an additive used in some flours to help with color and rise. From our research we oppose the use of potassium bromate in flours as it is classified as a category 2B carcinogen (possibly carcinogenic to humans), which has been banned in the EU and various other countries, but not the United States. Health is so important and what we put in our body directly reflects our overall health, therefore we will never use bromated flour in our products so you have ease of mind what you are putting in your bodies. These flours are not bleached, therefore no chemicals are added to speed up the aging process of the flour.

A essential ingredient in every dough product out there is salt. Salt plays a crucial role in our lives; it is the main source of sodium and chloride in our diet, essential for nerve and muscle function, and is involved in the regulation of fluids in the body. In cooking and baking salt is used to help accentuate flavor. We stick to 2% salt by weight, just enough to push the flavor of our well fermented doughs. We exclusively use Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt because it is an all natural product that has been endorsed by the American Culinary Federation. Many table salts can be found with anti caking agents and although research is sparse on detrimental effects of such substances, we tend to like to stay away from things that could be harmful to us.

This vital fat is what helps soften our dough which gives the Manaeesh its soft and pillowy texture, what dreams are made of. We use a cold pressed olive oil from Italy.