What’s In Our Bread

Simple ingredients

Flour, water, salt, and yeast is where it starts.  We use a tiny amount of yeast, preferring to give our breads the time to ferment naturally – at least 20 hours!   That creates the best texture and flavor.

We think whole foods are better for people and the planet.  Our sourcing is rigorous.  While Federal Labelling Laws no longer allow manufacturers to claim “all-natural” on their packaging because these claims can be misleading and industry standards have not been agreed upon, all-natural and certified Non-GMO are still our guardrails.

We are constantly experimenting with new ways to make great bread, pushing for more local sourcing, more interesting, more flavorful, more nutrient dense and more sustainable ingredients every day.  But it’s not about the label – the answer is in your experience when you warm up a ciabatta with friends and family for a great meal and a great conversation.

WHOLE GRAINS

At Chabaso we love grains of all kinds, and we know that the more whole grains we can eat the healthier we’ll be. We incorporate whole grains into our breads in different ways. Whether we add whole wheat flour to our dough, whole grains into the dough, or top our breads with whole grains the result is the same: a delicious, nutty, crunchy, and healthier eating experience.

FIBER

We all know that fiber is important for health, but it’s not always easy to get enough of it in our daily diet. We’re trying to make that a bit easier by incorporating more whole grains and whole grain flour into our breads. All new items we’re developing and releasing qualify for a whole grains stamp and we’re experimenting with doing the same to our existing breads. Don’t worry, we won’t change anything until we can convince ourselves that we aren’t compromising on taste or texture, but we’re working toward whole grains in everything we make with the same taste you’ve come to love.

PROTEIN

Protein is important in bread making. It gives bread the strength to hold its shape throughout the process creating the open, airy bread we all love. It’s also important to our bodies.  The proteins that exist naturally in wheat have numerous health benefits. We’re also working with other protein sources to increase the healthy protein content of our breads even more.

NON-GMO

At Chabaso, we have committed to use only non-GMO ingredients. All of our breads are Non-GMO project verified.

0% TRANS FAT

You’ll never see anything with Trans Fats from Chabaso. We don’t eat these and don’t think you should have to either.

KOSHER

Chabaso is a KVH Kosher certified facility by the Rabbinical Council of New England. All breads that are purchased from our online store are shipped directly from our facility and are KVH Kosher certified. However, this is not the case for Chabaso breads that are purchased at supermarkets and stores that lack Kosher certification.

 

 

Long, natural fermentation

For generations bakers around the world have known that flavor takes time. As the bread dough slowly ferments, the yeast breaks down starches into sugars and, as it consumes that sugar it imparts its delicious nutty fresh baked flavor to the dough. Unfortunately, the desire to make bread faster has led many large bakeries away from taking this time. At Chabaso, we don’t cut corners on fermentation time. Our bread process takes 20 hours or more, depending on the type of bread. It’s how we make such flavorful bread.

 

Poolish

Each of our breads starts with a preferment, where a portion of the flour is fermented slowly over a very long period of time. In most cases, our favorite is a poolish, which is a very wet preferment made with flour, water, and a tiny amount of yeast. Over the 16 hours that this ferments, the yeast moves freely and slowly consumes the starches in the flour. This helps to create subtle acidic and nutty flavors.

 

Artisan shaping

We work hard to make each loaf of Chabaso bread as consistent as possible, but some inconsistencies are built into our systems of artisan bread shaping. We have some pretty awesome machines helping us form the dough into individual breads, but we still do a lot of the work by hand. Our bakers flip, stretch, and score, our utility team members round boules and rolls, arrange ciabattas and baguettes, and shape batards. We love the combination of manual and automation. It allows us bake a lot of bread without losing the truly artisan qualities of a neighborhood bakery.

 

Hearth oven baking

Our breads are baked directly on the hearth (floor) of our large ovens. This intense heat, combined with a large amount of steam during the beginning of the bake cycle, helps create the deliciously open crumb and crispy crust that our fans love.

 

Better for you

At Chabaso, we don’t believe in deprivation. We bake bread because we love it, and we eat plenty of our creations. We also believe that, since we’re all eating plenty of bread, why not make it a little bit better for you, as long as we don’t lose the classic eating qualities that people have come to love. All of our new products qualify for a Whole Grains Stamp, we’re experimenting with adding whole wheat and whole grains to our existing formulas, and we’ve been working with other protein and fiber enhancements. We won’t release anything until we are confident that it is, first and foremost, great bread, but you’ll see additional healthier products from us soon.

 

Chabaso Clean Label

At Chabaso Bakery, we are committed to being Clean Label. To us, this means using simple, non-artificial, commonly-recognizable ingredients to bake our breads. This includes:

  • No Artificial Flavors or Colors
  • No Artificial Preservatives
  • No Genetically Modified Ingredients (Non-GMO)
  • No Artificial Trans Fats
  • No Artificial Sweeteners
  • No Partially Hydrogenated Oils
  • No Bleached Flour
  • No ADA (Azodicarbonamide)
  • No High-Fructose Corn Syrup
  • No Calcium Propionate
  • No Mono or Diglycerides
  • No Synthetic Conditioners or Additives

 

FOOD SAFETY

Nothing is more important that safety, both for our Chabaso family here at 360 James Street and our Chabaso family across the US. We maintain British Retail Consortium (BRC) standards and are BRC Certified annually. Also are audited by a number of other national customers. We are always happy to have someone come see for themselves.

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