Madison Sourdough

What Makes Madison Sourdough Special?

Madison Sourdough is on a quest to create a healthy community by sourcing ingredients from local food producers and sharing their passion for their state grains by a means of “the tastiest treats in the city.” Madison Sourdough isn’t just a bakery and café, but also a mill and patisserie. While there is not any dine-in at this time, feel free to stop in for a carryout order between eight in the morning and three in the afternoon. Understand, however, that the kitchen does close a half-hour before the store closes (two-thirty)! Walk-in with your mask on or let the employees bring your bread, pastry, breakfast, or lunch outside to you.

Anything-But-Average Work Day

Don’t be misunderstood, working at a bakery and mill is no easy task. The bakers start their day at one in the morning! The ovens get heated up and the delicate process of fermentation and mixing commences. From start to finish, one loaf of bread takes a total of thirty-six hours to complete, from creating the leaven to placing it in the oven to bake. Madison Sourdough takes no days off working three hundred sixty days out of the year. The bakery doesn’t only prepare bread for itself but has to deliver its exemplary goods to Madison’s most upscale restaurants, grocery stores, and coffee shops. They have to get the ball rolling at one so everyone else throughout the city can enjoy the fruits of their labor. Madison Sourdough specializes in naturally leavened bread, hence why “sourdough” is in their name. The mill and bakery exclusively use wheat, rye, and corn grown in Wisconsin. The type of pastries they create is known as “Viennoiserie” which is built off characteristically French techniques. Simply described by Madison Sourdough, “Viennoiserie is yeast-leavened breakfast pastries.” They “laminate” each pastry with only the best Wisconsin butter and use eggs and milk from within the area to embellish their doughs.

Local Partners Provide a Positive Impact

Madison Sourdough is able to work so closely with neighboring grain farmers because approximately forty percent of all the flour they bake is milled on-site. This allows the mill to put in special wheat requests and know when grains will be harvested. Furthermore, this gives Madison Sourdough an edge as they can make the farmers aware of the quality fluctuations in wheat and grains much faster than other bakeries and patisseries. Simultaneously, Madison Sourdough is able to stay true to its promise of only serving the best flour in its bread. If you don’t have the time to stone-mill your flour yourself, feel free to buy some from the café. The germ, which is “the most nutrient-rich part of the grain” is not “sifted out” which means that the flour has a short shelf-life. Madison Sourdough highly suggests using their flour within three to four weeks following your purchase. If you don’t have the time to bake it within three to four weeks, you should properly secure it and place it in the freezer only storing it for a maximum of three and a half to four months.