Hearthstone Artisan Bakery is churning out the baked goods and it is doing it with the help of a special oven.
The Southgate Shopping Centre bakery held its grand opening Saturday and Hailey Mannynvali, who co-owns the bakery with business partner Paul Aboud, said its Mono Deck Oven ensures that bread, pastries and the like are baked just right.
The best bread comes from wood-fired brick ovens, according to Mannynvali, and the next best way to bake bread is with stone deck ovens, like the three-deck mono oven at her bakery. It has the capacity to fit three full-size sheet pans each, or a massive load of bread, she said.
“Basically, the bread bakes right on the stone hearth, so all the heat is coming and it’s fairly narrow, in short, so it bakes the bread really hot on top and really hot underneath to get that heat and so fast, and that’s what makes that beautiful crisp crust around the edge and nice, chewy, soft centre,” said Mannynvali.
The oven was ordered in September from England and while Mannynvali and Aboud were told it would take three to five weeks, it actually took 12 weeks. However, when it arrived, she said she was happy to have it.
“We couldn’t be happier with the product that it’s making,” said Mannynvali. “It’s steam-injected as well, so you can inject steam directly into the oven and that also allows the bread to rise a little bit more before it sets the crust.”
However, when it comes to Hearthstone’s most popular baked item, Mannynvali said it isn’t bread, but sausage rolls.
“Sausage rolls I can’t keep up with,” said Mannynvali.