How a 32-year-old sourdough, European butter and hand-kneaded bread keep Crooked Tree Breadworks’ ovens burning
By Ross Boissoneau | August 10, 2024
You can clearly see from the photos that Viv is hardworking, but then again, everyone in a bakery is. Even a 1957 Volvo.
Greg Carpenter’s restored rig isn’t the secret ingredient to the bread or pastries he and his crew make at Crooked Tree Breadworks in Petoskey. But the Volvo PV445 Duett he named Viv is a testament to his dedication to the products that make this northern Michigan bakery so successful.
In the case of the Volvo, Carpenter wanted a company car that would stand out, and that’s pretty much the same idea he had when he opened his bakery. Although Breadworks isn’t quite as old as Viv, the company has been around for more than a quarter of a century. “We’re celebrating our 28th anniversary in September,” says Carpenter.
The best invention since sliced bread
His work and passion for bread goes back even further. Before founding Crooked Tree Breadworks, he worked in the research and development kitchen at American Spoon Foods, where he persuaded the owners to put up money to bake their own bread.
Eventually, Carpenter decided the market was big enough to go into business for himself, even though the culinary world was different back then. Farmers’ markets were few and far between, the craft beer business was in its infancy, and artisan baking wasn’t a thing yet. “It was a different landscape. In 1996, there was only soft white bread.”
Carpenter helped start a movement when he opened Crooked Tree Breadworks in 1996. “I was in love with sourdough,” Carpenter says. “And I had a knack for it.” Plus, there were no bakeries anywhere else in Emmet County that made sourdough bread.
“The most important thing is our sourdough,” he continues. It is the same sourdough he started using 32 years ago. “It is renewed three times a day. Sourdough is an interesting, elegant way of baking bread. It is an example of evolution in a jar.”
He says consistency is key, so he takes care to maintain the right temperature and humidity to ensure the starter remains at its best maturity. “It’s the mix of microorganisms that makes the sourdough.”
Honey around the mouth
Although his sourdough bread was the first product on his list, he knew it wouldn’t be enough to sustain a business. So he looked for another unique entry and found a twist on a Scottish specialty that has become a local favorite. “Scones were one of the first” treats to follow, he says.
Scottish scones are on the dry side and are served with afternoon tea, a tradition that dates back to the 16th century. Carpenter wanted something that would appeal more to the American palate, where tea time is not a factor but breakfast pastries and snacks are. “People don’t drink tea, they drink a latte. I wanted something I would want to eat. They had to be more moist.”
That meant more butter, but not just any butter. Carpenter is a strong advocate of quality ingredients, and one of the keys to that is the butter he uses on the scones as well as the cinnamon rolls, cookies and other pastries.
“We use European-style butter in many of our products,” he says. “It has a higher fat content and less moisture. We have used American butter, but it doesn’t have the same consistency or flavor profile.”
European butter also has different chemical properties due to its composition. Carpenter says it creates crispier crusts in products made with puff pastry, such as his croissants.
Another special ingredient isn’t an ingredient at all. “We have very little processing equipment,” he says. “Sourdoughs don’t work well with machines. You lose the open crumb. You don’t have the fluffy interior with the crispy crust.”
Instead, the bakery’s loaves are kneaded and shaped by hand, as Carpenter has found this to be the best way to promote the style he and his customers prefer. “We find it’s worth the extra cost and training.”
Changed taste
Carpenter says his success is part of a shift he’s seen in the culinary scene here and elsewhere, toward local, artisanal products rather than just what’s on grocery store shelves.
But just as important, he says, is the fact that interest in and conversations around food have increased, thanks to a number of factors: instant access to recipes on the Internet, food blogs, the Food Channel and shows like Hell’s Kitchen And Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknownas well as celebrity chefs such as Guy Fieri, Rachael Ray, Bobby Flay and others.
In Carpenter’s eyes, people are more adventurous with food, seeking out specialties they may not have tried before… and customers are not averse to paying more for that indulgence. “Over the last 10 or 15 years, a lot of tastes have evolved,” he says.
And tastes continue to evolve. Carpenter cites his croissants as an example. “We’ve introduced them twice. We couldn’t sell enough of them to finance them. We reintroduced them a year ago and we can’t produce enough of them.”
Carpenter praises his 34 employees for their hard work and competence. “I’m pretty impressed with the crew,” he says. Some of them are related to current and former employees. “There are a lot of long-standing family ties.”
And other connections, too. “I had a close relationship with American Spoon Foods,” says Carpenter, and made several products for the specialty retailer during the holidays, including Stollen, a German fruit bread.
Play in Scone
While most of Crooked Tree Breadworks’ recipes are secret—no magician should give away all his secrets!—Carpenter was happy to share some of the magic that goes into making the bakery’s popular scones.
As he told us, butter (and lots of it) is one of the most important ingredients. Like a pie crust, scone dough requires cold butter to be “cut” into the dough until the dough feels floury and pea-sized pieces of butter remain. These cold pieces of butter are responsible for the scone’s tenderness.
And the technique is just as important as the ingredients.
“If the dough is kneaded too long, the scone will be tough,” Carpenter writes in his recipe. “Although scones can be made with a stand mixer or food processor, it takes a trained eye to get it right. I suggest using the manual method every time. It allows for some margin for error, takes no longer than automated methods, and results in fewer dirty dishes.”
Ready, set, bake!
Mixed Berry Scones from Crooked Tree Breadworks
Makes six 3-inch scones
Ingredients
2 cups organic all-purpose flour (Any unbleached all-purpose flour or bread flour can be used to make these scones, but bleached or bromated flour should not be used. Organic flour is preferred.)
1 /4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons double-acting baking powder, such as Clabber Girl
1 teaspoon salt
6 ounces refrigerated, unsalted European-style butter (Plugra brand or similar)
¾ cup whole milk, plus additional teaspoons if needed
½ cup dried blueberries*
½ cup dried cranberries
½ cup dried cherries
An egg for brushing
*Chef’s note: The dried fruit in this recipe can be replaced with anything you like, just use about the same amount (1½ cups total).
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. In a medium bowl, thoroughly mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.
Stir in butter with a pastry blender or knives until dough is well combined but crumbly. Carefully add milk, stirring just until dough comes together. If dough does not come together, add more milk, a teaspoon at a time, until it comes together.
Add berries and stir gently until well combined. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Gently press dough to an even 1-inch thickness and dust lightly with flour. Cut out scones using a 3-inch biscuit cutter, dipping cutter in flour between each cut. Remaining dough can be gathered, lightly pressed and cut out again.
Place the sliced scones on a baking sheet at least 1″ apart. Brush with beaten egg. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown on top and bottom but pale on the sides.** Serve warm.***
**Chef’s note: An optional caramelized topping provides a crispy, sweet topping and an appetizing brown color on the scone. To achieve this, remove fully baked scones from the oven. Sprinkle powdered sugar on top and place under the grill. Watch them closely and remove when the sugar has reached the desired level of browning.
***Chef’s note: Baked scones will keep for several days if stored at room temperature. Baked scones can also be frozen and reheated when needed. Simply wrap the frozen scones in foil and place in a 400 degree oven until heated through.
Unbaked scones can also be stored frozen or refrigerated. Want fresh scones in the morning? Prepare them the night before and leave them covered in the fridge overnight. In the morning, all you need to do is brush them with egg and place them in the preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes. Frozen, unbaked scones can be treated in the same way, but they will need a little more time in the oven at a slightly lower temperature.
