Written By Lisa Breslin
When the weather is warm, there is no missing it: wafting over the rolling hills beyond Union Mills from the Sterner Family’s backyard is the tantalizing smell of fresh baked bread.
The baker (and bread fanatic) is Tom Sterner, a Carroll County artist and an employee of LAI International, Inc. After spending some time in Europe, Sterner has long savored memories of the fresh baked breads there; “their rich, complex tastes and smells.”
To bring those sense impressions closer to home, he purchased a sour dough starter mixture that he believes dates back centuries.
Bread baking folks who remember the bygone days of Friendship Bread might be familiar with the concept of the starter mixture. For the novices, know this: a starter mixture is a combination of flour, water and yeast that launches bread’s leavening.
Sterner is convinced that the starter mix he bought from the King Arthur Flour Company of Norwich, Vermont, yields the breads (and pizza doughs) that matched the tastes he loved in Europe. He has shared the same starter mix, as well as the bread he makes, with family and friends.
“I was so grateful to find the process again,” said Westminster resident Jenny Teeter, a friend with whom Sterner shared the starter. “Nothing is better than free-form, homemade, crunchy, fresh-baked bread.”
Sterner and Teeter find the bread-making process as satisfying as eating the bread itself. Both like to experiment with such ingredients as nuts and seeds.
Last summer Sterner pushed his bread passion to the limits by building a 6-foot-tall, 4-foot-wide igloo-like brick oven in his backyard. On days when he or his wife want to make bread, he starts heating the oven up in the morning by stoking it with wood. Within three or four hours, the oven hits 700 degrees.
“Pizzas are made within minutes,” Sterner said. “When the temperatures drop to about 500 degrees, that’s the best time to start the breads.”
And when the Sterner Family makes bread, neighbors know it.
“The smell is heavenly,” said Teeter. “And the taste of everything that comes out of that brick oven is spectacular.” – L.M.B.
