Bread main focus

About 14 varieties, including farm bread, German caraway rye, multi-grain, pane paisano, the best-selling baguettes, cranberry walnut and cinnamon raisin, are daily staples on the bakery menu. The signature paisano sports a flour stencil, which changes to reflect the season or special events. For example, flowers for spring or a big “NY” for the local team during this year's SuperBowl.

In addition to the core loaves, Bountiful Bread offers three or four special “breads of the day,” such as apple pecan, five cheese and Greek olive and oregano, which are featured on a rotating basis. Some of these limited edition loaves reflect particular holidays. The bakery sells about 500 round challahs during the two days leading up to Rosh Hashanah, and last year, the bakery sold 100 of its 3-lb. turkey-shaped breads around Thanksgiving for $18 apiece.

Bountiful Bread's loaves are made from scratch and leavened with one of three natural starters (sourdough, rye or biga) and unbleached flour. The five bakers produce an average of 300 loaves and 100 rolls from the same doughs per day.

Fermentation times are up to five hours, and the breads are hand-formed. Bread production begins at 9 a.m. and continues until 8 p.m.

The first loaves of the day come out of the oven around noon and continue to be baked throughout the day. From midnight to 8 a.m., the Bountiful Bread crew turns out a wide assortment of cookies, brownies and bars; Danish, cinnamon rolls and other breakfast sweets; hand-rolled croissants; tarts and coffee cakes.

Sweet sales

Signature sweets include the Brownie Surprise, made by cutting a sheet pan of regular brownies into 24 rectangles, piping on some house-made buttercream, coating the confections in chocolate ganache and drizzling the tops with white chocolate. Chocolate chip and peanut butter cookies also get the luxe treatment with buttercream filling and a dip in ganache.

A breakfast favorite is the Rocky Mountain muffin top created by Burgasser, a graduate of Alfred University's culinary arts program. The formula calls for placing small balls of cinnamon bun dough and raisins into muffin tins; then, after baking, finishing the product with a honey glaze and white icing.

Six months ago, the bakery introduced a round, pull-apart challah, which Burgasser called “a major success.”

The majority of Bountiful Bread's bakery business is full-service from its behind-the-counter bread shelves and countertop pastry and cookie displays. A few packaged, grab and go items are stacked on a table in the middle of the store's retail area.

Among them are several different types of trays, such as 6-lb. mixed cookie combinations for $14, and the store sells about 36 each day; 6-lb. bar trays for $14.99 with sales averaging 12 per day; and 8-lb. breakfast trays with a selection of pastry items for $14.99 of which 12 to 18 are sold per day.

Burgasser points out that shrink at the bakery is low, about two percent. He credits nightly product sales tracking as well as a staff of employees that have often been with the bakery for years.

“Our turnover rate is very low, probably because we like to empower our employees and promote from within as much as possible,” he explains.

Head Baker Bill Haggerty, for example, began behind the counter as a clerk and received his bakery training on the job.

As for future expansion, White says that the company is planning to do it through franchising. He explains that the infrastructure is in place and the first Bountiful Bread franchise opened last December in Louisville, Ky.