Sam Sees the Light ( Bennison's on the way)

I was at Sam's yesterday and as usual stopped by their Marcy St. Market to pick up some cheese and salami. Per my usual routine, I started to complain to the manager that they really needed to get some better bread. I'm not a big Red Hen fan in general, but even if some of their multi grain/fruity/nutty type breads are o.k., their baguettes are terrible. More like a sourdough loaf than a real baguette, the crust is never crisp, and the interior never light or airy. The city wide infatuation with this lame excuse for a real baguette is inexplicable.

Well yesterday, the manager at Sam's told me that they had done a side by side comparison with the baguettes from Bennison's and decided the Bennison's bread was "ten times better". Big surprise. They're going to be switching next week. Now We'll be able to get some good bread to go along with the other generally excellent stuff they carry.

kuhdo wrote:I was at Sam's yesterday and as usual stopped by their Marcy St. Market to pick up some cheese and salami. Per my usual routine, I started to complain to the manager that they really needed to get some better bread. I'm not a big Red Hen fan in general, but even if some of their multi grain/fruity/nutty type breads are o.k., their baguettes are terrible. More like a sourdough loaf than a real baguette, the crust is never crisp, and the interior never light or airy. The city wide infatuation with this lame excuse for a real baguette is inexplicable.

Well yesterday, the manager at Sam's told me that they had done a side by side comparison with the baguettes from Bennison's and decided the Bennison's bread was "ten times better". Big surprise. They're going to be switching next week. Now We'll be able to get some good bread to go along with the other generally excellent stuff they carry.

I'll have to look for that

I've never grokked the love for Red Hen product. When they were freshfaced and shiny with their little storefront in Wicker Park it was all oohing and ahhhing. Thing is...the bread's not all that. Esp., as you note, the baguettes.

I wish I could remember the name of the Evanston breadmaker that sells at some of the farmer's markets(is it Bennison's?). Now they offer a nice baguette.

I'm not sure what you had before, but I'm confident that the Bennison's baguette will not disappoint.

I did a li'l web research and it looks like Bennison's is what I had before. So...kool.

Since the topic of Bennison's bread has come up, here is a tip I've been meaning to post for awhile. On Fridays, Bennison's bakes miche. This is a slightly dark, thick-crusted giant of a loaf (about 16 inches in diameter by my estimation) that they sell by the quarter loaf ($16/ whole, $4/quarter). IMHO this is a superior product to the Poilane miche Treasure Island imports from Paris, which, even though durable, has tended to be well-past its prime the few times I have purchased it. Bennison's miche would make a nice addition to a party, I think. Also, the last time I was at Bennison's they had a few epis. These are the pretty baguette-dough loaves in the shape of a stalk of wheat. They are nice because they break off easily into nice crusty roll-sized pieces and there is no need to slice them at the last minute. Mmmm.

LTH,

I have become a fan of Bennison's bread, though my first encounters were less than satisfactory examples from the Saturday Evanston Farmer's market. Hours languishing in high heat and humidity will take its toll on the best of breads.

Thin crackly crust baguettes yield to a light interior dotted with lovely irregular air bubbles, tasty, though I would prefer a slightly deeper flavor, a hint of tang/sour/bite. Still, Bennison's baguette is worlds better than the over yeasted dense crumb nonsense most places pass off for baguettes. Bennison's ciabatta eaten out of hand is a bit dull, though the light crust and even moist interior lends itself to pan toasting for sandwiches or simply rubbing the crunchy toasted surface with garlic, dotting with tomato, drizzling with good olive oil and a finish of sea salt.

Macaroons are a bit disappointing, attractive, though at .93c per cookie I was expecting ethereal melt in the mouth delicacy, whereas Bennison's seem workmanlike.

Enjoy,
Gary

Bennison's Bakery
1000 Davis St
Evanston, IL
847-328-9434

You know, had it not been for this forum, I would never, ever, have tried Bennison's breads - their shop is a fairly standard old-fashioned bakery, and I tried to like the pastries and cookies, but found them to be excessively sugary for my tastes. It never would have occurred to me that a place with an entire window dedicated to factory-size blobs of day-glo buttercream would also have crusty, lovely, chewy loaves of artisan bread. I've also enjoyed their ciabatta, one of my favorite breads, conveniently sized in smaller loaves just right for the Hays family.

I was wondering if anyone had tried the sandwiches they just recently started offering in the pastry cases?

Cassie's Green grocer also carries bennison's breads. Last time I was there they had the sourdough miche quarters that Josephine mentioned, which I also highly recommend. If I'm not mistaken, the flour used in it is halfway between regular white flour and whole wheat.

I worked for Bennison's many many years ago. They hired me as a cook when they opened a small cafe at their Wilmette location. (Now defunct, I believe.) At the time they really didn't seem to take bread all that seriously. Lots of light rye and white sandwich loaves. The long french loaves were cottony props.
It was all about coffee cakes, special order birthday cakes, big iced cookies, and some German specialties that they actually did very well. If I remember correctly, Jory (the son), actually built their baumkuchen spit, or had it fabricated for them. It was sort of like the Wright's first plane, but it worked and I had never had anything quite like that wonderful stuff. They also did a dense, moist, German sour cream coffee cake (suddenly I've blanked on the name, but I believe Sel Marie does a version) that was to die for.
In the years since I worked there, Jory clearly got religion about bread and it's been a steady upward quality trend.

But even back in the day, I always really liked their cake donuts, both plain and coconut. Never had one I liked as much until I moved into Dinkel's neighborhood. Loved the pecan loaf---generous with the nuts, judicious with the icing/glaze, yummy sliced and toasted a bit with tea or coffee.
And, counter-intuitive though it was, even back then they made a very decent croissant. They didn't age well and you needed to get them very close to hot out of the oven. But if you did, they were flaky and buttery and great.
As I recall, Lutz's was Bennison's nemesis. They felt they were posturing frauds unworthy of their high falutin' reputation.

About the launch and subsequent adventures had working in the Wilmette cafe, I have stories to rival Bourdain and Ramsay, though all on a quirky small town scale. The cast would include Wilfred Brimley, Scatman Cruthers, Kathy Bates, Jack Warden, Cantinflas, and the like.

I love that they've committed to branching out rather than retrenching and sticking with what was most comfortable. Seems to have paid off.

It's probably well-known around here that Jory Downer, the man behind Bennison's bread, was the leader of the U.S. team that won the 2005 Coupe du Monde de la Boulangerie. Clearly, there are some serious, world-class chops behind their products. This piece, penned by Katherine Martin, provides the details about the competition.

One of the things I love about Prairie Grass Cafe in Northbrook is that they serve Bennison's baguette. It's a great treat, especially when paired with the excellent, unsalted butter that accompanies it.

I appreciate Red Hen breads but Bennison's baguette trumps it. In fact, I'd also place the excellent baguette from Fox & Obel (by Pammy Sue Fitzpatrick, a Nancy Silverton disciple) above Red Hen's rendition.

This is some good news from Sam's. I've been a bit down on them because of the weak wine selection at their Highland Park location.

=R=

Mhays wrote:You know, had it not been for this forum, I would never, ever, have tried Bennison's breads - their shop is a fairly standard old-fashioned bakery, and I tried to like the pastries and cookies, but found them to be excessively sugary for my tastes. It never would have occurred to me that a place with an entire window dedicated to factory-size blobs of day-glo buttercream would also have crusty, lovely, chewy loaves of artisan bread. I've also enjoyed their ciabatta, one of my favorite breads, conveniently sized in smaller loaves just right for the Hays family.

I was wondering if anyone had tried the sandwiches they just recently started offering in the pastry cases?

What you are saying is SO true. I wholly agree with the sentiment in this thread about the quality of Bennison's bread, really top of the line, but when I ask/tell Evanstonians about it, well the reaction is much like your initial. It's like, "you mean the place with the mediocre birthday cakes." Bennison's is a treasure.

I, too, have recently come to appreciate Bennisons bread. The multi-grain sour dough has been the choice of late.

Recently, I was in Haussman Brasserie (the new Jacky Pluton place in Northfield). Their bread is first rate, and in response to my query, I was told it is Pluton's mother's recipe, as made by Bennisons. (As an aside, the Brasserie was nearly empty when we left around 7:00 on a Friday; not a good sign.)

I also noticed that Pastoral's loop location sells Bennisons breads.

Jonah

I believe that Pastoral had always carried Bennison bread, possibly along with others. If I remember correctly at the orig. location, they may have had the dough delivered and then baked it there for a fresher product. Could be wrong, but I think I remember something like that.

Bennison's bread is excellent, as others have noted. It's true their birthday cakes are nothing special. I still miss the late, lamented Swiss Pastries bakery on Western just south of Howard. The owner baked terrific birthday cakes. When he retired to Florida, he couldn't find anyone to buy the business, and the building with its tantalizing bakery sign is still sitting there.

But give Bennison's strudel a try, and my family likes the round cinnamon raisin bread (though it's pricey). We also like their "grandma's funeral cake." For years, a trip to the optometrist across the street required that each of my children get a smiley--or better yet, frowny--cookie at Bennison's.

As I've noted too many times elsewhere, the Bennison's stand at the Green City Market pisses me off. I don't shop at the store in Evanston, so perhaps the bread there warrants its praise by being an order of magnitude better than what they sell at the Market.

Bennison's Ciabatta:


Check out all the flour scraped off at the bottom of the photo, in addition to the thick white coating still on the loaf itself. WTF is all of that raw flour doing on a loaf of bread? By the time I finished scraping, I must have had a heaping tablespoon's worth. I suspect the problem is that they don't let the bread cool completely before bringing to the market. That might explain why it never has a decent crust, and it also might explain why they feel the need to douse the loaves with chalky powder to keep them from sticking. It's amateur hour at Bennisons when they prep bread for the Green City Market..

Have you tried raising your concerns with Jory Downer? (As opposed to the sixteen-year-olds who sell his baked goods at markets.) He blogs at http://bennisonsbakery.blogspot.com/ and does seem to care about the quality of the product. I bet you'd at least get an explanation as to why the stuff sold at Green City seems subpar, and hopefully he'd make some changes.

The line at the Bennison stall at the Green city market today was in rows at least five deep. They were sold out by around 11, so folks must overall be happy enough with their quality to wait in a long line for their product. (Wish I had that much patience!)

cilantro wrote:Have you tried raising your concerns with Jory Downer? (As opposed to the sixteen-year-olds who sell his baked goods at markets.) He blogs at http://bennisonsbakery.blogspot.com/ and does seem to care about the quality of the product. I bet you'd at least get an explanation as to why the stuff sold at Green City seems subpar, and hopefully he'd make some changes.

I've raised my concerns with enough people already, and I don't care about his explanation. At this point, ranting about Bennison's on public websites is what I prefer.

Cinnamon Girl wrote:The line at the Bennison stall at the Green city market today was in rows at least five deep. They were sold out by around 11, so folks must overall be happy enough with their quality to wait in a long line for their product. (Wish I had that much patience!)

My wife and I continue to get a laugh out of the long lines at Bennison's at the Green City Market. We like to bake bread at home and my wife commented that these insane lines are our signal to open up our own stand next year.

The Bennison's line is also ground zero for the most obnoxious "get out of the way", "me first," "oh, were you standing there?" farmer's market behavior. It really shouldn't be called a line. It's more of a mosh pit.

The Evanston store has a miche that is pretty good. At the GCM, Brucknow has a basket of torn up bread to use for their cheese samples. This bread is very good. I think it is from Bennison's, but I'm not sure. I certainly haven't seen any hearty white bread at their stand.