The Proof Is in the Proofing

How a 32-year-old sourdough starter, European butter, and hand-kneaded bread keep the Crooked Tree Breadworks ovens burning

By Ross Boissoneau | Aug. 10, 2024

It’s obvious from the photos that Viv is hard-working, but then again, so is everyone at a bakery. Even a 1957 Volvo.

Greg Carpenter’s restored ride isn’t the secret ingredient for the breads or pastries he and his crew make at Crooked Tree Breadworks of Petoskey. But the Volvo PV445 Duett he named Viv is evidence of his dedication to the products that make this northern Michigan bakery so successful.

In the case of the Volvo, Carpenter wanted to have a company car that stood out, which is much the same idea he had when he started his bakery. Though Breadworks isn’t of quite the same vintage as Viv, it has been around for more than a quarter century. “We celebrate our 28th anniversary in September,” Carpenter says.

The Best Thing Since Sliced Bread

His work and infatuation with bread goes back a while longer than that. Before starting Crooked Tree Breadworks, he worked in the R&D kitchen at American Spoon Foods, where he talked ownership into budgeting to bake their own bread.

Eventually, Carpenter decided there was enough of a market to go out on his own, though the culinary world was different then. Farmers markets were few and far between, craft brewing was in its infancy, and artisan baking was not yet on the radar. “It was a different landscape. In 1996, it was all soft, white bread.”

Carpenter helped kick-start a movement when he opened Crooked Tree Breadworks in 1996. “I was enamored with sourdough,” Carpenter says. “And I had a knack for it.” Plus there weren’t any bakeries making sourdough bread anywhere else in Emmet County.

“The most important [thing] is our sourdough starter,” he continues. It’s the same starter he began using 32 years ago. “It’s renewed three times a day. Sourdough is an interesting, elegant way of baking bread. It’s an example of evolution in a jar.”

He says consistency is a key, and so he makes sure to maintain the proper temperature and humidity to keep the starter at its peak. “It’s the mix of microorganisms that makes sourdough work.”

Buttering Up

While his sourdough bread was the first product on his list, he knew that wouldn’t be enough to sustain a business. So he sought another unique entry, and found a variation of a Scottish specialty that’s become a local favorite. “Scones were one of the first” treats to follow, he says.

Scottish scones tend to be dry and are meant to accompany afternoon tea, a tradition dating back to the 1500s. Carpenter wanted something that would appeal more to American palates, where tea time isn’t a thing, but breakfast pastries and snacking are. “People aren’t drinking tea—they’re drinking a latte. I wanted something I wanted to eat. They needed to be more moist.”

That meant more butter, but not just any butter. Carpenter is a strong advocate of high-quality ingredients, and one of the keys is the butter he uses in the scones, as well as the cinnamon rolls, cookies, and other pastries.

“One thing we do is … use European-style butter in many of our products,” he says. “It has a higher fat content and less moisture. We’ve used American butter, but it does not have the same textures and same flavor profile.”

Because of its composition, European butter also has different chemical properties. Carpenter says it yields crisper crusts in the products with laminated doughs, such as his croissants.

Another special ingredient isn’t an ingredient at all. “We have very little processing equipment,” he says. “Sourdoughs don’t go through machines well. You lose the open crumb. You don’t have the cottony interior with the crisp crust.”

Instead, the bakery’s loaves are hand-kneaded and shaped, as Carpenter has found that’s the best way to promote the style he and his customers prefer. “We find it’s worth the extra cost and training.”

Changing Tastes

Carpenter says his success is part of the shift he’s observed in the culinary scene here and elsewhere toward local, artisan products rather than just what’s in the aisles of the grocery store.

But he says just as important is the fact that interest in and conversations around food escalated, thanks to a variety of factors: Immediate access to recipes online, food blogs, the Food Channel, and shows like Hell’s Kitchen and Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown, plus celebrity chefs like Guy Fieri, Rachael Ray, Bobby Flay, and others.

In Carpenter’s eyes, people are more adventurous eaters and seek out specialty foods they might not have before…and the customers are not averse to paying more for the pleasure. “Over the last 10 or 15 years, a lot of palates evolved,” he says.

And tastes continue to evolve. As an example, Carpenter points to his croissants. “We introduced them two times before. We couldn’t sell enough to pay for them. We re-introduced them a year ago, and we can’t make enough.”

Carpenter credits his staff of 34 for their diligence and expertise. “I’m pretty amazed by the crew,” he says, a number of whom are related to current and former workers. “There are a lot of longtime family connections.”

And other connections as well. “I kept a strong relationship with American Spoon Foods,” Carpenter says, including making some items for the specialty food purveyor, including stollen, a German fruit bread, during the holidays.

Set in Scone

While most of Crooked Tree Breadworks’ recipes are proprietary—no magician should reveal all their secrets!—Carpenter was happy to share some of the magic that goes into making the bakery’s beloved scones.

As he’s told us, butter (and plenty of it) is one of the key ingredients. Like a pie crust, scone dough requires that cold butter be “cut” into the dough until the dough feels mealy and pea-sized chunks of butter remain. These chunks of cold butter are responsible for the tenderness of the scone.

And technique matters just as much as the ingredients.

“Overmixing the dough will toughen the scone,” Carpenter writes in his recipe. “Although scones can be made with success in a stand mixer or a food processor, it takes a trained eye to do it well. I suggest using the hand method every time. It allows a margin of error, takes no longer than automated methods and creates fewer dirty dishes.”

On your marks, get set, bake!

Crooked Tree Breadworks' Mixed Berry Scones

Makes six 3-inch scones

Ingredients
2 cups organic all-purpose flour (Any unbleached all-purpose flour or bread flour may be used to make these scones, but bleached or bromated flours should not be used. Organic flours are preferred.)
1 /4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons double acting baking powder, such as Clabber Girl
1 teaspoon salt
6 oz chilled, unsalted European style butter (Plugra brand, or similar)
¾ cup whole milk, plus additional teaspoons if necessary
½ cup dried blueberries*
½ cup dried cranberries
½ cup dried cherries
One egg for egg wash

*Chef’s note: The dried fruits in this recipe can be replaced by anything you’d like to put in. Just use roughly the same amount by volume (1½ cups total)

Instructions
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. In a medium bowl, thoroughly combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.

Cut in butter with a pastry blender or knives until the dough is well blended but crumbly. Gently add milk, stirring only until the dough comes together. If dough does not come together, add additional milk by the teaspoon until it does.

Add berries and stir gently until combined. Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface. Gently press dough to an even 1-inch thickness and sprinkle lightly with flour. Cut scones with a 3-inch fluted biscuit cutter, dipping the cutter in flour between each cut. Remaining dough can be gathered, gently pressed, and cut again.

Place cut scones on a cookie sheet at least 1 inch apart. Brush with beaten egg. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown on top and bottom but light on the sides.** Serve warm.***

**Chef’s note: An optional caramelized topping produces a crispy, sweet topping and an appetizing brown color on top of the scone. To achieve, remove fully baked scones from the oven. Sprinkle confectioner’s sugar on top and place under the broiler. Watch closely and remove when the sugar is browned to your liking.

***Chef’s note: Baked scones will last for several days if stored at room temperature. Baked scones can also be frozen and reheated as needed. Simply wrap the frozen scones in foil and place in a 400-degree oven until they are warmed through.

Unbaked scones can also be kept frozen or refrigerated. Want fresh scones in the morning? Make them up the night before and leave them covered in the refrigerator overnight. When morning arrives, all they will need is a quick egg wash and 20 to 25 minutes in a preheated oven. Frozen, unbaked scones can be treated the same way, only requiring a little more oven time at a slightly lower temperature.