8 Wonders of Kansas cuisine

An 8 Wonder of Kansas Cuisine

WheatField's Bakery Cafe, Lawrence

Address: 904 Vermont, Lawrence, KS 66044
Phone: 785.841.5553
Website: www.wheatfieldsbakery.com

Open Monday-Friday 6:30 a.m.-8 p.m. (Breakfast served until 11 a.m.)
Saturday 6:30 a.m.-6:30 p.m.; Sunday 7:30 a.m.-4 p.m.
Breakfast served until 1 p.m. on weekends.
See menu, click here.

WheatField's is one of the 8 Wonders of Kansas Cuisine because it is a nationally-ranked artisan bakery and serves healthy meals featuring baked goods.

WheatField's opened in 1995 and has been featured as one of the top ten artisan bakeries in the nation.

Source for the following: Kansas City Star, 2002

The heart of WheatField's, a nationally acclaimed bakery at the corner of Ninth and Vermont in Lawrence, is its wood-fired oven, a room-sized brick silo that anchors the southwest corner of this cheery, open bakery/cafe.

The 25-ton behemoth, brought here from Barcelona, Spain, is a J. Llopis, one of only eight in the country, half of which are in the Kansas City area. Master craftsman Manuel de la Rosa flew in from Barcelona to oversee its construction.

Baking temperatures are controlled by how much wood is added.

The rotating hearth-stone -- 12 feet in diameter -- is turned by an apparatus that looks like a steering wheel. It can bake off about 200 loaves of bread at a time.

Breakfast, sandwiches, soups, salads, and appetizers are served in addition to loaves of artisan bread and other pastries.

Chuck Magerl is managing partner of the bakery and proprietor of the Free State Brewery.  Jane Patrick is the general manager. Bread production is run by Chelsea Toevs; the kitchen is managed by Phillip Toevs; and the pastry department is run by Jules Shores.




                             Artisan breads.  Photo courtesy of WheatFields.

ENJOY READING THIS LIST OF ARTISAN BREADS!

Source for the following, www.wheatfieldsbakery.com

We use either natural levain or yeast preferments in our breads. While this requires more time and attention from our bakers, it results in better tasting, better textured bread for you.

All WheatField's hearth breads are baked on the masonry sole of our wood-fired Spanish oven. The J. Llopis oven imparts unique crust and crumb flavor and texture and is a joy to use. We burn fewer than 12 cubic feet of local hardwood per day to bake hundreds of loaves.

Varieties

Baguette: The French standard. A crisp crust and an open, irregular crumb with lots of yeast fermentation flavor make ours a true classic. Great for sandwiches, crostini, or on its own.

Ciabatta: As Italian as the baguette is French. Somewhat flat, somewhat rectangular, Ciabatta has a wildly open crumb and a complex fermentation flavor. We add a touch of extra virgin olive oil.

Country French: Our flagship Pain au Levain is naturally leavened and made with organic unbleached flour with stone ground wheat and rye.

Kalamata Olive: WheatField's Sourdough, loaded with ripe Kalamata olives. Maggie Glezer (Artisan Baking Across America) calls ours "by far the best." Available as either a regular boule or a "mini": too big to be called a roll, too small for a loaf.

Multigrain: Naturally leavened wheat dough loaded with whole sprouted wheat, oats, flax seed and sunflower seeds. 100% organic flour.

Pain de Campagne is, literally, Country Bread, and is the traditional bread of the villagers and farmers of the French countryside. Historically, PdC had as much as 10% rye flour, was raised with levain and baked in a wood-fired oven. Ours is all of that, plus, we add some spelt (l'epautre) flour and season with sun-and-wind-dried Breton sea salt. 100% organic flour.

Pain Ordinaire: A simple loaf of everyday French bread. Made with unbleached flour and a yeast preferment. Really not so ordinary.

Pecan Raisin: Pecan halves and sweet Thompson raisins in a light, naturally leavened dough. Perfect toasted and spread with sweet creamery butter.

Rustic Italian Round: Choose from our plain or rosemary loaves every day. Rustics are made of very wet dough that gets lots of fermentation time. The results are round crusty loaves rich in flavor with an irregular open crumb. Risen with bakers' yeast and an overnight starter.

Pane della Famiglia is a large Rustic Round, though the flavor is somewhat enhanced by the longer baking time required for the larger loaf. The crust of the best loaves is flour striated and chocolate-brown approaching ebon on the sides.

Semolina Bread: WheatField's interpretation of this southern Italian classic. Durum wheat flour gives this bread a golden hue and a chewy crumb. We bake semolina baguettes, loaves, and rolls. Some get topped with sesame seeds, others with a poppy-sesame mix.

Sourdough Rye: Classic deli bread great for Reuben, pastrami, and ham and Swiss sandwiches. Try it with smoked salmon and wasabi mayo, open faced. Our seeded version has black and brown caraway. On certain days, we offer fruited, onion, or seedless versions. 100% organic flour.

Spelt Bread: Milled from an ancient variety of wheat, our stone-ground whole grain spelt flour comes from our friends at Heartland Mill in Marienthal, Kansas. 100% organic flour.

Steel-cut Oat: Another of our classic naturally leavened breads with a portion of organically grown steel-cut oats.

Walnut Raisin: Thompson raisins and California walnuts in our naturally leavened Pain de Campagne dough. Toast it at breakfast, of course, but also try a soft goat cheese spread atop. 100% organic flour.

Walnut Sage: Country French with walnuts and fresh sage. We serve our immensely popular "No. 9" sandwich on this bread. The sage and walnuts complement the turkey-cranberry pairing - our "everyday is Thanksgiving" bread.

WheatField's Sourdough: Mildly (but distinctly) sour. Just our organic unbleached flour and a hint of rye, leavened with WheatField's own sourdough culture.

100% Whole Wheat: The heartiest in our Pain au Levain series, this loaf is about as fundamental as bread can be: 100% organic wheat ground between natural granite millstones and baked on the hearth of a wood-fired oven. Made with a natural wheat levain. 100% organic flour.

Rolls: We make rolls from several of our doughs: rustic rolls from French , brotchen from MultiGrain, sesame-coated from Semolina, and the always-popular ciabattine.

Bagels: Every Sunday morning we bake bagels the old way: hand-formed, boiled, hearth-baked, and, of course, organic flour.