An art show, free starter, we're hiring!, and maple wheat loaves
Hi! Recently, I found myself thinking a lot about what it was like to grow up around punks and musicians in the DIY music scene. I’m not sure why this was...
A bread fundraiser for Nepal flood relief 🌾
Finger millet in the fields Hello bread friends! My name is Mika, and I’m a sourdough baker at Downtime Bakery. I get the privilege of mixing, shaping, and...
Chausson aux pommes 🍎
Good morning! “It’s dark and it’s cold,” Caro said this morning. “What the heck.” It’s true. It is much darker in the morning than it has been, and I am now...
A World of Good 🌍
When you run your own bakery, no one is telling you go to work at 2:30 in the morning, but inevitably you end up doing it anyway. It doesn’t happen often....
We are hiring! 📈📈📈
Hello! It brings me great sadness to say our beloved Nazia is leaving us for greener pastures at the end of September. It’s always sad when someone flies the...
Come in for a croissant...today 💝
Hi there! I am very behind on baking this morning because I spent too much time trying to figure out something on my computer (a fool’s errand, always!!...
We are so back 🩴
Good morning! There is nothing quite like a staycation. For a week, while the bakery was closed and Sam was visiting family and friends in Vermont, I did the...
Pastry Passport Week 10: Nigerian Puff-Puff with 'Pemi Aguda 🇳🇬
Hi! I had the inkling that I’d be spending this newsletter — the final edition in our 10-week Pastry Passport program — talking about how much I loved doing...
One more week of bakery until breakery starts
Hello! A short one today, as we all have senioritis!! A few before-we-break updates: we will not have Wissahickon Bars or canelé this week. We will have...
Pastry Passport Week 9: South Asian Katli and Burfi with Khushbu Shah 🇮🇳
Hi! I grew up in a English working class city, one where English culture (chip shops, carpeted pubs, newspaper agents with pick ‘n mix sweets lining the...
A pop-up, a yard sale, merch to ship, Downtime Donuts, and some hiring news
Hi there! Time seemed to really fly leading up to our biannual break (which officially starts on September 3rd — we reopen on September 10th) and yet we’re...
Pastry Passport Week 🎱: Vegan Singaporean Confectionery Cake with Gan Chin Lin 🇸🇬
Hello! I feel extremely lucky that this week I was able to connect with Gan Chin Lin, a Singaporean baker, writer, and recipe developer whom I’ve respected...
Bakery in the morning, pizzeria in the evening 🍕
Hello! There is so much exciting news to share today, so I’ll have to skip my standard lengthy preamble about the merits of baking as a craft. :( ;) Pizzeria...
Pastry Passport Week 𝟕: Torta de Goiaba with Cristina DaSilva of DaSilva Spoon 🇨🇻
Hello! What feels like a long, long time ago now, we had the pleasure of meeting Ron Stephens Jr., a gifted photographer who grew up in our neighborhood and...
New ceramics and blackberry ice cream this weekend
Hi! One of the real highlights of being a baker is that you get to surprise unsuspecting people with treats you’ve made them. Sam is exceptionally good at...
Pastry Passport Week ❻: 鳳梨酥 Taiwanese Pineapple Cakes with Hsin-Hui Chen of 30 Percent Patisserie 🇹🇼
Hello! Unsurprisingly, bakers tend to plan things eons in advance. Looking back in my email recently, I realized I had gotten in touch with Hsin-Hui Chen — a...
Join us this Saturday for a Taiwanese pop-up with 30 Percent Patisserie
Hello! The brains behind Downtime HQ Last you heard from me I was writing to you while facing a beautiful pond outside of Skowhegan, Maine. Now, I am writing...
Pastry Passport Week 𝟝: Piloncillo Sweet Potato Cake with Teresa Finney of At Heart Panadería 🇲🇽
Hi! I have been baking friends with Teresa Finney — writer, recipe developer, and baker behind At Heart Panadería in Atlanta, Georgia — for a long time. You...
Greetings from Skowhegan, Maine 🌾
Hi there! It brings me great pleasure to say that I am writing to you in the view of Whites Pond in Palmyra, Maine, a few hours before the beginning of the...
Pastry Passport Week ⓸: Bánh Bò Nướng with Doris Hồ-Kane of Bạn Bè
Hello there! Much like people working in most other industries, bakers — the same as athletes, artists, writers, you name it — have titans of the baking...
