Adding flavor to discard

Sourdough bakergets creative

Kate Buffone uses the discard from sourdough baking and adds healthy and organic ingredients such as zucchini, grass-fed whole milk, pesto, and chocolate chips. Weekly orders can be made through her website.

Written by Natalie K. Pollock staff writer 

Photography by Natalie K. Pollock

Kate Buffone of Avon has turned a baking hobby into a home-based new business with a focus on healthy ingredients. Breadheads has been attracting attention   on social media and by word of mouth recently.

She first tried baking sourdough bread for her family during Covid, like so many other homebound parents. Her neighbor gifted her the first loaf and she was hooked. The response from her family and friends was encouraging. 

Now her fans are able to order her products on her website, and after receiving notification they can select a convenient day and time to pick up their orders. Her site accepts payment, so the whole process is simple and easy.

Austin Peterson and her family have been enjoying Buffone’s bread for many years. They celebrate holidays with the bread and serve it at family get-togethers. Oftentimes those events also include Buffone with her husband and two children. Peterson’s two daughters are the same age as Buffone’s and that is how the two women met, through their daughters playing together.

“I love her sourdough because of the organic flour she uses and the minimal ingredients. That is what sets her bread apart. She uses all organic whole foods,” said Peterson.

The two women not only share a dedication to healthy foods for their families but also a lot of time together outside: kayaking, biking and hiking, as well as the meals that include the children. 

“It’s nice to see her evolve, and sharing with her and her daughters beyond food. But her offerings are also bringing people together. It’s special,” Peterson said. 

Buffone has been selling her breads at farmers markets, but the home cottage license does not allow the resale of her food to farms or other businesses. She has learned a lot about her business in a short period of time.

“The sourdough process creates discard, which is extra dough leftover from making a loaf. I did not want to waste it and just throw it away. Making sourdough is a long process. There is maintenance of the starter and then folding in the bread ingredients and waiting for fermentation. To feed it you add flour and water, as much as you need to make it flavorful in terms of the tang and the number of loaves you are baking,” said Buffone. 

She added: “The starter is always fermenting. You can pause that by putting it in the refrigerator. If you don’t it will become too acidic and it dies.”

Once she forms the bread boule, she lets it rest for a long time until it rises. There is no addition of yeast necessary because of the fermentation of the starter.

Her business is licensed by the state’s Department of Consumer Protection as a home-based micro bakery, a license she must renew every year. The inspection was detailed, reviewing her kitchen, baking tools, oven, her baking process and also testing her water to insure good hygiene and to protect against food-borne illnesses.

“I am on my feet all day from 5 to 5 on bake day because I only have one oven. I recently gave myself a week off. My business is just four weeks old, and I already have a following. It happened quickly. My advantage is that I only use organic ingredients. My milk is grass-fed whole milk. It’s possible to make it with plant-based milk but full fat adds moisture and flavor,” said Buffone.

Baking is not an unusual pastime for her. When she was growing up at home she was used to seeing her mother baking in their kitchen. Bonnie Samberg is a professional cake baker, and Joel Samberg, her father, is a well-known local author and founder of Playhouse 44 in Avon, a community theater. 

Buffone has two little girls, 6 and 9 years old, who watch their mother often baking their “home snacks,” which she calls the crackers and muffins she makes for them. She started focusing on fun foods for her children after successfully making her own, healthier version of Goldfish crackers.

“I substituted the dough with sourdough which gives the crackers a tang that the kids love. I also make sourdough pancakes, waffles and brownies. My menu is limited because I am only one person but we have a second refrigerator, and we will get a second oven. When we talk about possibly opening a shop, my husband Jim says ‘yes please’ because he wants to quit his corporate job,” said Buffone.

She pointed out that there are many chemicals in foods found in grocery stores and added flavors, preservatives and even pesticides. This realization is what convinced her to begin making her own foods for her family with the discard.

“People are catching on and many are tired of the bad stuff in big box groceries. I do my baking for children and because I like to do it. I like that my bread goes stale and bad fast because that means it’s good (healthy),” she said.

Buffone also takes care not to use any plastic items. Her goal is to use as little plastic as possible. Many breads are stored in plastic bins. She uses only cast iron, glass and wood containers.

“There are the health benefits of a kitchen without plastic and only organic ingredients, and the baked items are delicious. Sourdough items also make the eater feel fuller because (the healthy) bacteria is considered probiotic. If someone has a problem with gluten, sourdough is ok for them, but if they have celiac disease, it does not work. Sourdough breaks down gluten so it’s easier to digest,” said Buffone.

To help spread the word about sourdough baking, she has given away some of her starter and is considering offering baking classes. Her mother taught cupcake baking classes in the past. 

Buffone’s best-selling item is sourdough English muffins baked on a cast-iron griddle, and her second most popular is brown-butter, sourdough, chocolate chip cookies with zucchini. In addition, her classic rectangular sourdough country loaf and the classic sourdough round boule are steady sellers. 

She has offered two popular weekly specials: for St. Patrick’s Day she created a pesto mozzarella loaf, and a loaf with Cadbury chocolate eggs for Easter. On a weekly schedule Buffone bakes sourdough tortillas, her own granola bars, and granola bags.

“I find baking therapeutic. When I bake without interruption, it’s relaxing. It can be repetitious, but I zone out and am able to relax. I also love being part of the community. It’s nice to add to local business. I support small business,” she said.

And when she is not baking, she works as a ballet teacher at Studio 85 in Canton. She had dreams of being a professional dancer as a teen, but after an injury she segued into theater and acting.

“I come from a very artsy family. Mom was first a graphic artist before getting into cake decoration, and dad has written several books, both fiction and nonfiction, and now is involved with Playhouse 44, a community theater. People love being involved in it,” said Buffone. VL

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