Par
Benjamin Epineau
Published on
Nov 9, 2024 at 4:16 p.m.
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For the love of bread, Xavier Lang left the IT world. A change of voice felt as a need for this native of Guérande (Loire-Atlantique). After obtaining a CAP in Normandy, he completed internships in bakeries across France with the firm intention of returning to settle in the peninsula. A real mission. “I couldn’t find premises at a price consistent with my future activity,” recalls the artisan baker 48 years old.
A bakery at his home
It therefore begins in 2023 with a fitted mini-oven at his house in an outbuilding.
I did small markets including that of Saint-André-des-Eaux and customers could order on my website.
A period which allowed him to refine his technique before seizing the opportunity to settle in Batz-sur-Mer, rue de la Gare.
Bread only with sourdough
Follower of sourdough breada ferment that is mixed into the dough, Xavier Lang also uses peasant flours.
The cereals are grown and processed in Missillac (Loire-Atlantique) on the Moulin des 4 Saisons farm.
“We add very little leaven and leave it to ferment at 18°C-20°C for sixteen hours before cooking,” specifies the professional.
A technique in slow fermentation “which provides a more pronounced taste, better preservation, with bread that is better digested, particularly for people who have problems with le gluten ».
Only bread per kilo, no pastries
A process also used for brioche, but which applies with difficulty to pastries. “We don't want to work with industrial yeast, but sourdough pastries are complicated. Maybe we’ll get there one day,” Xavier confides to l’Écho de la Presqu’île.
Rye, spelled, buckwheat, pumpkin bread or cocoa powder, the bakery offers organic products“apart from honey”.
The distance to each supplier is also displayed in store. All prices are indicated per kilo:
A fairer price for everyone and a saving of time because we do not weigh the dough.
Hand kneading
Pour avoid night shifts (9 p.m.-6 a.m.), Mie de la Terre opens Tuesday to Saturday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. and adapts its production accordingly:
We shape and cook in the morning in our pellet oven and knead in the early afternoon.
Kneading only carried out by hand, “which forms very little gluten network”.
Special beginnings
After work in early 2024, Xavier Lang is putting pressure on himself to open in August.
“But our production was not ready and we were producing bad bread,” he recalls.
Dissatisfied with the quality of his products, he therefore decided to close by putting up a sign “to indicate that we were not satisfied with our breads”, before reopening in September.
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