Seabrisket Bakery Serves Up Tasty Treats
Seabrisket Bakery Serves Up Tasty Treats
By Sarah Wright
Summer is here and restrictions are slowly lifting. Most local farmers markets around the area have been reopening, albeit with safety precautions in place. It’s a sure sign of the season. Farmers markets offer access to amazing local produce and other products like honey, cheese, eggs, meat, flowers, baked goods, and even soaps. (I love visiting different town markets to see what’s available, but my closest market is held in Wolfeboro at Clark Park on South Main Street every Thursday from 12:30 to 4:30 pm.)
Delicious baked goods made by Seabrisket Bakery.
This year, Seabrisket Bakery, located at 66 Moose Mountain Road in Brookfield, will be at the Wolfeboro market. Owners DJ and Richard sold their homemade baked goods at another market for years, but this season will be at Wolfeboro. DJ told me she encourages her regular customers to continue to place orders and visit her at the Wolfeboro market if they can.
Once I got a copy of the bakery’s pre-order list for the market, I was eager to place an order. First off, I noticed that DJ makes lots of breads. There’s Cider Apple Cinnamon Swirl, Garlic Parmesan Asiago, Anadama, French Batard, Dark Rye with caraway seeds, Deep Dish Focaccia, a braided white bread with sesame seeds called Scali, and Swedish Limpa, which is a light rye with fennel and caraway seeds, orange zest, and chopped orange prunes. The order menu also includes scones like wild blueberry, strawberry with maple glaze, brown sugar and butter, dark chocolate and cherry, and orange cranberry. I tried a strawberry scone with maple glaze and it was amazing; very moist with just the right amount of sweetness.
I was also interested in Seabrisket’s cookies, since that’s what my kids like the most. This past week, DJ was offering spice oatmeal cookies with raisins and craisins, “very” ginger molasses cookies, peanut butter cookies, a triple-chocolate mudslide cookie, and the Ellie. When I found out what the Ellie cookie was, I was sold. It’s a combination of peanut butter and mudslide cookie doughs baked together, suggested by a 9-year-old girl. She is a very smart child, because the cookies were delicious!
DJ’s fancy, hand-rolled pies are award-winning, and come in apple, local wild blueberry, and bumbleberry (with raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, and cherries). She also makes a light French pastry called Kouign Aman that’s flaky, sugary, crunchy, chewy, and buttery. (I think that’s next on my list to try.) Seabrisket also makes an amazing wild blueberry jam, and did I mention that they also make their own maple syrup? Yes, it’s delicious and available to order.
In fact, Seabrisket Bakery started out with maple syrup. As DJ tells it, “We actually started making maple syrup after helping a friend make some, and then finding a lot of sugar maple trees on our own property. We made so much that I started selling it at a farmers market, but I noticed that vendors with a larger assortment of items for sale had more customers.” DJ continues, “I had always loved baking, so at the insistence of my wonderful husband, I brought fresh baked breads with me. They sold out, so I made different types the next week, and they sold out, too.”
That winter, DJ attended a week-long emersion class in bread baking at the King Arthur baking campus in Vermont, baking five to seven types of bread per day, including artisan breads, European types, French pastry, and more. Local, organic ingredients are very important at Seabrisket Bakery. DJ uses King Arthur flour or other organic flours, locally sourced berries, apples, butter, eggs, honey, herbs, vegetables, and of course, her own maple syrup to produce fresh baked goods for the Wolfeboro farmers market. DJ’s mantra is, “If it isn’t fresh, I don’t bring it to the market.”
She’s also very busy filling orders that are picked up at her home in Brookfield. One of her larger orders was for 35 pies, baked fresh for a local wedding. She also entered her pies in the Great New Hampshire Pie Festival at the New Hampshire Farm Museum last year in the professional division and won. But I had to wonder—why the name Seabrisket? Turns out that there’s a very interesting backstory to the name.
DJ explains, “My husband Rick and I used to compete around the country in barbecue contests. Most BBQ teams had 6 to 15 people, but our team was just Rick and me. The bakery name and logo are a nod to several things: Seabrisket Boucaniers was our full BBQ team name; our favorite BBQ item was brisket; we lived near the ocean; we were only two people (the famous racehorse, Seabiscuit, was the little horse that could); and Boucaniers is the French name for pirates due to the fact that they always smoked meat on board their ships in boucans (little grass huts) and we were headed down south to steal the BBQ prize money and trophies, just like pirates.”
Seabrisket Bakery is considered a Homestead Food Operation, like many other vendors at local farmers markets in the state. Regulated by the state, or in some cases by town, this option allows residents to set up home kitchens, and also gives people access to locally made items with organic and natural ingredients. You’ll find quality products like the baked goods from Seabrisket at markets all around the lake, so support a local vendor and enjoy the fresh taste.
You can check out the pre-order list for Seabrisket Bakery on the Wolfeboro Area Farmers Market Facebook page each week. Email your order to DJ@seabrisket.com or call 603-832-3090. You can also ask DJ to add your email address to the weekly group mailing to find out what’s available. Customers can arrange a pick-up time at 66 Moose Mountain Road in Brookfield, or pick up items at the Wolfeboro market on Thursdays from 12:30 to 4:30 pm.