Peerless Bread & Jam's Whole-Grain Loaves | Chicago

We can't wait to see what happens when Lauren Bushnell gets reacquainted with fire.

The owner of Peerless Bread & Jam is currently using the ovens at Floriole Bakery, where she also works as a bread baker. But she has experience baking in a wood-fired oven, and is currently building one for her future bakery at The Plant.

For the time being, we're plenty content with the exceptionally flavorful whole-grain breads she's bringing to Green City Market each Wednesday and Saturday.

Her mainstay loaves are peasant wheat and country levain ($6 each), made with whole-wheat flour from Michigan's Breslin Farms. Each begins with a whole-wheat sourdough starter and ferments over a 12- to 18-hour period. The dark brown peasant wheat needs little more than a touch of butter and honey to shine–though it performed splendidly as a foundation for butter, radishes and smoked salt.

Bushnell also sells loaves of potato-herb fougasse, rye-flour pretzels made with Two Brothers Country Ale, and savory cornbread with local cornmeal, eggs and lard.

Even her lone sweet is all about the grain: barley-flour cookies with a dot of local fruit jam in the center.

Find Peerless Bread & Jam at Green City Market on Saturdays, and learn more on Facebook.