Today's Case:
Balkan Bakery Mother's Bread
Re: Balkan Bakery "Mother's Bread"
From: +1xxxxxxxxxx
Date: 12/27/2023, 2:19 PM
To: Phaedrus
On 12/27/2023 4:55 AM, +1xxxxxxxxxx wrote:
Recipe for mothers bread flint michigan
Hello ?
Please note that I ask people to give their real first name when they request a search. This is a free service, but I prefer to do it for real people with real first names. Your numeric username appears to be your phone number, as well. I don't think it's a good idea to use your real phone number as your username.
So, I looked for Balkan Bakery in Flint, Michigan's "Mother's Bread". I found mentions of the bread. A lot of people liked it and have good memories of it. I found mentions of Balkan Bakery, as well. However, getting a recipe from a bakery borders on the impossible.
With "Mother's Bread", there are a few slim leads:
It might be a recipe from the bakery founder's homeland in the Balkan Peninsula, or it might be a family recipe of theirs.
We don't know the bakery founder's country of origin. I could not find it anywhere on the web. A family recipe is not going to be in any cookbook or on the Internet. At any rate, if the "Mother's Bread" recipe is posted on the Internet, It should turn up in a search of the Internet. It did not. If it is a recipe common in one of the Balkan countries, it might be on the Internet, but posted under the original name in the language of that country. Since we don't know which country was it's origin, then we have no way to figure out what that foreign name was or is. Finally, whatever the origin of the bread, the name "Mother's bread" may have been completely invented by the bakery. Some people call it simply "Balkan bread," but that seems to be after the bakery's name. It's not very helpful in finding a recipe, anyhow.
There was a lot of speculation on "Reddit" about the origin of the bread. Some people think it is the same thing as "Pogacha bread." I've read that some version of Pogacha bread is baked in every Balkan country and I've seen Serbia and Croatia and Bosnia mentioned. However, I have not found anything at all to specifically link Balkan Bakery's "Mother's Bread" to any of them.
There are pogacha or pogača bread recipes on these sites, but nothing that would indicate that they are the same thing as "Mother's Bread.":
Pogacha Balkan Bread
Soft & Chewy Balkan Bread
Pogacha Balkan Bread
Balkan Lunchbox
Those sites have photos of the bread made from their recipes. Check them out and see if one looks right. If one does, make it and see if it tastes right. If one of them turns out to be "Mother's Bread," let me know.
Other than that, I think your best option is to find the owners or a relative of the owner of Balkan Bakery or a former employee of the Balkan Bakery. One of those people is probably the only source of a recipe for the bread. Finding out which Balkan country and town the bakery owners came from would be most helpful.
Phaed
