Terra Breads

[Ling]

I was in Granville island yesterday and noticed the huge line by Terra Breads bright and early at 9am. I walked by the stall and noticed they have a huge selection! I thought I'd ask for recs on some of your favorites before I splurge on a loaf though ($4+ bucks a loaf is pretty hefty when you're still in school. )

I've seen their breads at other gourmet groceries, but usually they only have a small selection. canadiancook mentioned that Heringer's in Steveston carries their bread--does anyone know how long the loaf stays fresh?

And what are some of your other favorite breads available in the city? I'm partial to the asiago and olive ciabatta you can get at Urban Fare and Save-on-Foods. I can eat the whole loaf for lunch. I also like their crispy-crusted sourdough bread. Once, I wanted to buy 2 loaves but they were out, so they baked some fresh for me (took about 20 minutes? I guess the loaves were partially baked beforehand.) I ate it while it was still hot. Delicious.

Ok I'll stop rambling now...

Edited November 12, 2003 by Ling (log)

[edm]

to me, fiedstone bakery makes better bread than Ecco el pane or Terra. They used to sell it at Capers but do not carry it anymore ! Someone else in town might sell it, but i still have to find it...

The Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts, at the entrance of Granville island, sells some pretty good bread too. Give it a try.

[Coop]

This is easy for me. I have never had anything I didn't love from Terra. Here are my favorites in order:

Fig and Anise, Grape Bread, Italian Cheese, Baguette, Pugliese, Sourdough Baguette, Apple Foccacia, Foccacia.

My favorite bread though is Pao de Casa made by the Westview Bakery. This bread is available at the Santa Barbara Market on Commercial Drive. As for the save on Ciabatta, Ling they have saved many nights for me here in Maple Ridge. It's the only thing out here that tastes like bread.

[Redhead]

Fig and Anise is my favourite Terra loaf, too. I do find their crusts are a bit challenging on Day Two, however. Also love the round sourdough from Capers, and my mother-in-law's brick-like Latvian rye. Very dark and dense and a perfect base for various Swedish-style herring dishes.

My childhood favourite was Ben's Porridge Bread, a popular sliced loaf sold at Sobey's grocery store in Halifax. It was a sweet oatmeal/molasses brown bread, something Maritime home bakers would be familiar with (often baked in a large coffee can). I have been trying to approximate this recipe in my bread machine for several years now, with limited success.

[Ling]

I remember my goat cheese omelette came with toasted, seedy Ecco il Pane bread on my last vacation up in Whistler. I thought the bread was delicious too.

I like chewy, thick-crusted breads.

2 votes for fig and anise! I don't think this would be a flavor I would have chosen, so thanks for the rec. I think I'll try this one first. I'm curious about the fig, grape, and apple breads--are they sweet? Do they have chunks of fruit in the bread?

[Jerry_A]

The grape foccaccia is dotted with grapes, however it is not overly sweet - just very delicious. The apple is my favourite, I think it has thyme sprinkled on it which gives it a fantastic savoury sweet taste with caramely (is that a word?) apples.

BTW, was your goat cheese omelette from Chef Bernard's? That place is my favourite, we usually end up going there for breakfast every morning - fantastic!!

[Coop]

If you go for the fig and anise, can I suggest toasting it, dressing it with unsalted butter then shave Parmessan Reggiano over it. Very good toasted even aftter a few days. Ecco I Panne is another favorite. They closed their retail operation though. Messy divorce I hear.

[Sam Salmon]

I live a few blocks from Terra and so am in there several times a week.

As a single person I find a complete loaf something of a challenge so my most recent favourite are the Olive Oil rolls.

Following close behind are the Cheese Rolls and the Sourdough Epi.

Interesting the challenges Terra faces-I prefer a lighter crust and turn up my nose at what I see as overcooked crust.Yet the other day a woman in front of me was pleading for the darkest crust the staff could find-It think she was Italian so maybe that's a Euro preference.

[dillybravo]

The cheese/salt foccacia squares at the Granville island one are pretty good too. And they have an organic demi-levain and sourdough demi-baguette, or some such combinations, which are a little cheaper and not too big.

The foccacia has an awesome, chewy dense crumb. I find the two loaves above have a little too airy crumb for my taste in levain breads, but the crust is good. I too like a dark, crunchy crust. I also like a really rough, irregular, slightly chewy crumb, though, and I haven't found one yet. : ( Anyone have suggestions?

The organic demi-levain has some whole wheat in it, too, maybe 15% or so? Not too much. I haven't tried any others, but that fig and anise sounds good, I agree.

[Ling]

BTW, was your goat cheese omelette from Chef Bernard's? That place is my favourite, we usually end up going there for breakfast every morning - fantastic!!

Yes it was! Can you tell me if he's been on FoodTV or something? Because as soon as I saw his picture on the wall, I knew I'd seen him somewhere before but I couldn't remember where.

The food is fab there! I would definitely eat there again next time I'm in Whistler.

The day before Chef Bernard's, I made the regrettable decision of eating at Portabello (the casual restaurant directly across from Chef Bernard's). I was really excited to see this salad with heirloom tomatoes on the menu, since I'd never had heirloom tomatoes before. But when they brought the salad, the tomatoes were nothing like the ones I've seen on TV--they were tasteless, mealy, barely red, with lots of seeds. I think they were Safeway tomatoes.

[Ling]

Damn...all these different varieties. I wish there was some way where I could buy 1 slice from each loaf.

The apple and thyme one sounds really interesting. That's 2nd on my to-try list.

I'll also get some of the smaller rolls that were suggested.

The butter and parm reggianno suggestion sounds divine! I'm glad the bread keeps b/c the loaves look pretty big.

I think they serve the pecan and fruit bread at Lumiere with the cheese course, am I correct? It's been 3 years since I've been there, but I still remember I really liked the bread they had at the restaurant.

Edited November 14, 2003 by Ling (log)

[Jerry_A]

Can you tell me if he's been on FoodTV or something?

I believe the only time I have seen him on FoodTV is when they were showing one of the old Bocuse D'Or competitions. He was either participating or consulting, I can't remember.

Mrs. A loves his Carrot & Brie soup!

I think they serve the pecan and fruit bread at Lumiere with the cheese course, am I correct?

I believe you are correct. We were at the tasting bar a couple of weeks ago and asked for some extra bread with our cheese course. We ended up with about a half a loaf of the stuff....not that I'm complaining.

My father-in-law is in love with the fruit bread. Since he lives in the suburbs, his grocery store only gets one loaf every week or two so he has been stockpiling. Every time he sees a loaf he buys it and sticks it in his freezer, so he has an endless supply. When the apocalypse comes, I know we will be able to survive for weeks in his basement off of the fruit bread and canned soup - yum!

[jayhay]

We love Terra breads too. I have fairly good results storing leftover bread when I leave it in the original bag, & then put it in a plastic bag. Crust softens, but still delicious!

[drinkingchef]

Terra's green olive bread is a consisten fave. I also really like picking up the fruit and pecan bread when I am at Granville Island. Usually I find Terra breads at the local IGA, but the selection is limitted and they only have a couple loaves of each type. I also really like the bread at Le Baguette L'Echalotte (or something like that, I can't remeber the spelling). But I do remeber the potato bread, delicious, with perfectly salty chunks of moist red skinned spuds. Mmmm. I love bread!

[Hue]

I've only tried two kinds, the grape bread, and the herb parmasen foccasia. I absolutely loved the grape bread, but really didn't care for the foccasia, thought it was too salty for my taste and too hard to chew. I guess I'm not a chewy-bread kind of a person then! Having said that, can anyone suggest another kind of bread that I might like? With the texture similar to that of the grape bread?

[Ling]

I skipped some classes and went to Terra today, since I had to get my pants hemmed on W. 4th anyway.

This is what I bought:

-the Belgian chocolate brownie (topped with walnuts and macadamia nuts)

-grape bread

-apple foccacia

-herb and cheese foccacia

-1 fig and anise dinner roll

Of course, it was impossible for my to eat it ALL especially since I had a really huge breakfast. I managed to finish the brownie and the apple foccacia in the store, and then I picked at everything else for the next hour. I think everyone in Terra got a kick out of me sitting at the table with such a generous assortment of food. A lot of ppl came up to me and told me what their favorite bread/bakery item was.

My definite favorite of the bunch was the apple foccacia. It is about the size of a small pancake, topped with slices of baked apple and brushed with an apple glaze. It had some sort of herb on it...I think it was thyme. It was crispy and delicious--not very sweet. Wish I could eat this everyday!

My 2nd favorite was the herb and cheese foccacia. I liked the coarse salt, but some ppl might find this bread a little salty. My bf ate my leftovers and said that it was the best foccacia he's had.

My 3rd favorite was the grape bread. It also had pine nuts and walnuts, and it's sprinkled with icing sugar. This was different....and good.

I didn't quite enjoy the fig and anise as much as I thought I would have. It tasted too licorice-y to me. I normally like anise as part of the flavoring for slow-braised meats, but the flavor was a little too strong for me in the bread. The bread itself was good. Nice crust. A little dark, but I like it like that.

My least favorite was the brownie. It was cakey and not very fudgey. I wasn't very impressed.

[kimabima]

Thanks for all the reviews ling!

I am definately getting the apple foccacia while i at GM. Hope the bread survivesa trip on our lovely BC Ferries.