This Seeded Bread Restored My Faith in Fancy Breakfast Toast

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Having a toast on the menu is something of a requirement in Los Angeles. (See: Sqirl, Hail Mary, Destroyer.) And while I love a seasonal jam or whipped ricotta as much as the next person, I recently began to feel something I can only describe as toast fatigue. They all started to feel eerily the same, like a tiny carb-based ghost haunting me at every restaurant in the city. Then, I saw the toast at Doubting Thomas in Historic Filipinotown.

While most toasts are defined by their toppings, this particular one is all about that bread. Specifically, the inch-thick, house-made seeded bread. It’s like the body builder of breads, so dense and crumbly that it requires both a fork and knife. This is a good thing, because a weaker bread would go soggy under the weight of whatever toppings owner Naomi Shim is using, whether it’s a combo of burrata, almond pesto, balsamic, and heirloom tomatoes or smashed avocado with shallots, chive oil, lemon, and radishes.

This seedy bread starts with sprouting rye berries, which Shim soaks, strains, and rinses twice a day for two days. She then mixes the berries with flour (spelt and rye), dark beer, oat milk, malt syrup, brown sugar, four types of seeds, and natural levain (a.k.a. starter). The result is a bread that has cured my toast fatigue. It tastes so rich and nutty, and you get a pleasant and unexpected crunch with each bite, thanks to all the seeds—sunflower, flax, sesame, and pumpkin!

And while you can’t buy this hearty bread by the loaf, if you ask nicely, Shim will sell it to you by the slice. Or you can do as Angelenos do and order the toast.

Go there: Doubting Thomas

Originally Appeared on Bon Appétit