Here's to a Great Snack!

When our company develops a new product, it’s a team effort. Carla is in charge of the initial recipe development and Rodolfo takes her recipes and transforms them into the manufacturing process. This involves some relentless research to find the right partner to work with to produce the finished product. For our new einkorn crackers, we knew we needed someone incredibly special. If you’ve made bread or crackers at home with einkorn flour, then you know how frustrating it can be. It’s dough is sticky, it tears easily, it absorbs fats slowly and it’s difficult to understand the right hydration with einkorn flour (all thanks to it’s weak gluten that many find easier to digest.) Imagine having to run einkorn dough through machinery until it’s very thin and then cutting it into tiny little squares! Carla was not going to budge on how many hours was needed for the sourdough process either. We had our work cut out for us.

Carla and Rodolfo have been working together for twenty years now, and in a couple that actually has worked side by side for fifty years, they found the perfect match. In 1965, Maria and her husband began baking bread in Bologna, the same city where Rodolfo and Carla met in 1987. Their small wholesale bakery supplied specialty shops with fresh bread early in the morning. That meant decades of working through the night for both of them. When their three children grew old enough, they joined their parents in the business. When we found this family, they were interested in expanding to make jovial’s packaged crackers because that type of work could take place during a day shift. As a mother always looking out for her children, Maria explained that she really wanted to work with jovial because it could lead to a future without the night shifts for her children.

This family was accustomed to baking commercially with sourdough and baking bread at home for a grandchild with celiac disease, helped them to understood the newfound challenges of baking with einkorn. It took over three years to get the right equipment installed and to get the production process just the way Carla and Rodolfo wanted it. Their list was long- the crackers needed to be small, they had to have a light dusting of Italian sea salt, stay crisp after opening, and they needed to be baked at low temperatures to prevent off-flavors and rancidity. The ingredient list needed to be true and short and the baker’s needed to maintain and use Carla’s einkorn sourdough starter. Even though it took close to 24 hours to make one batch, the product had to be priced with reason. There also had to be no allergens in the facility and, most importantly, the crackers had to be delicious.

We just thought we would bring you a little closer to where your new crackers come from. We are really happy with the way the finished product turned out, especially after so many trial batches. Maria was a warrior through it all, finding ways to make us happy and to provide for her family. Best of all, it’s great being able to support this wonderful family, in exchange for such a unique snack that you can feel 100% good about feeding your family.

Note: Our first shipment of crackers will be heading out soon to distributors nationwide. Give us a hand and request this product at your local health food store. In the meantime, you can order directly from jovial. Happy snacking!