A Day At Abigail’s Oven Sourdough Bakery

For National Bakery Day today, we thought you might like to try a loaf of our sourdough bread.

If you are a first-time buyer, stop by for a free sample loaf at Abigail’s Store at the Bakery, 421 South 200 East, in Spanish Fork, UT  from 9:00 AM-6:00 PM. The same deal is available Saturday too, from 9:00 AM-1:00 PM. (Daily store hours: Fridays 9:00 AM-6:00 PM, Saturdays 10:00 AM-4:00 PM and Tuesdays 9:00 AM-6:00 PM.)

My own history with Abigail’s Oven comes from buying bread at the Provo Farmers Market. There I would chat briefly with Martha Levie, chief baker, about how the bread is made and its nutritional difference over bread in stores.

As summer faded into fall, I explained my concern about purchasing bread. Martha assured me that there were stores nearby that stocked their sourdough. She must have told hundreds of shoppers the same thing because unless I shopped on Tuesdays or Fridays first thing, they were often sold out. Little did I know then, that the bakery had a storefront.

The bakery is a family-owned by the Levies, Martha and Allen. They make and bake nearly 2,000 loaves of sourdough bread by hand every week and even more in summer months for local Farmers Markets. They also deliver bread to select stores from Logan, Utah to Las Vegas, Nevada, and ship bread nationwide.

Many of the Levie family children help in the bakery, but not Abigail, for whom the bakery is named. She is performing service for her church in London, England. But reports from there say her starter is alive and she is baking there when she can.

HOW THE LEVIES STARTED BAKING BREAD

Abigail Levie, for whom the bakery is named, has been making bread since she was eight years old. At ten she started, Abigail’s Oven using her own logo, making sales to 300 regular customers, and keeping her own records in Excel. In those days she delivered the bread door-to-door in a red wagon with her younger brothers.

Starting this little business to have some spending money, the Levie children made and delivered bread from their home in Cedar City, Utah. Then again when they moved to Virginia and Provo, Utah.

A few years into Abigail’s success, Allen and Martha Levie decided to expand the business and the whole family joined in. Allen Levie, who was tired of his research job, announced: “We are going to take Abigail’s Oven and we’re going to make it our family business.”

Martha Levie explained that that was just “what we did and now we have a bakery that employs over 20 people. We bake several thousands of sourdough loaves every week and sell them to hundreds of families all over the state and they think our sourdough bread is great. And it’s all because of Abigail’s drive and ingenuity and desire to just be awesome.”

If you can’t come by today, we hope this virtual day at the bakery will be fun for you too.

A DAY AT THE BAKERY: THE DAY BEFORE BAKING

The day before baking there is much to do. Whole wheat berries are milled fresh just hours before being mixed into the bread to ensure maximum nutritional value.

The mother culture is fed more flour and water so that it will be at its peak. While it is fed daily, this culture’s activation the day before for baking is carefully timed for the next day’s bake.

There is also shopping to do for supplies and ingredients, including organic sugar, cinnamon, cheddar cheese, fresh jalapeños, cocoa, herbs, and olive oil.

In the early evening, the mixers, arrive to begin their work (except for on Sunday, when they wait to start until midnight).

There is usually a light dusting of flour from the thousands of pounds of wheat milled the day before, so the first thing, the workroom is swept clean and wiped down.

Then hands are washed thoroughly, (sourdough bread making is very hands-on). Mixing bowls and other utensils are washed clean and readied for the hours ahead.

Now, Christina and Ethan, the mixers look at the work orders for the next day’s bake. It’s time to begin weighing and measuring ingredients. It is almost like a chemistry lab with weights, measures, and thermometers in constant use.

Naturally, the largest batch will be our white whole-wheat Country Loaf; it is our most popular, and part of that mix will be baked into Country Cinnamon Swirl too.

But here is 100% whole wheat flour waiting for the Rustic Wheat and Rustic Wheat Seed Bread. And there is rye flour ready to mix four Jewish Rye Loaves.

The first thing in the mixing bowl is the spring water. Mixers check the temperate to see if ice will need to be added. Dough temperatures are monitored throughout the night to ensure the best flavor and fermentation.

Next in, is the sourdough starter or preferment. This is mixed into the water for uniform distribution.

Then the flour is added depending on the recipe. Abigail’s 100% Premium White Whole-wheat for country loaves, 100% freshly ground whole wheat, or rye and wheat mixed for the Jewish Rye.

Then come the add-ins for some batches. Things like pumpkin seeds, flaxseeds, and sunflower seeds; cheddar cheese and jalapeños, or caraway and cocoa powder.

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Once ingredients have been added to the bowls they are wheeled over to Big Bertha, our 6-foot tall mixer that has been silently waiting to go to work.

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Big Bertha mixes 80 to 120 pounds of dough through most of the night. Bowl after mixing bowl is processed into the first stage of sourdough bread making, known as a shaggy mass. Then the dough must rest for 30 minutes. This short period is known as the autolyse but is important in developing more flavor from the grain and allowing gluten strands to develop in the dough that will trap gasses during fermentation. This also improves the bread’s crumb, texture, and overall quality.

After the dough has rested for 30 minutes, Real Salt dissolved in more water, is added along with ice if the dough is too warm. (Notice the mixer testing dough and water temperatures in the picture to the right.)

The next stage in mixing requires all batches of dough to be turned, or stretched and folded. With 80-120 pounds of dough, this can be a real workout.

This process is repeated every half hour during the first two hours of fermentation. But because there are not enough mixing bowls some dough is moved to totes for fermentation. However, the final few mixes are allowed to ferment right in the mixing bowls as shown.

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But either way, totes or bowls are covered and labeled to mark a starting point and record the initial temperature. This all to ensure a true sourdough, which usually takes 8–10 hours to develop.

Then these totes are neatly organized for the morning team when they arrive at 6:00 AM to begin weighing, shaping, and proofing for the final time before baking

A DAY AT THE BAKERY: BAKING DAY

On Thursdays and Fridays, 6:00 AM comes pretty early, but that is when everything begins at the bakery. (Mondays bakers get to sleep in an extra few hours since mixers don’t start until midnight Sunday.) Immediately the whole bakery was a hive of activity and everyone was busy with tasks they knew well.

Abigail, who was the daytime manager in December when I visited the bakery, was there to help if anyone had a question. Once in a while, someone asked her something. But for the most part, everyone was doing what they were supposed to do without question.

The day team was comprised of five Levie siblings who were old enough to help, an aunt, an uncle, and two other employees. All were busy making this enterprise hum.

Tom, an uncle, and Paul Levie immediately begin to weigh bulk dough and table it to be rolled out by team members.  They filled a dozen stainless steel work tables with weighed dough. Then table after table was rolled to an inch thickness in preparation for cinnamon and sugar that would soon cover the surface.  

Abigail and her father, Allen, roll up cinnamon and sugared bread to sit for the final proofing (see the racks behind them). And Ester, the youngest working sibling, spread raw sugar and cinnamon on the dough after it was rolled out.

Abigail and her father, Allen, were cutting these loaves nearly as soon as they had been covered with cinnamon and sugar. Once the dough was rolled and formed, they placed it on oiled parchment and set them on a baker’s rack for the final proofing; 120–130 loaves in all. 

Meanwhile, another brother, Dennis oiled parchment paper with olive oil for shaped loaves to help prevent sticking in hot Dutch ovens. He must have at least 150 sets ready to go in just 30 minutes, when the first loaves of cinnamon swirl will go into the ovens. 

At the same time, in an adjacent room, other team members were tabling country and rustic wheat sourdough.

Right behind them, Eve and Tina came by to weigh and roughly forming the boules (in French “balls” and what most bakers call this half globed shape).

These were placed on other stainless steel tables for a 30-minute bench rest. Once the bench rest was complete for the country and whole wheat sourdough, Dennis stopped oiling parchment and came in to join the girls to do the final shaping and tension the waiting dough. His family claims he has the magic hands in the family for shaping bread. No one can roll, tension, and form a boule quite as quickly as he can.

Meanwhile back at the proofed cinnamon swirl bread, Abigail scores each loaf with the bakery’s signature mark.Boules are left to proof for another 30-40 minutes. During this rest period, the cinnamon swirl loaves are headed to the ovens for baking. But first, each loaf is scored to help with the final rise and oven spring that comes during baking.

Each loaf is then placed into an individual preheated dutch oven, complete with a lid. But not until a good splash of water is tossed in to ensure a crusty loaf.

Thirty minutes later the loaves were pulled from the ovens to cool on baker’s racks, but as each loaf was pulled another was placed into the empty dutch oven. This process would be repeated with the seeded country and whole wheat sourdough, and finally, with jalapeno cheddar loaves, until all 1000 loaves were baked. 

Interestingly, once the bread is out of the oven, it is so hot inside that it continues baking for nearly another hour on its own. For that reason, bread is cooled two or more hours. Once the loaves are completely cooled, they are sliced.

The power slicer is a formidable piece of equipment used as one bakery inserts whole loaves from this side but as it comes out, it keeps several bakers busy labeling, bagging, and securing bread for shipping or delivery in the morning. 

In the meantime, back in the milling room another thousand pounds of locally grown non-GMO, heirloom wheat is being cold-milled for the next bake, tomorrow.

And that is when the whole process starts all over to get the bread ready for Utah Farmers Markets the next day.

This same process is used beginning early in the the night on Mondays and Thursdays to bake thousands of loaves for sales in stores in Utah and Nevada, and for shipping nationwide on Tuesdays,

In the comment section tell us about your visits to the bakery, Farmers Market, or your favorite store.

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After Thought

As a kid, I always loved making field trips to places where people made things. It took three visits and hundreds of pictures (special thanks to  This was no different and it has been an honor to record the process here for you to experience too.

We hope that many of you can drop by the bakery either today or tomorrow to help us celebrate National Bakery Day. And if you are a first-time buyer, remember to ask for your free sample loaf when you come by Abigail’s Store at the Bakery located 421 South 200 East in Spanish Fork, UT.

Abigail’s Oven it tucked up next to the County Fairgrounds and Spanish Fork City Cemetery. It is a rather unassuming building, but once through the front door, the magic of sourdough is everywhere.