Nadia Vassev is the founder of Picassoloaf. She takes the simplest of ingredients—flour, water, salt, and levain starter—and creates bread. Artisanal sourdough bread. Bread that elevates butter and makes family gatherings better.
“Breadmaking stole my heart,” she says, and this is the reason she wakes up at 3AM on baking days. The process of breadmaking is long. She makes everything by hand, even milling 50% of the flour that goes into the sourdough loaves. Nadia does this because the oils from the wheat berries impart a unique flavour to the bread. The loaves also enjoy a two-day fermentation and artful scoring before baking. The baked loaves are politely sour, chewy, and light.
As James Beard reminds us, “good bread is the most fundamentally satisfying of all foods; and good bread with fresh butter, the greatest of feasts.”
Nadia’s focus is always on quality: organic flours, freshly milled grain, hand kneading, edible flowers, herbs and vegetables from her garden, and using grass-fed butter. She takes the care of an artist in creating her baked goods.
Along with her top selling loaves of sourdough bread, Picassoloaf also offers beautifully decorated focaccia and chewy ciabatta that make great sandwich and burger buns. Nadia’s challah bread goes through a long fermentation that leaves this egg bread with a unique creamy texture. She has fun creating many flavours of bagels that delight the taste buds: cheese, cinnamon and raisin, plain, onion, and Jalapeño and cheese. Her traditional croissants are also made with grass-fed butter (conventional butter wasn’t good enough). They come traditional or with a creamy Bulgarian feta cheese filling. For December only, Nadia delights her customers with a delicious Christmas star bread that makes every table beautiful.
You can follow Nadia Vassev on Instagram (@picassoloaferments) to see what new creations she is making and direct message her to order. She takes orders by Monday each week for Wednesday pick up, and orders by Wednesday for Friday pick up. Make sure to order an extra loaf to share, as you’ll want the first one all to yourself.
