At Nightingale Breads in Forestville community is baked in

On a recent Sunday morning, at least a dozen people stood outside Nightingale Breads waiting for the tiny bakery to open its doors so they could be among the first to choose from freshly baked scones, sourdoughs and sweet baguettes.

Lines at the Forestville bakery, which is open less than 20 hours a week, are often steady, filled with locals who are regular customers, tourists, runners and bikers using the nearby West County trail and curious coastbound travelers who make a pit stop to see what all the fuss is about.

One of those local regulars is Chenoa Montiel. She visits this fixture of Forestville’s food scene weekly, sometimes more.

“We’re lucky to have had Nightingale this long,” she said. “It’s one of the only food outlets that we have that’s lasted.”

The bakery is a cornerstone of the food renaissance taking place along a three-block stretch of the town’s main thoroughfare. Through the closures of favorites like Twist Eatery and Backyard to the newly opened Sonoma Pizza Co. and A La Heart Catering, not to mention fires, floods and the pandemic, Nightingale has been a constant, comforting presence.

Owner Jessie Frost has weathered all that since buying the bakery in 2018 from Beth Thorp, a retired nurse who opened Nightingale in 2008. Frost, a graduate of Santa Rosa Junior College’s baking program, had worked at the bakery for about two years before she took over.

She knew she had big shoes to fill. Thorp was a well-loved member of the community. Frost wanted to nurture those established relationships, so changes have come slowly.

“I fiddled with some recipes to get them to my liking. We added new products, more pastries, different varieties of bread,” Frost said. “Customers were excited about more variation.”

More recently, Frost leaned on the community with a crowdfunding campaign to raise money to refresh the store and also buy a new generator so the bakery can operate during power shut-offs. She’s spruced up the store front and counter to welcome customers back after doing pick-up orders from the doorway during the height of the pandemic.

“COVID was hard, and we’re coming back from that. We’re busier again. I don’t think we’re back to pre-COVID numbers as far as production goes. People’s habits changed,” she said.

What hasn’t changed is that the bakery remains a point of pride for Forestville.

“When friends come from out of town, they bring them and show them the things they buy and love so much,” Frost said.

For Forestville resident and Nightingale regular Pam Vale, those favorites are the sourdough batard and the take-and-bake pizza dough, which she tops with tomatoes and basil from her garden.

Although the bakery keeps limited hours Thursday through Sunday, the work to make the wood-fired artisan breads and pastries is constant.

On a recent Thursday afternoon, a small team of bakers was busy cutting dough, shaping it into rounds and baguettes and placing them in the cooler for a slow second rise so they’d be ready for a baker to work with the next morning, while the rest of Forestville was fast asleep.

The baking day begins between 3 and 5 a.m. When they close in the late afternoon, someone starts the fire in the wood-burning oven. Just before bed, another employee who lives nearby comes to rake out the hot coals so the oven is the right temperature when bakers arrive a few hours later to start the whole process again.

This round-the-clock dedication helped Nightingale earn a slew of double gold awards at the Sonoma County Harvest Fair earlier this month, including a best in show award for the bakery’s Forestville French. It’s easy to see why. It’s a baguette made for Goldilocks: A crust that’s not too soft and not too crackly surrounds an interior that’s not too fluffy nor overly chewy. It’s just right.

Montiel agrees.

“I went to France last year to visit family. (Frost’s) Forestville French blew theirs out of the water,” Montiel said.

In addition to these labor-intensive loaves that locals count on for their daily bread, Frost, who admits to a sweet tooth, sells treats including crunchy oat cookies, bittersweet chocolate thimbles that are like thumb-size chocolate cakes and a rotating selection of scones and quick breads that change with the seasons and bakers’ whims.

Chocolate-zucchini and pumpkin loaves are mainstays. Then there are elevated varieties: streusel-topped loaves laced with pears and brandy or cranberry, pistachio and cardamom.

By their nature, quick breads are more flexible and forgiving than traditional sourdoughs and yeast-raised breads, which is part of their appeal for both professional and home bakers.

“I don’t like to get stuck in a corner where I have to make the same things all the time,” Frost said.

She lets employees unleash their creativity, too. She raved about a chile-chocolate scone one of her bakers made recently and was excited to try a peanut butter scone with a surprise jelly center that was in the works for another weekend.

Ingredients for these specials are seasonally inspired and often sourced from a nearby farm or a neighbor’s backyard bounty, quite literally rooting Nightingale in the community.

“That’s our business model, in a way,” Frost said. “I have a lot of local farmers that are small and have Meyer lemons in excess or have some large crop that they want to trade bread for, and that’s really nice.”

The bakery also sells locally produced goods that are natural accompaniments to their breads, like jams, cheeses and olive oil from Forestville producer Olive Queen.

Miniature 4-inch cheesecakes are made by customer-turned-employee Steve Hartz. When Hartz, a Rio Nido resident, retired from a long career in the food and baking industry, he began making cheesecakes and bringing them into Nightingale.

He recalled Frost asking him, “‘When are you going to quite your day job and come work for me?’”

Hartz started selling his goods to the bakery in 2021 and eventually took a job behind the counter, doling out friendly greetings to customers and making sure they know the value this tiny bakery brings.

“Every day is going to be uniquely different,” he said. “There’s light bakes and dark bakes because of the wood-fired oven. The loaves are hand-shaped, not done by machines. It’s something you can take home and cherish and enjoy with family and friends. It’s a cut above the norm.”

This Thanksgiving will mark Frost’s fifth as Nightingale’s owner. She was in awe of how much bread and pastry they turned out the day before: about 250 loaves of the Forestville French, five times what they’d make on a normal weekend day.

One of Frost’s favorite loaves to make this time of year is cranberry and thyme sourdough, a flavor combination she also includes in a crisp cornmeal cookie.

“The cranberries are so good when they’re fresh and you put them in bread,” Frost said. “They kind of pop in there and then juice around the outside of it. It adds a bright, fresh, zesty flavor.”

After a short breather on Thanksgiving, the bakery will get to work making panettone and gingerbread loaf cake, another favorite of Frost’s and regular customers’ at Christmastime.

Montiel, who said she once waited 40 minutes in line before Thanksgiving, will be there for it, no complaints.

“It’s neat. You’re in line talking to people who are driving out to the coast or people you see all the time,” Montiel said. “It’s kind of an event.”

Nightingale Bakery uses pears in this recipe, but apples will work just as well if that’s what you have. Baker and owner Jessie Frost uses a neutral oil here because it makes for a more tender product and allows the flavor of the fruit and brandy to shine, as butter can overpower them.

Pear Brandy Walnut Cake

Makes one 9-inch-by-5-inch loaf (see Note)

For streusel topping

½ cup flour

¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons brown sugar

4 tablespoons butter (½ stick), softened to room temperature

For the loaf

1 cup pears or apples, diced small

3 eggs

1 ¼ cups sugar

1 cup canola oil

2 ¼ cups flour

1 ¾ teaspoon cinnamon

1 ¼ teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

½ cup walnuts, toasted

1 tablespoon brandy

2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

1 ¾ teaspoons vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Oil a 9-inch-by-5-inch loaf pan and set aside.

In a small mixing bowl, combine streusel topping ingredients with a mixer on low speed or by hand and set aside.

Dice fruit into small cubes and set aside.

Put eggs and sugar in a mixing bowl and beat until well-combined. Slowly stream the oil into the eggs and sugar while mixing.

Sift flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl.

Add walnuts to a food processor along with a little of the flour mixture and pulse a few times. Add this mixture back into the bowl of flour.

Mix brandy, apple cider vinegar and vanilla in a measuring cup.

Add about half the flour and walnut mixture to the mixing bowl with the egg and stir briefly to just combine, then add the brandy mixture. Add the remaining flour mixture and mix just until no flour is visible. Resist the urge to keep stirring. Overmixing will make the bread less tender.

Add the chopped fruit and gently fold or stir it into the batter.

Pour batter into the prepared loaf pan and sprinkle with the streusel mixture, covering the entire loaf.

Bake for 40 minutes to an hour, depending on the size of the pan. Begin checking at 40 minutes. The top of the loaf should spring back when touched.

Note: You can bake this recipe in a round cake pan or muffin tins, but you’ll need to adjust the baking times if you do so.

The flavor combination of cranberries and thyme in this recipe echoes one of Frost’s favorite fall sourdough loaves at Nightingale Breads, but in cookie form it comes together in a fraction of the time. Tailor these to your own liking, and swap out the cranberries for cherries or the thyme for rosemary. Try omitting the herbs and add orange zest and chocolate chips. The possibilities are endless, but the dried fruit-herb combination is very holiday-inspired.

Cranberry Thyme Cookies

Makes approximately 24 cookies

10 tablespoons butter (1 stick plus 2 tablespoons)

1 cup plus 2 ½ tablespoons flour

1 cup finely ground cornmeal

½ cup sugar

½ cup chopped dried cranberries

1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves (or 1 teaspoon dried)

2 egg yolks

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Cube the butter and leave at room temperature until slightly softened.

Combine flour, cornmeal, sugar and butter in a mixing bowl fitted with a paddle attachment or use a hand mixer. Mix until mealy. You can also mix by hand if needed, just try not to overmix.

Add the dried fruit and thyme. Add the yolks and vanilla extract, and mix until combined.

Form the dough, which will be a bit crumbly, into a log about 1 ½ inches in diameter. Wrap in parchment paper and chill in the refrigerator until the dough is firm.

Brush the dough lightly with water, and roll in granulated sugar. Slice into ½-inch thick rounds. If the dough crumbles slightly when you cut it, press the crumbs gently back onto the cookie slices.

Place cookies on a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake at 325 degrees for 15 to 18 minutes or until golden brown.

This pizza is inspired by Frost’s favorite fall flavors. It’s meant to be baked on the bakery’s take-and-bake pizza dough, but you can use any premade pizza dough or, if you have time, make your own. Frost uses a pizza screen (like a baking pan with holes) on a pizza stone to bake it, but a regular baking sheet or well-oiled cast-iron pan will work, too.

Autumn Pizza

Makes one 12-inch pizza

1 pound premade pizza dough

Delicata squash (or red kuri or butternut squash, see Note)

Fennell bulb, sliced thin

Shallot or small red onion, sliced thin

Prosciutto

Soft goat cheese, such as chevre or another soft cheese such as ricotta or burrata

Olive oil

Thyme (fresh is best)

Arugula

Vinegar (cider or sherry) or lemon juice

Cut open the delicata squash, scoop out the insides and thinly slice the squash. You don’t need to peel it because the peel is edible.

Stretch and shape the pizza dough on the baking pan.

Drizzle the dough with olive oil and salt. Layer on the squash, fennel, shallot and prosciutto. Keep in mind the ingredients will shrink as they cook. Dollop the cheese around the top. Drizzle again with olive oil and salt and bake at 500 degrees for 12 to 16 minutes. Peek under the crust — it should be golden in color.

While the pizza bakes, dress the arugula lightly with olive oil and vinegar or lemon juice. Strip the thyme leaves from their stems.

Once the pizza is done, sprinkle on the thyme and top with the dressed arugula.

Note: If using squash other than delicata, peel it, cut it in half, scoop out seeds and thinly slice it. If using precubed squash, roast it first for 20 to 30 minutes so it is cooked all the way through (the pizza cooking time may not be enough to soften it). This recipe is a great way to use leftover roasted squash.

You can reach staff writer Jennifer Graue at jennifer.graue@pressdemocrat.com