Saltine Baking Company making bread worth crying over

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Ashley Schmalenberg recalls a customer walking into her Regina bakery andannouncing she was having a terrible day.

"I just need to go eat this bread in my car and have a cry," she told the staff.

So, they cut up a loaf, buttered a slice, and sent her out to the parking lot with freshly baked comfort.

She isn't the only one to have shed a tear over Saltine Baking Company goods.

"I cried over this bread yesterday because it wasn't working," said Schmalenberg, the owner and head baker of the shop at 3904 Gordon Rd. in the city's south end.

"I like the challenge of bread," she said. "I like the physical process of it. I like being up and on my feet. I don't think I could work an office job."

Saltine isn't about cookies and cupcakes; it is a savoury-driven bakery. Schmalenberg wanted to differentiate her business from the existing bakeries in town, many of which specialize in sweets.She was also a cook before she learned to bake, working in fine dining and developing a passion for farm-to-table cuisine.

Schmalenberg didn't have enough money for culinary school, so she learned on the job. Her first gig was in 2010, cooking at Tangerine in Regina. She credits owner Aimee Schulhauser with introducing her to the culinary world, especially because Tangerine's menu changes daily. She accumulated binders of recipes, cut-outs from magazines and cookbooks.

"It was a way for me to get to taste so much new stuff that I had never had before because I grew up eating pretty basic, like meat and potatoes, at home," said Schmalenberg. "I didn't know salads could be anything more than iceberg lettuce and Thousand Island dressing."

Next, she cooked at The Willow (before it rebranded as Bar Willow), an experience that exposed her to a lot of local producers who were featured on the menu.

In 2013, she joined a former Tangerine co-worker and pastry chef, Lesia Matheson in Lumsden, Sask., at Fourth & James Bakery, which is now closed. Schmalenberg absorbed everything she could about baking, and started teaching herself how to make bread.

"I started making sourdough and things like that and got kind of obsessed with that on my own time," she said.

She found she enjoys the simplicity of bread and the triumph over its unpredictability.

"It's only three ingredients flour, water and salt, and then the culture but it can change. We've been doing this for years and yet every week, we're trying to figure out the bread. There are so many determining factors like the environment, where we live, the temperature changing and the culture rising slower or faster some days than others. But I like the challenge of trying to find some consistency in a product that seems so easy."

In 2014, her obsession led her to bake bread and sell it at the Regina Farmers' Market. It was hectic at first. She took a pastry chef position at The Willow and baked after hours in Lumsden, hauling the bread home overnight to sell at themarket on her days off.

Eventually, she quit her job at The Willow to focus on making bread full-time. She ran Saltine out of her house for a few years, selling her baking at themarket and taking on a few restaurant supplier contracts. She built connections with many growers whose produce you find freshly baked into her wares today.

Four years ago, Schmalenberg opened her storefront on Gordon Road. She spends part of the week baking for the nearly dozen local businesses she partners with, and the latter half open to walk-in customers,many of whom have become fiercely loyal.

"We have customers that immigrated from Germany or Eastern European countries who are like, 'I haven't had bread like this since I was last home,'" said Schmalenberg. "It's amazing."

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She has another customer whose young daughter plays kitchen at home and pretends she is running Saltine.

One loaf or buttery pastry at a time, Schmalenberg and her staff continue to make meaningful connections with the community.

"We're just trying to be good to one another," she said.