This is exactly how Julius Brantner pictured it: working at his table in the bright sunlight that floods through the shop window. You’ll struggle to find a more transparent bakery. Julius loves working with his hands, kneading the dough that he later transforms into his crispy loaves.
Simply the best bread
In Munich, Black-Forest-native Julius Brantner bakes a bread so crisp and delicious
that it's best enjoyed just with a bit of butter.
His working day starts at around two in the morning. This is pretty run of the mill for bakers, as most of their customers want fresh loaves and rolls in the morning, but it’s also one of the reasons why there are fewer and fewer real bakers today. Not many people want to rise so early. Julius could make his life a little easier by prebaking his bread in the evening, but then it wouldn't be as fresh in the morning. And then, his employees might as well work for a big chain bakery, where bread rolls off production lines and night shifts aren’t needed. But they’d end up just standing at machines and pushing buttons – they wouldn’t be making bread by hand, and this is something that they are incredibly proud of.
Just bake a properly made loaf of bread
Just like their boss, the 22 bakers in Julius’ team are driven by conviction. And you can really taste this dedication in their bread – it’s flavourful with a uniquely crispy crust, and it still tastes delicious five days later. The secret of the bread is in its simplicity. “I’m not trying to reinvent the wheel, just bake a properly made loaf of bread,” says Julius. He only uses flour, water, yeast and salt in his bread, no chemical raising agents or anything of the sort. That, he insists, is enough. Well, almost. There is one more important ingredient: time. The dough has to be left to rise for 24 to 48 hours, until all the ingredients have perfectly combined.
The art of sourdough
Speaking of ingredients, of course Julius doesn’t use just any flour. The Black-Forest-native, who originally moved to Munich for love back in 2019, spent a long time searching before he found miller Monika Drax east of Munich. She produces the exact flour that he'd had in mind. It’s made from grains from organic farmers that Monika knows and trusts. The second most important ingredient is the sourdough starter with its precisely calibrated pH value, which the master baker has been feeding regularly and using for six years now. “Every baker has their own sourdough starter,” explains Julius. “It’s a living organism. It’s not something that you can go out and buy. You have to spend quite a lot of time experimenting with different things until you get a starter that you like. A few of the wrong bacteria and the dough tastes awful.” Julius has already moved his starter three times. When he set up his bakery in Munich’s quarter of Schwabing, he dissolved a lump of it in water and spread it on the walls and surfaces to show the microflora in the room who was calling the shots now.
To get even crisper crusts, Julius Brantner grinds up old bread and mixes the crumbs into the dough.
When it’s gone, it’s gone
Julius now runs two bakeries in Munich, making a few hundred loaves each day. That's all – no more. Once they're sold out, which can happen quite early in the day, he closes up shop. Julius refuses to throw anything away or produce too much. If you want to be certain to get your hands on a loaf of his bread, it’s best to reserve it online first.
Literally working in the shop window
Julius, who comes from a family of bakers, has travelled all over the world to hone his craft. In 2012, he spent some time in Australia where he worked in a bakery that was unlike anything he had experienced before. “It was stylish and cool.” It was a quite an eye-opener for the globe-trotting baker. When he moved to Munich, he had planned to study computer science but quickly realised that he couldn’t give up baking. He sought out a suitable bakery, although this took a while because he wanted to find somewhere with a massive window for him to work in. “I wanted transparency and openness, and a pleasant working environment for myself and my team,” shares Julius in his noticeable Black Forest accent, which hasn’t disappeared even after so many years in Munich. He can now often be found kneading and shaping his dough at his table in the window, just like he always wanted. His customers and neighbours often peer in
and watch him produce loaf after loaf.
The dough needs time to rest
You can really feel the joy that Julius (“I only do what I feel like doing”) and his team put into their work, leaving you wondering why there aren’t more bakers in Germany who work with as much passion and produce such wonderful bread. “For one thing, our style of baking costs more. To let the dough rest properly, you need lots of space and lots of energy for cooling,” explains Julius.
“We actually have three tonnes of dough cooling in our cool store right now. It’s a more complex operation because we have to plan further in advance. And of course, it all costs money. This is why our bread is significantly more expensive than bread you can get from the supermarket. But it tastes better, is more digestible, lasts longer and you don't have to throw anything away.”
„“Bread needs character. I’m not trying to reinvent the wheel, just bake a properly made loaf of bread.”“
A passion for bread
Another problem facing the industry is that bakers simply can’t find the staff anymore. The hours are tough, and no one is getting rich in the trade. Julius, however, has no problems finding bakers for his bakery. “Lots of people want to learn with us and work with their hands. They’re people with a real passion for bread.” He usually asks new employees to commit to at least one year. Only then they can truly understand how to bake good bread and learn the subtleties of the process so that they can then go on to try new things. Julius currently only sells three types of bread, but he does also make a special loaf every day – on Fridays, for instance, it's “Opa Walters Körnerbrot” (or “Granddad Walter’s Granary Loaf” in English).
This is what a loaf should look like. The crust on Julius’ “Bio Brothandwerk 25”, the master baker’s personal favourite loaf, is
particularly stunning.
There will be cake as well
“I’m here in the bakery every day, baking bread is my entire life. But every now and then, I wouldn't mind a bit more happening. If the right property came up, I could imagine opening a third or fourth bakery in Munich – though heaven forbid it turns into a chain or anything like that! We could even expand our range a little. I love cake so much, and we’ve actually been experimenting with a simple cherry crumble, but I haven’t been able to find the perfect recipe yet. It has to be simple and tasty, just like our bread.”
Text: Peter Würth
Photos: Kathrin Koschitzki
