In February and March 2022, I relocated my home office to Madeira. You can take a look at this post to see some of the highlights of my stay.
Since I could not live without sourdough bread and who knew what I would be able to get on the island, I smuggled my little friends the sourdough starters on the plane to Madeira. Luckily they survived and contributed substantially to my food security during my stay.
Since a lot of my home equipment was missing, I used what I could to make my dough and bake my bread. Also, the flour I could get in the supermarket influenced the results a lot. However, I baked tasty San Francisco sourdough bread after the recipe of Lutz Geißler from Ploetzblog.de. Instead of only white flour, I used up to 20% whole wheat flour to make the bread taste nuttier.
So I baked my bread, did my work and explored the island. Besides this already busy schedule I wanted more. My wish was to visit some artisan bakeries in Madeira and if possible, spend some days with them in my free time. So I searched the internet and Instagram. The first one I found was promising, but when I got to the address, the bakery was already closed (forever)…
Then I was looking for the second option in São João da Madeira, which the name convinced me was located in Madeira! However, after hitting the search button, I realized that the Portuguese give their towns misleading names, since I found myself on mainland Portugal in a small town, with a great industrial past, and definitely not my Madeira.
I was thinking, OK, if not now, I could maybe pass by during my upcoming sabbatical there, to get to know the people behind the mouthwatering products posted on Insta. So I sent a message. And what a warm answer I got back! I was really surprised that, after just a short conversation, my visit and mini internship at Azeda were arranged.
After spending Easter at my friends’ place in Aveiro, I took the Vouguinha to São João da Madeira. This was a little train on a secondary line, the last surviving metre gauge railway line in Portugal, making its curvy journey between the beautiful hills of the Vouga valley. After an hour of ride I entered the bakery in the afternoon and finally met Antonio. He invited me for a delicious specialty coffee and a very tasty toasted brioche to still my hunger! I was ready for my first internship in a bakery!
Antonio and Barbara, the owners of Azeda, are two lovely, hard-working, and passionate people for quality and healthy food, which you can easily see in what is offered in the bakery: sourdough bread and pastry, organic products from local businesses, such as beer, marmalade, self-made kombucha and herbal infusions, and every day a tasty and inventive lunch menu.
You might ask, how does lunch get into a bakery? Well, Antonio and Barbara worked for years in London as chefs in restaurants, so after they returned to Portugal and decided to open their own business, a bakery seemed the best option – however still risky in the pandemic year of 2021. Since they did not want to renounce making delicious dishes, it was clear: lunch would be a part of the “menu”.
That was just right for me because besides learning about artisan baking on a larger scale than my kitchen, I could also participate in the preparation of the lunch and desserts and many other dishes. That opportunity, along with the friendly team, made my experience at Azeda unforgettable. After the few days in April, I got the chance to return for a whole week in July and keep the experience going.
The team was very patient with me, they shared their skills and knowledge, without being too tired to show and explain again and again when my brain was just to slow to process everything. A big thanks to Antonio, who trusted me to produce kind of tricky stuff, like brioche and pastry in not ideal conditions (temperatures in summer are not the best friend of a dough with butter!) but he was always there to take over when I felt I couldn’t handle it anymore.
The days were long and demanding. But hey, then there is passion and fun, you just don’t care! We baked bread with olives, goat cheese, seeds, oat, chocolate, then brioche, croissants, cruffin, cookies, pastel de nata, tarte tatin, focaccia, pizza… We laughed, joked, sang and shared all the work from baking to dishwashing. I loved the time with those guys!
So if you are ever traveling in northern Portugal, in the Porto metropolitan area, take a day trip to São João da Madeira! The city is part of the industrial tourism route (you can learn about history of the shoe and hat industries). Visit Azeda to start your day or grab some lunch, say “Hi” to Antonio and Barbara from Endre, and enjoy your meal!
