Cincinnati’s Bread King – Sixteen Bricks

Cincinnati is known as the Queen City, and every queen needs her king!

What do you do when you are well into adulthood, have a six-figure job, hate your six-figure job, but your family needs your help to run their bread bakery? For some this could be a hard truth to deal with. Well for, Ryan Morgan, owner of Sixteen Bricks bakery, that question was a no brainer. You put your big boy pants on, quit your six-figure job, step out on faith and go help your family. We truly enjoyed ourselves behind the scenes with Sixteen Bricks. Ryan’s hard work, determination, drive, and hustle is what landed him to successfully continue to run his family’s bakery for 8 years now.

After living in Cincinnati for 2.5 years, seeing Sixteen Bricks on plenty of menus, tasting some of their bread at different locations, and seeing Ryan doing different collaborations; I thought hmmm this would be an awesome behind the scenes. Mannnnn, was I right! Ryan is such a dope soul! Him and his crew are some amazing people. Tiff Squared had the chance to make bread with the Sixteen Bricks crew for a day. Yes, a day to learn about all things bread (i.e. types of flours, shape, bread types, baking temperatures and times, etc.).

Let’s take a walk down memory lane to see how Sixteen Bricks was formed:

If you have had Sixteen Bricks bread, you know it is the bomb. com. It is what we like to hashtag #iyktyk (if you know, then you know). Lol! However, would you believe that Ryan use to be a medical equipment mechanic before he was what I like to call, Cincinnati’s Bread King? You would think by the taste of his amazing bread, he has been in the business for 10+ years. Nope, he has only been in the bread making business for 8 years. WOWZERS, is what we said! Don’t feel bad, we were shocked as well. The bakery first started with Ryan’s mother and father. Their concept was a little sit-down restaurant with food made from the heart. They grew their own veggies that they cooked and served to guests. The menu was seasonal so they could provide the best dishes with the freshest ingredients. Although his mom owned the restaurant, she bought her bread from another company. Her and this owner became great friends over the years. Suddenly, the bread company owner became ill, so Ryan’s mother bought his bread bakery. After years of running the bakery, it was time to pass down the reins. Ryan’s mother was also growing in age, and it was now time to retire and pass the bread bakery along. This is where Ryan had to step out on faith. He decided to quit his six-figure job as a mechanic and take over his mother’s bakery. Oh, not to mention he did not know a thing about bread. Like most men, he was not going to let his mother down. He learned what he needed to know and hired the help he needed. As many know, the food industry can be brutal. However, Ryan beat the odds, grinded through the storm and became what we know today, Sixteen Bricks Artisan Bakehouse a.k.a Cincinnati’s Bread King. A total bad *shut your mouth* 😊

Fast forward to November 2019:

Sixteen Bricks is booming and doing better than ever. Sixteen Bricks has its own bread factory where they produce thousands of lbs of bread a year. They produce bread for multiple restaurants and a few store locations (i.e Kroger).

Tiff Squared’s Bread Making Experience

Out of all the bread Sixteen Bricks can make, by now I am sure you are wondering what type Tiff Squared made. Wonder no more, Tiff Squared loves Focaccia Bread, so that is what we asked Ryan to teach us. Making Focaccia Bread is fun and easy.

First, you make the dough and let it sit for about 1-2 hours to rise.

Second, you get your baking dish. We used what looked to be 6-in cake pans. We then oiled each pan with olive oil. You must get the right amount of oil on the bottom and not add to much. Adding too much oil can fry your bread on the bottom. We then weighed out about 8-9 oz. of dough to fill each pan.

Third, we let the dough set for another 1-2 hours to rise again.

During this time, Ryan took us on a bakery tour. We went to all the different bread making stations (in no particular order) and learned the process on how to make bread. We got to see how the bread was loaded onto the conveyer belt to go into the oven. We watched a batch be loaded and off into the oven it went. Some of the bread had to be scored before it went into the oven. I, Tiff B., had the opportunity to score a few pieces. After the oven section, Ryan showed us what the finished product looks like. We then went into the walk-in refrigerator and learned about the different types of flour. After, we were able to go watch a batch of bread dough being made in the mixer. We even watched a bread machine pre-cut bread dough to make hoagies.

Now it was time to go back and check on our rising dough. We came back and it looked good.

Fourth, it was time for toppings! Oh yeah! We kept it simple and did salt, black pepper, and rosemary. MMM MMM MMM! Just the smell of all of the seasonings had us very excited about the finished product. Tiff D. topped the bread dough with the selected seasonings.

Fifth, now it was time for the bread to go into the oven. Our bread baked for about 30-40 min.

Sixth, take the bread out the oven and let it cool. Then enjoy! The taste of simple ingredients like salt, black pepper, and dried rosemary add great flavor. The three ingredients were robust in flavor yet worked well together on the palate. The notes of rosemary add an earthy taste while the pepper added that light kick of spice. The salt was the cherry on top adding that tangy element that we all know goes so well with bread. The texture of the Focaccia Bread was light and airy. It had the perfect chew as well.

While we waited for the bread to bake and cool, we spent the last 30-40 min in the pastry section talking to Sixteen Brick’s pastry chef, Bec. She was super cool and taught us simple terms and looks of pastry making. We learned the lamination of bread and what it is supposed to look like. The lamination when talking about pastries is the honeycomb look you should see. If you cut a croissant in half, it should have a uniform honeycomb look on both pieces. After all that learning, we worked up an appetite. The best part of it all besides meeting incredible people, tasting time! We got to sample our delicious Focaccia Bread we made! YYAAAYY! We also got to sample some amazing pastries. We tried different croissant flavors like plan, lemon custard filled, jam filled, chocolate filled, and cream cheese filled. All were very tasty. The croissant layers themselves were light and flaky. They are working on their new line of pastries that are offered to a few local restaurants.

Kudos and much respect to Ryan and his team! Our day in the bakery was time well spent and everyone made us feel at home. You can’t go wrong with any type of bread from Sixteen Bricks. If you haven’t tried them, be sure you do. You are totally missing out! If you have, well keep continuing to eat their bread. No one is counting your calories, plus who doesn’t love carbs? We sure do! Give them a try, you will be just as impressed as we are!