Jersey Girl Bread shop, a new addition to the Bayonne Farmers Market scene this year, is serving up authentic and Instagram worthy sourdough bread. Jersey girl native and Bayonne residents Elissa D’Aries and husband Gonzalo Aurelio-Solis are the duo behind the scenes running this new local business.
As the daughter to a single mom, Elissa recalls getting into baking in her adolescent years as a way to embark on a culinary escape from her childhood staple of fast convenience foods, a necessity borne from the demands on her mother raising a family and financially supporting them. In her youth, Elissa started with focusing on quick breads such as cakes and muffins and branched out to other breads as she came into her adult years. While always an activity she enjoyed, scarcity of time prevented her from fully realizing her potential.
However, once the pandemic came, the extra time on her hands allowed her to pour herself into this passion and she begun to explore the world of sourdoughs. Captivated by its artisanal process and unique flavor, she began to pursue baking the slow-rising bread in full. She scoured the internet, learning more about the process, what were keys to success and what mistakes to avoid. Over time, she began to perfect the process, and even implemented a proprietary process that greatly reduces the amount of waste that the typical sourdough bread takes to make, a fact that sustainable conscientious Elissa and Gonzalo are quite proud of. After many compliments from friends, and noticing that there were limited true sourdough options available in town, the couple decided to introduce the concept of Jersey Girl Bread Shop.
To say that baking the bread is a labor of love is an understatement. True sourdough bread is quite the lengthy process, taking about 10 hours to complete baking. The time intensiveness is caused by the time the yeast needs to work in order for the bread to rise and get its unique flavor. The first process takes six hours alone, typically with enough dough for a full batch of bread. After that completes, the bread is further separated into loaf size amounts and a second “rise” of 2-3 hours is required to get the signature bubbles in the bread. Once that is completed Elissa and Gonzalo implement a scoring process which gives their bread its beautiful picturesque crust, a rarity super markets given their use of plastic bags which tend to make the firm crust go bad.
While one may think of the sourdough at your local grocery store being its own unique class of bread, sourdough is actually a process of baking and can be applied to any bread, a fact that shines through in the wide variety of bread the local bakery offers. Traditional plain sourdough, rye, and multigrain are available each week at their farmer’s market stand, with at least one rotating special each week. Choices rotating through include customer favorites of cheddar jalapeño, zucchini bread, baguette, sesame semolina, focaccia, pumpernickel to more palette forward options of Pistachio Babka, beet sourdough, and ube sourdough and more. While most bread is by nature vegan, Jersey Girl Bread Shop is proud to note that all of their options are including their jalapeño cheddar loaf.
For those interested in supporting your local Jersey girl, Elissa recommends putting in an order ahead of time on her website, Jersey Girl Bread Shop, for pick-up at the Bayonne Farmers Market, as popular items can sell-out. The farmer’s market runs from 2PM-7PM every Tuesday from April – November 7, and is located at 23rd Street and Broadway. For the time being, the bakery is only available for sales or online order pick-ups at the farmers market, although Elissa did let us know that there’s future plans to continue selling afterwards. The plans are being kept under wraps for the moment with an official announcement expected this fall. We will be on the lookout for it.
