Livermore Falls bread maker offers the taste and warmth of Acadian culture.

Debbie Daigle, the owner of Pain Acadien Bread, grew up in Fort Kent surrounded by the Acadian culture. One of the trademarks of that culture is that they enjoy feeding people. Daigle recalls standing at her mother’s side while her mother baked loaf after loaf of homemade “pain” — pronounced like “peh”— in a big old oven, warming not only their family’s home but also their hearts.

“My mother baked all of the bread, she loved baking bread,” said Daigle. “My job was to bake the desserts. Every day when I came home from school it was my responsibility to fill a 13-by-9 (inch) pan with some type of dessert. In our family of 10, it was always gone by the end of the night. I baked desserts for eight of us children plus my parents.”

According to Daigle, one ingredient found in every Acadian pantry was molasses. She said they used it in most of their breads, pies and, of course, in baked beans. She said that besides adding flavor, it has preservative properties, giving breads a longer shelf life.

“Molasses was a staple and used very often, even as a cough medicine,” she said. “We would mix a little molasses with ginger to soothe the inflamed throat.”

Although Daigle’s mother baked all of the bread, she allowed young Debbie to watch and sometimes gave her small pieces of bread dough to work with, which allowed her to learn about the proper texture of bread.

After Daigle married, she decided it was time to warm the hearts and home of her own family with fresh-baked bread. She experimented with many types, her mother sharing advice over the telephone. Daigle’s brother, who has operated a Fort Kent hunting lodge for many years, later asked her to bake bread for the lodge.

“They used the bread to pack sandwiches for the hunters,” said Daigle. “The hunters came from all over New England and they always wanted to take some of the bread home with them.”

In 1994, Daigle and her husband moved out of Aroostook County. They eventually moved to Livermore Falls to work at the Child Evangelism Fellowship camp there. She baked fresh bread for the many people who came to the camp for retreats. She also started a bread-making business, Pain Acadien Bread, which she still operates from her home. She fills orders for individual customers, cafes, markets, caterers and farm stands.

“One of my children had picked strawberries for the summer and made good money,” said Daigle. “I later decided to try it and earned enough money picking strawberries to buy myself a big industrial mixer, which I use to make bread.”

According to her website, painacadien.com, each baking day Daigle begins with some serious prep work. Among the tasks: She mixes a cornmeal mush for the anadama recipe; an oatmeal porridge is cooked and then cooled for the dark oatmeal loaves; sunflower and sesame seeds are toasted and then added to cooked oats, wheat, corn and flax seeds for the multi-grain loaves; rye berries are ground into flour for the Swedish rye bread; and wheat berries are ground and then added to melted butter and warm milk for the wheat bread.

After the prep work is finished, Daigle adds other wholesome ingredients to her industrial mixer for each type of bread she will bake. She sets aside the dough to rise and later cuts and forms it into 2-pound loaves, 1.5-pound boules or rolls for baking, depending on the bread being made.

Pain Acadien Bread’s current selection of breads includes organic wheat bread, anadama, Martin white, multi-grain, dark oatmeal, cinnamon swirl, cinnamon raisin, Swedish rye and French loaf bread. Daigle also makes a variety of cookies including peanut butter, chocolate chip and ginger snaps (made with molasses, of course).

Daigle said most of her bread recipes come from older generations of Acadian women. Some of the recipes were her mother’s, and a number of them have interesting stories behind them.

“My Martin white recipe came from a mother of 19 children and made 10 to 12 loaves at a time,” said Daigle. “Instead of using measuring cups and spoons, all of the recipe’s measurements were made using a specific family-owned spoon. . . . My recipe for cottage cheese rolls also came from an older Acadian woman.”

Daigle grows her own herbs, which she not only uses in her baking but sells in packets at farm stands. She currently markets basil, chive, dill, oregano, spearmint, parsley, cilantro, rosemary, sage, lemon thyme, mint (chocolate and licorice) and sweet fern. All of the herbs she grows are free of pesticides and chemical fertilizers.

Daigle has also created seasoning packets containing herbs and other ingredients, which can be used for vegetable dips, meat rubs, seasoning baked potatoes or in bread-dipping oil.

Pain Acadien Bread’s baked goods, including special orders, are delivered year-round to the Flaky Tart Cafe in Winthrop. They can also be ordered by calling Daigle in advance at 207-897-3674. Her products are also available at Stevenson Farm Stand on Route 202 in Winthrop from the middle of June until the end of October. She is currently in the process of lining up additional outlets for her products.

Cottage cheese rolls

4 1/4 cups sifted flour

2 packages yeast

1/2 cup lukewarm water

2 cups cottage cheese

1/4 cup sugar

2 teaspoons salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

2 eggs beaten

Set oven to 350 degrees and preheat oven at the appropriate time.

Dissolve yeast in the lukewarm water.

Heat cottage cheese and sugar to lukewarm.

Add yeast mixture to cottage cheese mixture and stir.

Then stir in salt, baking soda and eggs.

Gradually add flour. Keep in covered bowl at room temperature to rise for two hours.

Cut into 24 equal parts and place in greased muffin tins and bake for 20 minutes

at 350 degrees in the preheated oven. (The rolls will rise in the oven as they bake.)

Gingerbread cake

3/4 cup plus 1 heaping tablespoon sugar

3 1/3 cups flour

1 tablespoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon cloves

1/2 teaspoon ginger

3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon oil

2 eggs

1 1/4 cups water

1 3/4 cups molasses

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix liquids and sift all dry ingredients. Then pour liquid into dry.

Mix well. Pour into a well-greased 13 -by-9-inch pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

Serve warm with a dollop of real whipped cream.

Bon appetit!

Pain Acadien

420 Campground Road, Livermore Falls

Email: [email protected]

Phone: 207-897-3674