Sourdough bread has a lot on its plate.
As a fermented food it is more digestible than unfermented wheat. It’s good for your gut microbiome.
It is lower in gluten, and higher in protein.
Plus, it tastes very, very good.
Especially if it is made by Inna Faifman.
She’s been in Weston less than 2 years. But her handcrafted artisan home-baked sourdough bread — white, whole wheat, oat porridge, country, rye, chocolate and walnut cranberry — all under the “Baked in Weston” brand, have earned her a devoted (and fulfilled) following.
Inna Faifman, in her kitchen.
Inna’s route to sourdough began in Khabarovsk, the far eastern Russia city near the Chinese border where she grew up.
She baked and cooked, like her mother and grandmother. But a chance encounter with an American exchange program representative brought her to the University of Oregon in 1995. Fortuitously, she majored in English at her Russian college.
Life in America was exciting and new. She stayed.
Inna worked as executive assistant to the president of a New York City research firm. She married a Russian man. They moved to the Cranbury section of Norwalk, where she was raising their 2 daughters.
The move to Weston in 2023 included a large, well-equipped kitchen.
That was important. As much as Inna loves the US, the food here is “different” than what she grew up with.
When she could not find the kind of bread she liked, she began experimenting.
Eight years ago, she made a starter from scratch. (Also called leaven, the mix of flour and water ferments over time. The collection of live microorganisms and naturally occurring wild yeasts metabolize sugars in the flour. If maintained properly, leaven can live for years. Inna calls her starter “bubbly and very happy.”)
One type of Inna’s sourdough …
Family and friends loved her sourdough. They encouraged her to bake for others.
She kneads her bread by hand. All loaves — except for chocolate — are fully vegan. All are oil-free (except the sourdough sandwich loaf, which contains cold-pressed extra virgin olive oil).
Word spread. Inna now has regular customers in Weston, Westport and Norwalk. Many take advantage of weekly, bi-weekly or monthly subscriptions. Individual orders are welcome too, with at least 24 hours’ notice.
She delivers her bread fresh out of the oven — on their schedules. “It’s so exciting to see them get it!” she says.
… and 3 more.
Inna’s sourdough bread has no additives or preservatives. It goes stale after about 3 days of countertop storage, if not wrapped in a natural material cloth like linen or a cotton kitchen towel.
In a freezer bag, it can be stored for up to 4 months.
Inna is a strong advocate for sourdough. “If people consume and learn about how it’s made, they’ll appreciate better tasting and healthier bread,” she says.
She makes her bread “the traditional, historical way, using long, slow fermentation. It unlocks the nutrients in the wheat, and makes the bread nutritious and easy to digest.”
Sourdough baking fills a large part of each day (including weekends). But Inna also tutors English as a second language at Bridgeport’s Dunbar Elementary School.
Then it’s back to Weston, where she bakes more sourdough loaves — and speaks the universal language of nutritious, delicious food, baked with love.
(For more information, and to order Inna’s sourdough, click here, or email inna@bakedinweston.com.)
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