As Kneaded Bakery — Restaurant in San Leandro

Shopping at Monterey Market just before closing on Thusday, I found that there was a new kind of bread in town. Always excited to try goods from a new bakery, I picked up a loaf, tucked it under my arm, and ducked and dived along a socially distant path to the checkout. Actually it was almost the only loaf of bread left in the entire store, so I feel double-blessed to have found it. The Loaf: spelt walnut, weighing in at an impressive 910 grams and costing $7.69 at Monterey Market – bear in mind that it’s almost three times the weight of a 12 oz Semifreddies loaf. The Bakery: As Kneaded Bakery (AKB) in San Leandro, recently picked by Sunset magazine as one of the 23 best bakeries in the West and recently listed as one of the top 100 bakeries in America by Food & Wine magazine. I’ve started to gravitate towards walnut bread and have found a few that are very good – most notably the sourdough levain with walnuts from Fournée Bakery. I got a sense from the nicely designed paper bag that the As Kneaded loaf was also going to be good. It was. It had a nice crust that was, for lack of a more accurate word, crusty, but not too charred or tough. It had a good texture inside too – plenty of holes but it held together after being loaded with avocado and tomato. I think my liking for the bread crept up on me because I had it for breakfast (one slice with avocado and tomato, the other with banana and salt) and then for lunch decided to have the exact same thing! Lockdown life, eh? By the way, try the banana and salt combo – it’s really good on a hearty bread like this one and it may sound pedestrian but the salt makes all the difference. One banana, one avocado, one small heirloom tomato + 4 slices of spelt walnut = two of my meals covered.

Along with the regular rating, I think that the As Kneaded deserves 4/5 Green Stars for social and environmental impact, based on these factors: • AKB is a woman-owned business and also wants to support other woman-owned businesses • Providing good bread to the residents of San Leandro, where good bakeries were scarce before AKB came along • Their main flour is not organic but most of the other flours (whole spelt, whole wheat, rye) are organic • My loaf was made with local walnuts. Could do with a bit more info on sourcing in general • AKB recently ran a fundraiser for The East Oakland Collective to support racial and economic equality • Their bags are made from post-consumer recycled paper and printed with water-based inks. • Most of their breads are vegan and most of the rest of their menu...

I finally found some time to visit As kneaded bakery in San Leandro. This is not a cafe, just a bakery and the caged up liquor store next store makes the area look grittier than it is.

There's a lot to like about this bakery. I arrived near closing and was greetly by a friendly person at the door. I got the honey sage foccaccia and flax and sun flower loaf.

The foccacia is probably different from what you get from other bakeries. Less bready, perhaps more oily,and the honey glaze definitely makes their version sweeter. Nonetheless, I think tastes great. The sage is not overpowering and strikes the right balance between sweet and savory.

The flax sunflower loaf is heavy and hearty, but as advertised on the bag, it retains a light and open (somewhat spongy) texture. Its hardly sour and the seeds provide a nice aftertaste

Their breads and pastries are not cheap but this is a locally owned business that genuinely wants to offer quality products. As the numerous awards attest to, that's worthy of support. I'll go back...

I've been wanting to try As Kneaded Bakery for a year or two now, and finally made it there. And I'm so disappointed. The person was friendly, but said something was different than it was (cardamom and poppy seed was said to be apricot and cardamom), and the chocolate chip brioche buns are almost black on the bottom and very dense, and the challah loaf is also very dark and dense--actually every item I got seems to be slightly overbaked and dense for what it should be. I want to support local businesses, especially women-owned and seeming to pay workers fairly, but I won't go back. Seeing all the positive reviews, maybe it was just an off baking day? Wishing I'd only gotten one thing for my teens and I to try...