“Every home feels more like home when there’s a baked bread ready to eat,” Hailey Labbe says as she speaks to me about her sourdough baking story. The owner of PAX Bread by Hailey started with a simple desire to bake a bread that she could eat, which gave rise to a business she never expected.
Hailey kneaded her first doughy blob in college after learning that sourdough was a bread she could tolerate, given her gluten allergy. With a bread scale in hand, she went to a woman whom she heard made bread. “She taught me the basics- it was hard, and I gave it up for a while,” admits Hailey.
Her reintroduction to sourdough bread baking came after moving to Denver for mission work. “I lived with a group of people, and I’d bake something for breakfast and make sourdough on weekends.”
When she moved home, to Rayne, in 2023, she brought her bread starter and kept at it. “I had an extra day off in my schedule and I wanted to fill it with something,” says Hailey, who works part-time at our Lady of Wisdom Church in the advancement office. “It’s been a lot of trial and error with many recipes,” she shares. “It’s so scientific, and it satisfies my creative side – and I really like working with my hands.”
While her hands are her most useful tool, Hailey also relies on her standing mixer, bench scrapper and kitchen scale. “I couldn’t do without my kitchen scale; the measurements for the ingredients have to be precise,” she adds.
From her kitchen, Hailey mixes, kneads and bakes sourdough loaves in flavors of chocolate (a favorite of hers), rosemary garlic, blueberry lemon, cheddar jalapeno (a top seller,) and original sourdough, the best seller. She also makes sourdough chocolate chip cookies, cinnamon rolls and sandwich loaves. Her preferences for eating her bread: plain sourdough toasted with ghee (clarified butter) and scrambled eggs, or with a healthy smear of almond or peanut butter.
Making bread is a very contemplative task, and on a big bake day, Hailey listens to podcasts. But more often she says, “I appreciate the silence; my mind will wander while I’m in the process. (Sounds of birds chirping and ducks quacking can be heard over the phone.) It’s peaceful knowing that I’m the one who made the breads; I know what’s in them – and what’s not. There are no additives, no preservatives.” With a label bearing the promise “Handmade Especially for You,” Pax Bread is light and fluffy inside, with a crisp ridge or “ear,” giving it an old-world look. It’s also a sign of good fermentation. The crust is on the dark side, which Hailey says makes for a better flavor. Getting it to that perfect color and texture comes with experience. As she tells me, “I know the patterns of my oven and when to cover the baking dough and uncover it and reduce the temperature and when to take the bread out after testing the internal temperature with a thermometer.” If, for whatever reason unimaginable, a loaf is still on your kitchen counter after four days, Hailey suggests cutting it into slices and freezing them in a Ziploc bag. Since becoming a vendor at the Delcambre Seafood & Farmers Market this summer, Hailey has often sold out of the 36, or so, loaves she’s brought. (If you have the chance to buy some of her pumpkin cookies, grab those too.) “The Delcambre Market is my first market; I wanted to be a vendor because I’d heard really good things about it,” she says. “I like how it’s in a small town, but there are a lot of people. I like the live music and how people can get fresh seafood from the boats. The vendors support one another, and customers are remembering me!” Between markets, customers can call in or text orders to Pax’s business line, 337-393-0166. Make sure to plan ahead for the holidays.
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