About the Bakery
Flour Girls & Dough Boys
Artisan Bakery & Cafe
35 N. Barratt Ave (150 West)
American Fork, UT 84003
801-763-9232 bakery
801-763-9237 fax
Flour Girls & Dough Boys is a 100% scratch bakery and an American Fork restaurant patterned after an East Coast style bakery and cafe. Carol Coppins, the owner of Flour Girls & Dough Boys, lived in Boston for 13 years. In that time, she came to love real European artisan breads. They were available everywhere. When she and her family moved to Utah Valley in 2005, it was very hard to find real European style artisan breads. A popular local restaurant claims they make naturally leavened artisan breads, but later she found out that they put yeast in all of them. Upon further investigation, we found that only Crumb Brothers from Logan, UT makes most of their breads without commercial yeast. All the others use commercial yeast to achieve their results.
Carol decided she wanted to make the best bread possible for this altitude and dry conditions. She studied at The San Francisco Baking Institute and learned the basics of making naturally leavened breads. After more practice and experimentation she went to Vermont to study under the world-renowned master baker and author, Jeffrey Hamelman at King Arthur Flour. From Mr. Hamelman’s direction, she learned many of the advanced techniques she uses today in the art and science of making truly great, naturally leavened artisan breads.
After several more months of experimentation, on December 5, 2007, Flour Girls & Dough Boys opened for business. Carol’s vision for the bakery-cafe was to bring back the lost goodness of the corner bakery in the neighborhood. In a rush to make everything faster, cheaper, and last longer on the shelf, bakeries all started to seem the same. Eventually, the term “scratch” was lost from the baker’s practice and it was determined to be much more “cost effective” to buy things manufactured in large plants, frozen, and then delivered to the bakery to be thawed and then ”fresh baked”. Or, alternatively, a mix is used to keep it simple. As a result, everything now looks great, is easy and cheap, but tastes the same (bland).
Carol’s vision for the local bakery was to be committed to make everything from scratch and to use only the best ingredients. We may be crazy, but we even make our own chocolate croissants (pain au chocolat) from scratch and our buttery, shortbread tart cups from scratch. No one does that anymore. But if we succumbed to outside pressures on even one product, then we wouldn’t be a 100% scratch bakery. Today we use only 100% real dairy butter, real vanilla, organic flours, Lehi Roller Mills unbleached wheat flour, RealSalt, pure Korintji cinnamon, pure cocoa powder, etc.
That is how it all started. Then when you make amazing breads, the next logical step is to make great sandwiches with those breads. That is how our cafe started. Carol starts with one of our signature breads and then imagines what kind of sandwich would be great with the bread. For example, starting with our popular Cranberry Walnut bread, Carol designed a sandwich with sliced smoked turkey, brie cheese lightly spread on the bread and topped with a creamy cranberry spread. Even today that is one of our most popular sandwiches. Imagine what you could do with 10 different breads and a lot of creativity.
Today, Flour Girls & Dough Boys is a full service artisan bakery and cafe. Walk in and enjoy the smells, the colors, and the great service - something not seen since the local bakeries from 25 years ago. Bring a friend along to share the best tasting breads, pastries, soups, salads, and sandwiches.