A Warmly Project

Loaves of
Love

A century of family baking, carried to the firehouse table.
Now it's a movement.

The Origin

It started with
a baker named Marc

Marc learned to bake at Michalski Bakery, his family's shop on the South Side of Chicago, which opened in the late 1910s. Its recipes were handed down across generations. Fire stations were as much a part of that neighborhood as the corner store.

Baking ran in the family, and now, so does firefighting — Marc's cousin Joe became a firefighter. So he did what he knows best: He started baking.

Three cousins: Marc the baker, Joe the firefighter, and Jesse the builder. Each doing his part to connect the family's history to a new tradition, and to a devotion to serving the people who serve us.

Every firehouse has a kitchen. Every kitchen needs a loaf. Every loaf is a bridge.

Michalski Bakery

South Side, Chicago

Marc

at the window, after hours

Bake Share Feed

The Mission

Three ways to spread the warmth

Bake

Learn recipes born in firehouse kitchens — built for big crews, tight budgets, and the bell going off mid-bake. Every recipe is station-tested.

Browse recipes

Pass the starter. Share your recipes with the community. Adapt them for your station. The best ones spread like sourdough culture.

Share a recipe

Feed

Drop off a meal. Claim a shift. Feed the crew that protects your neighborhood. It takes 60 seconds to make someone's day.

Feed a station

From Marc's Kitchen

The original recipes

View all

Marc's kitchen

Cinnamon Swirl Quick Bread

No yeast, no waiting: a tender sour-cream loaf with a thick ribbon of cinnamon sugar through the middle and more on top, swirled once with a knife. Mixed in one bowl, baked in a loaf pan, sliced for breakfast.

easy75mServes 10

Marc's kitchen

Parker House Rolls

Light, fluffy, buttery dinner rolls — the ones Molly Yeh serves at her restaurant, made at home. One soft enriched dough, a long knead, two rises, twenty-four little balls baked shoulder to shoulder in a quarter-sheet pan, then brushed with butter and flaky salt. They freeze well shaped; bake them off fresh.

easy220mServes 24

Marc's kitchen

Sourdough Biscuits

A buttermilk biscuit with a cup of starter in it — active or discard, either works. Cold butter cut in, three letter folds for layers, cut into six squares so there are no scraps. Brushed with butter out of the oven.

easy36mServes 6

Marc's kitchen

Sourdough Discard Biscuits

Five ingredients and your starter's discard: frozen butter grated into flour, one letter fold for layers, a quick freeze, and a hot oven. Flaky, tangy, done in under an hour. One batch makes five tall biscuits — the answer to "what do I do with the discard?"

easy40mServes 5

Marc's kitchen

Croissant Bread

A laminated loaf: a soft milk dough folded four times around a slab of salted butter, rolled up, cut into five fat rolls and stood side by side in a loaf pan. Bakes an hour to a deep gold and pulls apart in flaky layers. One batch makes one 9 × 5 loaf.

advanced345mServes 10

Marc's Original

Sourdough Starter

Marc’s sourdough culture — the “starter” — from the family notebook. Flour, filtered water, a glass jar, and about six days of discard-and-feed until it doubles, bubbles, and smells pleasingly tangy. Keep it fed and it keeps you baking. This is what the Sourdough Loaf calls for.

easy

Marc's Original

Sourdough Loaf

Marc’s everyday sourdough from the family notebook: four ingredients in grams, a day of stretch-and-folds, an overnight rest in the fridge, and a screaming-hot dutch oven with a handful of ice for steam. One batch makes one crackling round loaf.

intermediate580mServes 12

Marc's kitchen

Star Bread

Four thin rounds of soft yeasted dough, brushed with butter and cinnamon sugar, stacked, cut into sixteen and twisted into a star. Egg-washed, baked golden, dusted with confectioners' sugar. One batch makes one 12-inch star — or two little ones.

intermediate175mServes 8