Press
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“She makes her brownie with corn, single-origin cacao, and fermented cacao nibs in a process that teases out fruity notes so pronounced you might mistake the taste for cherries or dates. The result? A brownie that’s both deeply fudgy and surprisingly light.”
“The name alone, with its emphasis on “bread,” makes it clear where baker/proprietor Kerry Hanney’s true passion lies. You can taste her commitment to stone-milled local grains in every bite. The breads are “unparalleled,” “the best,” and Hanney is “a wizard.” The bakery, just over the Casco Bay Bridge if you’re coming from Portland, opened in 2023 in its current location. Previously, Hanney made her “incredible” loaves in Biddeford.”
Night Moves Bread is a semifinalist in the “Outstanding Bakery” category.
“The sandwich ($15), with its thinly sliced, nearly translucent radishes, carpet of pea shoots, and lemon-chive vinaigrette shouted spring. I am sad to report I ate it sitting at my desk, but in a perfect world, I’d have tucked it into my bike pannier, hopped onto the bike path in South Portland (which passes right by Night Moves) and ridden to Bug Light for a picnic.”
“A few of her dark-crusted, tender-crumbed Country Sourdough loaves are spending their last minutes in her Italian deck oven, while a freestanding mill whirrs away grinding grain. All of Hanney’s bread, as far removed from plastic-bagged commercial loaves as a Tiffany solitaire is from a gumball-machine ring, is naturally leavened and made with regionally sourced wheat, rye, and other grains.”
“[Using a fermented starter is] a very old process—there is an intuitive way that it fits into the rhythm of life,” says Kerry Hanney, owner of Night Moves Bread & Pie, who uses sourdough cultures in all of her baking.
“For me, this story began with a single loaf of bread. Or more accurately a photograph of a single loaf of sourdough bread, one that I encountered on my Instagram feed a few years ago. It was a lovely loaf, its flour-dusted crust a deep, ruddy mahogany, with a giant, almond-shaped eye across its back whose glossy, textured iris revealed every shade of brown from hazel to buff. I was smitten, and not merely because it was a beauty to behold; as a sourdough bread baker myself, I knew immediately that this was a bread made with skill and exacting care. Moreover, I could tell, without even seeing it on the inside, that it would be delicious. It was exactly the sort of loaf that I aspire to produce every time I bake myself.”
“Can a loaf of sourdough have terroir, just like wine? If yes, Kerry Hanney's would be Maine in bread form — one of the region's most forward-thinking bakers leans heavily on local grains and mills them herself.”