'God told me to make bread': Baker brings creativity to new Franklin Bakehouse

Randy Thompson poured flour on the surface and stretched the gluten of a cranberry and pecan bread dough. 

He pieced the bread together with ease, sprinkling maroon berries and brown tree nuts into the mixture and turning the dough into a loaf. Before it hits the hot oven, Thompson will give the dough another rise with his special ingredient.

"That's the best thing I can do for a recipe is give it time," he said, standing inside his Franklin kitchen on Fair Street. "The deliciousness and wheat will come to the forefront. It takes time."

A number of loaves sat on his dining room table, waiting to go to customers across Williamson County and other parts of the country. Soon, loaves like them will go on the shelves at the new Franklin Bakehouse, which is part of downtown's newest development, Harpeth Square. 

The bakery will be European style, with sandwiches ready to go, an array of daily fresh bread and on-tap wine and beer. 

"It’s literally been a two-decade dream to open a small bakery/prepared foods concept since 2001," Franklin Bakehouse owner Angie Muir said. "He was the most coveted piece, and I knew if we wanted to bring a European-style market we needed someone like him."

How the bread making began 

Crispy. Burnt. Black. 

That's how the first loaves went for Thompson in 2014. 

That year, Thompson said, he was on a mission trip when he heard a nudging from above. 

"God told me to make bread," Thompson said. "I distinctly heard a voice tell me to learn how to make bread. So I bought two or three books to download them, and they made no sense to me whatsoever."

When Thompson returned home, he tried loaf after loaf only to meet failure time and time again. During one of his last attempts before he thought he would hang up his apron, a perfect loaf popped out of the oven. 

"It was an exercise in futility and frustration for a long time," he said with a chuckle. "When God calls Moses to build a temple in the desert, he tells the Lord his people don’t have the skills. God said he would gift them, and that did not happen to me."

Creativity and serendipity 

Three years ago on a lark, Thompson made his way to the Leiper's Fork Distillery for a tour. 

While there, he wondered if the mash used for whiskey could be used in bread. 

That spirit of experimentation is what garnered nearly a dozen different loaves he's created. Whiteboards listing those breads and what days they'll be made leaned against the counter in front him. 

"For example, I was getting frustrated at onion and garlic, and it just wasn't working," he said. "You sit up at 3 in the morning, and it was because I hadn’t calculated the water content. With bread, you have yeast, water, salt and flour. That’s the process, and what I have to monkey around with is the water."

That same ingenuity is what he hopes customers will enjoy in downtown Franklin. 

"I like doing and being creative," he said. "If I had to make sandwich bread all day, I am not interested. There’s plenty of people who do that, and I would get bored pretty easy. That's why I am looking forward to the Franklin Bakehouse. I am excited to serve up customers something they might not have otherwise thought about trying." 

Emily West is a reporter with The Tennessean, covering Franklin and Williamson County. Follow her on Twitter at @emwest22 and email her at erwest@tennessean.com.