“Simply good bread.” There’s so much behind this sentence: the finest raw ingredients, precise measuring, letting the dough rest, baking it just right. Every step requires precision and timing. Because making our bread demands plenty of experience, a great deal of passion, and a few secrets that we’ll share with you here:

Dough Rest

Bread is like good wine or cheese: its aromas only unfold after a while. With us, the dough rests as a whole for 14 to 48 hours. This patience gives Bachmann bread a light, airy texture and a crispy crust when baked. But the long resting time has even more advantages: the bread stays fresh longer, it is more aromatic, and the body can digest it much better. Studies show that industrially produced bread often causes stomach problems.

Heart and Craft

It has remained constant in our family for four generations: the love for fine baked goods and special recipes. Little has changed in 125 years. The technology may have become more modern and the bakery larger, but our conviction has remained: truly good bread requires patient craftsmanship and the skilled hands of experienced bakers. In our bakery in the heart of Lucerne, 24 professionals bake more than 24 different types of bread every day – and each loaf is unique.

Revitalized Water

After flour, water is the most important ingredient in bread baking. It makes a difference whether you use very hard or rather soft water for the dough. To restore the water’s vitality, we use the Grander method.

This revitalizes the water and gives it the character of spring water. We use this water for all breads and rolls – so they bring vitality, taste wonderful, and stay fresh longer. The energy in water can even be captured visually: here’s a comparison between untreated tap water and revitalized tap water in Lucerne.

Sel des Alpes

It’s called the “White Gold of the Alps”: Sel des Alpes from the Bex salt mine in the canton of Vaud. This salt has been encased in rock for millions of years and is extracted with mountain water. For more than 500 years, the mine in Bex has produced its salt using green energy from the local hydroelectric power plant. The result is one of the purest salts in the world – a raw ingredient entirely in line with our Bachmann philosophy: it should be high-quality, regional, and healthy.

Vacuum Baking

Bread should stay fresh for a long time, be as healthy as possible, and taste delicious. Thanks to vacuum baking, in collaboration with the company Cetravac, we can meet all three wishes. This technique has revolutionized baking because part of the process takes place without heat. As a result, fewer nutrients are destroyed. And because less water evaporates from the dough, your bread stays fresh longer.

Natural Sourdough

Bread made with high-quality sourdough stays fresh longer, tastes excellent, and is very easy to digest. This dough consists of water, flour, and lactic acid bacteria, which we prepare over 24 hours at 30°C. We then mix the sourdough into the bread dough. This way, our breads need neither leavening agents nor emulsifiers or artificial flavors.