Bittney Adu isn’t one for sitting around. When the call came back in May that she would be furloughed from her job, she immediately set to work on one of her longtime hobbies: baking. After pulling a few fresh loaves from the oven, she turned to a friend and joked that now she was out of work, she had time to start her own business. She had, after all, been dreaming of opening a bakery since she was a child. But after pondering it a bit more, Adu realized she could actually do it.
Now, she operates Furloaved Breads + Bakery, a punny take on a tough predicament that quickly spun into something positive. But Furloaved is no half-baked scheme; Adu’s strong work ethic and background in public relations made building her brand relatively simple. “I’m more of a doer, as opposed to someone who sits and wallows,” she says. “So I had this idea and pulled it together. I came up with the logo and decided to get it started as soon as possible.”
Furloaved’s inaugural menu features two items; the first, and most prominent, is challah, a yeasted, braided bread traditional in the Jewish faith. Adu developed an appreciation for Jewish faith and culture through her fiancé and his extended family.
“People are able to connect with different types of cultures through food,” says Adu, who plans to convert to Judaism in the near future. “I think Jewish food and traditions are just amazing, so I thought it would be a good idea to try out challah bread since I’ve been eating it for so many years.” To perfect her recipe, she spent long hours in the kitchen with her future mother-in-law. In addition, she immersed herself in YouTube videos produced by longtime Jewish bakers. “I really wanted to learn from those who have made it a part of their culture for years.”
Her challah provides a traditional foundation for Furloaved, but Adu omitted convention from her second recipe. She had thought about standard muffins as a fine complement, but recent comments from friends got her thinking about healthier alternatives. “My friends, and people on social media, had just been complaining about gaining pounds during quarantine,” she recollects. “I thought about playing around with different types of healthy fats and finding a substitute for butter.”
Adu’s baking alchemy eventually produced a delicious and unique invention: avocado blueberry muffins. “Besides the novelty of opening one up and seeing that it’s green inside, people have really taken to the taste,” she says. The avocado-based batter is also packed with cinnamon, while the muffin itself is topped with cinnamon sugar streusel.
Her creative approach goes beyond producing healthy baked goods, however. As she expands her business in the future, she plans to find other ways to include customers with more restrictive diets. “I definitely want to add in more things for people who have special dietary needs,” she says. “I don’t want anyone to miss out on having something special just because they can’t eat certain ingredients. So I’m really working hard to figure out some good recipes with, perhaps, alternatives to flour, or other substitutions, so everyone can feel included.”
If all this talk of baked deliciousness is causing some hunger pangs, then set an alarm for 9 a.m. on Monday. That’s when Adu’s order forms — which can be accessed from Furloaved’s Facebook or Instagram pages (@furloaved) — go live. On second thought, set the alarm a bit sooner. Some very hungry Memphians have been known to buy up her entire stock within 15 minutes. Challah goes for $6, while muffins can be ordered by the half-dozen ($12) or dozen ($24).
Once all the orders are finalized, Adu heads to Church Health’s Community Kitchen at Crosstown every Thursday to bake. Then, either Friday or Saturday, she’ll contact all customers with a pick-up location, which varies depending on the number of orders.
Adu is still surprised by how quickly Furloaved came to fruition. “Since I was a kid, this has been my dream to own a bakery,” she says. “I just thought it was going to come way later in life.” And although 2020 has been a rough year for most, she aims to turn Furloaved into a permanent career.
“I would love to just keep growing, whether that’s into a retail location or a mobile sort of operation,” she says. “I also want to get into the farmers markets. Basically, I want to make this as big as possible while keeping it in Memphis. It would be so special to have what could have been a really bad year turn out to be one of the best ones for me.”
