Bakery creates Pan Solo, a 6-foot-tall replica of a “Star Wars” hero made of bread

They made it at night, in the quiet hours after the bakery closed. together they worked, Mother and daughter mixing material that would give shape to its creation – flour, water and sugar.

Slowly, it began to appear as each feature was carved and placed in the oven for baking. First came the basic features of his body, then the details: a sad expression, lips twisted in pain, a hand stretched out in despair.

Finally, after a month’s worth of work, it was ready: a hearty 6-foot-tall recreation of Han Solo frozen in carbonite, made entirely of bread. The duo behind this innovation, Hanalei Pervan and her mother, Catherine Pervan, nicknamed him “Pan Solo.”

On Sunday, the statue was displayed outside their store, One House Bakery in Benicia, California, about 40 miles north of San Francisco, next to an arrangement of seasonal pumpkins and a chalkboard that read, “Our hero Pan Solo has been trapped in the Levites by the evil Java cottage.”

Notice customers and passersby.

“People are very interested in it, and you see people smell it and stomp on it and they’re like, ‘What’s going on?’” said Hanalee Pervan, co-owner of the store and head baker. “They kind of don’t believe it’s made of dough.”

And she is. Mrs. Pervan the Younger and her mother, the bakery’s co-owner, made pan solo from non-yeasted mate dough. Ms. Pervan learned to make dough several years ago at Wheat Stalk, a baking conference, and started using it to bake Halloween decorations.

Then she and her mother, who described themselves as obsessed with science fiction, set their sights higher.

In 2018, the year they opened the family bakery, they made Game of Scones, featuring a white breadcrumb walker, next to an iron throne of baguettes.

Encouraged by the positive response from the audience, in 2020 they took action “Pain dough Lorientthe “Baby Dough-Da” clothed with bread shields, the “Baby Dough-Da” covered with bread and “floating” in mixing bowls, and the “Pandroid”, made with pans and kitchen utensils, all inspired by the TV series “The Mandalorian” “.

Last year, they createddough ki“a dangerous crocodile made of bread, with sharp teeth and curved horns, similar to”Crocodile LokiCreature in the Marvel TV series “Loki” starring Tom Hiddleston.

This year, they thought of Audrey’s Bake II, the bloodthirsty plant from “The Little Shop of Horrors,” but were worried it wouldn’t fit in the oven. So they settled Han Soloplayed by Harrison Ford, was frozen in the legendary carbonite from the 1980 movie “Star Wars.”Empire strikes. “

Hannalee Pervan served as a model for the body, which was placed on a sheet of plywood and then layers of dough. Getting the final details right wasn’t easy.

said Hanalee Pervan, who worked at Bouchon Bakery at Thomas Keller’s Bouchon Bakery in Yountville, California, and was part of the team that made bread for Mr. Keller’s famous restaurant The French Laundry, also in Yountville. “She was like, ‘You have to go.'”

All of their bread figurines were made for Benicia Downtown scarecrow competitionencouraging local businesses to display creative scarecrows for Halloween.

Ms. Pervan said making pan solo was especially beneficial for her because she had lost many of her senses of smell and taste after contracting the coronavirus in January 2021. She has always found pleasure in the smells and tastes of the kitchen and has dreamed of being a baker since she was 10 years old.

“So just finding the fun in a different part of the food is really important,” she said.

Catherine Pervan said it was worth the long hours she and her daughter took to make the Pan Solo.

“It’s a little quiet time for us when she’s not the boss and she’s not the mother,” she said. “We just hang out and work together.”