Free At Last...

Well, the 4th of July came and went, but we did move back into the kitchen in the last week and we were freed from culinary purgatory.  The new space will be a lovely place to bake, cook, entertain, imagine, grow our extended family, and enjoy.  We have finally completed a very big dream of ours.  And though we had to make compromises along the way, as is the case with all remodels, we are very pleased and I breathe a sigh of relief every time I go into the kitchen.  Our contractors, Ridgeline Construction, did a beautiful job and we are thankful to them.  I have finally announced another baking sale for August 13 and 14 (we had already scheduled a family vacation).  The Bread Doctor will be making bagels and Russian Black Bread, adding a cinnamon-raisin bagel to the repertoire.  I did take the opportunity to wake my sourdough up from its three month slumber and you will see it featured prominently in the middle of the island in the photos of our new culinary workshop.  It is growing well and should be ready for baking soon.  I have included a few photos of the finished kitchen for my family who live at a distance and may never see it.  But this will be the site of baking activity until the downtown bakery opens next spring.

 

Beautiful Cherry woodwork done by Ridgeline Construction.(yes those are all cookbooks....crazy)

 

 

Gas oven and range and tile backsplash (done by Paul Pardus)
 

You can see from the photos, that Lisa and I both love green, and we finally got the gas range we have always dreamed of.  We also had a wonderful contractor that custom built all of the cabinets, the island, bookshelf, dresser, and the window seat.  He and his crew are great.  Another miracle was the way that they were able to build the new roof to complement our prior roofline.  It really is quite nice.

Brick walkway coming soon

As we designed the kitchen, we were attracted to the work of artisans that surround us.  Our friend, Mark Bigelow, designed and constructed several stained-glass panes for various locations in the kitchen.  He started taking classes in glasswork about a dozen years ago and makes beautiful things.  He has his own business now and a Facebook page (Mountain Light Glazier) and was recently showing his work at the arts festival in Jackson, WY while his wife, Claudine, played viola in the Teton Music Festival.  Check out his work, I was astounded.

Dish cupboard next to the sink

Cabinet over the toaster that holds the toast trimmings (butter, jam, honey, cinnamon sugar, etc...)

 

This beautiful piece will be hung up in this picture window after the vacation.  It is especially meaningful to Lisa and I because we were both Chemistry majors and this is the colors of the spectrum done in brilliant glasswork.

 

We are truly blessed and grateful for those who have worked so hard to make life beautiful for us.  I personally have only one thing to say "Thank God Almighty we are free at last!"

 

 

Going downtown....the rest of the story

Well, there is much to update since January.  I did get my permit from the city of Torrington which allowed me to open an in-home bakery.  This gave me the permission to get some commercial grade equipment at home which started with the double steam-injected oven  from French Canada.  It is the only Cadillac that I will ever own and here is a photo of the beauty.

This has helped me be more efficient with baking times and produce more product the last few months.  I was able to bake 48 dozen bagels in one day and then the next week make 64 dozen caramel cinnamon rolls over two days.  The oven is a blessing and will be a permanent part of the bakery for years to come.  It heats up quickly and has a built in fan to circulate the air for even baking.  I had to stop baking right after Easter, because that is when the wall of my kitchen was knocked down and we are progressing with the addition at home.  But I was able to sneak in an entire two days of baking with my sister, Jarene, in addition to the bagels and cinnamon rolls.  Here are some snapshots of the breads we made those two days.

I have been going through baking withdrawl for six weeks, but I am hoping to be baking again by the 4th of July.  They are actually installing cabinets today and the fabricator is here to make the template for the countertops.  I had an ingenioius friend of mine come and tear into the sheeter and learn all about how it works and he was able to get it running just beautifully.  I have a couple of parts to replace, but that will  be fine and then I will be able to begin test baking Croissants and Danish Pastries.  This will be very exciting, albeit challenging in the summer months.  During my time off from baking, I naturally have had many hours to plan the future of The Bread Doctor, LLC.

After a few months of baking, I had the growing realization that it would not be wise to build an entire commercial kitchen in my garage.  As the bakery business grew, I could see myself getting too big for the garage very quickly, and then having to move out.  This would leave me with a garage that was unfit for any vehicles to park and a large waste of money and time spent in repurposing the space.  (These realizations will seem obvious to any clear-thinking observer, but I was a man obsessed with a dream.)  Having accepted this realization, I knew that I had to explore other options.  I say this in a rhetorical sense, because I had no other obvious options at the time.

At the beginning of April, I headed downtown for theatre business and I happened upon a "For Sale" sign in the window of an old building right on Main Street.  It had large picture windows that jutted out to the sidewalk, wooden floors and a high-vaulted ceiling.  My pulse quickened and I called Lisa to come down and look with me.  Of course, this became the beginning of the Cinderella story.  After negotiating an offer and some repairs with the owner, the building became the property of The Bread Doctor, LLC.   Here is a photo of the front and the sign.

 

So.....the building purchase has led to a cascade of events.  I immediately have begun planning a renovation timeline and a timeline at work to allow me to be free to open the bakery down town in the spring of 2015.  I will be baking again at home in July and keeping the business going there until I am ready to move to Main Street.  I hired my baking teacher, Marda Stoliar, to come to Torrington over Memorial weekend to design the bakery.  That was a wonderful couple of days and was very exciting.  Here we are in the empty building sitting at the drawings trying to figure out how to use all of the space.

 



It has been a thrilling adventure the last few weeks, but I am very excited and feel that things are working out well.  There have been many meetings already with the plumber, electrician, city building inspector, HVAC specialist and discussions about the walk-in refrigeration and freezer needs.  The contractor working on our home has agreed to remodel the bakery, which is a blessing, and  I am learning a very large amount about the process of remodeling, and business planning. 

I will be attending school for two weeks in September and again next April to learn more about a few of the items I want to feature in the bakery and to learn to decorate wedding and special occasion cakes.  I will be working only in the Emergency Room starting on January 1 and will be leaving my clinic practice on October 1, 2014.  The eventual plan for the bakery is for me to work the emergency room on Monday and Tuesday each week and have the bakery open Thurs, Friday and Saturday.  There is much to do and I will be working and baking my brains out for the next year to get this all ready, but it will be exciting.   And that....is the rest of the story.

Miracles, Madness.....and Magic

Really, baking bread is a miracle with a little bit of magic.  When you consider that you are trapping air bubbles in a matrix of protein and water (gluten), it is a miracle that anything is more than a piece of leather when it comes out of the oven. But gluten is very adept at trapping the air and even letting you knead and shape it in various ways.  In the last few weeks, I have been test baking Schneken (German brioche rolls), TBD (The Bread Doctor) Sourdough, and Russian Black Bread.  All are very different doughs, but start with flour, water, salt and yeast.  Here are some photos of the finished products:

TBD Sourdough



Russian Black Bread

Schneken made from Brioche

 

 I had a sale of Russian Black Bread this week and had orders for 51 loaves.  I am very pleased with the flavor and texture of the bread, although my teacher's loaves were darker when we made them in school.  My son, Andrew, states that the Schneken rolls are his favorite pastry.  They have an Amarena cherry in the middle which is a very delicious and unique flavor.  I had never tasted one before baking school.  The sourdough bread is made from a wild starter that I made when we lived in Salt Lake City going to medical school over 20 years ago.

Here is a photo of the outside of the kitchen remodel that we are anxiously awaiting, and the madness is just beginning.  The laundry room under the kitchen is out of commission, and Lisa is at the laundromat weekly.  We soon will be looking forward to days of microwave meals from our dining room or something similar when they knock out the kitchen walls and gut it to make the old room and new rooms one.....more madness.

 

 

Now, for a bakery update.  During December, I met with the local planning commission to get a conditional use permit.  This was needed in order to build a commercial kitchen in my garage, which is the next project after the kitchen remodel.  This will allow me greater freedom in what I can offer from the shelves of The Bread Doctor: cream puffs, cheesecakes, cream pies, chicken pot pies and the like.  This was a great step towards getting the home bakery up and running.  As a result, I have been shopping for bread ovens and will get one in about two weeks!  I should be able to bake several (10-15) loaves at once, which will speed up production and allow me to offer more than one item at each sale in the bakery.  This will be an exciting advancement in the course of the business. I have decided to continue to market most of my bread baking products online, through internet ordering on my Facebook page or website (www.thebreaddoctor.com).  I hope to  be able to increase my offerings to 2-3 times per month after the oven is in place and all of the commercial kitchen details are worked out.  The adventure has been a hectic ride, but the baking is fun and magical, and the creative rewards are well worth it.  Keep tuned to the blog for future updates.  I have had several sales here in Torrington that have met with good reviews, so I feel that I am producing a good product.

Challah bonanza

So, the big Challah-baking event happened yesterday at The Bread Doctor and I actually baked 40 loaves of this beautiful bread.

Challah ready for packaging

It took 12 hours to bake all of those loaves, but I was thrilled and on top of the world.  I was so excited, because the ovens were cooperating, the loaves were not burning, and I could see and feel magic happening.  As always, I was learning as the project moved on.

Lessons learned included:

1) The batch of dough that I made actually made 10 loaves each instead of nine...this was good for yield.  And I was able to call a few people on the waiting list and sell them bread.

2) It is awfully hard to have people find 218 Linda Vista when the construction project involved removing the house numbers.  So, I had to have a quick fix that involved particle board and spray paint.  I call it baker's graffiti.

It looks like I have topsoil for sale

3)I actually can bake for 12 hours, go to bed and recover, and show up for work the next day bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.

4) I must get a bigger oven...lots bigger, in order to bake 9-12 loaves at a time rather than 3.  When I can get the room to create the volume, then I can make more loaves in one day and will not have to restrict the number of orders.

5)After baking and washing my hands all day...all of the skin on my hands split open with tiny micro-cracks.  These felt like 100 bees stinging my hands every time I used hand sanitizer at work today....nice.

I felt like a real baker yesterday and am scheming and planning my next event.  It might include more Challah, biscotti, or some whole grain bread.  I am working on getting the sheeter hooked up to the phase converter so that I can start with croissants up and running.  Each event takes me one step closer to a retail bakery.

How much Challah?....Or in other words, "How to make 30 loaves in one day....and start a business."

 

Well, there it is....Challah!  This is a European egg bread that is of traditional Jewish origin. I am getting ready to bake 20-30 loaves in one day in my home oven as  a sale to "dress up your Thanksgiving table" through my website: www.thebreaddoctor.com.  I took two loaves to the hospital one day and they were gone in less than two hours.  I will have to admit that I was pleased to hear people holler down the hall..."That bread is amazing...it is so light....now I am in trouble, etc"  I have to give all the credit to my teacher, and I still have much more refining to do.  But it was great to know that I could produce a product that was attractive and tasty.

 

This is the second formal sale (the first time on October 25, was just an informal foray into Facebook to see how many people would respond)  that I have done through the website.  The last one was November 8 and 9, "The November Roll-a-Thon," where I baked Cinnamon Caramel rolls and Kaiser Rolls.  I sold over 30 dozen rolls in two days.  I thought of the idea because a friend needed to have those two kinds of rolls for a conference that she was hosting that weekend.  She asked if they could be my first formal customers.  I then began to test bake and to see how long it took me to make and bake them, etc.  I then decided to extend the baking to anyone who sent me an order through Facebook or on my website.  The orders began to come in, I began to bake and package, and I learned some very valuable lessons.  It is sort of difficult to bake two different kinds of rolls in a home oven when they require different temperatures and you can only bake three dozen at one time....hee...hee.  I also realized that the dough mixing and proofing was going well, except I had no way to keep it from rising too fast, and so I was making dough all day long both days and retarding (slowing) it in the refrigerator and performing all kinds of multi-tasking to get everything ready for the oven when it was ready.  It was busy.  Everyone seemed to be pleased with the product and I had gotten some bright ideas for the next time. 

 

First, only one type of product until I get an oven that is bigger and can heat up faster and bake more at once.  (That is why people build bakeries!)  Second, I needed to choose products that can be held for some time and kept fresh so that I can bake starting early in the morning and still deliver at 4-5 pm.  Third, I also need to start with bread that is made from dough that can rest for a while so that I can make some of the dough the day before and then bake it off the day of the sale.   These were all great ideas to make the next time easier.  So....Challah bread it is.  The dough can rest for 24 hours before being made into braids and so I can get several batches into various stages of resting the day before and then braid and bake my brains out on November 20.  It will be great fun!

Who can resist?

Inside of the Challah bread sliced

So, this is where it begins.  I realized when I got home from Bend that I could not rush downtown and just hop into a retail location.  I needed to keep practicing my baking, and in amounts that were bakery style...not just 1 or 2 loaves of something.  So, the germ hatched....why not start at home?  Maybe I will continue like this for a couple of years while I am getting things going.   Then, another germ hatched....Lisa and I were already planning a kitchen remodel.  Why not remodel the kitchen with features that will make it easier to run a home bakery?  Yes this is crazy, but true.

  I had already done some research about Cottage Food Laws in the State of Wyoming.  I can run a baking business at home with some restrictions.  I cannot bake and sell anything that requires refrigeration to stay safe.  So that means no cheesecakes, eclairs, quiche, cream puffs, cream pies, or custards until I can produce them in a commercial kitchen.  I can make myself live with that.  So I am focusing on the myriad of baked goods that sit at room temperature (almost all of them) while I start my business.

So here is the beginning of the remodel, which started by the way, on November 8....the day that people were coming to pick up the first round of Cinnamon Caramel and Kaiser rolls.  Great timing!

Front of the house on November 7

November 8....notice the lovely, graceful walkway that The Bread Doctor customers use to pick up their goods.

Things are getting serious



This lovely November 14 mound of dirt hides a secret.......

A 12-foot deep hole with a surprise gas line!

I will save the story about the water line that they dug into in this chasm for a later blog. Needless to say....there will be roadside service as people pick up their Challah on November 20.  The extra space in the kitchen will be nice and make things great for our family and children visiting home as well as the bakery venture.

The Bread Doctor is in the house...Opening Weekend

Well, we finally did it and declared an official opening for the bakery, The Bread Doctor.  It started Friday, October 25th when we offered our first product, Cinnamon Caramel Rolls.  I woke up and realized that I had the day to bake, and got on the Facebook page and announced that I would bake for anyone who placed an order that day.  We had a wonderful reponse  and I baked 8 dozen rolls.  This is a wonderful initial effort and we appreciate all who are supporting our new venture.  I must say that the rolls are delicious.  The bread is not so sweet (European style) and that compliments the topping well.  These are a hybrid of a great sweet roll dough formula that Marda gave me with her caramel sauce.  I can't thank her enough.  I left out the nuts found on many sticky buns (at the request of the customer), and added currants (not so sweet as dark raisins) and a bit of spice to the caramel topping. 

The house smelled wonderfully, and I had to fight off my 13 year-old who could not understand why I was not baking for him.  He had his share earlier in the week.  I personally prefer pecans, and will be offering them dressed up versions with nuts later.



Here are the rolls cooling waiting to be boxed up

Eleanor and I are so appreciative of those who have shown support and believed in our baking.  We live in a great community here in Wyoming and have enjoyed our time here. Here we are that first day with the first delivery of Cinnamon Caramel Rolls.  Of course, we are looking forward to many more deliveries as the weeks progress.

 

Our first customer!

 Saturday morning, I baked off the last of the rolls and delivered them warm to customers.  I then spent much of the afternoon organizing the baking supplies that I have been ordering.  William helped with gusto and we are definitely getting set up to bake more.  Then we headed to Cheyenne to watch the BYU Ballroom Dance Company perform and they were magnificent.  We met the rest of our family there and ate at a famous and delicious burger joint to begin the celebration of Eleanor's birthday.  Monday, October 28 she will be sixteen years old.  We are a happy family!

 

 

Jupiter has landed....let the baking begin

Well, I drove like mad on September 28 and got to my mother's home on Saturday early in the afternoon and had a wonderful time with my sister, Jarene, and my mother, Nada.  We sampled many of the baked goods that I had packed in the truck and I left them with samplings to tide them over.  They thought the baking was adequate (Jarene said it was just like when she was in France), and they were surprised at how much I had hidden away in the Big Red Truck.  We had a great evening and retired in time for me to head out early the next morning to go home to Torrington.

The Salt River Range on September 28.

A couple of satisfied customers

 I drove across Wyoming early on Sunday morning, and found Towgwatee Pass to be greeted by an early fall snow storm.  The roads were fine, but this was the view that day of the roadside at just over 9000 feet.  It was lovely, and then by the middle of Wyoming, it was sunny and 60 degrees.  The weather in our state is very unusual at times and surprising.

I got home at about 1:30 in the afternoon to see my wonderful family and be reunited once again.  It was a very fun time in Oregon, but I missed them very much.  They were excited about seeing me and all the goodies in the Big Red Truck.:)  Homecoming at Torrington High was a thing of the past at that point, and they had already been attending school for a month.

 

 I have spent the last three weeks trying to get my head out of the clouds and think about the bakery idea and how it was going to work into being a full-time physician.  The answer is this...it is going to be tricky...but fun.  I worked as hospitalist for a week, did two clinic days and worked in the ER 72 hours in the first 17 days back.  Then I finally had time to put my head to the baking question.

 

 Well, after consultation with the accountant, lawyer, family, and friends, it has happened.  I founded The Bread Doctor, LLC on October 21, 2013.  I have already had someone request baked goods for a conference being held here in Torrington in November, and I have been test baking all week.  I am making the rolls below for breakfast and the Kaiser rolls for sandwiches.  I have had to work out all kinds of kinks with my pans at home and the oven, that has hotspots and quirks.  Not to mention the fact that I am flying solo and making the breads without the wonderful tutelage of Marda.  I keep thinking of all that she told me as I am going through the preparations.  I have spent the last week on the phone, in between baking, trying to locate suppliers that will deal with a business as small as I am and have been stocking up on supplies that will let me expand into more products in the next few months.  I have meetings with two suppliers tomorrow to see if they have the right sugar and flour and I will be consulting with Marda, as the correct flour is imperative to make baked goods of the quality that I want to produce. 

 

Today, I actually broke another "absolutely I will never do" resolution, when I opened a Facebook account for The Bread Doctor.  I have a page for the business that will feature the goods that I am currently offering, and anything else pertinent to the business. People really can change...I now have a blog and a Facebook account....I think the end of the world is near.  I plan on having baked goods ready for pickup on Wed afternoon through Saturday mornings.  Details about ordering and contact information will all be on my Facebook page....well there it is.  I am excited and it will be fun to work with my family as much as they want to be involved.  William and Eleanor both talk about working in the bakery at times.  Right now, school is the main priority.  Here are a few snapshots of the things I have been baking.  I am starting with simple and accessible baked goods that I hope will be attractive to my community.

Cinnamon sticky buns

Knotted Kaiser Rolls with poppy seeds

Knotted Kaiser Rolls with Sesame Seeds

 

One last note.....Jupiter has landed and it appears that the space mission was successful.  Here is a piture of him, and now some of the serious baking can commence....once I get him hooked up electrically.

 

Jupiter the sheeter

Peace, love, and baking!!!