October 8, 2011 - 7:34pm
Back Home Bakery intern Charlie
Last week, Charlie came from Bowling Green, Ohio to hone his baking skills during a one-week internship at the Back Home Bakery. Despite the initial butterflies, Charlie quickly adapted to the bakery hours and work schedule improving his dough handling skills throughout the week. Below are some of the highlights from the week.
Thanks for the hard work, and I hope your family gets to enjoy some of the bread/pastries you learned to make during your internship.
-Mark
http://TheBackHomeBakery.com
Charlie transferring baguettes from the canvas to the baguette screen.
Here goes Charlie on the rolls
Charlie shaping croissants like a pro
Voila!
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Comments
Mark,
I am a relative new comer to this forum and in my time here have come to really appreciate all you share - the intern slots being one of my favorites since it shows 'regular' people at work helping you out.....and it is obvious that YOU help them out in a huge way.
Thanks for all you have shared here and continue to share. You have crated a nice little niche for arisan baking here in the not-so-visited part of the West.
Take Care,
Janet
I'm glad you enjoy the posts. One of the parts I like about working with the interns is the enthusiasm they bring as amateur bakers into the professional atmosphere.
-Mark
A dozen Bakers like Mark around the baking world would be great. My experiance in Montana was very rewarding. Mark is a very skilled & patient teacher. I baked some baguettes today, the first time for me & they came out nice. I still need lots of practice.
My wish list got alot bigger after working in the bakery, yesterday I picked up a differant scale, infered thermometer & changed the wiring on my super systems proofer/oven combo I have stashed in the garage.
It is a very hard week of work with long days, early hours & as Mark said the reward is his smiling customers. I feel good having had a small part in some of those happy faces.
Charlie
Mark ...you are awesome!! Maybe someday some gray-haired old 52-yr old from Alaska will visit for a week or three to see what he can learn... thanks so much for your attitude and aptitude in helping others climb to a higher level of expertise!!
See ya...
Brian (in Wasilla, formerly of a spot 20 miles NE of Fox, AK until the wife said "the arctic life is not for me!" ...sigh ...I love the arctic and all that it is!) Sigh again ...my wife is worth any sacrifice, including moving away from the arctic that I love... I'm a "Northern Man" ...built into my genes.. huhhhhh sighhh... If it's cold enough to kill ...I love it! But if the choice is my wife or the arctic, then it must be the wife ...wonderful woman that she is. Still ... the arctic continues to call...
Mark,
What strikes me is that your are aways welcoming them in whereas so many other professionals don't want to be bothered due to the extra work involved on top of their regular production schedule. You make it look easy!
Janet
I hope that Mark's name rises to stardom in the world of baking ...surely his attitude (and aptitude) toward baking and teaching others deserves that!
Brian
Thanks for the well wishes and compliments. Although I only spent a few weeks up in the Fairbanks/Delta area, I could certainly see why you'd want to call that area your home.
-Mark
I dunno... it's something about the purity or atmosphere once you get far enough north that just seems to make things beautiful up there. Crystal clear skies with the purest colors, sunsets that take an hour and turn the whole world around you different shades of pink, peach or yellow, that sort of thing. The Fairbanks area is right under the belt of northern lights and is probably the best city in the world (of any size) for seeing them too. I used to love driving home to our place in the country ...two sets of hills and 15 miles separated from the city lights ...and seeing 'the lights' spanning from one horizon to the other right over our house ...beautiful! Of course my wife would drive home on a night like that, shivering and cold in the van that never heated up, and come into the house to her spot near the wood stove and say "Man is it cold tonight!". I'd say "Did you seen the aurora going right over our house from one horizon to the other?" and she'd say "What aurora? I just wanted to get inside!". Then I'd say "Let's go look!" and she'd say, "YOU go look...." ...Sigh. :)
Brian
To be honest, the first couple of days are quite a bit of work as we acclimatize to each other and the expectations are laid out. Teaching bakers who already have skills to 'do things my way' is different for each person and takes time for both of us.
However, as a former teacher/coach, I find it very satisfying when not only do I see progress in such a short time period, but also see the pride evident on Saturday when the interns see the happy customers buying the products they had a hand in making. An added bonus is the updates I receive from them when they go home and share their skills with their friends and/or their families.
-Mark
types of measures ?
Thanks much,
Anna
Those are wooden paddles I use to keep the interns in line.
Just kidding, those are wooden mooncake molds. I've got some plans for trying different traditional ethnic baked goods during the off-season and mooncakes will be at the top of the list. Next year during the farmers' market season I'd like to have a once-a-month feature of a traditional bread/pastry from around the world. Since the fall is 'harvest moon' season (and I'm part Chinese), I thought I'd do mooncakes for October.
-Mark
as the paddles are still in great shape :)
Ok, mooncakes, those would be a great addition to the harvest moon festivities and markets.
Best to you,
Anna
Mark,
A sudden flash of memory when I read about the mooncakes....When my kids were younger one of my favorite children's authors wrote a wonderful children's story all about mooncakes. I wasn't 'into' baking then so never took it further that reading the story...
Anna - thanks for your sharp eyes and for asking the question. Mark -thanks for sparking a cherished memory....kids are teens now and those innocent days of long ago ARE long ago :-)
Take Care,
Janet
Those are some nice looking croissants. Don't tell me you froze them prior to baking!!!?? :>)
Seriously, I would love to see cross section pictures and so - I think would someone else - who would very much like to freeze croissants after shaping but can't seem to manage to do it.... (No one is perfect...)
I just keep poking at that nest...
Raggedy Baker Pat
Technically, I didn't freeze them. Charlie's the one who put them in the freezer. And since I'm pretty sure when YOU were here, you did the mixing for the croissant dough, you KNOW there aren't any additives in there. Perhaps it's the Montana milled flour and mojo that makes it work. Keep poking at the nest and . . . oh well, just keep poking.
-Mark
You know - it has been what 2 years and a long stint in Japan since I made croissants for you - a few details may have fallen out of my mind while I was trying not to die during the earthquakes. I think it is the progression of tasks (proof before freeze - after? - hard to recall) that is important.
Seriously. I was told over and over how much certain folks wanted to freeze shaped pastries but just couldn't. I'll be in a spot to discuss it in person very soon...
poke, poke poke...
Pat
I'll email you the details. It seems one of my local competitors frequently lurks here on TFL and is quite adept at borrowing advice that I post to others.
You are correct, it's all in the details.
-Mark
As my cloverleaf rolls bake, thank you Sylvia for the recipe. I reflect on today's bake. My ciabatta didn't spring as much as I wanted but thanks to Mark I know why. My sals are a little long & the crumb could be a little more open, thanks to Mark I know why. I made up 18 rolls & shaped them 2 handed & thanks to Mark I know how.
Charlie
Croissants!
One of my biggest wishes to make, i tryed a few times but it would not proof in the last. I tryed by hand at home and by machine in a baker.( I uset spelt?)
Maybe a little hint ;)
Breuer..