Fresh Loafians,
Well, after much waiting and other stuff, we finally got our bakery licensed yesterday! It's official, so I just thought I'd share the news with all of you. Now it's just a matter of getting back into the flow of doing all of that mixing, shaping, and baking that I've been looking forward to. Here's a photo of the main work area of the bakery which is located in the lower level of our house.
the bakery
-Mark
thebackhomebakery.com
Congratulations! It looks great. Best wishes as you get started.
Russ
Wow! That's great. I'd LOVE to be able to bake bread in such a lovely kitchen. You're going to be a busy beaver in the next while. But do keep us posted.
Jane
Thanks everybody. Although we're licensed for retail and wholesale, most of the business will be wholesale since we live 'out in the sticks'. Right now we've got a couple of places selling our stuff and it's leaning mostly towards goodies made with croissant and puff pastry dough. One is buying all of their goods as precooked and frozen - that way they can bake them themselves when they need it.
I'll be sure to keep you updated and of course if you're in Northwest Montana, you're welcome to stop in!
-Mark
http://thebackhomebakery.com
Congratulations! Your bakery looks great. What do you have on the floor and is it easy to clean up all the flour that will get on it?
I wish you well on your venture and hope it is very rewarding for you. One thing that is really nice is your commute in to work.
Drifty Baker
Go biking while its rising!
Drifty,
The bakery floor is just sealed (many times) concrete. It cleans up very well with both a broom and mop.
http://thebackhomebakery.com
Everything really came together nicely Mark. Very nice. Ahhh there's the sheeter, outstanding.
Good Luck to you both.
Eric
So, it can happen...
I'd wish you luck - but somehow I think luck has little to do with it.
Happy Baking!
That's great news.
Wishing you all the best for the future.
Congrats!
FP
Your bakery is beautiful! Have you got wireless music coming in from iTunes so you can whistle while you work?
Best of luck!
Susan from San Diego
Susan,
It's not quite wireless, but I do have speakers connected via a hole in the wall to my computer in the other room, so that fits the bill.
-Mark
http://thebackhomebakery.com
Congratulations Mark!
The bakery looks beautiful, and I'm sure you're going to have lots of fun in it! Can't wait to hear about your adventures and wild successes.
Good job!
edh
Hi Mark--
Yay for you! Can you give us a tour of the bake area? I think I see two mixers on the left, a sheeter in the back, 2 coolers or freezers, I can't tell which, a proofer, and two different types of ovens on the wall. Can you also give us more info about the ovens?
SOL
SOL,
Like a family photo, I'll go left to right. Kitchenaid 5 qt mixer, Berkel 20 qt mixer, dough divider (mostly hidden), Doyon sheeter (by the window), Arctic Air freezer, Arctic Air fridge, Winholt proofer, two Blodgett Zephaire gas ovens (stacked on top of each other under the hood), a Blodgett Mark V electric oven (with the windows) on top, and a Blodgett BP100 proofer below it. The three ovens are convection so I'm still in the process of getting used to the adjusted cooking times/methods for breads. Of course the less exciting things are missing from the picture like the big sink, storage stuff, racks and all that. The big item that's missing is the larger mixer we need. Unfortunately some of the hoops we had to jump through gobbled up our funds for that.
And the most important item of all is the great work table in the center. It had been a long time since I worked on a wood surface, and I really missed it.
-Mark
http://thebackhomebakery.com
Great news, Mark, that all your hard work and the waiting is over. Get a frame ready for that first dollar bill that comes in (or maybe a $100?).
Accolades to you - and now go play in the dough!
LindyD
Back Home is a baker named Mark,
With patience long retarded in the dark.
Now officially in bold light,
He rises with might!
And Montana will never be the same ...
Mini O
The bakery is the envy of us all! I know you'll be busy, but please try to keep us posted. I wish you all the best!
Audra
Congratulations! My hat's off to you!
While chance favors a prepared mind, and while the harder you work the luckier you get, I'll still wish you luck - you can't have too much of it!
Mike
I am curious as to why you chose electric and gas ovens. Being out in the sticks I'm thinking probably means you don't have access to 3-phase electric. Does that have something to do with it?
SOL
SOL,
You are correct about the lack of 3 phase electric where we are. That was the first choice, but not an option. The 60 qt mixer will also have to be single phase for the same reason. When I got the gas ovens, propane wasn't quite so high in price; now the electric is cheaper to run. I came very close to getting a deck (pizza) oven instead of the convections since I feel they turn out a superior bread, however I decided to go with the convection mainly because they work better for pastries - I felt there was more of a market for the sweet stuff here, and it would be more possible to make a living if I favored them over bread. Consequently I'm learning how to make good bread with these ovens and I'm getting close to the level I was with the 'bread ovens'.
-Mark
http://thebackhomebakery.com
Beautiful, but I missed the video recording set up?
You could be the only baker on the net with live cam, you already have the web page :^)
Best Wishes for a sucessful future!
Love your kitchen!
Best of Luck!
Just curious why you went with the convection oven rather than a deck oven with steam?
Cheesecake man (Rick)
Rick,
Oops, just realized I combined my answer about the ovens in my reply to SOL above.
-Mark
http://thebackhomebakery.com
Mark,
Your work area looks great; well designed, very efficiently laid out and spic and span. Is that apprentice job still open :-)
Here's wishing you every success.
Howard - St. Augustine, FL
Howard,
My wife said you can come only if you bring some of your famous bbq sauce. You are welcome to come and 'apprentice', however I must warn you that while working I am only slightly more pleasant than Donald Trump, and as my recently visiting mother would attest, you would only be paid with an occasional sticky bun or croissant (the ugliest ones of course).
-Mark
http://thebackhomebakery.com
So, now that I have your roll shaping technique down pretty well, I think I'm going to have to negotiate for more in the way of compensation :-)
Seriously, you deserve a great deal of credit for what you have accomplished. Charlene and I wish you every success.
Howard
Whoohooo!!! It looks fabulous. All the best!
-Elizabeth
Mark, you've given us great videos and great recipes. I wish you luck, although I know you're very good at making your own.
I did fleetingly wonder why you didn't call the bakery "The Under Home Bakery", but I think you made the right call.
Rosalie
I guess you know you have a huge fan base here cheering for you! Thanks for all you've contributed..videos, recipes and music to bake by! Did you create the perfect olive loaf for your repetoire(?sp). Your baking arena looks awesome. All the best..catch us up when you have a chance!!
Betty
I'd like to thank all of you for your positive words now and also over the course of the last few months while we've been going through the process to get this bakery going. It's great to see such a positve community people who are both helpful and critcal in this wonderful trade. I'll do my best to keep you posted on our progress, and hopefully I'll be putting out another video in the not too distant future.
-Mark
http://thebackhomebakery.com
If you want a visual treat go check out Marks images of his pastries. This is a starter HERE
Very nice assortment of sweets and displayed professionally. The web site looks great!
Eric
Congratulations! That picture looks like a playground to me right now. Wow.
http://www.applepiepatispate.com
Happy one year bakiversary to Mark! I have enjoyed your videos, and hope this year has treated you well.
Kent in Taiwan