Working out the kinks . . . .

A Yiddish Proverb: "Everyone is kneaded from the same dough; but not baked in the same oven"


A customer came to our booth this past Saturday all the way from El Paso, Texas.  He admitted that he had become addicted to BakeHouse Sourdough Bread. There was another lady that came by, she's a diabetic, and once she found out that all our breads are made with the Sourdough Method, purchased her loaf with joy and proceeded to walk away with a smile hugging the bag (my mom, a nurse, had just read an extensive article about how Sourdough Bread is the bread choice for Diabetics since it affects the Glycemic Index in different way when compare to conventional breads, and doesn't spike blood sugar). And then there are our German, Russian and Polish customers. You wouldn't think that Las Cruces would be a place where you would have a large European community, but there is. Especially in El Paso, TX with Ft. Bliss Military Base and also the German Air force Base in Alamogordo, NM. Both of these locations about 50 to 60 miles away. It's these Europeans that keep me on track. When we showcased the 5 lb Miche for the first time at the market, three German ladies saw it from across the street and came over, almost jogging. The first gal to reach the booth looked me straight in the eye and said "I know what that is, I will to buy it", the second lady went on in German obviously excited about their discovery, and the third lady said "thank you for making this bread. I can't have it unless I'm in Germany".  I offered them a sample, which they gladly accepted, and I watched them savor the bread they had longed for and had found. As they continued down the street with their bread, chatting away in German, I started to cry . . . . tears of gratitude.

On 8/3/2012 the BakeHouse Oven changed. Just like our oven in New Jersey, within three months I noticed a shift in how the oven retained the heat and baked the bread. It's amazing how it just "happens". There is no warning, no subtle change, it just  . . . is. The only advantage I had this time was the experience I had from our first oven. I knew that the three month window was approaching, so I referred back to my Oven journal notes from our first oven and waited to see if our new oven would follow the same time line.

There is one huge difference with our new oven. It stores heat longer, and it bakes more gentle. It's hard to explain this, it's something that as a baker you can see through your Oven journal notes. But basically what this looks like is that even though I start baking my BakeHouse Sourdoughs at 595°, they come out of the oven without being scorched and they are golden brown. It's amazing when you consider that it's the firing of the oven the day before that dictates the next mornings bake. I can't just turn the knob and get more or less heat! And I can't start another fire when I have over 100 loaves to bake and get to the market by 7:00am!
What I love about this part of the journey is that I get to "know" my oven! I'm getting familiar with it's personality, and believe me, it has one! I anticipate that there to be at least one more shift in how the oven holds heat and bakes, I'm thinking another 2 to 3 months. At that point, it will then be complete and it's true personality will be established. And as long as I do my part as the oven tender, and fire it properly, it will function like a well made clock and never skip a beat.

Our signature BakeHouse Sourdough. This is the first bread that gets baked.
The oven temps for this first bake are around 595° and when the bake is
finished, the oven temps are around 565°. If left to rebound, temps go
back to 575° within 20 to 25 minutes.

BakeHouse Breads ready for the market

It's these wonderful interactions with the customers that encourage me as the other aspects of running a business are with me every day. There is this romance people have in their minds about what it is to be a bread baker. But the bottom line is, it's a business and it has real challenges just like any other business.

We are still working on getting the BakeHouse Oven building finished. We had a setback due to a very unprofessional contractor. There were a few days where we thought that we'd have to dismantle part of the BakeHouse building for the Electrical Inspector, but, the inspector gave strict instruction the contractor and the problems were fixed. We now have our approval sticker and can continue working on the BakeHouse Oven building which includes several items that need to be completed for the Board of Health. They gave us our license based on these items being completed.

The hand sink for the BakeHouse Oven building was the first item we chose to tackle. We have no running water out to the BakeHouse Oven, so we had to come up with a way to get a hand sink out to the building. There are several companies that make portable hand sinks, but they are a bit pricey for what we needed. So we went to YouTube! And we found what we needed. A great video of a guy who made his own portable hand sink! Here's how we did it!

This Sterilite cabinet was purchased at WalMart.

Tom cut the top out for the sink insert.

We found this great little hand sink on eBay!

Wheels added to the base so we could move it easily.

Mini Electric hot water heater and waste water.

Electric and water connection.

We have water!

Our hand sink works like a charm!

Ah, as I'm finishing up this post I just got a whiff of roasting chili from our neighbor. He farms several acres about 5 miles from here and New Mexico's Green Chili season is upon us! It's such a great smell. Between his roasting chili and me baking bread, we fill our neighborhood with a wonderful aroma!

And just for fun, I thought I'd share with you a photo from our Pecan trees! They are covered with these wonderful clusters of nuts. The Mesilla Valley is starting to explode with produce ready for harvest, it's a very festive time here in Las Cruces.

Our Pecan trees are loaded down with nuts!

So until next time . . . blessings to all and thank you again for following along. Thoughtfully - Kath

The Quiet Mornings

With the weekly posts of the oven construction slowing down considerably, the rhythm of the BakeHouse has started to take shape. It's hard to describe, it's not just one activity, but several. And it's not just the "doing" part. It's the more subtle things, like sound. In fact, I think the sound part is what I enjoy the most. There is the still sound of the early morning, usually 2:45 am. No birds, maybe a gentle breeze and right now, crickets ( I call them Jimminies ). The cleaning out of the oven before baking. The scraping out of the ashes. Metal to brick, with a rhythmic steady motion. Then the sweeping out of the chamber, that gentle whisking sound as the bristles run along the hearth bed. The sizzle of the damp mop running along the hot hearth bed catching all the left over ash. The shuffle of bakers racks as I check the loaves that have been in the cooler since the previous afternoon. And then back in to the house to make my first cup of strong tea and check on my builds. I open each container, I use three different builds, and first listen. There is a gentle bubbling sound of the build as it reaches it's final stage of development. Then the smell, it has a tender sweet smell, not sour, but almost floral. Especially the Rye culture - which lately has a beautiful undertone of Lavender.

BakeHouse Sourdoughs ready to go in to the oven.

I am grateful to be back with my bread, creating loaves each week to share with the community. There is something to be said about having something your passionate about put on hold. I grieved. Although I didn't understand it at first, but now I realize that the BakeHouse wasn't just what I did, it was my creative expression. Like oil paint and canvas to a fine artist. All this to say that the baker is . . . gratefully content to be back in her element!

BRINGING IN THE BIG BOY

Las Cruces, New Mexico is crazy about bread! I keep adding bread to our bake each Saturday thinking that we've reached our limit but we keep selling out. This "problem" challenges me and my response it to create more bread. For the last three weeks I've been playing with a 5 lb Miche. This bread has captivated me. It's huge, dark and it bakes bold (dark). What I love about it most is that it uses up the left over heat that I have from previous bakes and it likes to ripen for a day or so before you actually cut in to it or release it for sale. This ripening fascinates me. When you do cut open the loaf, the first thing that is presented is the color of the crumb. Here this basically light bread has developed a crumb that is a rich Sepia color. The flavor is complex. First there is the subtle wheat, then it changes and there is an earthiness to it, then you start to taste Rye and then it all comes together and you find yourself cutting another slice! The bread just cries out for a good Hard Salami, Havarti Cheese and grainy mustard along with a Stout beer ( We miss Long Trail  & Magic Hat Breweries in Vermont ). The test baking of this bread has been a blast. Here's the process - enjoy!

First I created a Stiff Levain from my liquid culture

First two ingredients, flour and water are mixed only until they pull
together and then mixture rests for one hour.

This bread is a very soft, loose dough. This is 20 lbs of dough.

Pre shape and rest for a few minutes while I line the baskets.

Went to the local .99 Cent store and snagged four of these
giant colanders. They are perfect for the job! 

I lined the baskets with Flour Sack towels and dusted them
quite heavily so the soft dough wouldn't stick.

Each basket went in to a bag to protect the dough from drying out in our desert climate.

Tom created a makeshift peel for me using
one of my proofing boards. He's so clever!

The peel is the perfect size for this mass of dough.

Oven Hogs. They need a full 1 1/2 hours in the oven.

The finished loaves. 

The size just makes you smile. It's huge!
We'll be bringing them to the market on Saturday whole and cutting them
into quarters. I'm curious to see if we have anyone who wants to
buy the whole loaf. If anything, I think it will make people stop and take a look.

And the reason I do have left over heat that sticks around long enough to bake like this is the insulation that Tom decided to use. The Ceramic Fiber Blanket is amazing. I'm using less wood to fire the oven and the heat retention is incredible. Something so simple that adds a whole new dimension to the design of our oven. Thanks Tom!

Here you get a view of the blanket over the baking chamber.
Vermiculite was used to fill in all the gaps between the
wall and the chamber.

Here you can see where Tom set the Thermocouples in such a way
so that they can be replaced if needed. It's so nice that they are not
buried in the vermiculite like our last oven, we'll actually be able to find them.

I hope you've enjoyed this little peek into our world of bread making. I look forward to sharing the next post with you. Thoughtfully, Kath

Las Cruces has welcomed us with open arms!

Our first official press release has appeared in an offshoot publication of our local paper. Every weekend has been filled with meeting new customers and learning the names of all our repeat customers. We are so grateful for the enthusiasm of Las Cruces for the BakeHouse!

http://www.lcsun-news.com/mylascruces/ci_20921294/downtown-bread-art-mdash-baker-brings-unique-loaves

Blogging and Baking!

As I started to create this update today I realized how quickly time has gone by! It's was much easier blogging about Tom's work on the oven compared to me baking and getting to the market. Today is one of my official days off, so I thought I'd share with you all that's been going on.

The oven if firing like a charm. All the construction tweaks that Tom had made are proving to be good choices. We finally installed all 6 thermocouples and I'm now able to track just how much heat is being stored. Tom also decided to order a Ceramic Fiber Blanket to cover the cladding over the baking chamber. This will arrive tomorrow. Once this is placed over the cladding, we'll fill up the rest of the space with masonry vermiculite, and then the oven will be considered completely done!

We're still working out how much bread to bring to the market. We've sold out at every market within 3 hours. It's safe to say that Las Cruces has embraced us. It's been very, very encouraging. We're up to 120 loaves a week and growing. Our ultimate goal is 300/400 loaves a week. I really appreciate the moderate speed at which we're growing since we basically hit the ground running. I found that my body remembered the physical workout of putting out the bread, BUT, it's taken a bit to get back in shape from the 2 1/2 years that I was not baking.

Meet the biggest challenge of my bread making day:

You got it. The high temperatures and the very, very low humidity. Fortunately my Commercial Kitchen has a Swamp Cooler and the BakeHouse also has a Swamp Cooler. This actually helps to keep the temperature pretty consistent throughout the process. Both of these areas I'm able to keep at 75° and the Swamp Coolers add moisture into the air.

The market has been a wonderful experience. It is a year round market and there are several hundred vendors that attend each Saturday. Wednesday's market is much quieter, but we're finding that folks are starting to take advantage of being able to buy bread twice a week.

What has really been a blessing to us is our Block Captain. He's really tried to keep us in the same basic location each Saturday and this has been a real benefit for us and our new customers.

Our Block Captain, Dodds.

Here are some other views of the market:

Mom getting the table set up.

Our bread display. The vintage table cloth with the Cherries
comes from my Aunt Elsie!

The Special of the Day nestled in another vintage tablecloth.
Thanks Aunt Elsie!

One of the many entryways into the market.

We're ready for customers.

We are gearing up for another busy week. Kalamata Olive will be the Special for Saturday. We're not sure how Las Crucens will respond. This was one of our most popular breads in the East, so I'm curious to see how it sells here in New Mexico.

Thanks again for checking in and I'll look forward to sharing more with you as we get settled in baking bread in Las Cruces. Thoughtfully Kath

Walk In, Wires and Wind . . . Oh My!

As I was trying to put my thoughts together regarding our second week in business, I found that my days all ran together and it was hard to pinpoint what happened when!

After I posted last Monday, we prepared for our first Wednesday market. There were several decisions that had to be made. Wednesday's market is known to have light foot traffic, so we only went with what we thought would sell.

Mom getting baskets ready.

The weather forecast for Wednesday was warm and windy. The wind was to arrive at 11am. OK, it sounds odd that they predict the time of wind arrival, but let me tell you, when they say 11am they mean it, and just like a Swiss Watch . . . the wind arrived at the Market - packing 45mph gusts! We had secured our tent, and fortunately most of our bread was sold at that point - we ended up taking only 8 loaves home.

Wednesday's bread ready to go to the market!

Our booth before the wind hit. If you look closely, you'll see where we are anchored down to keep the tent from blowing away. We also anchored the tables together. A big thank you to all our friends old and new who came out on Wednesday to get their bread!

You can just see the Organ Mountains peeking over an Adobe church.
The flag tells the rest of the story!

Tom was frantically working on the walk in unit. The temperatures during the day are starting to push over 90° which is forcing me to work with cooler and cooler water temps to try and control the dough.
I'm also not retarding the loaves overnight since the walk in was not complete, which means I have to hone my skill at making sure the oven and the loaves are both ready at the same time. I've had a few loaves get away from me and over proof - but so far it's been manageable.  I have to admit, I was looking forward to the walk in being compete. Managing all that dough and then baking the same day is a bit frantic.

Fortunately we don't have the humidity that we had in New Jersey, so I'm finding it a little easier to keep the dough cool. But with that said, the new challenge I face is lack of humidity! Things dry out really, really fast in the desert's dry climate. We'll be putting what's called a Swamp Cooler in the BakeHouse. This simple unit actually puts humidity back in to the air and cools the room.

I was able to get the inside of the Walk In painted during
the week, early in the morning when it was cool.

When Tom was ready to install the compressor for the Walk In, what became the big frustration was an oversight by the contractor in regard to the wiring. So Tom had to do some reworking of the wiring to accommodate the unit. I'm sure grateful for all that Tom knows how to do, I think I would have gone nuts waiting for the contractor to return to fix the problem!

I think this photo was taken at around 10:30 PM!
Feeding Tom Oreos seemed to keep his spirits up as he fought
with the rewiring challenge. Big hands, small space . . . ouch!

Walk In is now ready!

Baker's racks fit like a glove.
Walk in will fit 5 racks at one time.

Wow, now that I've gotten all this in writing with photos in place I'm realizing just how crazy the week has been. Today we'll be preparing 75 loaves, which will keep me on my toes as I'll be firing the oven at the same time and baking later this evening. Starting next week, with all the pieces in place i.e. the walk in, the thermocouples, the air conditioner, I'll be able to start our prep and bake schedule based on what I did in New Jersey. Which is mix our dough, proof overnight and then bake the next morning. With each passing day it feels as though the kinks are getting worked out. So much feels familiar, but in a new location there is a lot which is new. As we work through each challenge, I'm finding that the wonderful rhythm that I so enjoy as a baker is starting to reveal itself little by little under the sunny skies of Las Cruces, New Mexico.

Thanks to all of you who journey along with us, share your kind words and purchase your loaf of bread, we are truly blessed. Thoughtfully - Kath

Our first Las Cruces Farmer's & Crafter's Market

Wow, what a whirlwind! Now that I'm looking at the photos I'm realizing just how amazing this Saturday was. We were welcomed into the market with open arms. Within 2 1/2 hours we had sold out of the 60 loaves we brought. As much as we wanted to bring more, the oven is still not ready to bake off more. I had to be very, very respectful as the oven is still "scorchy", so it's easy to end up with charred bottoms and anemic crusts if I wasn't careful. With each firing and bake, the heat will penetrate the cladding deeper and deeper making each bake better and better. It's during this time that I really get to know the BakeHouse oven! It reveals it's personality slowly, which gives me time to learn.

The bake is done.

As I was putting the last loaves into the oven, I kept thinking of that line from the first Indiana Jones movie when Karen Allen's character is alone in a dark tomb with the torch yelling "Indie the flame is going ouuuttttttt"! Whew was I grateful when I finished.

My mom, Jolan and me ready to sell bread!

Last night Tom and I had to empty out the BakeHouse building so that it could be insulated today. We chose to go with spray foam insulation to get the best R value for the walk in unit. At first only the walk in unit was going to be done, but the Contractor hired for the job felt it would be more cost effective to do the whole building since it wasn't very large. I'm so glad that we won't have to deal with the Fiberglass Insulation! I've decided that the BakeHouse building that Tom has built is a better building than our actual house!

The pieces are a bit like styrofoam peanuts if the wind catches them!

No firing the oven today!

We're now planning for Wednesday's market. The foot traffic won't be nearly as heavy as Saturday, but we did received prepaid orders for Wednesday, which is what we were hoping would happen. So there you have it - it's so exciting to share it with all of you! Thank you for all the wonderful emails and Facebook posts we've received - they are awesome! I'll look forward to our next post and keeping you up to date with The Adventure of the BakeHouse! Thoughtfully, Kath

All Sold Out in 2 1/2 hours ! Wow!