The next few days at the Commercial Kitchen

I went in with a fresh start and a list of things to do that day, more prepared for what to expect, and feeling a bit stronger. I made crusts and let them rest, fillings, and then, my nemesis, caramel, which worked out fine. I decided not to use a thermometer, but to watch it carefully. That seemed to work.

I think the next day I came in to roll out and bake some tarts. I was going to use the big deck oven , which was pretty absurd because I was only probably baking 1 sheet pan of tarts, and the oven held like 24 sheet pans. But I snuck in with another guy who was also baking, even though he thought I should just use the smaller oven and not get in his way even though we were supposed to share. Whatever.

The tarts came out slouchy and ugly looking. The crust wasn’t setting up quick enough and they were not holding their shape, nor were they browning well at all. Also, the bottoms were not baking evenly: the center was almost raw and the outer edges were dark and golden. We gave them away to some strange bread people that had come in. I felt really weird like I didn’t know what I was doing, and I was scared a little about my ability to figure out what was going wrong. We talked to Keith, the kitchen manager, who had been a pastry chef for many years, about what was going on and he gave us some tips. I also did a little bit of research on the web.

At this time I was still working during the day and baking at night, but the holiday season was approaching and I knew as a bakery we would be stupid not to take advantage of it. John had actually just gotten a job offer for a temporary position where he would work from home. So in the next week or so I gave my notice and on my last day, my coworkers gave me an embroidered apron as a farewell present.

Also, I think at that time, I decided to take a position as a baker at a catering company on the East Side where I would be baking mostly muffins and scones, but getting some real live industry experience.

I think our dreams of getting all this holiday business were a little grandiose, or perhaps we simply didn’t know how to tap into that market because for some reason we didn’t end up making all that much money during the holidays. I do remember working all night baking just 3 pumpkin tarts (I only had 1 pan). It was one of those funny stories where I would nap while they were baking, and wake up just before the timer went off. I also remember 1 of the tarts came out really dark and the other 2 were lighter, and John who packed them while I slept, didn’t realize this was important and I think gave one person 2 tarts which were different colors. I remember a whole lot of stuff like that at that time where I was so focused on the minute details like matching colors that I would just get very little done. This was I think the beginning of my time management crisis.