It's up and running!

Submitted by mcs on July 29, 2008 - 9:00pm

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

Filed under:

Submitted by AnnieT on July 29, 2008 - 9:07pm.

Bakery

Mark, congratulations and all best wishes! Your bakery looks wonderful and I look forward to hearing how things go - when you have time! A.

Submitted by GrapevineTX on July 29, 2008 - 9:11pm.

Congratulations, Mark

Your bakery is a beautiful!

Submitted by SourdoLady on July 29, 2008 - 9:12pm.

Bakery

Wow, that looks really nice! Will you have a retail sales area, or will you just be doing consignment baking? Congratulations on your beginning bakery, and I hope it really takes off for you!

Submitted by Russ on July 29, 2008 - 9:54pm.

Congratulations! It looks

Congratulations! It looks great. Best wishes as you get started.

Russ

Submitted by Janedo on July 30, 2008 - 1:32am.

Wow! That's great. I'd LOVE

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

Submitted by mcs on July 30, 2008 - 4:39am.

thanks for the well wishes

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

Submitted by Drifty Baker on July 30, 2008 - 4:52am.

The Back Home Bakery

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!

Submitted by mcs on July 30, 2008 - 8:37am.

bakery floor

Drifty,

The bakery floor is just sealed (many times) concrete. It cleans up very well with both a broom and mop.

http://thebackhomebakery.com

Submitted by ehanner on July 30, 2008 - 5:36am.

Looks Great Mark

Everything really came together nicely Mark. Very nice. Ahhh there's the sheeter, outstanding.

Good Luck to you both.

Eric

Submitted by proth5 on July 30, 2008 - 5:49am.

Congratulations and Best Wishes

So, it can happen...

I'd wish you luck - but somehow I think luck has little to do with it.

Happy Baking!

Submitted by foolishpoolish on July 30, 2008 - 6:01am.

Congrats

That's great news.

Wishing you all the best for the future.

Congrats!

Submitted by weavershouse on July 30, 2008 - 6:04am.

Beautiful

All the best to you Mark. What a beautiful place you have to work in. Enjoy! weavershouse

Submitted by Susan on July 30, 2008 - 6:52am.

Congrats, Mark!

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

Submitted by mcs on July 30, 2008 - 9:08am.

whistling while I work?

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

Submitted by Richelle on July 30, 2008 - 7:50am.

Enhorabuena Mark! And I hope

Enhorabuena Mark! And I hope that you will receive orders for lovely crusty rustic breads as well, so you can fill that beautiful bakery with the sounds of bread 'talking' to you when you take them out of the oven. One of my favorite magical baking moments. Shame that you cannot share a 'sniff' with us all as well, as I'm sure the smells of your pastry are captivating...

Richelle

Submitted by edh on July 30, 2008 - 9:06am.

Bravo!

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

Submitted by staff of life on July 30, 2008 - 10:04am.

Hi Mark-- Yay for you! Can

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

Submitted by mcs on July 30, 2008 - 9:34pm.

tour of the bake area, 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

Submitted by muse555 on July 31, 2008 - 9:10am.

beyond GORGEOUS!

wow...what a setup!! congratulations! please let us know how it goes! i'm just SO impressed!

Submitted by LindyD on July 30, 2008 - 10:05am.

Terrific and all the best

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

Submitted by Mini Oven on July 30, 2008 - 11:52am.

A limerick...

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

Submitted by audra36274 on July 30, 2008 - 5:28pm.

I am so happy for you !

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

Submitted by Mike Avery on July 30, 2008 - 6:05pm.

My hat's off to you!

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

Submitted by staff of life on July 31, 2008 - 3:35am.

Electric and Gas?

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

Submitted by mcs on August 1, 2008 - 1:26pm.

electric and gas ovens- 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

Submitted by jerryf01 on July 31, 2008 - 3:55am.

Gee, That's great

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!

Submitted by cheesecake man on July 31, 2008 - 4:00am.

Love your kitchen! Best

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)

Submitted by mcs on August 1, 2008 - 1:29pm.

Cheescake man- ovens

Rick,
Oops, just realized I combined my answer about the ovens in my reply to SOL above.
-Mark

http://thebackhomebakery.com

Submitted by holds99 on July 31, 2008 - 5:19am.

A Well Deserved Congratulations

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

Submitted by mcs on August 1, 2008 - 1:51pm.

apprenticeship

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

Submitted by holds99 on August 1, 2008 - 2:56pm.

OK, let me sleep on it

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

Submitted by Floydm on July 31, 2008 - 8:13am.

Congrats, Mark

Congrats, Mark.

Submitted by ejm on July 31, 2008 - 8:34am.

Whoohooo!!! It looks

Whoohooo!!! It looks fabulous. All the best!

-Elizabeth

Submitted by Rosalie on July 31, 2008 - 10:23am.

Add my name to the list

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

Submitted by Paddyscake on July 31, 2008 - 5:19pm.

Back Home Officially Rocks!!

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

Submitted by mcs on August 1, 2008 - 1:35pm.

thanks everybody!

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

Submitted by ehanner on August 1, 2008 - 2:35pm.