Cracked Cauldron Spillings

I talked with my favorite donut shop baker today and got some great tips on buying ovens and proof boxes. He'll put in a good word when we're ready with them so we can get (hopefully) a slightly better deal.

He also gave us the name of a realtor who might be helpful in locating the best place at the best arrangement.

I love my donut man. He makes the absolute best donuts I have ever tasted. If anyone ever comes into our bakery for donuts, he's the man.

Let me tell you about his donuts. He lets them rise long enough that they are light, fluffy, melt in your mouth. The hot oil is hot enough to prevent a thick crust from forming, so even the crust is tender. The flavor of the dough ripens fully with his long, slow ferment. Places like Dunkin Donuts? They are in too much of a hurry, their dough never rises enough to be so flavorful and tender. And the glaze... My donut man glazes his donuts using sugar that has steeped in vanilla bean and whole cardamom pods so the flavor is extremely subtle, then he uses just a drop of lemon juice to bring out the flavor, and the donuts are barely glazed at all. The combination of tender, well-risen donut and subtle glaze is marvelous, by far the best donuts I have ever tasted.

He named his shop well when he named it "Best Donuts".

I want people to rave over our baked goods the way I rave over his donuts.

The best thing is, now we're on the track of ovens. Can't bake bread without ovens. And some of the ovens I've found are for bakeries far larger than we expect to become.

Our goal is to be the neighborhood bakery, providing great baked goods for a core group of regulars and always drawing in other new customers with our events, some of whom will become new regulars. We'll have people from surrounding cities coming over for party baked goods, and specialty breads for special dinners. We'll have kids stopping in after school for milk and cookies. Workers will drop in after work to pick up bread and soup for dinner and pastries for tomorrow's breakfast. College kids and others will come by later for soup and pastries and coffee and live music. And the late night shift will stop in for a light dinner and tomorrow's bread. We'll be close enough to downtown, we may open for lunch for the bread and soup crowd.

We may not be a multi-national chain bakery, but we will be a local favorite, and we'll be successful.