Pumpkin Pie Muffins - vegan

Whew. It turns out that a busy bakery turns into chaos during Thanksgiving week. We sold hundreds! thousands! millions! of pies. I couldn't actually believe we would sell all of the ones we had ready, but we did, and we actually sold out of some flavors. 

By the end of my shift on Thursday, I was done in. So much so that, for the first time in my life, I brought a cake to dinner that I bought. I was mildly outraged at myself, but so tired that I couldn't sustain it. Also, I justified it by telling myself that it was a cake we make in the bakery, so it's almost kinda-sorta like homemade. Right? 

Pumpkin & Spice Overnight Oatmeal - vegan & gluten free

I've started having dreams about work, which clearly means I'm there a lot (have I mentioned I'm finally full time?) and it's busy. You might have heard that Thanksgiving is next week. And you might see the connection between Thanksgiving and a very busy bakery.

My most recent nocturnal adventure had me worried all night about not having enough stuffing. You see, we make unseasoned bread stuffing from our stale (day old) bread, and apparently last year we sold hundreds and hundreds of pounds of it. It's somewhat time consuming to make, and with so many other things on my Must Make NOW list, turning loaves of bread into sort-of-but-not-really-cubed-shaped-pieces often gets pushed to the end of my shift. Which means I'm rushingrushingrushing and never ever make as much progress on my pile of bread as I'd like to, which seems to lead to bread nightmares. Life is hard.

Pumpkin Doughnut Muffins - dairy free

Somehow it's Saturday. I'm not totally sure when that happened, except that it must crept up on me while I made cookies and creme brulee and bread stuffing and cookies and bread crumbs and pastry cream and cookies and...you get the idea. It turns out that the weeks leading up to the holiday season at a bakery are busy. I can only imagine the insanity ahead.

How I Bake

I've been thinking about this post for a long time. Well, a few months at least. Mainly because it occurred to me that the way I bake and write about baking is different from everyone else out there in the food blogosphere. It's not different better or different worse, just different because every baker is unique in their own small ways. And that's awesome, because new perspectives are how recipes morph and improve. For instance, I adapted my oreo recipe from Sassy Radish, who adapted hers from Smitten Kitchen, who got it from Retro Desserts. And now it's waiting for you to adapt.

So whether you're new here (welcome!) or one of my very first readers (thank you!), here are a few details about how I bake which may help as you navigate cookies or cakes or bread or pies.