Pumpkin and Spice

For the past three weeks, I've been on the midnight baker shift. The midnight bakers (there are three of us) come in at midnight and stay until 8a, and our primary responsiblity is to make bread. The ski resort I work at has three lodges, and each lodge has a quick service and a table service restaurant (one actually has two table service), and we are responsible for looking at projected skier counts and the reservations at the restaurants and deciding how much of each bread to make.

Our daily routine doesn't vary much- we have a set variety of breads, the quantity is all that really varies.

We make a traditional sourdough bread. It's good- with a crisp crust and a chewy, tangy interior. I haven't gotten the full scoop on the sourdough starter we use/feed, but the rumor is that it's over a hundred years old. Fact or fiction? Who knows? The starter is very sticky and messy, and every day we have to feed it with flour and water, then stir it by hand. Eeeew.

This is what it looks like baked.

And Struan (STREW-an) bread, which is a rustic harvest bread, made with whole wheat, polenta, wheat bran and seeds.

And baguettes... lots and lots of baguettes. We actually make them in two sizes.

Part of them get cut into sections and made into baguettes with butter and jam, which is my absolute favorite breakfast item that we sell. Yep, even more than cinnamon buns, danishes, croissants, muffins, scones or any of the other decadant pastries. A still warm, freshly baked baguette, spread with melty butter and seedy raspberry jam. So good and simple, it really can't be beat.

Every now and then we have to make brioche and challah for the breakfast grill, but not too often. Other than that, the only real change from day to day is our "bread of the day". We get to be creative and come up with a bread variety. We do all kinds of things, from healthy vegan breads (like rosemary walnuts and tomato with kalmata olive) to loaded baked potato bread, which is yummy, but probably the fattiest bread on earth.

(Here it is, waiting to go into the mixer- look at that! Leftover mashed potatoes, bacon, cheddar cheese, onions, chives, *cough*bacon grease*cough*... Like I said, it's good bread, even though I don't actually like my baked potatoes "loaded". I don't know about you, but I generally like to keep my baked potatoes pretty simple- a little sour cream, salt and pepper. Yum.)

It's an interesting shift. At that time of night, there aren't many people at the resort. It's basically us (the bakers), some dishwashers that are finishing up their shifts, and a couple security guards. (There are some snow groomers, too, but they're out on the mountain, and not in the lodge.) Sometimes we get a little bored waiting for our bread to proof. But, of course we take our jobs very seriously.

Everything is dark and quiet and still. It's also cold. Usually kitchens aren't cold, but with no one there, and all the burners and steam kettles and broilers off, it actually gets a bit chilly. (I actually wear thermal underwear under my chef uniform at night.) With the kitchens being so empty, I was able to take some pictures of the kitchen to give you an idea of where I work.

The line. This is line cook territory. When the restaurants are open, it's full and busy and noisy- We bakers/patissiers stay clear of this area, generally.

This is line/prep area. Check out the huge steam kettles! (They're large double-walled kettles. When they're on, steam between the walls heats and cooks the food.) These are so big, I could easily climb inside and have plenty of room. In another area of the kitchen there are other, smaller steam kettles that we use to make pastry cream.

And this is our bakery! The blue carts are rolling bread carts with vinyl covers. Our bread is on the carts, proofing away happily. That pink argyle bag is my knife roll- cute, eh?

These are our ovens. You can't see them in the above picture because one of the carts is blocking them.

I like baking bread, but I have been having a hard time adjusting to sleeping during the day. I can't help but feel lazy when I sleep until one, even when I went to bed at 8:30a. I also haven't been able to get a full eight hours in one chunk. I usually go to sleep at 8:30ish and sleep for as long as I can, which is usually one. Then, later in the evening, I take a two or three hour nap. One of the downsides to this, is that I'm now eating four meals a day, as I'm awake (and hungry) at all meal times. I eat breakfast, lunch, dinner and then "fourth meal", as Taco Bell calls it. I don't seem to have gained any weight from my extra meals- maybe because I've been spending more hours awake? I'm looking forward to getting back to a normal schedule- eight hours of solid sleep, three meals, and regular trips to the gym (I haven't been to the gym since I started the midnight shift! Eeek!)