On March 31, 2025, the 70th session of Just Bakery began. The students were all welcomed with smiles, infectious enthusiasm, backpacks filled with supplies and folders and notebooks and reference materials, and more baked goods and coffee than any office party could ever dream of! Were they delicious? Heck yeah. And given the talent of this group, they’ll only get better.
The first week laid out a basic blueprint of what the program covers, including:
Creaming!
Rubbing!
Whisking!
Muffins and quick bread!
Folding!
Melting!
Straight dough!
Sponging!
~~3 certifications~~
ServSafe!
Nutrition!
Management!
Mixed in with these practical lessons are a ton of life skills and community building. There’s a dang good team shaping up here.
Within two days, instructors Liz, Greg and Tonya alternated between the practicalities and challenges of preventing foodborne illness (in a fun, but necessarily gross approach) with delightfully nerdy and pun-filled lectures on the histories of flour and sugar. They even left with a clear explanation of what wheat gluten is, what it does, and why it’s an important part of baking. Heads exploded, but not literally, though some coffee needed to be wiped up with some towels. Also, everyone started their own vision board project.
But, what about the baking?!
After a successful (read: mouth watering) first attempt at a batch of commercial sugar cookies, it was clear that the team had the hang of creaming butter and sugar. Thursday, they let loose. They got dirty. They created their own experiments with flavors of their choosing for a un-lame cookie that each student made their own way. All the best sweet profiles got tested; nutty, chocolatey, fruity, caramel-y…if that’s a word. (It is now.) And they all rocked it.
Over the next 9 weeks, expect updates. Get to know the group. Find out how this wonderful, warm, welcoming introduction to the beauties and disasters of the food service industries is changing lives for the better. Get inspired to make the world sweeter for all.
And with that, Welcome to JB70!
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