My sister-n-law, Kim, who I think will forgive me for sneaking a look into the cookbook Baked: New Frontiers in Baking
What is your favorite food memory? Um, learning to make chocolate chip cookies in 4-H. We had to measure all the ingredients into butter dishes. That is my first memory of being taught how to bake.
What inspired you to start your business? I love to bake for myself, my family, and other’s enjoyment. So many of my friends don’t bake because they can’t, don’t know how, don’t like to, or don’t have the time to. Store-bought has become the staple at every event and I want to bring homemade back to home.
What’s your three favorite kitchen tools? My kitchen-aid mixer, my apple/slicer/corer gadget, and my hand chopper.
What have you made from the Baked cookbook so far? The Peanut Butter Cookies With Milk Chocolate Chunks, page 140, completely awesome! The Chocolate Chip Cookies, page 139, not your average chocolate chip cookie. And, the Peanut Butter Krispie Bars, page 133, super yummy intense adult rice krispie bars, delicious! A sugar rush!
What do you want to make next from Baked? Black Forest Chocolate Cookies, the Baked Brownie, and the Rootbeer Bundt Cake.
What would you like to learn next? I’d like to take a food science class, to learn the ins and outs of how ingredients interact, so I can formulate my own recipes with less trial and error.
Where do you see yourself in the next five years? Or, where would you like to be? I’d like to have my business up and running. I’d like to have a retail location where I can bake and teach classes for kids and adults.
If you were going to ask the owners and writer of Baked anything-what would it be? What do you think the key to consistency is, as you start to hirer and expand, to maintain your same quality product.
What kind of satisfaction do you get from baking? Personally, therapeutic, for me it’s relaxing. When I was younger, and in high school, if there was something going on, you could tell, because I would make a pan of brownie or cookies. When I bake for others, there is nothing more satisfying than hearing, that was really good!
If you were going to eat your last dessert, what would it be? A hot skillet cookie. It’s a hot chocolate chip cookie, warmed or cooked on a cast iron skillet, served with icecream and hot fudge suace, whipped cream, with toasted almonds on top.
Oh it is so nice to hear a fellow baker. My house has become the afternoon hang out because more often then not a home-baked treat is waiting. I’m now inspired to make the skillet cookie What recipe do you use?
Really you can use any chocolate chip cookie recipe that you enjoy. When I do this at home I bake my favorites on a cookie sheet first rather than cast iron skillets like the restaurant back home. Then, while they are still hot from the oven, I place them in a ramekin with the ice-cream and toppings of choice. It is more functional to do it on a pan and as an added bonus you won’t burn your hand on your ramekin when you start to dig in. A simple, but yummy treat every time. I highly rec. it!