Baker's Life

Hi I'm Jen I've been baking my whole life and for the past three years I've been a professional baker! This is where I have decided to vent about the random and unnecessary obstacles that I have come across in my daily life.

[bakerslife-blog]

Chocolate melts at about 91 degrees

which is bad when the power goes out and no one resets the AC. I opened the chocolate bin to make brownies and all the chocolate had melted.

[bakerslife-blog]

The power is back on!! I only had to wait 2 hours!!'

[bakerslife-blog]

well fuck it started raining harder!

[bakerslife-blog]

And thus begins the live blogging of the power outage

so today, at around 2:30 this morning, the power went out! it's 3:30 now and the power still isn't back on :( I just wish there was someone with me. I'm just sitting In my car because the store is haunted and I really didn't feel like sitting alone in the dark in there. I called my boss and told her, she called the owner, he said there are people out there working to get the power back on (not just the store lost power, but like the entire strip mall). the power should be on by 6. bitch I ain't got time for this shit! I have to make like 280 pumpkin spice loaves today! my normal amount would be high at 70 loaves. I had one 10 batch on the mixer with another 10 and a batch of lemon blueberry bread lined up to go on the mixer next. I was figuring the rest of my numbers for the day then bam! no lights, no music, no mixer mixing, and no oven pre-heating. then I start to get creeped out, so I go to my car. I step onto the pavement and surprise! the whole parking lot is flooded with about 5 inches of water; needless to say my shoes got more clean and my socks got wet. it seems like the storm is moving!! too bad that doesn't mean the power will come back on any faster. and it's not like it stopped raining or lightninging, but it's lighter and the thunder is quieter and the lightning is slightly less frequent. :/ man I'm starting to get hungry now :/ only 2 hrs and 20 minutes till the power comes back on!!!

[bakerslife-blog]

Bugs

Good Morning! It is 3:06 am and I am not waiting for bread to rise! Today The Yeast Baker is back and I get to resume my position as sweets baker. 

So! On Monday nights there are people who come and clean and wax the floor, to do so they move all of our racks and bowls and pretty much everything. While I was putting things back where they belong a cockroach almost fell on my head!! It just fell out of the ceiling.  It was horrible! And I'm already sooo very wiped-out from yesterday (clocked in at 2:45am and didn't clock out till 12:30 pm)! There are always so many bugs around! From little annoying gnats, weevils, beetles of various size and color,  crickets, grasshoppers, spiders, and cockroaches. FTS

 As none of you know I have a problem with stress. If I am too stressed out over a long period of time it starts to show on the palm of my hands. They break out in hives. When I woke-up my hands were fine, when I was driving my hands were fine, when I got out of my car my hands were fine. As soon as I walked in the building--hives. I HAVE to find a new job. I can't work under these grotesque conditions.

[bakerslife-blog]

Mill Room Cleaning Day

Good morning! It is 4:53 am and once again I am waiting for bread to rise.

Today my co-baker and I get to clean the mill room! This endeavor entails us scraping 15 years worth of flour build-up off of a broken and cracked tile floor.  I managed to get one tile clean on Saturday--which took me 2 hours. 

Why 15 years worth of flour you might ask? Well because the current Yeast Baker doesn't clean. Just simply doesn't do it! If something (like the ice machine or the AC) leaks, he will continue working, even if 2 inches of water coats the floor. He works in it and thinks I'm silly for moping it up; to him that is a waste of time. Why? "Because it's just going to start leaking again anyway."  Not a valid reason if you ask me. 

Well after my floor scraping adventure on Saturday I decided I needed better equipment to clean the floor. I mean, I broke the scrap-y part off of a grill brush, that's how hard this shit is to get up! So with me today I brought:

1 pack of Sandpaper

1 set of eye goggles

1 chisel

2 metal putty knives (one 6in, one 4in)

1 long brush to get flour off of the mill and to wipe down the walls.

I did just realize I forgot a tarp or and old sheet or whatever to cover the mill as we clean the ceiling. Oh yeah! Besides scraping the floor, we get to clear away God-knows how many more spider and cob webs. 

I really hope I don't have another nightmare about spiders again..

[bakerslife-blog]

Please Put the Eggs Away..it's not hard

Yet ANOTHER bucket of eggs was left-out yesterday -- that's like the 5th one this month! How is it that people can be so stupid and see a 5 gallon bucket of eggs sitting out and they're just like, "uhh, yeah, that can sit out overnight." fucking stupid. It's really not that hard to put eggs-or anything for that matter- away when you are done with them! Use your brain people! Thinking really isn't that hard.

[bakerslife-blog]

Good Morning!

Its 5:17am and I have been at work for almost 2 hours now. I'm just waiting for bread to rise, and I thought, what a great time to make your first post on your baker's blog! 

I work at a sad excuse for a Great Harvest Bread Company in Austin, TX. I mean, don't get me wrong, i LOVE GH, but this one still kinda sucks. The owner of this franchise doesn't really seem to give a fuck that the AC has been leaking for 3 days now. And this morning my co-baker and I found that there is a new mystery leak! I guess you can say it's like a murder-mystery minus the murder...unless you count spiders...because My co-baker and I started cleaning the pantry room the other day and OH MY GOD I've had nightmares about spiders for the past 2 nights. so...many...spiders. 

You're probably thinking, "woah, how the fuck is that place still open?" I have no fucking clue. But I do know that we got a 84 on our last health inspection (3/13/14), which isn't bad, but Isn't that great either...Anyway, if it helps my co-baker and I really want to buy this place from the owner and totally re-vamp it. Like a walk-in refrigerated pantry with a walk-in freezer section!! It would be AWESOME! 

Well I don't think I have anything else to say at the moment, but so far it feels like it's going to be a good day! even though the cinnamon rolls will mist-likely come out late today, oh well! haha! 

I'll be talking to you guys again later! Go try a new type of bread today!