Karen’s Bakery Celebrates 8th Season
Tara A. Spears
Baking is science, magic, and luck all in one. Even if you are using quality ingredients, creating a loaf that is gorgeous, chewy- crunchy, aromatically-pleasing marvel, isn’t something that just anyone can do. There is art to being a successful baker.
Fortunately for Jaltemba Bay, there is a bakery artist that creates healthy special baked treats. Canadian expat, Karen Andal, puts in
the time, effort and know-how to bake delectable cakes, baguettes, bread and brownies. You can pick up her fresh bakery product every Thursday at the La Penita outdoor market. Her goodies are located just in front of the church. Or, you can pre order your favorites.
Baking is where dough is transformed into bread: one of the oldest and most essential foods on the planet. It’s the culmination of hours of work and waiting. Baking day is like science-fair day, feast day, and judgment day all in one together. “I always enjoyed good bread and cake so I decided baking was going to be my second career, “said Karen. “I studied lots of cookbooks and baking blogs then dug into the dough, learning from each less than perfect result.” Karen works each batch of dough carefully to achieve the consistency and quality she demands.
Like many professional bakers, Karen splits her day. She gets up at 4:00 am to begin the process. Yeast products need time to rise. Yeast is very sensitive to temperature; even a few degrees less in the kitchen can extend the rise time significantly. According to professional baker Christensen, “If you want light, fluffy bread, the dough should rise until it is puffy. The more gas incorporated in the dough, the lighter it will be.”
Next, temperature makes a difference. The temperature differential between baking hearth breads or baking cookies, is part of what accounts for the differences in their exterior texture. The cookies are baked at lower temperatures in order for the sugars to caramelize readily but proteins remain largely intact.
A couple of years after Karen built a client base, she upgraded to professional equipment. Professional equipment makes a huge difference for end result and creating more than two loves at a time. Bread ovens are great at two things that home ovens aren’t: creating ambient heat, and retaining steam.
There is even a system to determine when bread is done baking in the oven. In general, bakers such as Karen have three means of deciding this: color, feel, and sound. “Over the years I felt like I was performing experiments as I was trying out new ideas for product. It was like reading my fortune in the crumbs as how to plan future bakes,” said Karen. “I learn from each batch!”
A frustration that bread lovers that live in hot, humid climates have is avoiding getting mold when storing bread. Professional bakers’ number one tip is to not buy pre-sliced breads, since the shelf life of bread dramatically decreases as soon as you slice it and put in a plastic bag.
Instead, it is recommended to just slice off the portion of bread that you plan to eat from the loaf, and then inverting the exposed end on the table or cutting board. This method allows the crust to breathe and evolve as it sits. He points out that the loaf really shouldn’t even be put into a paper bag, although that’s the next best alternative.
An exception to this rule is the baguette, which is essentially a daily bread and should ideally be consumed the day of use. If you need to store bread for several days, you should freeze it.One of Karen’s new products is the Protein Power Puck, left photo. Each muffin contains 6-7 grams of protein. In addition, favorite cakes like Pineapple Carrot, Hummingbird (a yummy vanilla with pineapple and pecans) and Karen’s deluxe glazed Lemon Pound cake are on this year’s menu.One look at the yummy selections and you will have to treat yourself to a north of the border style baked goods! Karen’s known for her excellent breads, cakes, brownies that are good-for-you sweets.
Preorder by email: andal54@hotmail.com Facebook messenger: Karen Andal or text her cell 322 156 6180
