The Bakery Veteran

      Hello! My name is Colin, and I am the grizzled, hardened veteran of the Terrier Bakery. Being back on the field, I've found that I still have what it takes to cope with any unforeseen event, and apprehend my prey, a successful bake-off. The fresh-meat needs direction, and I am just the man who can show them the terrors of the field, and how to break through. The difficulties of measuring the ingredients, of mixing the dough, of shaping the dough, of efficiently getting the dough into the oven, and of getting bread out. There will be mistakes, but the newbies need to learn that there is no room for panic, only room for improvisations, and experimentation. There needs to be a synergistic, mellow veil over the bakery at all times, and jokingly forgiving any mistakes is enough to keep our troop in high morals. On days when it feels more like a battlefield , and my troop are frantically and desperately killing their way through order after order of bread, I try to wave a flag of peace to bring back the calm shroud of joyous bread-making.

Who Is William Watts?

Who Is William Watts?

Like the roll of a twenty sided die, always changing it up on people and eventually stopping to let them react to what I have set the scene to be. Hats, hoodies, “hipster glasses”, and a distinctive walk that can’t be mistaken for any other, I’m easy to find on campus. Most of the time however, I’m hidden like a spider in its dark corner (although my “corner” is light and good smelling) inside the terrier bakery. Memo making, memorization, and much bread shaping, I decide what we make, when we bake, and how to shape, I over see what is done. Spending more time immersed in the worlds of manga, video games, strategy building, pirate jokes, and my future, I keep little time for reality and what is currently at hand. Combining fact and fiction, beauty with beastly and intelligence with…well let’s say being an idiot, I revolve my life around these, and like the flu it sometimes infects others to do the same. To sum it up, I’m William Watts, a random guy who just wants to spread some laughter and cheer to everyone he meets.

A Sweet View

Hello, my name is Lexi. I am a part of the Hiram Terrier Bakery. As you know I am a freshman. I was a part of Ella’s colloquium “The Art of Making Dough” this past fall.  I really enjoyed that class a lot, and that’s how I made my decision to take the second part of the class “TRANSFORMING DOUGH INTO (A LIFE OF) SWEET SUCCESS!” as my FSEM. During the colloquium I was a part of the bread making team. Every Wednesday we got up bright and early to make all sorts of breads to sell later that day.  I also, helped out by selling on Thursday in the Kennedy Center from 12-1:30. Thursday’s is our sweet days. We sell all of our sweet treats that our pastry team makes. We also sell our day old bread for half off. Anything bread we don’t sell on Wednesday’s we sold again on Thursday’s but half off! Now I am currently taking the FSEM, and enjoying every minute of it! We now split the class up into more groups; to cover every aspect of our student run business. I am part of the clean up/inventory/personal relations group. Our group sells on Thursdays; we also clean the kitchen; keep track of inventory; and make sure the people around Hiram know about the bakery! 

Bird's Eye View

               

  My experience with baking is like a robin chick’s first flight; I only observe others instead of committing the act. As I wrap the pristine loaf with the opaque paper at my appointed selling time Wednesday at noon. My mind races back to the dawn of my first flight. Crafting the dough was the same as expanding my weak wings. Baking was getting the courage to flap those wings.  I am afraid that I didn’t take off so well.   But I continued to exercise my fragile legs and got ready to leap off the branch again. This time, accepted the position as the General Manager of Marketing. Now I am flapping my wings strongly and actually gliding in mid-air!   I am Jessica Bessner and I am in charge of getting the message out about the Terrier Bakery all around campus.  Now that I can fly, it’s time for me to teach others; how to face their fears, and be able to risk it all, for the sake of the Terrier Bakery.

The Science of Baking

What exactly is baking? Some say it’s an art, others say that it’s science. I say, why not be both. Hello, my name is Kevin Kerper and I am a bread baker at the terrier bakery.

The process of baking bread from its play-dough like beginnings to its golden brown crust is an epic and fantastic journey. Formulas ask for exact amounts of ingredients such as 364 g of bleached flour; I discovered the hard way.  During my second week, I accidently used wheat flour to make a biga instead of bleached flour and I had to throw out the batch out. After getting the initial ingredients, the dough is mixed by adding in the ingredients into Herbert (Our colossal blender). This would seem to be an easy task but, in reality, this is quite complicated. For example, yeast and salt can’t touch when the dry ingredients are initially being mixed. I have been bellowed at many times for this error.

Special care is taken to stretch and fold dough. If you overwork the dough, it becomes too firm and when not worked enough, the dough has areas that taste like flour. Baking would theoretically be the easiest part, but there are always issues with this step. Things come out burned or undercooked because the ovens are finicky. Once the final product is made, my job is done and I go to my room and pass out in exhaust. 

Sparkling Clean!

 My name is Nicole. I am known to be the neat freak in my family. I guess you could say I’m the OC of the Terrier Bakery. Making things sparkle and knowing that my surroundings are clean gives me a feeling of great satisfaction.  The running water over my hands feels warm and refreshing; the dish soap creates a bubbly mess inside the pan. I then produce more bubbly suds over the bowls and utensils. They look as if they are polished from the bubbles when the warm water runs over them. Then the Clorox takes over, renewing the sink as if it was new. Clorox fights the war against all the harmful bacteria that likes to fester and grow on specific surfaces. Clorox provides a clean shiny surface.  In the meantime, oxygen is giving bowls a little time to relax and relieve their exhilarating shower. After the Clorox has finished up the final touches, the bowls and utensils are then ready to go back home. Glistening like new, equipped for the next batch of cinnamon rolls.

Bakery Baller; First Edition

     Nine A.M., Thursday morning: my annoying Android Rooster alarm blares me awake. I sluggishly roll over, thank the Man upstairs, and grab my phone. “It's Thursday...,” I say to myself, “time to do what I do best.”

     After a quick shower, I scour through my drawers, trying to find my least wrinkled shirt and jean combo. I gear up, preparing myself to fight my arch-nemesis, Midday Hunger, in the city of Hiram. I don my identity: a blue baseball cap embroidered with “Terrier Bakery” above its bill. I protect the appetites of weary college students, vigilantly watching for any possible blood sugar dips and serving justice to the distribution of artisan goods.

                                                          I am The Bakery Baller.

Social Psycho

Hiram College is like a town with round bales of hay rolling past. During the weekdays it’s full of classes and homework. Weekends though, now that’s another Story! Most free time is spent with friends or on the internet. The internet has to be the best invention to mankind. It connects you to friends and celebrities where could you go wrong? The internet is how I, Pratelle, get the word out about the Terrier Bakery. I tweet and send out Facebook statuses, to let people know when the Terrier Bakery is open, and what days as well. I love my role in the terrier bakery because I get to do what I love to do but also help get the word out about the bakery. Social networks and blogs have become something like my life. I have a twitter with over six thousands followers, over one thousands followers on facebook, over one thousand followers on instagram, and over four hundred followers on tumblr. Social networks are kind of a place that I go to express myself and vent. Everyone has their way of expressing themselves. How Do you express yourself?!

Muffin wizards

An overcrowded classroom is filled with weary students, black bags under their eyes. They have more than likely just rolled out of bed to make it to this early class, likely not showering to make it. (Which would explain that weird smell in the air.)

           

The wonderful teacher at the front of the class, so perky and alert, is ready to teach.

            

But, the students are half-asleep—me most of all. I watch my drool drip down onto the table. To run this bakery, my team and I work hard. I am a part of the Marketing Team, which means that I update our Facebook page and take picures of our delectable food. I’m in advertisement.  My team and I have to hang flyers in all the dorms and scour the campus for places where the students might see them. My teammate is constantly updating Twitter—telling the campus where we are, when and what we are selling.

           

The two other teams and mine fight for spacing in this over-crowded classroom, vigorously working to make this a success. Ideas being thrown from the left, from the right, trying to discuss the overall plan. I’m thinking too hard; between the writing assignments and articles I have to read, planning can be overwhelming. I might pass out with so little food in my stomach. Tired and hungry, I stare at the dining hall. I catch John staring at the dining hall out of the corner of my eye. It seems to be conveniently located right across the way, just for us to see.

           

Before that though, we must wait for the class to be over. And, even before that, we must get our job done. I want to make the whole campus aware of the Terrier Bakery. 

Perspective Change

I had a scurrying mouse’s view of my mother’s freshly baked dessert.  Her scrumptious Chocolate Crinkle cookies, covered in a white snow, were my first guilty pleasure.  Standing on my tippy toes, I desperately wanted a taste of my mother’s freshly baked cookies.  I was a fingertip away as I felt a pair of eyes focus on me.  When a white flash blinded my vision of this forbidden treat, I hopped away from the counter.   Trembling, I slowly turned towards my mother, expecting to receive a scolding. Holding a camera in her hand, she pulled me aside saying, “Make room for the bar stool, Cookie Monster!”  Pleased to see her smiling, I knew she was ready to capture me saying “Cheese!”  I climbed up onto the bar stool, now with a bird’s eye view of those delicious delights and a big smile on my face.

            I had a similar trembling feeling as I strolled into the Terrier Bakery for the first time.  I never imagined that one day I would be working in a bakery.  I had a stomach full of butterflies, like a girl during her first day at a new school. I knew that making cookies would not be like an afternoon in mom’s kitchen.  It would be a meticulous, busy and collaborative endeavor, but I was ready to charge the mountain.  I was placed in charge of helping to prepare buckets of cookie dough, followed by hours of baking and delivering the finished products. Despite my initial trepidation regarding the work and time commitment, it has been a very rewarding experience.  The bakery has become its own separate classroom; teaching you how to run a business; manage your time; improvise; and properly bake cookies.  Despite all of the work, I still enjoy my, Emily Gilmore’s, bird’s eye view.

Perfectionism Personified

I am Miracle, and if I was to be terribly arrogant, I would say that I am the Bakery’s own miracle, but this feigned audacity is a mere facet of my personality, of myself, of who I truly am. 
Who am I? 
I am the quiet hums of Berlioz as I make my way to yet another meeting, another interview, another obligation to dress professionally. I am pencil skirts and corporate pants and candy red patent leather pumps. I am the attempt to sound eloquent. Sometimes I am successful. 
Who am I? 
I am the nervous jitters somewhere deep and dark and private, the fear of failure that is heavily drilled into so many, and I am the nervous tic in the first room, in the waiting room. I am the right leg that ceaselessly bounces. I am the nails bitten down to nothing. 
Who am I? 
I am the make-believe clichéd “glue that holds it together”, and I am note pads of indecipherable secretary-style comments, and I am the bullet points of feedback to the instructor. I am corrected spelling and properly placed punctuation. I am both the overflowing schedule and the intense determination to get it done. 
I am perfectionism personified.

A Reminder of My Childhood

Hi there! My name is Rachel Buchleitner, I’m a freshman here at Hiram College and I help run the Terrier Bakery. I remember being young and being in my grandmother’s kitchen, hearing the scratching of a whisk against a metal bowl or the clanging of silverware being thrown into the sink. Those sounds have always reminded me of my childhood at home. As I hear these familiar sounds again in our very own bakery all I can feel is a sense of nostalgia. I hear the deafening roar of the mixers combining ingredients and the water running, cleaning the pans, bowls, measuring cups and spoons that had just been used. I smell the fresh scent of dough expanding and forming a crispy encasing for itself in the oven. I see ingredients and dishes and products flying around in this fast paced environment. I feel the heat of the oven rush into my face as I go to snatch a tray of cinnamon rolls from its interior. I taste the succulent mistakes that pop up around the kitchen every so often. I have walked back into my childhood when I cross the threshold of this kingdom. I walk into this kingdom and I’m home.