When I was a kid, I loved playing house, although I was never particularly interested in the husband-and-child part of the game. Funny now considering I have both and am happy with the arrangement.
That was what I wanted home.
I wanted a room that belonged to me. I wanted to move the furniture, decide what kind of cakes we were serving, and choose who was invited. Very average child behavior. Please come to my party. I did everything as best as I could on a budget of nothing. Also, I reserve the right to yell for mom if you make fun of me.
My grandparents had a strange unfinished space above their two-car garage that I discovered one very dull afternoon. It was a wooden platform with two windows, a few mostly broken chairs, an old school desk, dusty tables and boxes that no one needed but no one wanted to throw away. It had dust on it for at least a decade and was emphatically no place for children. Naturally, I decided it was mine.
I stole bowls, plates, dishes, and the odd tchotchke upstairs from my grandparents’ house and set the place up in my version of a clubhouse. My grandmother, of course, eventually noticed and made sure that I return everything. But the vision remained.
Up there, I threw imaginary parties and worked the counter at my imaginary bakery. I mixed imaginary brawls into very real bowls and served invisible customers. Sometimes my older sister would play until she was nervous enough to get bored and leave. It’s understandable, but I had an imaginary business to run.
I didn’t think much of that room until recently, since I finally built it.
I started in 2016 The Bakehouse NOLA Inside my double shotgun house in Bywater. A dozen people would come over and we’d make pies, decorate cakes and become amazingly fast friends.
Of course, I was baking, but I was really setting up a room.
Two, about three years ago, I moved to Belleville, Texas and there old victorian house built in 1888. It’s definitely a very different atmosphere, but the Gemini in me likes to live many different lives in one. Behind a large lean-to house in a very small town is a garage with a workshop that the previous owners filled with huge workbenches and tools to take care of the old house.
I need a lot of room for tools. the house is always asking for attention in one way or another, but when I first entered that workshop, I saw a corner where I could put the oven. A small sink surrounded by butcher block counters. Signed painting of George Strait on the wall. I saw the roll up door open to the yard and people standing outside with cookies and coffee.
I saw that room above my grandparents’ garage. Only now was I old enough to buy my own bowls and have a butter budget. Naturally, I call it The Bakehouse Texas.
I was on maternity leave from Bakehouse later this summer having our son John in April. The stoves have been quieter and my hands significantly fuller. But the season hasn’t stopped me from doing the scheme.
I would still like to convert an old horse trailer into a coffee cart. I would love to bring the baking classes back inside the big house. I want cookbook authors, bakers, chefs and small business owners to come to Belleville and cook something amazing with me. I’m also starting to look for a little part-time baking help.
There’s a lot to dream about. For now, however, there is a bakery in the workshop, cookie dough in the freezer, and neighbors coming in through the gate.
How cool is that?
The Bakehouse Texas returns on September 5th
We are reopening after our maternity leave break Saturday, September 5thand keeping it wonderfully simple this fall. without prior orders. Just walk up, see what’s out of the oven, and point out what you want.
Saturday, September 5
9 a.m. to noon, or until we sell out
310 E Palm St., Bellville, TX
Look for the large lean-to Victorian and go down the side path into the courtyard.
September menu.
The Bakehouse Texas Chocolate Chip Cookies — huge, chocolate-filled, crisp around the edges and gooey in the middle.
Big buttermilk biscuits — tall buttermilk scones with bubbling pockets of jam.
Pork, Cabbage and Ginger Sausage Rolls — puff pastry wrapped around deeply savory pork, cabbage and ginger.
Brown Butter Corn Cookies — nutty brown butter meets sweet, crunchy cornbread in cookie form.
Olive Oil Polenta Cakes with Raspberries – delicate little cornmeal cakes with bright raspberries.
Cheddar Scallion Scones — buttery, savory, cheesy, garlic-y. Do you understand?
Everything is baked fresh on Saturday mornings and sold on a first come, first served basis. Bring your own mug and I’ll pour you Bellville’s own for free Interstellar coffee. We accept cash, Venmo and Zelle.
We will open on the first Saturday of every month this fall.
September 5 · October 3 · November 7 · December 5
Stay tuned for the latest Bakehouse news and baking @thebakehousetexas. See you in the yard, friends.
xo Joy!