Helding Patricia - Fat Witch Bake Sale : 65 Recipes from the Beloved Fat Witch Bakery for Your Next Bake Sale or Party

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2014 by Patricia Helding

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O wning a successful bakery right smack in the middle of Manhattan is a bit like running a giant, crazy bake sale every single day. Only instead of a card table overflowing with platters of cupcakes, zip-top bags filled with chocolate chip cookies, and foil pie plates stacked with Rice Krispies Treats, at Fat Witch Bakery we have an entire store filled with the most luscious, irresistible brownies you can imagine: Fudgy chocolate, gooey caramel, tart dried cherry, and chewy oatmeal-walnut are just a few variations in our regular rotation. We certainly produce more than your average fund-raiser7,500-plus brownies a day. But the central concepts of a good bake sale and our bakery are the same: to make money by offering people delicious desserts made with honest ingredients and prepared with love.

People often ask me for business advice. But the truth is, I didnt set out to own a bakery. Never in a million years did I imagine that my humble brownies would become the object of obsession for throngs of New Yorkers and hungry tourists. In fact, I started out as a trader on Wall Street. Exhausted and weary at the end of each day, I sought solace in butter, flour, and chocolate. By concentrating on the simple acts of mixing ingredients, pouring them into a pan, and sliding them into a hot oven, I was able to unwind and forget the ups and downs of the stock market.

Though it began as a casual hobby, I quickly became obsessed with creating the perfect brownie recipe. I wanted my brownies to be beyond sensationalrich and chocolatey, with a moist, tender crumb and a glossy, ever-so-crackly top. Every time I tested a new version, I brought the results to work the next day. Traders are notorious for cutting straight to the chase; I knew they wouldnt hesitate to give me a bull or bear response. After many attempts (and countless eggs, sticks of butter, and bags of chocolate chips!), success: My colleagues finally gave me a double thumbs-up. I had achieved brownie nirvana.

Somewhere along the way, I realized that my true calling wasnt the stock marketit was baking. Even though I had no experience, I decided to open my own business. Inspired? Yes. Insane? Perhaps. When I first started out, I didnt even know what a convection oven was, and I used a pancake griddle to seal cellophane around those first batches of Witches.

But knowing next to nothing about commercial baking had advantages. It left me open to improvisation and forced me to think outside the 9" 9" pan. In 1998, I found space inside Chelsea Market, the former Nabisco factory building and the place where Oreo cookies were invented. In the beginning, we did all the baking, packaging, and selling out of a tiny area. Now we have a much larger production site on Park Avenue in East Harlem. We bake thousands of brownies a day and ship them all over the United States.

At the bakery, everything is done on big commercial equipment. But at home, in my minuscule Manhattan apartment kitchen, I still bake with my old handheld mixer, a timer shaped like a rooster, and my favorite mixing bowl, brought back from a trip to Tokyo. The recipes for this book come from my own index card file and were baked in my own home oven. These are the desserts that I prepare for my family and friends. Of course, there are lots of brownies, like pecan caramel, red velvet, yogurt, andyesbacon, but there are also cookies, bars, cupcakes, and cakes. Most of the recipes are kid friendly, but there are a few adults-only treats (KahlaChocolate Chip Cookies, anyone?). Ive also included special chapters for gluten-free and vegan treats, like Toffee-Chocolate Chunks and OrangePine Nut Cookies. Everything travels well and most need no refrigeration, so theyre all pretty much bake sale ready.

In addition to the recipes in this book, I share my expertise about running a profitable baking business: the marketing tips it took me years to learn, techniques for staying organized and delegating tasks, as well as ideas for packaging and staging your baked goods for maximum selling effect. Trust me, when you regularly orchestrate the delivery of half a ton of sugar, 500 pounds of chocolate, and giant 55-pound cubes of butter, you know a little bit about stocking a kitchen with everything you need for bake sale success!

I wish you good luck with your bake sale. I know it is for a great cause. Armed with my tried-and-true recipes and expert advice, you are sure to have a smashing success.

Nothing takes the wind out of my (bake) sails quite like realizing I have to buy some expensive, hard-to-find ingredient to use in just one recipe. To that end, Ive made every effort to ensure that most of the ingredients called for in this book can be purchased at your local supermarket. (I push a shopping cart down a grocery store aisle just like you do!) I confess that there are a few obscure ingredients here, but I emphasize the word few. I started out as a home baker, and two of the best things about my recipes are how uncomplicated they are to make and how basic the ingredients are. That said, any brownie, cookie, or cupcake is only as good as the sum of its parts. Here are some helpful ingredient tips.

Butter: All of these recipes call for unsalted butter. If you are in a pinch and need to use salted butter, just omit the salt from the rest of the recipe. To soften butter quickly, dice it into small pieces, spread them on a plate, and leave it on the counter for about 30 minutes.

Eggs: I use large eggs. Buy the freshest ones you can find.

Flour: I use unbleached all-purpose flour, but any good, all-purpose flour will work. To measure flour, fluff it up with the measuring cup and then spoon and sweep, brushing the excess off the top.