My Experience In Umpleby's Bakery

My Experience at Umpleby's Bakery with Charles Umpleby

Walking in to Umpleby's Bakery, the first thing I thought was "Where are all the baker?" but I soon found out that at Umpleby's Bakery, Mr. Umpleby was the only baker. Mr. Umpleby is the owner and founder of Umpleby's Bakery. He started baking at around 14 years old as a dishwasher for his local bakery. He went to college and majored in English, but felt like he missed baking. He moved to Australia and worked as an assistant baker. Then he came back to the U.S. and in 2007 started Umpleby's Bakery, here in Hanover. During my time at the bakery Mr. Umpleby explained what it takes to be a baker, what happens at a bakery and showed some techniques.

One of the reasons Mr. Umpleby loves baking

Umpleby’s goes to the bakery at 6 every morning. He doesn’t need to be there at 3 am because he prepares the bread dough the night before. Also, bread isn’t one of the main products sold at Umpleby’s Bakery, it is primarily used from sandwiches so it doesn’t need to be ready very early. Right after the baked goods are done they are brought straight to the pastry cases. Mr. Umpleby uses recipes for all of the doughs, but has memorized the bread recipe. Today while I was there, there was a vegetable delivery with zucchinis, mushrooms, bell peppers, red leaf lettuce and celery. Umpleby’s bakery gets a vegetable delivery about twice or three times a week and in the summer they get fruit. Seasons affect what is being sold and made. In the winter the bakery sells soup that comes with a roll. In the summer, though, not as many rolls are needed because they don't sell soup. Instead they need more loafs because sandwiches are popular. Also, the desserts and pastries are more chocolate and nut based, while in the summer they are more fruit based. I was wondering if Mr. Umpleby makes everything on the menu everyday because it seemed like a lot to do and not possible in one day. What he does is look at the pastry cases and see was is running low and then makes them. While I was there his assistant made a batch of peanut butter cookies and russian tea cookies because there weren’t many left. Also I noticed that they don’t make the dough every time, they make big batches and then

One was a big mixer with a large spiral hook that was used for kneading the bread. Another machine used is called a dough sheet. This is a mechanical rolling pin which is so much easier and faster than rolling by hand. Also, it allows for you to get the same thickness every time. I works by passing the dough back and forth under a cylinder. With a lever you can lower the cylinder to make the dough thinner. Mr. Umpleby also used a weight balance. A weight balance is used to measure out ingredients instead of measuring cups be it is more consistent. if one time the flour is compacted it will measure out differently than if it is not, but as Mr. Umpleby said “a pound is a pound.” A weight balance works just like a typical balance, where one side they are weights and then on the other is the