We're up and running!

We opened for business on June 9 - 7 days a week, 5am to 5pm. It's been a wild ride already and posts will resume shortly when we've had a moment to breathe. Bear with us until posts become more regular, come in to say hello, and see us on Facebook at Liberty Bay Bakery.

(Try the lemon cake with fresh raspberry mousse if you're lucky enough to get there before they're sold out. Yum!!)

Small World, or, What a Coincidence

I live in Virginia and I ordered some items from Albert Uster Imports to send to the bakery which is, of course, in Washington. The only Albert Uster Imports I know about are in Gaithersburg, Maryland, right next door to Jim's pastry school.

Ten minutes after I placed the online order, I got a call from an AUI rep, who said he was in Lynnwood, Washington. The caller identified himself and I recognized his last name, which happens to be the same name of a woman I used to work with in Poulsbo, where the bakery is, on the other side of the country. He asked about this order being placed from Virginia but being sent to Poulsbo, and I commended him on knowing how to pronounce it. He replied that he lived in Poulsbo in years past. Long story a little shorter: he was the husband of the woman I worked with! What an incredible coincidence. I mean, what are the odds? I should have bought a lottery ticket.

Blueberry-Pistachio Muffins with Lime Glaze

I'm going to try a tutorial, so let's see how this goes. This is adapted from a 1969 Better Homes & Gardens Bread cookbook that I inherited from my mother. We use this book a lot, for everything from biscuits to pancakes to quick and yeast breads. It's pretty beat up, and some of the pages have been stuck and unstuck, but isn't that a sign of a good cookbook?

This recipe was made with the so-called "standard" method, which calls for using your spoon to push the flour from the edge of the bowl to the center, turning the bowl slowly. Go around the bowl once, then chop through the mixture several times with the spoon to combine the ingredients further, without stirring. Stir just enough to dampen all the flour but resist with your life the urge to stir with abandon, beat, whip, or torture the batter. The batter will be lumpy; that's OK and what you want.

Blueberry-Pistachio Muffins with Lime Glaze
1 3/4 c all-purpose flour
2 T sugar
2 T Splenda
2 1/2 t baking powder
3/4 t salt
1 well-beaten egg
3/4 c milk (I used nonfat lactose-free)
1/3 c vegetable oil

1 c fresh or frozen blueberries, well drained
1/4 c roasted, chopped pistachios

Glaze:
1/4 c confectioners sugar
2-4 T lime juice (use the real thing!)

Add all the dry ingredients to a bowl and whisk together to mix well. Make a well in the center.














Combine the egg, milk, and salad oil. Add all at once to the dry mixture, using the mixing directions above.















When the batter is mixed and lumpy, add the blueberries and the pistachios and gently fold them in.
















Fill muffin pans (either grease or use paper liners) about 2/3 full. Scrape your bowl with a rubber or silicon spatula to get every bit of the batter into the pan. Look at this - what looks like a pretty well-scraped bowl and what was liberated by the spatula. Surprised me, all right.













Bake at 400 for 25 minutes. This will make a dozen.

If you want them warm go ahead and remove them from the pan and serve.
If you're going to cool them in the pan tip them on their sides so the tops don't steam and go soggy.













Let them cool a bit before glazing. To make the glaze, dump the confectioners sugar in a bowl and add the lime juice a little at a time stirring until it's smooth and runny enough to flow off a spoon easily. Drizzle as much or as little as you like over the muffins.

They're not very sweet on their own, but the glaze makes them just right. If you don't want to glaze the muffins, I would up the sugar/Splenda to 1/3 cup total.

I hope you like these. The pistachios add a very subtle flavor, and the glaze makes you want to lick the bowl. Go ahead. I won't tell.

Mmmm, croissants!

Here's a view inside one of those incredible croissants Jim makes:

More time to stop by the bakery

We'll be open 7 days and are extending closing time to 7 pm. We want to accommodate boaters who come into the marina on Friday evening and commuters heading home, as well as everyone strolling the streets of historic Poulsbo on lazy Sunday afternoons. Come by and see us! Here's how you can recognize us:

17 days...

is how long we have until we take over the bakery. We've been busy getting the city business license, the state business license, setting up checking accounts, transferring the Costco membership to the new corporate name, talking to the bank about credit card machines and fees, talking to the Chamber of Commerce (what a deal you get with a membership!) getting insurance, and talking about ideas, ideas, ideas we have to make the bakery a huge success.

Jim is chomping at the bit to get going. He'll shadow our seller, watching and learning his way of doing things, until May 1, our official as-of day. After that, the seller will keep a helpful eye on Jim, easing him into the operation. Even with his training, Jim still has to learn the way things are done in that particular bakery.

Matt's about a week away from leaving Minnesota for Poulsbo. What an exciting time for all of us, but I think especially Matt and Jim, who will be knee-deep very soon.

Welcome to the Blog for Liberty Bay Bakery and Café!

Liberty Bay Bakery and Café in lovely Poulsbo, Washington is newly, happily, and proudly owned (well, it will be as of May 1) by the Stocker - Weightman family. After leaving Poulsbo 10 years ago, and vowing to return, it's finally and about time happening with the serendipitous purchase of LBB&C.


Matt and Jim Weightman, 1997 and 1999 graduates of North Kitsap High School, are the onsite manager and pastry chef, respectively. Matt (photo coming!) has several years’ management experience in the hospitality industry, and Jim is a professionally trained pastry chef as well as a US Marine Corps veteran. Mom and dad, Kathy and Bob, are supervising from afar but hope to join the “kids” sooner rather than later.





Can you tell which one is which?

We’ll use this blog to tell you about our events, new menu items, share recipes and, perhaps interesting from a behind-the-scenes standpoint, show you Days in the Life of a bakery/café.

We hope you stop in to say hello, both here and on Front Street in historic downtown Poulsbo.

See us on Facebook.