Making a macaron, baking up a business
By Kalea Hall
POLAND
The business of baking isn’t an easy one.
A baker can whip up a recipe to perfection, but the recipe to a successful business takes some extra whipping.
Luckily for 23-year-old Gabriele Brocker both baking and business are ingrained in her, which has naturally led to her success so far as a new bakery owner.
“I like to be creative,” Brocker said. “I’ve always liked baking. That’s what I wanted to do. Even in grade school. I was always watching the Food Network. I’ve always loved sweets.”
Brocker’s drive to create and desire to share her sweet tooth led her to want to open her own bakery.
Now, she has.
Bake Me Treats, at 16 S. Main St., opened in December with chic ballet-pink walls, a calming atmosphere and Brocker’s creative macarons. The macaron, considered the perfect cookie, is a chewy, crunchy, almond-meringue sandwich with different creams in the center.
The naturally gluten-free speciality was born in Italy, as the history goes. The chef of Catherine de Medici created the cookie in 1533 during her marriage to the Duc d’Orleans, who was king of France in 1547 as Henry II, according to Mad Mac Macarons bakery in New Jersey.
In the 20th century, Pierre Desfontaines came up with the idea to sandwich chocolate panache between the shell of the cookie. Since then, the cookies have been a French delicacy.
The popularity of the macaron has traveled to the U.S. and the Mahoning Valley.
“I really like macarons,” Brocker said. “I was worried about how they would do in this area because they are a more-expensive pastry.”
Brocker, a graduate of the culinary arts program at the Pittsburgh Art Institute, saw herself more as a cake baker than a macaron maker until she learned the art of the macaron.
“They are extremely technical,” she explained. “Some days, they take six hours to dry. It’s a pretty long process.”
Brocker learned about the art of macaron making when she worked at a bakery in Pittsburgh after graduating from college. While her process of making the perfect macaron is secret, the ingredients aren’t. The shell is just egg whites, almond flour, powdered sugar and granulated sugar.
Brocker has 19 flavors for her macarons, including the best-selling buckeye, a peanut butter and chocolate flavor, lavender and blueberry muffin.
The flavors are mostly found in the buttercream fillings. The shells come with design. The funfetti flavor has a white base with colors splashed around it, making it almost too pretty to bite.
Almost.
“It looks like a science experiment,” she said of the macaron-baking process. “Everything has to be perfect.”
Brocker’s bakery started to come to life last summer when she moved back to her hometown of Poland and searched for a location. Gabriele’s father, Brad Brocker, a business owner, helped her understand the basics of beginning a business.
“I knew there was so much I had to learn and understand,” she said. “Nothing really caught me off guard. I didn’t have any certain expectations.”
Brad started his small machine shop, Brocker Machine, in Youngstown 23 years ago. He encouraged Gabriele to follow her bakery dreams.
“I think she is going to do very well,” Brad said.
Gabriele doesn’t have a lot of overhead at her bakery, and in addition to the macarons, she has speciality cakes, miniature pies and other goodies. Her macarons already have a following because she hustled to get them in local coffee shops before she opened her own bakery.
Brad’s advice to Gabriele and others thinking about starting a business: “The sooner you get started, the quicker you start learning.”
Gabriele’s plans for her bake shop include macaron-making classes and coming up with other custom macaron flavors.
Bake Me Treats macaron prices are $2 for one, $13 for a box of seven and $26 for a box of 15. The bakery cakes are offered in a variety of flavors with a mix of fillings and frostings with a range in prices and serving options.
Bake Me Treats hours are 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday; 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday and Saturday; and closed Sunday. The bakery’s official grand-opening will take place Jan. 26.