Dixon woman opens neighborhood bakery – Shaw Local

DIXON — A Dixon woman is opening a self-serve bakery on the corner of East Chamberlain Street and Jefferson Avenue.

Christine Pomatto, a math and science teacher at Challand Middle School in Sterling, plans to officially open the stand, known as Christine’s Kitchen, in late July. She’ll set up a cooler outside to hold the individually wrapped treats, along with a chalkboard to display the menu and prices.

In an interview with Shaw Local, Pomatto said she has always had a passion for baking.

When she was in college, she started baking cookies for her friends and discovered that baking wasn’t that difficult after all, “if you follow the instructions carefully,” she said.

Over the years, she practiced more and more, always offering to bring desserts to dinner parties and taking cooking lessons during her vacations in places like Paris and Thailand.

It became a habit to bring leftover desserts to share at work, and people started asking her if she sold the treats. That’s when she thought, “Maybe I can do this,” and decided to open Christine’s Kitchen, she said.

On Friday, July 19, Pomatto opened the booth for a “pop-up.” From 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. that day, they sold confetti cupcakes for $3 and fudge brownies for $4.

The confetti cupcakes were made with a basic vanilla cake mix and buttermilk, which gives the cupcakes a “tangy flavor.” The brownies, one of her favorite desserts to make, were made with browned butter, which gives them a “toasted flavor,” she said.

On Friday, Pomatto accepted cash, Venmo and Zelle payments. Moving forward, she plans to primarily use the “honor system,” accepting cash and digital payments.

The bakery is licensed by the Lee County Health Department. It’s a cottage food operation, meaning the food is produced in a home kitchen that’s not inspected by the department. Because of that, there are quite a few food safety rules she follows, like not wearing jewelry while baking, drying her hands with paper towels, and handling all prepared foods with disposable gloves.

With this license, all items she sells must be nonperishable. She can sell cookies, brownies, caramels, muffins, scones, spice mixes, cakes, cupcakes, candied nuts, chocolate candies, and bread.

She will mainly sell cookies, brownies, muffins and cupcakes. Most of her recipes come from her collection of over 100 cookbooks.

Another thing she likes to make is ice cream, but she’s not allowed to sell it “because the health department has a lot of restrictions on dairy products,” Pomatto said.

All of her treats are individually packaged with custom labels approved by the health department. In accordance with the department’s standards, each label clearly identifies the packaged item and lists the ingredients used and potential allergens.

She also indicated that she does not plan to offer customization.

She plans to keep the stall open when she has time to bake, which will mainly be in the summer months, but she hopes to keep the stall open year-round.

She is currently completing some administrative tasks and hopes to open as soon as possible.

For more information, please visit Christine’s Kitchen on Facebook.

• The Telegraph/Sterling Gazette aims to keep readers informed about business happenings in the area. Much of our reporting is based on what we see and hear, but we also ask readers for tips on business topics. If you have a tip to share for Eyes on Enterprise, please email [email protected].