Food Stories

What’s it like to work in a sweetshop — SWEET!

In the beginning there was sugar!

So how do I go about telling you about the sweet shop? Well, in the beginning there was sugar, flour, butter and lots of eggs. And, what appeared the next day? Well, cookies, muffins (sweet and savory), pies, and cakes. That was just the first week back in October.

My son, Paul and daughter-in-law Brooke are opening Round Top Brewing and back in October they had the chance to open Lollitop Sweet Shop right next door to the brewery. I have always liked food and even when I was a kid my twin sister and I would play restaurant and we had our own little order check pads (see picture below). I’m always up for a challenge in the kitchen and did we ever have one this past March show. Most days we went through about 9 dozen eggs (from Yonder Way Farm) before 10:30 in the morning. Yonder Way have the most beautiful eggs and the orangeyest (is that even a word) yolks I have ever seen. Those eggs really changed our products after we switched to pastured eggs. I’m sure we went through more than 10 pounds of butter a day and the flour we get in 50# bags. Brooke will tell customers when they come in that we are a Sweet Shop (candy) who likes to bake. Our kitchen is about 12×12 and has two  Vulcan ovens and believe me we take advantage of ever square inch of wall space for shelves.

I never thought I would be baking with my son and never though I would be putting in 10-12 hour days four days a week but it is so much fun. Our kitchen routine sometimes seems like a choreographed dance. We know when to move (duck sometimes) around the kitchen. I know when he needs the ovens open or what he’s looking for sometimes before he ask for it. He knows when I need a big bowl of blueberry muffins stirred to the bottom which I sometimes can’t do if the blueberries are still frozen.  We try to keep the counter cabinet in the front full and thanks to Brooke (front of house) we are able to sell practically everything we make.  You’ll have to check out some of her videos of our products on instagram at lollitopsweetshop. Paul will come up with something new like his Duck Confit Tacos and she will be sending out the info on instagram so anyone with a sweet tooth (or savory) or empty stomach will come running.

The sweet shop has literally a ton of retro candy upstairs and is a  kid’s dream candyland. Downstairs is packed full of delicious handcrafted chocolates from Texas chocolatiers and beyond. I have to admit to trying many of the chocolates downstairs. 

The outside has several tables where people can sit and enjoy their breakfast or treats. GA (hub) keeps the flowers coming and he did all the shelving inside the kitchen giving us so much more storage than we started with; and his current project is building a dumbwaiter for the brewery. I’ll show that to you one day.

So, before you get tired of reading, look at some of our pictures of things we sell and make for guests to enjoy. And, of course, if you are ever in the little town of Round Top, population 90, come for a visit. Hope your computer will load all these pictures.

So I have to tell you about this dessert that Brooke named “Fireside Chat”. Paul wanted a s’more type dessert so he came up with a graham crust, brownie and then a chocolate ganache topping topped with “flames” of meringue which he “torched” to order. Perfect name and perfect dessert. One of our customers took the dessert home and photographed it and then gave it to the sweet shop.

Photos below are just a few of the things we have made since opening and pictures of delicious chocolates we sell.

Delicious and sweet.

Case not quite full yet. Takes us a couple of hours on a Thursday (first day opening for weekend) to get things made.

My favorite banana Laffy Taffy resides in this corner of downstairs.

Our Drop, sometimes ham, sometimes bacon, biscuits with Hatch green chiles.

Paul’s savory Scottish hand pies were a hit.

Homemade pop tarts are always a hit.

Beautiful Neapolitan cookies.

GA/George/Papa G keeping the place pretty with flowers. He has the green thumb, not me.

The little dudes (grandsons Donovan and Milo) racked on sales out in front of the brewery.

A mountain of duck confit that went into the duck confit tacos one day.

Mile high multi layers of delicious biscuits.  In the beginning I was telling Paul – “don’t roll too thin” , “mix by hand”, “don’t overwork the butter”, now I would hot attempt to recreate his biscuits.  They have gotten even bigger than this for our biscuit sandwiches.  He’s a master biscuit maker now and outshines his mom for sure.

Reliving my days of playing “restaurant” with my sister.  On busy days we do tickets to keep us in line in the kitchen.

We had the opportunity of making these cute little white chocolate cups with lemon curd and blueberry sauce for a progressive dinner someone was hosting.  I grew the little violas in my back yard.

Did these cute little blue corn muffins with green chili pimento cheese for our mayor’s wedding reception.  

Last but not least is the stairway to “Candyland” where there is a TON of “kids” candy. You name it they have it.

 

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