Embracing the Imperfection
We’re not professional bakers, but the Foreword team is getting ourselves into more bakes this year with a new goal to create a bakery arm. For the first time, we’re baking some cookies for sale for the upcoming Lunar New Year!
Over the past 2 weeks, we have had four bake sessions. The baking team comprises of 2 of our staff and 1 intern who was helping me with the coaching and guidance. This was my first time working with Josiah and Sabrina in baking and I‘m thankful for Megan supporting in the production too.
Honestly, I was skeptical in how productive we can be in baking. I was expecting for me to micromanage every step along the way, to ensure the quality and consistency. The first day we did it, I was explaining the recipe, demonstrating, watching over them, and letting them learn on the go.
It took us around 5 hours to produce 16 jars of cookies, and a bit more time for us to wash and clean the space after we finished our baking. That was my minimum expectations and we managed it. Not all cookies made the mark though, as we realized that egg washing is an important step that would affect the overall looks of the cookies after baking. We wasted 1 whole batch of cookies as the looks did not pass the mark. I had to also remind Josiah to be careful when cutting the cookie out of the dough and to maintain the circular shape as we press the nut into the dough.
All these require the coordination of our sight, fine-motor skills, and the cognitive ability to estimate on the amount of nuts to use per cookie (not too big, not too small, not too little, not too much).
The macadamia nuts we used came in whole pieces and we had to slowly chop them into halves — that involved some knife skills too!
By our 4th bake session, we managed to bake 24 jars of cookies under 5 hours, including the time to wash and clean up our space! Now, I was impressed and the team was happy with our mini achievement too.
This progress comes with some embracing of the imperfection. Not every cookie will look perfect, but we set a minimum expectation for it to pass. Some nuts on the cookies may not be centered, some cookies may be thinner or thicker than others.. The main thing here though, which I felt was more important, was that our Foreword staff were contributing meaningfully to the overall process.
It may take a longer time and more patience working with people with special needs, but we need to look at their strengths and find a fit in our workplace. That was the motivation behind creating a bakery arm in Foreword.
Josiah has a baking background. He learnt his baking skills through some intense WSQ courses, and also had a family-supported home bakery which unfortunately closed earlier this month after sustaining it for 2 years. Sabrina has had experiences with baking as well.
Our cookies come in the Original Walnut Butter Cookies and the Eggless Chocolate Macadamia Butter Cookies. As you savour our cookies, you can think of the hard work that comes behind each piece, as we embrace the little imperfections while providing the opportunities for those with special needs.
This article is written by Wei Jie, co-founder and director of Foreword. The only training he has had in baking was a WSQ course in yeast-raised pastries. That gave him the hands-on experience in making viennoiseries such as croissants and pain au chocolat. He’s wearing the apron to bake just so that the staff in Foreword gets a chance to excel in another area and to find job fits for them in the F&B industry.
