3 minute read
Mise en Place
Mise en Place
BLACKHOLE BAKERY'S ALYSSA BAILEY ON DOUGH DIVERSITY
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By Kate Frick
Alyssa Bailey likes gluten. And she should. She’s the pastry chef and head baker at Blackhole Bakery, best known for their interstellar mochi donuts and their brioche cinnamon rolls. We dished about the best gas station pastry, KC dream collaborations, home pantry musthaves, and beyond. Bailey is hard-working, humble, always on the lookout for her next inspo, and has her fair share of guilty pleasures.
What are your comfort foods when you get done baking? What do you crave?
My favorite comfort food is probably Taco Bell, which is a horrible answer. I don’t go there that much, but I love it. And I love soup—matzah ball soup; it’s one of my favorites.
What is the difference between puff pastry, traditional laminated croissant dough, and phyllo dough?
Croissant dough versus puff pastry: croissant has yeast in it. The puff pastry is steam-raised. So, there’s steam in there, and it pops the layers, but there’s no actual leavening in puff pastry. It is laminated the same way with the layers of butter. Phyllo is a completely different type of dough that I’ve actually never made from scratch. They have these huge tables for stretching phyllo—you need all the special equipment. We don’t have space back there for that. I think it’s a very specific skill. Like, I think I’d have to practice.
What collaboration do you think would be magical for Blackhole, and for you, personally? Who is doing cool shit in KC?
Sura Eats. We’ve talked to Keeyoung Kim before about doing a collaboration, and it hasn’t happened yet. I would love to do something with him. I think that would be really fun. We’re like, “Hey, you know, we have lots of different types of doughs. What could we do together? With some bulgogi, or whatever, you know?” But I know he’s a really busy guy.
Photo by Steph Castor
How did you get into making mochi donuts?
We had been watching tons of videos about Japanese street food, and that’s where we first heard about them a long time ago.
We were like, “That looks so delicious.” I love mochi ice cream. I’ve always loved mochi, and we didn’t have anything gluten-free here, so I was like, “We should just try it and see.” And then we messed around with the recipes we found, combined a bunch of stuff, came up with something, and it turned out.
What’s the best pastry at a gas station?
Oh, usually, if I’m at a gas station, I would get a donut. Yeah, I usually get an old-fashioned.
What are three pantry items at home that you can’t live without?
I love grits, so I have a lot of polenta. I have like a million kinds of beans. And this is awful—I probably would say I get those French’s crunchy onions, and I put them on, like, everything. Salads, whatever—I sprinkle them on all the things.
An old-fashioned donut with French’s onions?
I would probably like that. I would eat that. That sounds great.
Can we convince people that that’s a donut?
I bet we could. I played around with an old-fashioned in our recipes before, but we don’t have space or the staff here yet. But someday I think we’d like to do that, you know?
BLACKHOLE BAKERY
5531 Troost Ave. Kansas City, MO 64110
