F. E. Warren Commissary Bakery rises to the occasion

  • Published
  • By R.J. Oriez
  • 90th Missile Wing Public Affairs
Barbara Damoude is in constant motion within the small space of the commissary bakery on F. E. Warren Air Force Base.

She moves quickly from preparing trays of dough for Italian, French and whole-wheat bread for the proofer -- where it will rise -- to moving other trays from the proofer up to the oven and others from the oven to cooling racks. In between, she glazes some donuts, ices others and drizzles icing over warm cherry turnovers.

She still has to arrange the fresh muffins in the display case, bag and label the loaves of bread and then get them out to the store shelves before the commissary opens.

For 11 years, Damoude has come in two hours before the commissary opens to get the day's baked goods ready. Some days are busier than others.

"Our busiest day is Tuesday because we have to stock up from the weekend," Damoude said.

Of course, some of the baked goods outsell others.

"Our jalapeño cheese bread is a very good seller," Damoude said, "and our Italian and French bread. Most everything sells pretty good."